Topic: The Castlevania games sure are titled weird in Japan.

[Abnormal Freak]

You all know this info, I'm sure, but I'm just layin' it out 'cos it's popped up in my mind periodically for like a decade now:

First off, there are five different games with the exact same title: Devil's Castle Dracula (since they all pertain to Simon Belmont, so they're all remakes of the first game in a sense, story-wise);

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is titled Dracula II: The Seal of the Curse (actually, I prefer the translation "The Accursed Seal", whether it's more accurate or not);

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is titled The Legend of the Devil's Castle ("Dracula's Curse" would have been a more fitting subtitle for Castlevania II, by the way);

Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy games, hence why there are two games known in English as Castlevania II) are titled The Legend of Dracula and The Legend of Dracula II, respectively;

Castlevania: Bloodlines is titled Vampire Killer (which is the name of the English release of the MSX2 version of Devil's Castle Dracula);

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is titled Akumajō Dracula: Circle of the Moon—yes, with an English subtitle (all the previous games' titles are in Japanese, of course, aside from Vampire Killer and the name Dracula), and also the only time both the English and Japanese releases share the same subtitle (Symphony of the Night vs. Nocturne in the Moonlight, Harmony of Dissonance vs. Concerto of the Midnight Sun, etc.);

and at one point they started calling the games Castlevania in Japan before switching back to Devil's Castle Dracula (Akumajō Dracula). Yeah... Weird "system" of naming.

Devil's Castle Dracula, Dracula II (dropping the "Devil's Castle"), The Legend of the Devil's Castle (no "Dracula"), The Legend of Dracula (no "Devil's Castle"; these games and Akumajō Densetsu effectively swapped which parts of the original game's title they use in conjunction with "Densetsu"), Castle-freakin'-vania at one point (didn't go over well over there, I hear)... What strangeness.

And really, "Castlevania" is such a silly and cheesetastic title—I absolutely love it.

[Kale]

They swapped out Devil's Castle with Castlevania... so?

[Abnormal Freak]

Did you...even read my post? (All signs point to no.)

[Sonic_Reaper]

For whatever reason they thought that changing the name to Castlevania in Japan would tie the two markets (N. American and Japanese together) together, and thus, create further sales.  Which, when you think about it, doesn't make any sense.  I think they just wanted some coherence between title names among the two countries, but in the end, whatever the name was, it never became as popular as Konami wanted.

[X]

I've heard the name Castlevania for so long now that it doesn't even hold the slightist bit of cheeseness. To me it's iconic and a classic cult franchise title of our pop culture. Maybe konami of Japan wants to have the title Castlevania to be more relivent or they just want to avoid a whole lot of name (title) changes when they import the games over here. Or in a final look at this situation, they could be adopting the CV title as to avoid confusion. Since so many Akumjo Dracula games with that same title and nothing else to separate or destinguish them exist, the people who ask for them at the front counter will have to give out a bunch of info just to let the store clerk know which game of the series they want to buy. Now not all the CV game in Japan have the same logo but there's plenty enough to get confused.

-X

[Inccubus]

Most of the title changes are also nonsensical.
I mean really what did Konami gain by switching NitM to SotN?
Nothing.
The only thing these sorts of changes ever produce is confusion.
I can understand if you have a game titled "Jesus Is weird" you probably want to change it over in the states, but otherwise...

[Munchy]

Most of the title changes are also nonsensical.
I mean really what did Konami gain by switching NitM to SotN?
Nothing.
The only thing these sorts of changes ever produce is confusion.
I can understand if you have a game titled "Jesus Is weird" you probably want to change it over in the states, but otherwise...

Hm... Castlevania: Jesus is weird... I'd buy it.

[Kale]

Did you...even read my post? (All signs point to no.)

I did, i just forgot most of it afterwards.