Soma Cruz activating a Warp Room in
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Warp Rooms (also known as Warp Points, Warp Zones or Teleport Rooms) are special rooms that generally appear in semi-open world Castlevania games that feature role playing elements (also colloquially known as "metroidvanias"). They allow the player to teleport to previously explored areas in order to reduce backtracking.
Overview[]
Warp Rooms are generally colored in yellow or blue on the map to differentiate them from Save Rooms (red) and from the rest of the areas of the level. The player cannot teleport to a warp room in an area they haven't previously been to, although there are some exceptions, usually when the first warp room of the game is reached, which will often transport the player to another warp room near the beginning of the game where the shops can be accessed, or to an all new area in order to advance through the game's storyline. Inside these rooms lies some sort of portal or device, which is usually activated by pressing UP on the directional pad while standing in front of it. Just by entering a warp room will unlock it as a possible warp destination, it isn't necessary to activate the device inside (the same applies for Curse of Darkness; the player doesn't need to sit in the Teleporter Seat, just by entering the room will unlock it).
These locations became common areas in the Castlevania series since the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in 1997, which introduced new exploring and gameplay mechanics inspired by Nintendo's Metroid series, commonly referred to as "metroidvanias" ever since. As such, these locations allow the player to minimize backtracking in the big and lengthy areas that are connected within a game. Enemies cannot appear inside a warp room.
In the first games where this mechanic was implemented (Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance), the player would be taken to the next already unlocked warp room in the castle, usually arranged in a counterclockwise direction if looked through the map. In Aria of Sorrow, a map would come up after activating the device and the player would then be allowed to choose their desired destination by using the directional pad. With the availability of the touch screen in the Nintendo DS trilogy (Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia), players could do both, choose their destination with the directional pad or simply touch the warp room they wanted to teleport to on the screen.
Warp rooms can only teleport the player to other warp rooms within the same map. In games where there are more than one castle to be explored (e.g.: Symphony of the Night, Harmony of Dissonance, etc.), or that are comprised of many individual areas (Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, etc.), it isn't possible to warp between maps; the player has to reach those areas on foot instead.
In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Dracula uses Map Rooms and Wolf Altars to navigate through his castle and the city. In the DLC Revelations, Alucard uses Teleporters to do so.
In the Castlevania animated series, Dracula's Castle features warp mirrors similar to the warp rooms found in the games, although they can transport an individual to different places around the world and not just within the castle.
Game specific information[]
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night[]
Symphony of the Night is known for introducing several new gameplay mechanics into the series, and among them was the usage of Teleport Rooms. Each of these rooms features a particular statue that hints on the area it represents. Their imagery seems to come from a combination between both the western and Chinese zodiac. The lion may represent Leo, the scorpion, Scorpio, and the twin human and fish statues that appear around the portals probably represent Gemini and Pisces, respectively. The snake, horse and goat (and tiger in the Saturn version) are entities present in the Chinese zodiac.
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance[]
There are two variants of Warp Zones in Harmony of Dissonance. The first one resembles those found in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, being shaped like a big keyhole. These only allow to traverse to a determined different location in the opposite castle. The first portal of this type is found on Juste Belmont's second visit to the Marble Corridor in Castle A, after having acquired the Lizard Tail, which allows him to slide and access the room that holds it, and which in turn takes him to the Castle Treasury in Castle B. There is another one of these types of portals in the Luminous Cavern of Castle B, which takes Juste to the Sky Walkway of Castle A. These types of portals aren't connected to the rest of the regular Warp Zones in the game (read below), and as such, it isn't possible to warp to other Warp Zones in the current castle from these.
The other variant is a circular stone gate and this is the actual regular type of Warp Zone that is used for the rest of the game. Its design heavily resembles the gate from where the Doppleganger10 came out in Symphony of the Night, up to the point of rotating, opening by the middle, and having many layers of gates until the actual portal is finally revealed. The first time Juste encounters one of these is at the top of the Clock Tower in Castle A, where he meets Death for the second time. After a quick exchange of words, Death escapes inside the portal and Juste follows in his pursuit to the counterpart of that location in Castle B. It's precisely at this moment when he realizes that there are two different castles.
The second type of Warp Zones are noteworthy as they actually provide two different types of teleportation:
- Their standard function is to allow the player to enter the opposite castle. This is attained by standing in front of a portal and pressing UP on the control pad. The player character will then enter the portal and exit in the opposite castle, at the respective location from where they were before.
- Their secondary function is the same as in the rest of the games; it teleports the player to the next unlocked Warp Zone within the current castle, following a counterclockwise pattern. This is attained by standing in front of a portal and pressing DOWN on the control pad. However, this function can only be used after acquiring the Hint Card 3.
Additionally, if the player gains early access to the Warp Zone in the upper-left area of the Entrance, the Hint Card 3 will spawn in that room, although the portal gate will be open and cannot be operated, thus, story sequence breaking is impossible. The benefit of doing this is to collect the Platinum Tip early, and once the two castles have been revealed, the Lure Key becomes immediately available.
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence[]
Lament of Innocence takes a different approach regarding warp rooms compared to the rest of the games in the series: instead of featuring special rooms where the player can teleport to different locations within the castle, they are presented from the beginning with a large hall that serves as the game's main hub and which features five teleporters, each of which that leads to one of the five initial areas of the game.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia[]
These two games have multiple maps. Any warp room can only teleport to another room in the same map. Portrait of Ruin also has portraits which are technically inter-map warp rooms.
Gallery[]
(keyhole shaped variant)
