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00:10Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're taking a look at 25 facts about Castlevania that
00:18you may not have known about.
00:28Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays
00:34and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:37Judging Performance
00:48If you haven't played too much of Symphony of the Night, then you may not be aware of
00:52how the game differs in certain playthroughs.
00:55Yes, you can start the game as many times as you want, and things may seem the same on
00:59the surface.
01:00However, Symphony of the Night does alter itself slightly when you start a new game.
01:06It all depends on how Richter's fight with Dracula goes.
01:10Killing Dracula quickly and without taking damage can net you some really great starting
01:14stats for Alucard.
01:16You can also alter what kind of items Alucard starts with by bringing certain items and
01:21sub-weapons into the fight.
01:22So if you plan on tackling Symphony of the Night again, maybe look at a guide that can break
01:27down all the different starting builds and their requirements beforehand.
01:46There isn't a ton of information known about whatever cut content may be laying around
01:51with Castlevania.
01:52We're not just talking about the game though, we're saying the whole franchise.
01:56But one piece we found interesting was the presence of a character named Collar in Castlevania
02:0264.
02:03That's spelled C-O-L-L-E-R by the way.
02:06Remember the Frankenstein-like monster with the chainsaw?
02:09That enemy was actually supposed to be a playable character during development.
02:14Collar was planned to have a unique playstyle in wielding a chainsaw and shotgun before he was
02:19scrapped and made into an enemy.
02:21The shotgun part of his kit would be revisited and implemented in Henry Oldry's moveset for
02:27Castlevania Legacy of Darkness.
02:36Order of Cannon.
02:47As most of us likely already know, a majority of the Castlevania games see you taking control
02:52of someone from within the Belmont lineage.
02:54Of course, there are some like Aria of Sorrow and Circle of the Moon where you don't and
03:00instead play as someone like Soma Cruz or Nathan Graves respectively.
03:04But, Order of Ecclesia stars Shinoa, a woman who loses her memories after trying to give
03:10herself up to a set of powerful glyphs known as Dominus.
03:14On the surface, it may seem like Shinoa's journey doesn't have much of a place in Castlevania's
03:19story.
03:19However, producer Koji Igarashi has clarified the game's place in the timeline, calling it
03:25a Gaiden or a canonical side story.
03:41From green to blue.
03:52One may recall a 3D arena fighter using the Castlevania name called Castlevania Judgment.
04:00Release in 2008, Judgment became notorious among Castlevania fans for its stark depictions
04:06of the characters we came to know and love.
04:08It's such a drastic and gritty art style that it almost doesn't look like a game that belongs
04:13on the Wii.
04:14And it almost wasn't even on the console to begin with.
04:17During development, Konami planned to capitalize on the Xbox 360's monumental success at the
04:23time and make Judgment an exclusive game for the platform.
04:27Problem was that Igarashi wanted to bring a Castlevania game to Wii in order to implement
04:33motion controls into the gameplay.
04:34Whatever they had cooking wasn't working out, so Judgment got pushed to be the Wii exclusive
04:40instead.
04:50Co-opted error.
05:00Have you ever seen the instruction manual for the original Castlevania?
05:04There isn't anything too special in there aside from story details and technical things
05:09you may want to know, but there is an error printed in the majority of the manuals, if
05:14not all of them.
05:15When it was making games for the NES, Konami often used the same template for every single
05:20game's instruction manual.
05:22And a large handful of Konami's games did implement a two-player mode.
05:27Castlevania does not have a two-player mode despite the game's instruction manual stating otherwise.
05:33Guess somebody at Konami forgot to hit delete on the word processor.
05:44The Curse of Streaming
06:00Netflix's Castlevania show was immaculate, one of the best TV series based on a video game
06:05ever made.
06:06But there was a moment where we almost didn't get this show.
06:09The animation powerhouse known as Frederator Studios had acquired the rights to Castlevania
06:15way back in 2007, almost a whole decade before the show's premiere.
06:19The plan was to animate and release a simple direct-to-DVD movie based on the franchise, no
06:26different than what we had seen in adaptations of Halo, Dead Space, and some other video game
06:30IPs at the time.
06:32The plans changed when Netflix picked up the rights years later, and made plans to pivot
06:36to the TV format.
06:49HISTORICAL ACCURACY
06:52Though it may seem far-fetched when said aloud, Castlevania does have an interesting date attached
06:58to one of its games.
07:00Legacy of Darkness takes place in the year 1844, which has some religious beliefs tied to
07:07it.
07:07American Christian preacher William Miller had claimed that Judgment Day would occur in
07:12the year 1844.
07:14Adding to this connection, the Japanese title for Castlevania 64 includes the word Mokushiraku,
07:20which translates to Apocalypse in English.
07:23So it is likely that writer Takeo Yakushiji borrowed this year as inspiration for the game's
07:30story.
07:41Give the kid a break.
07:50Kid Dracula might be the most bizarre game in Castlevania history with its cute art style
07:55and goofy antics.
07:56Despite this being the only time Castlevania has ever gotten this silly, the games that
08:01came after have paid their tributes to it over the decades.
08:04For example, Galamoth, who was introduced in Kid Dracula, has made an appearance as a secret
08:09boss in Symphony of the Night.
08:11Rahab, the boss of Stage 4, became a secret boss fight in Aria of Sorrow, while the boss of
08:18Stage 6, El Giza, became a recurring enemy in Portrait of Ruin.
08:22I hope I said those names correctly, but you know what, hard to tell.
08:33A loss in localization.
08:36Who are you?
08:38I am Gabriel.
08:40I have traveled here seeking the guardian of the lake.
08:43You are from the order?
08:45They sent you?
08:47Considering most of the Castlevania games are developed by Konami and or its other partners
08:51that also reside in Japan, one would think that every Castlevania would receive its own
08:56Japanese dubbing before any further translating and dubbing begins for other languages.
09:01Alas, that is surprisingly not the case, at least with the Lords of Shadow games.
09:06Developed by Madrid Spain-based studio Mercury Steam, Castlevania Lords of Shadow was the only
09:13game in its trilogy to receive a Japanese voice dub.
09:17For whatever reason, Konami and or Mercury Steam decided not to put in Japanese dubs for Mirror
09:23of Fate nor Lords of Shadow 2.
09:26If it is true, darkness has come to engulf one's proud humanity, and we are witnessing the end of mankind.
09:36He sees you.
09:42As with many, many other video games, Castlevania does acknowledge the Konami code when it is
09:48inputted at the title screen.
09:49Unfortunately, it does not give you anything useful like infinite lives, invincibility, or
09:55even a slightly stronger weapon.
09:56Heck, only a small handful of Castlevania games actually do anything with the code.
10:01Input it when playing Kid Dracula, and you'll get the message, sorry, nothing this time.
10:07Input the code in Legacy of Darkness, and you'll get some extra playable characters and costumes.
10:12Meanwhile, Lords of Shadow and its sequel will give you access to an in-game cheat menu.
10:18Some other Castlevania games will also acknowledge the code, but not every game will do something worthwhile.
10:29Kept in the Family
10:40If you haven't played Castlevania Mirror of Fate, you may be surprised to know that the game contains a strange
10:48item that connects the franchise to Nintendo's own Super Mario.
10:52In Act 2, one of the Knights of the Brotherhood of Light will drop a scroll upon defeat.
10:58The 34th Fallen Knight scroll reads the following,
11:00The terrible state of the pipes down here would perturb even my brother Mario.
11:06Some parts have rusted terribly, while others are covered with fungus due to the high humidity.
11:12Not all the mushrooms look good to eat either.
11:14Who knows what might happen if I eat one.
11:16End quote.
11:18So it's personal then.
11:20That makes things far more interesting.
11:22Game Bet.
11:30As history has shown, most games that become huge hits on Nintendo consoles are, well, Nintendo's own games.
11:37They're typically the games to hit massive sales milestones, the games to define the platforms, everything.
11:43But shockingly, the Game Boy version of Castlevania was the first to hit a very impressive milestone.
11:50According to old documents made by Konami back in the 1990s, Castlevania was the first Game Boy game to ever
11:57sell 2.5 million units.
12:00That is quite a pretty penny for a handheld that isn't entirely up to snuff with the home console games.
12:12The Forbidden Track
12:19Those that owned a Playstation may recall that many PS1 games doubled as soundtracks.
12:24Yes, you could insert some of your PS1 games into a CD player and listen to music from your favorite
12:30games.
12:30Castlevania Symphony of the Night has an interesting way of starting the soundtrack by opening with a special message from
12:37Alucard.
12:38The listener is told to not play Track 1 as it's just used for storing the game's data.
12:43It then proceeds to play the most kick-ass remix of Dracula's Castle known to man.
12:56I've been listening to this track every frickin' day since I started writing this script.
13:02It's really dope, man. Y'all need to go listen to it.
13:06A surprising reveal.
13:13Going back to Lords of Shadow for a brief moment, the 2010 title had a very bizarre reveal and an
13:19even more bizarre switch-up during development.
13:22At first, the game was planned to be a reboot of Castlevania, until Konami decided to suddenly switch gears and
13:29make it an original title.
13:30Those plans reverted when Mercury Steam showed off the game after getting additional help from designer Hideo Kojima.
13:38Even though the plan remained the same as before, Konami still revealed the game as just Lords of Shadow.
13:45It wasn't until much later in marketing, when the publisher officially slapped the Castlevania name onto the title.
13:52The answer is love.
13:55Shadow of the Potato Chip.
13:56There is one problem. We will have but a single chance to defeat him.
14:03I must prove my worth to you, is that it? Very well. Let's begin.
14:08To some, Castlevania Judgment was nothing more than a weird anomaly.
14:12As we mentioned earlier, so many characters got such drastic redesigns that it left a bad taste in almost everybody's
14:19mouths.
14:19Why did Konami suddenly have the urge to just go and have everybody change like that?
14:25Well, this was partially due to who they let lead the art direction.
14:29Character design was done by famed artist Takeshi Obata, who many may know as the creator of Death Note.
14:37The cast definitely has that same vibe as Obata's manga, but to this day, we have no idea what decisions
14:43were made behind the scenes that led to this exactly.
14:46Insect, did you forget who I am?
14:50Drama at the Castle.
14:54This boy is under my protection.
14:58You're not our lord anymore!
15:01Whereas some appreciated Lords of Shadow, the sequel we got in 2014 was broiled in controversy.
15:08Colin Moriarty's middling review of the game landed IGN in hot water with Konami, as other gaming media outlets were
15:15leaving more scathing reviews.
15:16But the biggest drama bomb occurred when Mercury Steam's own staff began outing the company.
15:22An anonymous employee sent a letter to several outlets that detailed a chaotic work environment, a total lack of communication
15:30on management's part, and inconsistency behind creative decisions that wound up causing the game's six month delay.
15:36Once Lords of Shadow 2 had finally been released, Mercury Steam had fired 35 employees, likely to save the company
15:44money and boost profit margins in the short term.
15:48What kind of miracle is this?
15:50Getting the Gang Back
15:58Between 1997 and 2002, Koji Igarashi had only worked as a producer on one Castlevania title.
16:05That one being Castlevania Chronicles.
16:08During that time, we had already seen Castlevania 64, Circle of the Moon, Legacy of Darkness, and Legends.
16:15So, when it was time for him to work on a brand new game for the Game Boy Advance, Igarashi
16:20assembled the all-mightiest development team possible to make something just as great as they did with Symphony of the
16:27Night.
16:27And it was the same team behind Symphony of the Night.
16:30Everyone who worked on the PS1 Classic wound up working on what many considered to be the best of the
16:35GBA Castlevania games, Aria of Sorrow.
16:45Relaunching Death
16:56Did you know there was a mobile game based on Castlevania?
16:59We promise this isn't the fact here, but bear with us.
17:04Grimoire of Souls was not long for this world.
17:07Players would play the game like a regular Castlevania game, platforming and all.
17:11However, people were not keen on the microtransactions, and many players still resented Konami for many decisions the company had
17:19made throughout the 2010s.
17:20So, when Grimoire of Souls launched in 2019, it didn't get much attention anyways.
17:26The game was suddenly removed from sale in 2020, only to reappear in 2021 as an Apple Arcade exclusive.
17:33On top of that, all microtransactions were removed from this iteration of the game.
17:46Cemented in Heavy Metal
17:57Cemented in Heavy Metal
18:01The death metal bands that are still going on today.
18:03For instance, the death metal band known as Black Dahlia Murder created a song called What a Horrible Night to
18:09Have a Curse, named after the same line seen in Castlevania II, Simon's Quest.
18:20Another death metal band called With Dead Hands Rising uses a bit of Castlevania music in their song A Ghost
18:28for the Brokenhearted.
18:28Some of the music is borrowed from the Bloody Tears track from Simon's Quest.
18:42Another facelift?
18:50Speaking of Simon's Quest, you may not have known that this game wasn't made with entirely original ideas.
18:56Yes, it is definitely a non-traversy that would have terminally online individuals frothing at the mouth today.
19:03But it's true.
19:04A large amount of Castlevania II's character and concept art is heavily inspired by the 1984 arcade game Super Don
19:12Quixote.
19:19Most of these similarities can be spotted when looking through Castlevania II's instruction manual, but at the time, how many
19:25were even giving Super Don Quixote the time of day to notice such similarities?
19:31The Forgotten Mobile Game
19:42What? There was another mobile game?
19:45Indeed, there was a Castlevania mobile game and it came long before Grimoire of Souls was out.
19:51And what's weird about this one is that it was only ever released in the United States in 2007 and
19:57the United Kingdom in 2010.
20:00Castlevania Order of Shadows still has classic platforming and even some of the RPG elements of Symphony of the Night.
20:07Only one problem with all of this, the controls.
20:10Phones at the time were not designed with gaming in mind.
20:14They were simply an afterthought, an add-on.
20:18As a result, Order of Shadows played about as horribly as just about every other mobile game on the market
20:24then.
20:31What is a Moonlight Rhapsody?
20:43Oh yes, and there was going to be a third mobile game in Castlevania's decades-long history.
20:49Unfortunately, this never came to be.
20:53Castlevania Moonlight Rhapsody would have featured tons of characters new and old for you to play as.
20:58As far as gameplay is concerned, well, I mean, it's Castlevania, there's not really much else to say about it.
21:05But what we do know is that it was planned to first release in China, there was a playtest conducted,
21:12and shortly after that test was done, all development was brought to a screeching halt.
21:18Why? Who knows?
21:20Neither Konami nor any of the development team have come out to talk about what exactly happened.
21:33From Sony with Love
21:41Of all the games to show Castlevania some respect, EverQuest was more towards the bottom of our list.
21:48As with most online games, EverQuest 2 will display messages to all players about certain encounters and occurrences happening throughout
21:55the game.
21:56There are a couple of special messages that display when the game's world goes from day to night.
22:02Players will briefly see the message,
22:04What a horrible night to have a curse.
22:06Once the sun rises, the system will display the message,
22:09The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night.
22:12Both messages, as most Castlevania fans will know, comes from Simon's Quest.
22:22Metal Cross Vampire
22:30Earlier, we had mentioned how Hideo Kojima had assisted in the development of Castlevania Lords of Shadow.
22:36Well, Kojima had actually been watching the franchise develop from afar, ever since the very first Castlevania game when he
22:43was still new at Konami.
22:45While he was developing the first Metal Gear game, another team next door was busy making what would become the
22:51original Castlevania.
22:53Kojima wouldn't have any involvement with the series until Lords of Shadow,
22:58And that would be the only game in the franchise that he ever got to work on.
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23:36And lastly, the real vampire overlord.
23:46For decades, Koji Igarashi has been heavily associated with Castlevania to the point where some may confuse him with being
23:54the creator of the franchise.
23:56That is simply not the case.
23:58While Igarashi and his team were responsible in making some of the best games in the franchise, the creator of
24:04Castlevania is none other than Hitoshi Akamatsu.
24:08Not only did Akamatsu develop the first three Castlevania games, he also developed The Goonies 2, Snake's Revenge, and Asterix.
24:23Asterix would be the last game he ever worked on as Akamatsu retired from game development sometime afterwards.
24:29Since then, he's made a few appearances here and there, but has mostly kept to himself.
24:41Did any of these facts surprise you?
24:43Let us know down in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.
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