Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES) Playthrough
92,397
Published 2023-06-22
This video shows four playthroughs of the game, each with a different partner and ending:
1:47 Sypha path
57:44 Grant path
1:59:32 Alucard path
2:51:56 Trevor goes it alone
Konami’s final chapter of the classic NES Castlevania trilogy, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse is a true 8-bit technological tour de force, constantly pushing the hardware to - and occasionally beyond - its limits. Staged as a prequel to the first two games, Trevor Belmont, ancestor of Simon, takes up the mantle of humanity’s last hope as he battles Count Dracula's army of darkness.
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse eschews the adventure/RPG trappings of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and returns the series to its traditional platforming roots, but with some significant improvements. The new branching level structure allows you to forge your own path through the Transylvanian countryside, and on each of these paths, Trevor can meet and join forces with one of three unique playable characters.
These include Grant Danusty, a ghost pirate who can scale walls; Adrian “Alucard” Tepes, Dracula’s shape-shifting son who would later go on to star in Symphony of the Night; and Syfa Velnumdes, a spell-casting priestess and vampire hunter.
These characters lend the game a ton of replay value. There is no way to see all of the game’s fifteen stages in one play through, and the new characters offer entirely new ways to experience the stages and all come with their own endings. Castlevania III also marks the addition of vertical auto-scrolling stages, which add an unexpected layer of tension to the proceedings. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse offers up a challenge that far surpasses that of the original, though it feels a lot more modern because of its improvements.
The sound composition is as impeccable as ever, though the sound quality is notably worse than Simon’s Quest’s ( • Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES) P... ). The Japanese Famicom version ( • Akumajou Densetsu (Famicom) Playthrou... ) utilized one of Konami’s custom memory management chips, the VRC6, designed to improve the base system’s graphic and sound capabilities. Akumajou Densetsu, Castlevania III‘s Japanese counterpart, sounds absolutely incredible, with several additional sound channels that allowed for a more complex layering of instrumentation, but the NES version’s tunes sound a bit weak and flat in comparison.
The graphics are fantastic: the enemy sprites are detailed and the backdrops are extremely atmospheric and offer impressive sights by NES standards (the clock tower’s whirring gears, the stained glass windows, and some of the larger bosses come to mind). But, like the sound, this version's graphics suffer a few downgrades due to the lack of the VRC6, and Nintendo’s famous censorship policies led to a further few minor alterations. (Topless statues? Gasp Think of the children!)
The host of innovative improvements make this a must play for any fan of the series. It's not quite on par with its Japanese counterpart, but even still, the spot-on controls, challenging gameplay, and impressive graphics cement Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse‘s place as one of the true classics of the 8-bit era.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
All Comments (21)
-
The last game I played with my father before he died. I was so determined to beat it after he passed I had to do it on my own. Amazes me I got to show this to my girlfriend who also passed away. She loved vampire stories and video games. The music was so much fun to learn on guitar.
-
Castlevania III is one of the best Castlevanias Konami ever made, but the game is so damned hard!
-
Arguably the most important Castlevania game ever made. This opened up the Castlevania universe with other Belmonts who battled Dracula over the years. And this game was one of the harder Castlevania games.
-
The sound that the boss makes when you defeat it will forever be engraved in my mind.
-
It amazes me how fast Death goes down with the holy water w/double or triple shot. I remember making a bet with my uncle saying I can beat both forms of Death in 30 seconds. He said "I got $20 says you can't!" Guess who lost that one 😀
-
This game was insanely hard.
-
I had a bad habit of picking bad games when I was a kid, but this was one of the few not just good but great games I ever bought! It was hard as nails for me, a kid that wasn't very good at video games, but I would always come back to it. It might be my favorite NES game.
-
We must not allow Count Dracula to create a bad world filled with evil!
-
I love your detailed descriptions, they're a real treat to read through!
-
I have this game on the Anniversary Collection. It’s fun trying to explore every path with each character, and I’m impressed what they were able to do with only so much space.
-
Castlevania III is one of those soundtracks that comes with a game included.
-
The cartridge had a chip in it that expanded the number of colors the NES could display and improved the music capabilities. The later NES days were pretty wild with what developers did with in-cart chips, probably due to the system being more simple than later generation consoles. You didn't see that in the 16-bit generation aside from polygon chips in Star Fox and Virtual Racing.
-
Other than SMB3, it's my favorite NES game. I'm doing a rewatch of the Netflix series before I get to Nocturne.
-
The best of the NES Castlevania games.
-
One of the greatest games of all time. Just iconic. This was the first time that so much thought went into an action/adventure title. It was always just run and shoot, or run and jump simplicity. Everything from the level design to the overachieving musical score just put this game on a whole different level from what had been seen prior in terms of what could be done with an action/adventure title.
-
Of all the entire NES library, this is my absolute #1. The Famicom version is the better sounding one. But this one will always remain close to my heart like shear nostalgia.
-
This was my favorite game playing as a kid
-
Best of the NES Castlevanias! While I do have a soft spot for the first two Castlevania games, this one is the best use of the IP on that console. I'm glad they kept some of the ideas in later games down the line. Thanks for the gameplay and upload!
-
I always took Grant on the Sunken City Path and I went through the Castle Basement with Alucard whenever I play!!
-
A game I never rented, though I knew about it, and that it was a return to the CV1 formula, why I never rented it, I'll never know. Fast forward years later, my friend had 2 copies of the game, and I played the game to death at his house, and eventually he gave me his second copy of the game. Needless to say, I played it to death yet more on my own NES.
