The Story Timeline Order of Castlevania Games
The Castlevania franchise is often credited of popularizing the action platformer video game genre. Indeed, Castlevania games introduced various generations of gamers to the action platforming genre over the years, and the series of games became widely known for its distinct characteristics, specially its gothic horror environment and unique soundtracks. In fact, the Castlevania games became so popular that, together with Metroid games, they eventually formed a whole video game genre, which is currently known as metroidvania.
While the Castlevania franchise features and includes multiple types of media, this article will focus only in the video games, because this is a blog about video games. For this reason, other forms of media will not be considered for the continuity presented in this article, only the video games will be considered. This decision was made for two reasons: to keep the chronological story order of this article as simple as possible, and to respect the focus of this blog, which is to write about video games.
The Castlevania video games typically feature action gameplay in medieval gothic environments, in which the player character must fight different enemies and defeat strong bosses. Early games in the franchise feature action-adventure and platforming gameplay elements. Over time, the series included games with other gameplay aspects, such as 3D games.
Are Castlevania Video Games Connected in Story?
While each Castlevania game features its own story, there is an ongoing overall story in the series. It is possible to enjoy each Castlevania game separately. However, playing the Castlevania games in story order is suggested for players who want to immerse in the Castlevania universe story and have a better understanding of the backstory of each video game in the series. In some cases, different Castlevania games are directly related story-wise. In other cases, having the knowledge of other games in the series may prove useful in having a better notion of what caused the story events of each Castlevania game.
It is important to understand that the order in which the story events of different Castlevania games take place is not always the same order in which these games were released. In fact, in the specific case of the Castlevania series, quite often the release order of the games is very different from the order in which the story of each Castlevania game happens. For this reason, it is suggested for Castlevania fans to play the Castlevania games in story order.
The Story Order of Castlevania Video Games
This is the chronological story order of the Castlevania video games. This is not the order in which the games were released. Instead, this is the order in which the story events of each game take place. This is the suggested order in which to play the Castlevania video games in order to better experience the story, immerse in the Castlevania universe and better understand the story events and the motivations of the characters.
The Castlevania video games take place in fairly varied time periods. While games that are more directly related, story-wise, often take place in a distance of a few years, other games can be separated by centuries, and even a millenium in some cases. For this reason, it is quite important, for players who want to experience the Castlevania games in story order, to make use of a chronological story order list such as the one presented in this article.
It is important to note that in this article I've written two chronological story orders: the Castlevania original chronological story order and the Castlevania Lords of Shadow chronological story order. This is mostly because Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a reboot of the Castlevania series, and thus, starts a new chronological story order and continuity. For this reason, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and all the games of the Lords of Shadow series should be considered to belong to their own continuity. They are not in the same continuity as the original Castlevania video games.
It is also important to keep in mind that some Castlevania games were remade, remastered or enhanced, but keeping the same story. In other words, there may be multiple games that tell the same story. Since my goal was to create a comprehensive chronological story order of Castlevania video games, I've included these multiple versions. To keep things simple, when multiple games tell the same story, or multiple games are different versions of each other, I've used the following system: Game Version A | Game Version B | Game Version C, in which all games that are separated by a | essentially tell the same story, and for this reason they have the same place in the chronological story order that I've written.
Castlevania Original Chronological Story Order
This is the chronological story order of the original Castlevania games, starting with the first ever Castlevania video game, which was released in 1986. This is the Castlevania continuity with the most games. Beacuse the Castlevania series features many sequels and prequels, the chronological story order presented here is quite different from the order in which these games were released.
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Castlevania: The Adventure | Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Castlevania (1986) | Vampire Killer | Haunted Castle | Super Castlevania IV | Castlevania Chronicles
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood | Castlevania: Dracula X
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Castlevania (1999)
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania Lords of Shadow Chronological Story Order
This is the story chronological story order of Castlevania games that started with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, as this game is considered a reboot of the Castlevania series of games. For this reason, the games on this list should be considered to be in their own continuity, and not being related, story-wise, to the games and continuity of the Castlevania original chronological story order presented in this article.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
When Does Castlevania Take Place?
For Castlevania fans who want to know the exact year in which each Castlevania video game takes place, I've written this timeline in years of the Castlevania games. In the case of most games, I was able to find the exact year, and in these cases I've written it. In other cases, I wasn't able to find the exact year, only pieces of information. In these cases, I've made an estimation of the time period using the information available.
It is important to mention that the years in these two timelines refer to the years in which the Castlevania games take place. In other words, these years should be considered the time counting of the Castlevania universe, and thus they could be called "Castlevania years", "years in Castlevania time", "years that have passed in the Castlevania universe", "years of Castlevania story" and so on. These years reflect the passage of time in the ficitonal Castlevania games universe.
Castlevania Original Story Timeline Order
1094 Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
1476 Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
1479 Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
1591 Castlevania: The Adventure | Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
1641 Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
1691 Castlevania (1986) | Vampire Killer | Haunted Castle | Super Castlevania IV | Castlevania Chronicles
1??? Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
1748 Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
1792 Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
1796 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
18?? Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
1830 Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
1844 Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
1852 Castlevania (1999)
1897 Castlevania: Bloodlines
1944 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
2035 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
2036 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania Lords of Shadow Story Timeline Order
The timeline of the Castlevania Lords of Shadow should be considered parallel to the Castlevania original timeline. In other words, the years represented in this timeline should be considered to belong to a different universe, to an alternate timeline, and so on. It is important to remember this aspect as the story events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games are not directly related, story-wise, to the events of the Castlevania video games of the original timeline. For this reason, these games were represented in a different timeline in this article. The years in this timeline should be considered "years in Castlevania Lords of Shadows time", "years in the Castlevania Lords of Shadow universe", "years in the Castlevania Lords of Shadow story" and so on.
1047 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
10?? Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
2??? Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Analysis of the Chronological Story Order of Castlevania Video Games
It is very interesting to note that the Castlevania video games are quite varied in the years in which they are set, much more varied than many of other video game timelines that I have written. For example, one of the earliest Castlevania video games takes place in 1094, which is Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, while one of the latest Castlevania video games, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, takes place in 2036. These two games are separated by 942 years. It is not often that a video game franchise spans so many centuries across different video games.
It is also noteworthy to note how there are two different continuities in the case of Castlevania video games. Unlike what many people think, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow video games are not set in the same continuity as most of the other Castlevania video games, and for this reason, it does not make sense to include these games of different continuities in the same timeline. On the other hand, these are still Castlevania video games, and thus feature many of the typical Castlevania game elements that the series became known for, and are easily recognized as belonging to the Castlevania universe. However, in terms of chronology and continuity, which my article is focused on, it is important to remember that they belong to different continuities.
Another interesting characteristic of this chronological story order of Castlevania games is the number of reinterpretations that certain Castlevania video games received. One such example is Castlevania (1986), which received multiple different versions and reinterpretations, such as Vampire Killer, Haunted Castle, Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Chronicles. While remasters and remakes are common in the video games industry, it is interesting to note how many times this game was reinterpreted and remade. This frequency of different versions indicates the importance of this particular story to the Castlevania franchise.
Another important point regarding the timeline of the Castlevania video games is that, while there are many centuries included in the timeline, most of the video games take place between 1600 and 1899. To put it numbers, in the original Castlevania games timeline of this article, there are 23 video games in total. Of these 23 video games, 15 are set between 1600 and 1899. 15 of 23 represent 65% of the Castlevania video games in the original timeline. In other words, almost 70% of the Castlevania video games in the original timeline are set between the 17th and the 19th centuries. This strong prevalence of video games in a specific time period indicates the importance of this time period for the Castlevania series, which became known for its gothic elements and universe.
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