Just to throw this topic off topic here's a Castlvania timeline:
Supposedly, Dracula will revive automatically 100 years after his latest death, unless he is revived early, by some sort of special event.
1450 - Sonia Belmont - Castlevania Legends (GameBoy)
This is supposed to be the earliest (known) appearance of the Belmonts and Dracula. I haven't had a chance to play this one yet, but apparently Sonia met an Alucard who wasn't quite ready to face his father yet. Apparently, her encounter with Alucard resulted in a child, believed to be Trevor Belmont. I think I want to play this one.
1476 - Trevor Belmont - Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (NES)
The back-story to this game said that frightened citizens had just earlier run the Belmonts out of the country, but that they were begged back to save the world after the revival of Count Dracula. Trevor Belmont was supposed to possess superhuman strength. This would fall in line with the results of Castlevania Legends. Dracula either survived his encounter with Sonia somehow, or (more likely) he was quietly revived somehow. Trevor defeated him, with the assistance of Alucard, Sypha Belnades, and Grant DaNasty.
Note: The English instructions say that Trevor got his Mystic Whip and other weapons from the "Poltergeist King", that the game takes place 100 years before the birth of Simon, and that Sypha is a "he".
1576 - Christopher Belmont - Castlevania Adventure (GameBoy)
One hundred years after Trevor beat the Count, Christopher Belmont got a chance to face him in the first Castlevania game on the GameBoy. Dracula escaped in the ending, setting up the next GameBoy game.
1591 - Christopher Belmont - Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (GameBoy)
Having survived in hiding for 25 years, Dracula struck back by kidnapping Christopher's son, Solieyu Belmont. Christopher rescued his son and killed Dracula.
1691 - Simon Belmont - Vampire Killer (arcade), Castlevania (NES), Super Castlevania 4 (SNES), and Castlevania Chronicles (PSX and X68000)
The original "Akumajo Dracula" game was an arcade game known as "Vampire Killer" here in North America. It was remade on the NES. Then it was remade again on the SNES (Konami USA apparently wasn't very open about C4 being a remake of C1, while in Japan they were clear about it). It was remade again on a Japanese personal computer system called the X68000, and that version was later ported to the PSX as "Castlevania Chronicles".
Simon vs Dracula. Not much more plot needed. Apparently Vampire Killer mentioned something about Dracula having kidnapped Simon's girlfriend, but that she was not found in the course of the game.
1698 - Simon Belmont - Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest (NES)
In killing Dracula, Simon got cursed. What's a barbarian to do? Gather up all the little Dracky-bits that Dracky's minions stole as souvenirs, and burn them. There's no chance he could come back to life when you re-assemble him, is there?
1740 - 1748? ("Fifty years" after Simon) - Juste Belmont - Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Apparently Juste finds his friends kidnapped by the forces of evil. Dracula is apparently not the main focus of the game, and Konami changed the Japanese name of the series from "Dracula" to "Castlevania" to illustrate the point. Apparently Juste is a descendant of Sypha (and possesses her magical skills) while also being a Belmont. Considering how cozy Trevor and Sypha looked watching Dracula's castle crumble and fall (check out the opening to Bloodlines, the Genesis game), it's pretty reasonable to assume that Trevor and Syphaâ¦
1788 - Richter Belmont - Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (PC-Engine CD), Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)
In Japan, when you add a letter to a series, it becomes a "new series", and isn't always required to fit into the standard continuity. Dracula X for the PCE-CD apparently didn't mention anything about where it was placed, but the English SNES version said it was "a few hundred years" after Simon. The sequel to Dracula X (known as Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight, or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) firmly pulled the X series and the standard series together.
Dracula's dark priest "Shaft" revived Dracula, who then kidnapped Richter's girlfriend, Annette Renard, and her family. When you rescue her younger sister "Maria", you discover that she's actually a really powerful force in fighting evil, due to some sort of connection with animal spirits.
1792 - Alucard - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) (Saturn)
It seems that one year previous, Dracula was revived by the 100 year rule, as it was 100 years since his first defeat at the hands of Simon. Apparently his being re-built and killed by Simon didn't delay his revival, nor did the events of Dracula X, and/or he wasn't really killed by Richter. Vampires are tricky sometimes. Anyways, Dracula revived Shaft, and together they turned Richter over to the dark side. The force of their evil action woke up Alucard, who had put himself to sleep after helping Trevor beat Dracula in Castlevania 3. Alucard met up with the grown-up Maria who was looking for her missing brother-in-law Richter. Together they saved Richter from Dracula's influence, and killed the evil bugger again. Maria chased after Alucard in the (good) ending, to give him a nicer alternative to going back into eternal sleep (understatement).
By the way, this game was the sequel to Dracula X, not "Bloodlines" (the Genesis game), as the opening of the game suggests. It's just an error. Also by the way, the Saturn version has extra stuff in it that the PSX version didn't have. It was only available in Japan.
1830 - Nathan Graves - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
I haven't had a chance to play this one yet. My brother needs to lend me his GBA already. Woe is me. This will be rectified.
1844 - Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64)
1852 - Castlevania 64 (N64)
Konami thought these were the future, before the GBA came around. Apparently these weren't made by the same team that's making the 2D games, and they aren't putting a very high priority on keeping these two games in the loop. I still need to play these two anyways.
1917 - John Morris and Eric Lecarde - Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Countess Bartley, the niece of Count Dracula and also a vampire, is revived and sets out on a quest across Europe to get her uncle another early revival. I haven't played this one all the way through, but somehow the name "Eric Lecarde" reminds me of "Alucard". Is there a connection? I don't know.
the company can sell even more games with Megaman Zero in them.
