Werewolf

Werewolves, also known as Wolf Men, Lycanthropes or Lypustons, are enemies in the Castlevania series.

Origins
Werewolf

Description
Werewolves are common were beast foes. Their appearance in the series isn't surprising; mythologically, werewolves and vampires are closely related and some cultures consider them the same manner of creature. An aversion to silver is a trait common to both, werewolves and vampires, and both are creatures cursed to roam the night in search of innocent victims to sate their hunger. The victim of a vampire or werewolf becomes one him or herself. Death is the only sure release from the curse, as seen in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Once defeated by Richter, the werewolf transforms back into an ordinary man before expiring. One playable werewolf is Cornell from Legacy of Darkness and Judgment.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
The Wolf Man wanders forested areas and hops up and down when approached.

Castlevania Chronicles
The Wolf Woman appears in the Clock Tower as an ordinary woman that turns into a wolf. At the start of the battle she throws pieces of wall and parts of the clock at the player, making it nearly impossible to hit, and after that she becomes vulnerable. Her defeat will shift her back to human form, where a cloth will come from out of nowhere and cover her modestly before she disappears completely while the cloth flies away.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood / Castlevania: Dracula X
In the second stage of Rondo of Blood a human silhouette will appear atop a tower in the distance, under a full moon. Suddenly turning into wolf form and striking at the player, the Werewolf crawls on the edges of the screen to strike from the sky; he rushes at high speed when cornered and will eventually use a low kick. After he has been defeated, he'll use a devastating attack on the center of the scenario to finish the player. He transforms back into a human once defeated. In the PSP version, he is wearing boxers, but he was nude in the PC Engine version. In the Virtual Console version, he is also censored.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
A Werewolf appears as a boss battle accompanied by a Minotaur, both summoned by Richter Belmont in the Colosseum. He strikes with punches and kicks, performing uppercuts and rushing at the player. Alone, it's an easy fight, but together with the Minotaur, it makes this a difficult fight.

When the player reaches the reverse Colosseum, a large pack of werewolves can be found, accompanied again by minotaurs. Now they are randomly encountered and are as powerful as the one fought before. Their large numbers make it difficult to pass through the stage.

Castlevania (N64) / Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
In Legacy of Darkness, Werewolves are common enemies Cornell (who is also a werewolf) often encounters. They come in many sizes, some are three times larger than him. They are some of the fastest enemies in the game and attack with their claws chasing the player. However, none of them posses the same energy blades Cornell has.

In the original Castlevania (Nintendo 64), Werewolves were less common, only seen in the Forest of Silence. As the most balanced of the game's were-beast enemies, Werewolves combined speed and agility with moderately high damage attacks. Following the first stage, Werewolves are only encountered again during the Duel Tower portion of Reinhardt's quest.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
The Were-wolf is a fast enemy, somewhat similar to Were-panthers and Were-jaguars. His attack pattern consists in rushing at the player and swiping with his claws, then leaping over the player and rushing again from the other side. Just crouching as they attack will evade both their swipes and jumps.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Werewolves appear in the Floating Garden area of Dracula's Castle. Unlike their previous incarnations, they are not that powerful, as their attacks do little damage late in the game. The soul you acquire from them grants the Energy Guyser ability, which summons a fountain of magical fire to do a bit of multi-hit Flame damage. However, the soul cannot be used in midair.

Two more powerful variants of the Werewolf, the Werejaguar and the Weretiger, appear in some of the later stages of the game. The Werejaguar appears in the Underground Cemetery and the Weretiger appears in the Arena.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Werewolves only appear in the Pinnacle and the Condemned Tower in this game. However, there is an abundance of them, so acquiring their soul is easy. They retain their appearance and attacks from their Symphony of the Night variants. Their soul, the Werewolf Guardian Soul, seems useless at first, as it only allows Soma to perform short forward dashes as long as the R button is held down. However, it can be used with a Bullet Soul that has zero or high projectile limits (like Killer Clown) to spam the Bullet Soul incredibly fast while moving forward - as fast as one can hammer the attack button. It's essential to good Boss Rush times. This does, however, rapidly consume a high degree of MP, and as such, Soma might find it to his benefit to equip the Chaos Ring before performing such activities.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Like in Symphony of the Night, the Werewolf is fought as a boss once again as the boss of 13th Street. He is not that quick of a boss, but his attacks can do some serious damage if the player is not careful enough. He has four attacks. The first attack has the Werewolf picking up one of the lamp posts in the background and throwing it like a javelin in the hero's direction. This gives him some capability of long range, but unlike the rest of his attacks, he cannot perform it an infinite amount of times, since the lamp posts are destroyed in the process. The second attack, of which there are two variants, is rushing at the hero and clawing them at rapid speeds. Remaining on the ground will result in the Werewolf clawing straight forward, while maintaining a high altitude in the room results in an uppercut. The third attack is where the Werewolf attempts to grab the hero and bite them, ignoring their defenses. The fourth and final attack is where he howls, summoning what appears to be hounds from the background to rush at the hero. One can kill the hounds with attacks, or alternatively avoid them altogether.

Both Jonathan and Charlotte have their advantages and equipment that can enable them to easily defeat the Werewolf, but since he is more vulnerable to spell-based Fire damage, using Charlotte may prove to be more effective. Equip her with the Explosion spell, and try to use it as often as possible. If Charlotte happens to get the Salamander spell before this fight, then she may find it worthwhile to use, because that will do more damage. It will not be long before the Werewolf falls in this scenario.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Werewolves appear in this game in the Oblivion Ridge area. Only one is seen before you fight Gravedorcus, and many are seen in the areas after the fight. They retain their appearance and attacks from their variants in Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow. While not exactly an important enemy this time around, ten of them need to be killed for Irina's second quest in Wygol Village.

Oddly enough, this is one of the only games to show that the werewolf wears boxers when he dies. This somewhat shows that this game involves censorship, as shown with some of the changed names of the enemies.

Castlevania: The Arcade
The werewolf first attacks you in the Palace section of Stage 2 of The Arcade. He then escapes to the Rampart of the castle, where you will face him again in Stage 4.

Castlevania Judgment
There are no werewolf enemies. However, Cornell in werewolf form is a playable character.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow / Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
One type of lycanthrope is the Greater Lycanthrope, which is much larger than their smaller kin. These are described as being pure-bloods that are spawned by the Dark Lord himself, with their condition of not being considered a curse but rather one that the individual has willingly chosen. The Dark Lord of the Lycanthropes does not grant this gift to anyone, with only a handful of such acolytes being ascended to such a position. Thus, the Greater Lycanthropes are kept as his elite guards and used for special missions due to their fearsome nature combined with their intelligence that made them formidable foes.

Lycanthropes in Mirror of Fate relish being rid of their previous Dark Lord Cornell and eagerly serve their new master, Dracula.

Item Data
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Werwolf