Castlevania: The Adventure

Castlevania: The Adventure (ドラキュラ伝説; Dracula Densetsu) is the first Castlevania game for the Game Boy. It was released in Japan on October 27, 1989 and in North America on December, 1989.

Storyline
Castlevania: The Adventure stars Christopher Belmont. In 1576, Christopher fulfilled his destiny, entered Castlevania, and defeated Dracula.

Character Gallery
See also 

Gameplay
Castlevania consists of four timed stages, each ending in boss battles. Unlike other games in the series, hearts are not used to power subweapons. Instead, they refill the energy bar on the bottom of the screen. Christopher's whip can be upgraded with magic crystals, but contact with an enemy will regress it to a weaker form. Rather than collecting money bags to increase the score giant coins are dropped instead.

Storyline Confusion
When this game first came out, it was released as a sequel to Castlevania: Simon's Quest in North America. The back of box states "After getting his wings clipped in Castlevania and Simon's Quest, the death defying count has risen again. Desiring revenge even more than blood, he'll descend upon your Game Boy, with fangs glistening by the light of the silvery full moon." None of the text on the box, manual, or in-game mentioned the name of the hero of this game and it was assumed to be another adventure of Simon Belmont. The official Game Boy Nintendo Player's Guide also "confirmed" that the hero was Simon Belmont, and he was named such in a magazine ad. When this game's sequel Castlevania: Belmont's Revenge was released, which had a much more important plot, it was realized that the hero of The Adventure was not Simon, but rather, a new character no one in America had heard of - Christopher Belmont. It was still figured that The Adventure was a sequel, however. The American manual for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse had placed Dracula's Curse to be 100 years before Simon's time (it states "The time is 100 years before Simon Belmont's birth.") and it was also stated that Trevor was the first warrior Belmont (it says he was the "origin of the Belmont Warlord Chromosomes"). With Dracula's 100 year cycle already established, this game was reckoned to take place 100 years after Simon's games and Christopher was considered a descendant of Simon.

In Japan, however, it was always clear that this game featured Christopher Belmont and took place ages before Simon's time. The Japanese manual for the original Castlevania game talked about the "Legend of Christopher" and Simon was considered the heir to Christopher's legacy. This game was created to tell the story of this legendary warrior. In Japan, Christopher Belmont was considered the first Belmont to face Dracula (see a translation of the Japanese manual), until this idea was retconned when Dracula's Curse came out. For a time in Japan, both The Adventure and Dracula's Curse were considered to be the "first" fight against Dracula and to predate the original Castlevania game by 100 years. When Iga created his timeline, he corrected this discrepancy by placing Dracula's Curse 100 years before The Adventure, which itself was 100 years before Simon. Castlevania: Legends also had a claim to being the first fight against Dracula, but Iga removed this game from the official timeline.

Most fans in America now accept the Japanese order of events and follow Castlevania producer Iga's timeline that shows The Adventure takes place between Dracula's Curse and Castlevania. The story in the American manual of Castlevania Chronicles, which is considered a canon remake of the original Castlevania, sounds much like that of the original Japanese Castlevania game's, showing that Christopher indeed does predate Simon, now even in North America.

The Americans who wrote the comic book adaptation of The Adventure (Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy) did not appear to have taken into account the Castlevania Chronicles manual storyline, however, and wrote the comic in a much later era (late 1700s instead of late 1500s) and showed that Simon Belmont had come before Christopher. It told the tale of a resurrected Dracula furious at his defeat at the hands of Simon Belmont and hell bent on revenge, which follows original American version of events perfectly. The description for the comics gives the canon timeline year (1576) for the events of The Adventure, but the actual contents of the comic do not.

With both the American and Japanese manual storylines for The Adventure having been retconned, not much is left of its storyline canon-wise. Basically, Dracula rose from the grave 100 years after being defeated by Trevor Belmont. Christopher, a descendant of Trevor, takes up his ancestral whip and defeats Dracula. The rest of the story is revealed by its sequel, Belmont's Revenge, which reveals that Dracula escaped after his battle with Christopher in the form of mist, but is too weak to do anything, so he waits for an opportunity to get his strength back. The timeline entry included in the pre-order bonus of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin sums it up neatly:

''1576 The Castlevania Adventure - Count Dracula, slain 100 years before, is reborn. It is here where the legend begins - once every 100 years, Dracula will come back to life. Christopher Belmont, in another fight with Dracula, apparently succeeds in vanquishing Dracula... But Dracula was not destroyed and in 15 years a dreadful tragedy will occur.''

Related Pages

 * Castlevania: The Adventure Bestiary
 * Category:Adventure Locations
 * The Adventure Inventory

Related Products

 * Akumajo Dracula Best Vol. 2 - Contains the original soundtrack for this game
 * Game Boy Nintendo Player's Guide - Contains stage maps and original enemy artwork for this game.
 * Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - The game boy sequel to this game
 * Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth - A remake of this game for WiiWare.
 * Castlevania I - This game was made as a prequel to the original Castlevania game, describing the legend of Christopher that was first mentioned in the Japanese manual.
 * Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - This game was initially released in America as a sequel to Simon's Quest and was presumed to feature a third battle between Simon Belmont and Dracula (until Belmont's Revenge came out)
 * Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy - An American comic book adaptation to this game
 * Castlevania Best Music Collections BOX - Contains music from this game on Disk 1
 * Famitsu Dracula Densetsu Guide - A Japanese guide for this game

External Videos

 * Speed Run on Easy Mode