Swords

Castlevania has traditionally been about a Belmont and his whip. This has helped distinguish the series from many other properties. Symphony of the Night was the first game to contain a sword-weilding playable character and swords have been weilded by protagonists in every game since.

Swords in Symphony of the Night
Although Alucard is able to weild a large variety of weapons, he is most comfortable with his family heirloom, the Alucard Sword. He is able to perform a special warp-attack with this sword. He is equipped with this powerfull sword at the beginning of the game until Death steals it. After this, he finds a multitude of swords. On his quest to find his stolen sword, he will first encounter the Alucart Sword, which resemble's the family heirloom, but is pathetically weak and does not have its special attack. Equipping this sword along with the rest of the Alucart Equipment though will give him a sizable increase in Luck though. He will eventually reclaim his true sword from Death in the Inverted Mines.

The first basic one-handed sword he is likely to find is the Short Sword, which will likely be his only sword for a while until he earns the slightly longer and more powerfull Gladius after defeating the Dopplegangar. This weapon may then be replaced by increasingly strong identical swords such as the Scimitar, Cutlass, Saber, Falchion, Broadsword, Bekatowa, Damascus Sword, Bastard Sword, and Talwar. These in turn can be replaced with even stronger similar swords that have flash swing effects (but no special abilities), including the Sword of Hador, Luminous, Harper, and Gram. There are other similar swords to these that also affect your other stats, including the Hunter Sword (reduces defense slightly), Dark Blade (increases defense slightly).

By the time he reaches the Long Library, he may have stumbled across a Rapier, which is a bit different than the standard swords. He makes a quicker "stabbing" motion and is also able to make this stabbing motion extremely rapidly in a single motion without consuming any magic, which can quickly wears down a foe's defenses. The Were Bane which he can take from a Hunting Girl is similar, more powerfull, and also does extra damage to Were-Creatures (Werewolves and Were-Skeletons).

Another small class of one-handed swords swing extremely rapidly in a diagonal arcing motion. These swings can performed many times in a second and can be swung while walking. The Vorpal Blade (dropped by an Archer) is the first one that can be found. The ultimate Crissaegrim (dropped by Shmoos) is even faster and stronger. The smaller Holbein Daggar is a similar weapon, though not technically a sword.

Alucard can also wield powerfull one-handed elemental swords, including the Firebrand (and its more powerfull cousin, the Marsil), Icebrand, Thunderbrand, Mormegil (Black Sword), Holy Sword, Tyrfing (Cursed Sword, reduces your attack strength), Stone Sword (can turn enemies to stone), and the Terminus Est (can poison enemies). Most of these swords do elemental damage and have a special elemental attack. The Firebrand, Icebrand, and Thunderbrand can be bought from the Master Librarian and are well worth saving up for. There are no wind or earth elemental swords in this game though.

Some of the one-handed swords Alucard obtains can be thrown and return. The slow-swinging Shotel can be swung or thrown. The Heaven Sword is always thrown and has a couple special moves. The Rune Sword is the most powerfull throwing sword, is thrown in a wide arc, and its path spells out "Verboten", the German word for "Forbidden".

Alucard has a number of one-handed swords with unique moves, abilities, and properties. The Gurthang gets stronger when bloodied. The Mourneblade steals the souls of those it attacks, healing Alucard in the process. The Muramasa increases in strength the more blood it absorbs. The Mablung Sword can be used in place of a Shield Rod and combined with different shields for special affects. The Badelaire gets stronger the more time has passed. The slow Jewel Sword causes enemies to drop jewels frequently and you can cause coins to materialize with a special swing.

Unlike in other games, Alucard can equip different weapons in either of his hands. Two-handed swords will require both of these hands though. The terrible Red Rust, which fails to swing properly every now and then, is the first such sword encountered. While there are a few more worthless two-handed swords (Namakura (worse than Red Rust) and Takemitsu), most of the other ones are nice and have a special ability to compensate for the use of the extra hand. The Sword of Dawn has the ability to summon an undead army with a variety of weapons to fight by your side (none that carry their own swords though). The most powerfull two-handed sword would probably be the Masamune.

Alucard can also control a Sword Familiar. It hovers around and slices enemies every now and then. After it levels up enough, it trusts Alucard enough to allow him to weild him with his own hands.

Swords in Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness
Reinhart utilize a short sword to beat back at enemies that have gotten a little too close for their primary weapons to deal with.

Swords in Legends
Although no playable character weilds a sword in this game, Alucard appears and is equipped with his trusty Alucard Sword and tests Sonia Belmont's skills with it.

Swords in Circle of the Moon
Nathan Graves is primarily a whip-wielder. However, the Mars Card does enable him to transform his whip into other weapons, including various elemental swords. This includes a Fire Sword, Ice Sword, Rose Sword, and a Holy Sword.

Although not a playable character, Nathan's rival/friend Hugh Baldwin's primary weapon is a very long sword.

Swords in Harmony of Dissonance
Maxim Kishine primarily uses a very quick and powerfull wakizashi sword. He is able to swing it several times before his feet touch the ground. He cannot use it while crouching though.

Swords in Lament of Innocence
Joachim_Armster is able to control five symbiotic swords at the same time that revolve around him. He has two different styles of attack. He can send the swords to successively slash the targeted enemies or to pierce them. He can also charge his sword strikes. With sufficient magic, he can release a powerfull beam from his swords or send them all out slashing everything depending on his stance.

Swords in Aria of Sorrow
Soma Cruz can use a large variety of weapons like Alucard could. Most of his swords swing in front of him like Alucard's standard swords or swing in an arc above his head like most of Nathan's swords. Since he only equip one sword at a time, the number of hands a sword uses doesn't factor in as much. There is also less of an emphasis on special attacks than in Symphony of the Night in Aria of Sorrow. Soma is not able to swing his swords downwards as Alucard could.

Swords in Dawn of Sorrow
Many of Soma's weapons from Aria of Sorrow reappear in Dawn of Sorrow. Because this game is on the Dual Screen, which has more button than a Game Boy Advanced, each weapon is able to perform a special attack when a certain button is pressed. Yoko Belnades is also able to fuse Soma's swords with Souls to make them more powerfull.

Two guardian souls involve swords and familiars. The Alastor soul allows you to use Alastor like a Sword Familiar. The Great Armor soul has the Great Armor shadowing you. It attacks with its sword whenever you attack.

Alucard makes an appearance in Dawn of Sorrow and is equipped with his trusty Alucard Sword. He is able to use its special warp attack and diagonally swing it downwards just like he could in Symphony of the Night.

Swords in Curse of Darkness
Hector is another character who can weild just about anything other than a whip. He builds his owns swords. Each type of sword have different combo sequences associated with them. Classes of swords include standard swords, large swords, and fencing swords.

Swords in Portrait of Ruin
Jonathan Morris is the first character introduced who is equally comfortable with a sword as he is with a whip. He can pretty much use any weapon.