Topic: What is the origin of the name "Dracula X" for Rondo and Symphony?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I always referred to the SNES port as, well, "Castlevania: Dracula X" or "Dracula X SNES".

I never see a reason to use the Japanese titles in most discussion, but seeing as Symphony is pretty unquestionably part of the "X" subseries, I still included it in this thread for practicality.

[Claimh Solais]

Yeah, the X in Dracula X was meant to refer to it as the tenth game.

1 - Castlevania
2 - Vampire Killer
3 - Haunted Castle
4 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
5 - Castlevania: The Adventure
6 - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
7 - Super Castlevania IV
8 - Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
9 - Castlevania (X68000)
10 - Dracula X: Rondo of Blood

I used to think that's why "Mega Man X" had the X in the title but I don't know if that's entirely true.

And yeah, whenever someone says "Dracula X", I usually think of the SNES game, and have always referred to the others as "RoB" (original) or "DXC" (remake).

[X]

I used to think that's why "Mega Man X" had the X in the title but I don't know if that's entirely true.

You know? I wondered about this too. First time I heard of MMX I though 'Mega Man 10?? There are ten games in the series now?' Of course that wasn't the case at all since Mega Man 4 was still recent. Only later-on did I come to know as X being the name of the new protagonist and not the number of games.

[TheTextGuy]

You know? I wondered about this too. First time I heard of MMX I though 'Mega Man 10?? There are ten games in the series now?' Of course that wasn't the case at all since Mega Man 4 was still recent. Only later-on did I come to know as X being the name of the new protagonist and not the number of games.

I think the in-canon reason (at least in Maverick Hunter X) was that X was meant to indicated "limitless potential", and that he was named after the variable x.

Of course, I don't know if that applies to the thought process of his naming or if back in the first MMX game's development they just thought X sounded "Xtreme" and that the whole "variable x" thing was retroactively put in during the development of the Maverick Hunter X remake.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I think the reason Castlevania II is
Dracula II: The Accursed Seal

is because it technically does not take place in the Demon Castle at all.  At least, not until the very bitter end and only for a few screens.

It would make no sense for it to be "Demon Castle Dracula II: The Accursed Seal" if there is no Demonic Castle to speak of.
So at least, in that regard, the title makes sense.

"Akumajo Densetsu", CVIII, would be "Legend of the Demonic Castle".

[zangetsu468]

I think the reason Castlevania II is
Dracula II: The Accursed Seal

is because it technically does not take place in the Demon Castle at all.  At least, not until the very bitter end and only for a few screens.

It would make no sense for it to be "Demon Castle Dracula II: The Accursed Seal" if there is no Demonic Castle to speak of.

The main thing I'm getting is that Simon only enters the ruins of Castlevania, the castle itself never having been resurrected or rising.

[Claimh Solais]

You know? I wondered about this too. First time I heard of MMX I though 'Mega Man 10?? There are ten games in the series now?' Of course that wasn't the case at all since Mega Man 4 was still recent. Only later-on did I come to know as X being the name of the new protagonist and not the number of games.

Just double-checked and no, the X has nothing to do with "ten". Mega Man X is actually the eleventh release title, with Mega Man 1-6 for NES and Mega Man I-IV on Game Boy all releasing before Mega Man X hit the shelves (Mega Man 6 actually releasing a mere month before X's release).

I think the in-canon reason (at least in Maverick Hunter X) was that X was meant to indicated "limitless potential", and that he was named after the variable x.

Yeah, Dr. Light states this during the Day of Sigma short film, but like you said, I don't actually know if that's what they intended the meaning to be back when the game first released.

"Akumajo Densetsu", CVIII, would be "Legend of the Demonic Castle".

Going off that, I think the reason they chose the whole "Legend of the Demon Castle" title was that, at the time, Castlevania III was the earliest CV game chronologically. So I think it was fitting to refer to it as a "legend", since by the time of Simon, Trevor's story would actually indeed be a legend, so to speak.

[Aceearly1993]

There is a rumor that CV3 was originally being developed as "Akumajo Dracula III" or just simply "Dracula III" in Japan but they eventually changed the name to be the final Japanese one, "Akumajo Densetsu"

I remember heard of it at some of the TCRF pages but can't find established evidence of it

[Inccubus]

Weren't all games prior to LOI in Japan called Akumajo Dracula, while in English they adopted Castlevania. Akumajo Dracula X is basically calling it Castlevania X.

 Not all, just most. Even outside of Japan Castlevania is used for most titles but not all. See Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle.