Art Tower

Art Tower is an area inside Dracula’s Castle in the year of 1844. It is also Stage 06 for Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness.

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Visited By 

The Art Tower looks more like a royal palace with it’s red carpet flooring, and gold wall platting, but still has enough artifacts on display to live up to it’s name. The artifacts are vases, sculptures of gargoyles & nude people (removed parts for obvious censored reasons), and unknown portraits of something or someone hung high up on the wall. One room contains two antique pipe organs which presumably doesn't work. Other rooms contain statues knight armor - full set, non-replicated weapons latched to the wall, and sculptured demon heads, the last three mentioned artifacts in which players are more likely to notice during gameplay to prevent certain death. The Art Tower has a total of 14 rooms and 3 floor-levels.

As a stage, it ranks #1 for being the most frustrating stage in the entire game. Art Tower requires the player to use as little as 9 Sun Card & Moon Cards so that they can pass through the Sun & Moon Doors without waiting on the game clock. Knight enemies will always drop either a Sun Card or Moon Card at random, so it’s very convenient in the event that the player gets stuck. This is also a perfect way for players to stock up on those items without having to buy them from the Contract or find them by other means. Most of this stage has to do with platforming, and is slighty more difficult to platform than it's previous stage The Outer Wall simply because stage hazards can knock you into an abyss. There are a few fights here & there that cannot be avoided though, but even more so if you run out of Sun Cards or Moon Cards. The biggest threat of the stage goes to the high tightrope-walking in the room with the pipe organs regardless of the player’s skill level at Castlevania. These ropes cannot be cliff-hanged, and to make matters worse: there are two giant chandeliers the size of a mechanical crane rocking back & forth that will knock the player off, forcing them to take a high fall hit. The chandeliers rock at a pace that makes it impossible for the player to walk across, and will be forced to move at least a jogging speed.

Overall, the artistic look of the stage earns it's better than average rating, but suffers a major blow in gameplay when compared to other stages of the game.

Items

Findings differ for each difficulty, but this is the chart for if you were playing Normal difficulty. It also assumes that you didn't pick up any items dropped from monsters.

''White Jewels x5

Contracts x2''

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Secrets

-After you use the Art Tower Key 2 and enter into the room with two pipe organs, one pipe organ has a White Jewel on it. Examine the other pipe organ to receive a reward of Cure Ampoule.

- Unlike previous stages, the last door you pass to get into the Art Tower stage doesn’t close. Because of this, you are able to pass through that door back to the previous stage, then reenter the Art Tower to fully restore your Status and HP!

- In the mine cart room, you can cliff-hang yourself all the way up the ramp without worrying about the mine cart hitting you.

''' Trivia '''

- In the opening demo of Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness you see Carrie Fernandez exploring the Art Tower, but she can’t actually come here during gameplay.

- In the mine cart room, you can ride the mine cart itself by jumping on top of it. However the explosion in the end will automatically knock you into the abyss, so it’s best to jump out early. (Death)

- Vampire Butler and Vampire Maid don’t spawn until after you’ve collected the Art Tower Key 1 and Art Tower Key 2.

- The room with non-replicated weapons hanging on the wall; the doors will seal shut upon entry. The only way you can open them is if you destroy all enemies.

- It gives some the impression that the mine cart(s) and the treasure in it could be coming from the Tunnel, proving that the Tunnel was still under construction in the year of 1844. But this theory remains unconfirmed due to lack of evidence.

- Art Tower is one of two stages in the entire Nintendo 64 series where only one of the six playable characters can visit.

 

''' Glitches '''

- There statue on top of a pillar that’s completely pass through able. Starting the entrance: turn left through a Sun Door, then make a right through a Moon Door. You are then in the same room of that statue. There is another pillar statue that’s also pass through able in the mirrored direction of the first statue. (From the entrance, turn right through the Moon Door, then another right through a Moon Door. You are now in the room of the second statue.)

- The White Jewel on the upper level of the pipe organ room, backtrack the stage from there and pay attention to the red railing. On the edge there is a pole that looks oddly different from the rest. You are able to cliff-hang & climb that pole, but for some odd reason you can’t walk on the railing, or climb any other poles. It is unknown why Konami made climbing that pole accessible, and why all other poles in-line next to it are not.