Topic: Haunted Castle Theory

[Nagumo]

One of the developers mentioned it took around 6 months to develop. The game was releases in February 1988, so that would mean it started production shortly after Simon's Quest, which was released in August.

[Shinobi]

CV2 was released in 1987(japanese FDS release) while Haunted Castle was released in 1988.

[coinilius]

I mentioned in the recent Headcanon thread that my own take on Haunted Castle when I played through it recently was that it was Simon's fourth battle with Dracula (Super Castlevania IV being his third battle with Drac).  Of course, I was deliberately fanon recasting games that were remakes as sequels wherever possible, just because it made it 'more fun' for me in my approach to them.  Haunted Castle was easy though because out of all the Castlevania remakes, it actually had the most unique plot with the Serena/Selena angle added in.

[Crying Freeman]

I mentioned in the recent Headcanon thread that my own take on Haunted Castle when I played through it recently was that it was Simon's fourth battle with Dracula (Super Castlevania IV being his third battle with Drac).  Of course, I was deliberately fanon recasting games that were remakes as sequels wherever possible, just because it made it 'more fun' for me in my approach to them.  Haunted Castle was easy though because out of all the Castlevania remakes, it actually had the most unique plot with the Serena/Selena angle added in.

I used to go with that angle due to 4's translation of "once again". As a kid I thought " does that mean Simon is over 100 years old!? Lol, it confused the hell out of me.

As of now, my Simon timeline goes like this: Castlevania/VK/SCV4/X68000, CV2, HK finishing his Dracula worries.

[zangetsu468]

By the same token you could state that HK is a prequel to CV1.

[Lelygax]

By the same token you could state that HK is a prequel to CV1.

But the CV1 manual says that it was Christopher that beaten Dracula before CV1, 100 years before.

[zangetsu468]

But the CV1 manual says that it was Christopher that beaten Dracula before CV1, 100 years before.

I don't understand this.  CV1 came out prior to the gameboy titles do why would it mention Christopher when he wasn't thought of yet... I still have CV1 with the manual and it doesn't even say the protagonist's name is Simon Belmont/ Belmondo. I'm dead certain all it says is something along the long the lines of
"After 100 years the count has risen.."

[X]

In the manual for CV Chronicles it states that Christopher sealed Dracula away 100 years prior. That's probably what Leylgax meant.

[Crying Freeman]

I can't say I have the manual to reference, but I remember reading the manual online years ago and many other plot outlines for the game, most of them mentioning Chris. Once the GB games came out, they used Chris as the protagonist because they couldn't use Simon again unless it was another remake (even though tons of advertising for The Adventure say "Simon Belmont's new monstrous quest" etc.), and making a game about a name they drop in 1 makes sense too.

[Lelygax]

I really meant CV1 manual. I've never read it and only knew that it says about Christopher. It seems that I was incorrect and the US version hardly translates everything from the original:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/manual-jfdscv1.htm
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/2/manual-cvone93.htm

Someone can translate it? I can't read it, but the wiki says that the info was from the japanese manual.

Also I found this:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/manual-candc.htm

Give a look at page 31 here


It says that Trevor battles Dracula 100 years before Simon. Again, there is a link to the original japanese manual if someone wants to give a check and know what it says. http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/manual-jcv3.htm

[zangetsu468]

@Lelygax I'm still not really understanding how CV1 would mention a game that hasn't been released yet.
That would be like The Legend of Zelda (LoZ) mentioning ALTTP in its manual.
If the Chronicles manual references Christopher, that I can understand.

I know about the American CV3 manual stating the 100 yr placement, but not entirely certain why this is relevant when we're analysing CV1's manual?

[theplottwist]

It says that Trevor battles Dracula 100 years before Simon. Again, there is a link to the original japanese manual if someone wants to give a check and know what it says. http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/manual-jcv3.htm

@Lelygax I'm still not really understanding how CV1 would mention a game that hasn't been released yet.
That would be like The Legend of Zelda (LoZ) mentioning ALTTP in its manual.
If the Chronicles manual references Christopher, that I can understand.

I know about the American CV3 manual stating the 100 yr placement, but not entirely certain why this is relevant when we're analysing CV1's manual?

You may want to take a look at this:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv3/documents/CV3J.txt

And to my knowledge, CV1's manual does mention Christopher even in japanese:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv1/documents/CV1J.txt

The exact place it mentions Christopher is here:


If I'm not mistaken, CV1's japanese manual mentions Christopher in the context of a legend called "Christopher the Hero."

[zangetsu468]

Well shut my mouth.. The English manual really didn't do it justice. It didn't even mention Simon's name as I recall.

[Lelygax]

@Lelygax I'm still not really understanding how CV1 would mention a game that hasn't been released yet.
That would be like The Legend of Zelda (LoZ) mentioning ALTTP in its manual.
If the Chronicles manual references Christopher, that I can understand.

Using LoZ as an example, they mentioned in ALTTP that Ganon was sealed and all, a foreshadowing for a game that hasn't made yet. The thing is that they could or couldn't be planning to make a game showing this at the time, even so there is not hindering them from detailing more about past events.

I think they did the same here, while explaing that Dracula was beaten 100 years ago, they said by whos's hands.

I know about the American CV3 manual stating the 100 yr placement, but not entirely certain why this is relevant when we're analysing CV1's manual?

Because it overlaps with Christopher times, but since the japanese manual says "Go back in time more than a hundred years before Simon Belmont's time, when the the battle between Dracula and mankind began.", we can ignore this for now. Even so this detail was kinda off-topic, but since it was bugging me I decided to share thoughts.

You may want to take a look at this:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv3/documents/CV3J.txt

Cool, I remember reading this when they released this translation on the site, how did you find it again navigating at the site? lol

edit: Thanks for spotting it theplottwist, you can read japanese or only searched for his name? I'm asking this because I would be interested in a translation. Oh forget it, Now I've seen that you included a txt by "Help Me".

Also I didn't saw your last post before zangetsu, no worries, everyone can be wrong sometimes, that could've been me xD

[Crying Freeman]

Well shut my mouth.. The English manual really didn't do it justice. It didn't even mention Simon's name as I recall.

How long ago did you read it? We all remember things differently from our childhood, only to see it again and be baffled how different it is (happened to me with Goldeneye on the 64)