Werewolf

The Werewolf is an enemy in the Castlevania series. He is a man with lycanthropy who transforms into a ferocious beast when the moon is full and has developed a taste for blood.

Origins


A werewolf is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or scratch from another werewolf).

A few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and mythology. The Neuri was a tribe which transformed into wolves once every year for several days and then changed back to their human shape. Lycaon was transformed into a wolf because he had ritually murdered a child. Virgil at one point also wrote about human beings transforming into wolves.

The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.

Description
Werewolves (also known as Wolf Men, Lycanthropes, or Lypustons) are common werebeast 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 themself.

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 initially appears at the top of the Clock Tower as an ordinary female human, but she quickly transforms into a wolf at Simon's presence. At the start of the battle, she rips and throws pieces of wall and parts of the clock at the him, making it nearly impossible to hit. After the first phase ends, however, she becomes more 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 vanishes completely as the cloth flies away.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood / Castlevania: Dracula X
A human silhouette under a full moon can be seen emerging from the top of a tower in the distance at the end of the second stage in Rondo of Blood. The shadow then emits a terrifying howl and its body suffers a dramatic transformation. Turning into a wolf, the figure strikes from the sky and the boss battle begins.

The Werewolf crawls on the edges of the screen and launches himself to strike from the chamber's walls and ceiling. He rushes at high speed when cornered and will often perform a low, sliding kick. He's also able of hurling a mass of magical energy in an undulating manner to strike from a distance. Once his health bar has been depleted, he will use his last ounce of strength to perform a devastating attack on the the player's current position in a last attempt to finish them off, transforming back into a human and dying afterward.

The Werewolf later reappears as one of the two possible end bosses in Stage 2', the other being the Bone Golem.

Its human sprite can be seen wearing boxers in both the PSP and Virtual Console versions of the game, while he appears completely nude in the original PC Engine game.

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. Since both monsters are considered to be werebeasts, they will take increased damage from the Were Bane.

When the player reaches the Reverse Colosseum, a large pack of werewolves can be found accompanied once more by Minotaurs. Now they are randomly encountered and are more powerful as the one fought before, although since the player should also be much stronger, they should pose not much of a problem. Their large numbers still make it difficult to pass through the stage, however.

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

In the original Castlevania (N64), Werewolves were less common, only seen in the Forest of Silence. As the most balanced of the game's werebeast 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 them and rushing again from the other side. Just crouching as they attack will evade both their swipes and jumps, whole also leaving them open for a counterattack.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Werewolves appear in the Floating Garden. Their soul grants the Energy Guyser ability, which allows Soma to summon a fountain of magical fire that deals continuous Flame damage. It cannot be used in midair, though.

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

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Werewolves only appear in the Pinnacle and the Condemned Tower; 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.

The Werewolf's soul is a Guardian Soul and grants Soma the Dashing ability. While it may seem useless at first, as it only allows him to perform short forward dashes as long as the R button is held down, it can be used along with a Bullet Soul that has zero or high projectile limits (like Killer Clown) to spam it incredibly fast while moving forward - as fast as one can tap the attack button. This makes it arguably essential for obtaining good Boss Rush times. However, this will rapidly consume a high amount of MP, and as such, Soma might find it to his benefit to equip the Chaos Ring before even attempting to use it.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Like in Symphony of the Night, the Werewolf is fought once again as a boss, this time at the end of 13th Street. While not being as mobile as in previous incarnations, he's much bigger and powerful this time around, and his attacks can deal some serious damage if the player is not careful.

He has four attacks:
 * 1) The Werewolf picks up one of the lamp posts in the background and throws it like a javelin at the player's direction. This gives him long range capabilities to some extent, 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. Staying near the entrance and under the small piece of roof there will generally make the projectile get impaled on it while the player is safe underneath. This, however, will usually trigger the boss to follow-up with one of his other attacks.
 * 2) The Werewolf rushes at the player and swipes rapidly at them with his claws. Remaining on the ground will result in the creature clawing straight forward, while maintaining a high altitude results in an uppercut.
 * 3) The Werewolf suddenly lunges forward, grabs the player, and proceeds to bite them with his powerful jaws. This attack ignores the player's defenses and deals heavy damage.
 * 4) The Werewolf lets out a loud howling, summoning with it a pack of wolves from the background that come rushing at the player. They can either be killed with normal attacks or avoided altogether.

Both Jonathan and Charlotte have their own advantages and equipment that can enable them to defeat the Werewolf, but since he is more vulnerable to Fire-based spells, 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 as it will deal more damage.

Another strategy to defeat the Werewolf easily consists simply in casting the 1,000 Blades Dual Crush as soon as one enters the boss arena. Doing this, however, will most likely trigger the boss to rush forward amidst the rain of knives and allow him to score a hit. If the player is willing to sustain the damage, though, they can simply cast 1,000 Blades a second time, which will usually be enough to fell the beast.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Werewolves only appear in the Oblivion Ridge. One is encountered before fighting Gravedorcus, and then they start appearing more frequently in the areas beyond. They retain their appearance and attacks from their variants in Rondo of Blood,  Symphony of the Night, and Dawn of Sorrow. While not being a major threat this time around, ten of them are required to be killed in order to complete Irina's second quest: "Do You Hear Howling?".

This is one of the only games where the Werewolf is seen wearing boxers when he dies. This shows that this game involves at least a certain degree of censorship, as was also shown with some enemy name changes.

Castlevania: The Arcade
The Were Wolf first attacks in the Palace section of Stage 2. He then escapes to the Rampart of the castle, where he is faced again in Stage 4.

Castlevania Judgment
While there are no "werewolf" enemies in Judgment, Cornell himself is one.

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.

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Werwolf