Just of note, the original Castlevania came out in 1986, three years after the famicom launched. It was early in the life of the NES -- one year in, as it took two years for the NES to come to Western shores, but it was three years in by the age of the full system. The NES/famicom was just very long lived.
though if you think about it - Famicom and Super Famicom came out 7 years apart, roughly the same as between PS3-PS4 and PS4-PS5, for example. Though the difference between early and late NES games is quite amazing
Castlevania come out for the Famicom disk system 8 months after its release which sort of makes it a early release for the system in the same sense that Corpse Killer was early release for the 32x
That Super Castlevania IV run was a real treat. My play history goes Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse, Bloodlines, and SotN. For whatever reason I missed out on the SNES ones, but many thanks to the runners for these.
2:28:33 WOW that was an amazing save and required intense game knowledge outside of speedrun strats. Kenshin seems kind and you can tell he’s loved the game for years.
I was born in 86 and my dad got this game at launch. The first way I learned to kill Dracula easily was kneel on the right hand side of the altar and whip the shit out of him. That was with the flaming morning star of course. Not at the alter, but that brick you'd have to jump up to get to the alter. I've never died there once. I think you can be hit, but I don't know if I ever have been.
How was Kenshin playing Castlevania IV, he his hands are wide apart so didnt look like a controller. Was he using a Keyboard or Arcade Stick of some sort?
The story for Castlevania Bloodlines takes place during World War 1 on Europe. Basically the Belmonts aren't in it thanks to certain events in SOTN and how a certain Belmont handled them thanks to what happened. Anyway the whip is passed to John who's family is an offshoot of the main Belmont family to basically hold on to until the next heir of the whip is born. Spoiler alert: Join Doesn't make ir and it's Eric that actually defeats Drac, which leads to the events of Portrait of Ruin which takes place during the heights of World War 2.
Recently I've started wondering if the Vampire Killer is actually a long-chained flail and not a whip. Thoughts on this? Also; impressive runs by all players, well done. :)
Well canonically the Vampire Killer is a seemingly leather whip, the creation of which was shown in Lament of Innocence which is officially the first game in the timeline. It was a whip created by alchemy and then turned into the Vampire Killer when it was ritually imbued with the soul of Leon Belmont's fiancé as she was in the process of becoming a vampire and willingly died to give Leon the power to slay the vampire lord who turned her. The whip was shown in LOI and Curse of Darkness to be capable of absorbing different elements and taking different forms both before and after the ritual. The chained flail form could be a transformed Vampire Killer but seeing as the game that covered its creation came out long after the games where it can be upgraded into the Morningstar, I'd say that's just a game mechanic in the older titles. However it has canonically appeared as both a leather whip and a chained one in games that came out after LOI, all which Igarashi was involved with. So I'd guess that since the whip was created by alchemy, the early Belmonts lacked magic to do anything with it beyond swinging it. After Trevor had a kid with Sypha, the Belmonts had strong magic in their family and could've used magic and alchemy to turn the whip into the chained form it appears as in most games set later in the timeline. It's never actually been addressed to my knowledge why it has appeared in the chained form so often despite the origin story of the Vampire Killer showing it to be a leather whip both before and after the ritual that gave it the power it has. With Igarashi long gone from Konami, I highly doubt we would ever get an answer even if the series came back. The Netflix series making them two separate whips is the closest the franchise has ever come to addressing the issue as far as I'm aware.
Still don’t understand why I never see anyone killing Dracula in Castlevania II by spamming Sacred Flame at him. It’s hands down the easiest way to do it. Totally stun locks him on the altar. Used it all the time as a kid, back in the day. Awesome speed runs, everyone! 😀
I like to see people struggle a little bit in a speed run because it gives newcomers an opportunity to get better and to not feel discouraged by failure because you see the best players in the world fail... what I mean to say is that it's much more discouraging if you see a great player perform a run perfectly because you don't feel like you can get to that level...
Its a shame they didnt add someone to talk a bit more about the lore of the game, how it all started, why is the belmont clan killing Dracula, why is the whip called vampire killer and why it can kill dracula, really Cool details, Like the fact the game skips a 100 years cycle to make room for the dracula novel
Man... I really wanted to see someone dealing with the first medusa heads in Dracula X, but the backward trick just seems cheap. It actually seems fair because the medusa heads that spawn in front of you right when you need to jump are so cheap, but that's just Dracula X. The whole game is cheap. I don't know how anyone ever had the patience to beat it without save states.
The Lords of Shadow thing made me chuckle. That's its own canon from the mainline series. It would make things quite interesting though. The most interesting noncanon game would be Legends though. I'd love to see the offspring of a Belmont and Alucard.
Isn't there a hard mode for Castlevania Bloodlines(after beating it on Normal mode)? I thought all AGDQ speedruns were always done on the hardest difficulty?
![[TAS] SNES Castlevania: Dracula X "best ending" by McBobX in 13:48.34](/img/n.gif)
Introduction starts at: 0:00
Castlevania (NES) starts at: 2:21
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest starts at: 20:02
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse starts at: 1:07:33
Super Castlevania IV starts at: 1:57:52
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood starts at: 2:41:03
Castlevania: Bloodlines starts at: 3:04:46
Castlevania: Dracula X starts at: 3:39:44
Featured runners: www.twitch.tv/freeland1787
www.twitch.tv/komradekontroll
www.twitch.tv/kidcharlemagnereturns
www.twitch.tv/sathdresh
www.twitch.tv/kenshintrek
www.twitch.tv/dat1niceguy
www.twitch.tv/mannix86
www.twitch.tv/crunan
You can find the Highlight reel here! czcams.com/video/ExRxtSpAHaQ/video.html
Just of note, the original Castlevania came out in 1986, three years after the famicom launched. It was early in the life of the NES -- one year in, as it took two years for the NES to come to Western shores, but it was three years in by the age of the full system. The NES/famicom was just very long lived.
Second longest generation after the ps3/360, I'd think.
though if you think about it - Famicom and Super Famicom came out 7 years apart, roughly the same as between PS3-PS4 and PS4-PS5, for example. Though the difference between early and late NES games is quite amazing
Castlevania come out for the Famicom disk system 8 months after its release which sort of makes it a early release for the system in the same sense that Corpse Killer was early release for the 32x
That Super Castlevania IV run was a real treat. My play history goes Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse, Bloodlines, and SotN. For whatever reason I missed out on the SNES ones, but many thanks to the runners for these.
Dracula: why can't I stay alive more than an hour?
The item crash in Dracula X looks like he's going super Saiyan lol haha
2:28:33 WOW that was an amazing save and required intense game knowledge outside of speedrun strats. Kenshin seems kind and you can tell he’s loved the game for years.
Can confirm.
Kenshin is an incredible runner, a great source of information on the game, and a very well loved CV community member.
FYI on Castlevania 2, you can have the flame upgrade on the chain whip not just the morning star. My 1st playthrough I never found the Morning Star.
Ahhhh....I remember the Flame whip in CV2. Priceless. Also. For some reason I love the slowdown in CV2. Dont know why.
all the runs were awesome, but kenshintreks run was especially awesome
Castlevania 4 my personal favorite of the series 24/7
1:45:23 "if youre gonna be stuck somewhere, at least it's a banger" re: one of their favorite game tunes playing while stuck with the doppelganger
This is really cool to see thanks for doing this GDQ!
Outstanding Dracula X run! This game is tough!
Watching this while playing the Castlevania Advance collection on PS4.
un lujo
Playing on the switch. Beat circle. Paused on the collection to play Dread.
Switch here!
I love the classic castlevania games! This is awesome!
1987 holly shit isnt it amazing how the world evolved in a few years
I was born in 86 and my dad got this game at launch. The first way I learned to kill Dracula easily was kneel on the right hand side of the altar and whip the shit out of him. That was with the flaming morning star of course. Not at the alter, but that brick you'd have to jump up to get to the alter. I've never died there once. I think you can be hit, but I don't know if I ever have been.
That was very satisfying
How was Kenshin playing Castlevania IV, he his hands are wide apart so didnt look like a controller. Was he using a Keyboard or Arcade Stick of some sort?
The story for Castlevania Bloodlines takes place during World War 1 on Europe. Basically the Belmonts aren't in it thanks to certain events in SOTN and how a certain Belmont handled them thanks to what happened.
Anyway the whip is passed to John who's family is an offshoot of the main Belmont family to basically hold on to until the next heir of the whip is born.
Spoiler alert:
Join Doesn't make ir and it's Eric that actually defeats Drac, which leads to the events of Portrait of Ruin which takes place during the heights of World War 2.
I miss playing castlevania on a psp
You can play on smartphone or pc using ppsspp a psp emulador
Recently I've started wondering if the Vampire Killer is actually a long-chained flail and not a whip.
Thoughts on this?
Also; impressive runs by all players, well done. :)
Well canonically the Vampire Killer is a seemingly leather whip, the creation of which was shown in Lament of Innocence which is officially the first game in the timeline. It was a whip created by alchemy and then turned into the Vampire Killer when it was ritually imbued with the soul of Leon Belmont's fiancé as she was in the process of becoming a vampire and willingly died to give Leon the power to slay the vampire lord who turned her.
The whip was shown in LOI and Curse of Darkness to be capable of absorbing different elements and taking different forms both before and after the ritual. The chained flail form could be a transformed Vampire Killer but seeing as the game that covered its creation came out long after the games where it can be upgraded into the Morningstar, I'd say that's just a game mechanic in the older titles.
However it has canonically appeared as both a leather whip and a chained one in games that came out after LOI, all which Igarashi was involved with. So I'd guess that since the whip was created by alchemy, the early Belmonts lacked magic to do anything with it beyond swinging it. After Trevor had a kid with Sypha, the Belmonts had strong magic in their family and could've used magic and alchemy to turn the whip into the chained form it appears as in most games set later in the timeline. It's never actually been addressed to my knowledge why it has appeared in the chained form so often despite the origin story of the Vampire Killer showing it to be a leather whip both before and after the ritual that gave it the power it has. With Igarashi long gone from Konami, I highly doubt we would ever get an answer even if the series came back. The Netflix series making them two separate whips is the closest the franchise has ever come to addressing the issue as far as I'm aware.
Always love watching Castlevania Runs through whatever game!
This was really fun, thanks!
Now they need to do Castlevania: Advance Collection :)
Jesus, 9-4 was brutal for Freeland!
Shoutout to ‘vampire killer’ catchiest hook in all of gaming?!?
Massive congratulations to eldritch_mecha, that was one of the best commentary jobs I've ever heard on a run!
I love you guys. You are part of my life, greetings from México
Still don’t understand why I never see anyone killing Dracula in Castlevania II by spamming Sacred Flame at him. It’s hands down the easiest way to do it. Totally stun locks him on the altar. Used it all the time as a kid, back in the day. Awesome speed runs, everyone! 😀
It's easy to do but very slow for the speedrun. It would add about 30s to the fight. You'll still see it though with new runners to the game!
Engagement for the algorithm
what the hell with kenshin... i mean speed runing is already hard and doin' it with keyboard is just nuts
I like to see people struggle a little bit in a speed run because it gives newcomers an opportunity to get better and to not feel discouraged by failure because you see the best players in the world fail...
what I mean to say is that it's much more discouraging if you see a great player perform a run perfectly because you don't feel like you can get to that level...
These runs were great! My fave games done by the best runners :-) Also the Castlevania anime was mentioned. It's really good, go watch it 5/5
Why does the Simon's quest game clock start at noon time instead of 6:00 a.m.?
I guess so day and night are equal length 12-12
I still can't believe that i beat Simon's Quest as a kid without knowing English or any help.
3:44:33 why do people always call Dracula X a port of Rondo?
The games are vastly different. They are completely different games.
Its a shame they didnt add someone to talk a bit more about the lore of the game, how it all started, why is the belmont clan killing Dracula, why is the whip called vampire killer and why it can kill dracula, really Cool details, Like the fact the game skips a 100 years cycle to make room for the dracula novel
Excelente, ^^
Man... I really wanted to see someone dealing with the first medusa heads in Dracula X, but the backward trick just seems cheap. It actually seems fair because the medusa heads that spawn in front of you right when you need to jump are so cheap, but that's just Dracula X. The whole game is cheap. I don't know how anyone ever had the patience to beat it without save states.
Where the rest of all the games anniversary
The Lords of Shadow thing made me chuckle. That's its own canon from the mainline series. It would make things quite interesting though.
The most interesting noncanon game would be Legends though. I'd love to see the offspring of a Belmont and Alucard.
Hi
Hi
Hey there
Hey
Jeez, the commentary is on such a delay.
Christopher Belmont*
Isn't there a hard mode for Castlevania Bloodlines(after beating it on Normal mode)? I thought all AGDQ speedruns were always done on the hardest difficulty?
No, only if it's the category.
Hey guy. Next time you give a spoiler warning, give us more than half a second to mute or skip beforehand. I just started lords of shadow.
Dude. You can’t spoil something nearly 13 years old. Lol.