Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Overview

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (known in Japan as Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden: LEGACY OF CORNELL, which is loosely translated to "Devil's Castle Dracula Apocalypse Side-Story: Legacy of Cornell") is a 3D horror action-adventure platformer developed by KCE Kobe and published by Konami for the Nintendo 64 on November 30, 1999.

An enhanced version of the original N64 installment of the Castlevania series, Legacy of Darkness adds a prequel story starring Cornell, a magical man-beast warrior who sets off in the year 1844 to rescue his adoptive human sister Ada from Dracula's minions. After clearing his story, players can play through a new story as Henry Oldrey, a Holy Knight of the Church set off in the year 1852 to rescue six missing children from the recently-revived castle of Dracula. Unlike the previous game, the story of Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez are locked until Henry's story is cleared.

Playable Characters

There are four characters which are playable in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, each have very different storylines and attack styles.

Cornell (aka. "Blue Crescent Moon")

Through the magic of the Ancients, this man-beast warrior has obtained a physical body of near immortality, and power that surpasses that of a wild beast.

The man-beasts, choosing to live in harmony with humans, sealed away their enormous magical powers to prevent them from being used. However, through severe ascetic training, Cornell acquired the art of releasing the sealed man-wolf power.

Returning to his village after a year of ascetic training, Cornell finds the village engulfed in flame, and his only living blood relative, his sister Ada, kidnapped by evil spirits. Using his man-wolf's acute sense of smell to track the scent of his sister's blood, Cornell begins his long journey to rescue Ada.

Henry Oldrey

Henry's first appearance is as a small child during Cornell's quest. The man-beast saves him from the hedge maze's Frankenstein gardener and helps him escape from the Villa, which up until that point had been his home.

After Cornell's quest, adult Henry becomes a playable character, where which he must save six children who were kidnapped and taken to Dracula's castle to be sacrificed. Unlike most Castlevania protagonists, he uses a gun as his main weapon of choice.

Reinhardt Schneider

Like his brethren ( Ralph, Simon and Richter), Reinhardt is a vampire killer descended by blood and ancestry from the infamous Belmont clan of vampire hunters. The past acts of legend, valor and life-saving are now long forgotten among the Schneider's peers. Schneider vows to renew his family's honor. "Some day, the time will come when I have to fight the dark again!" he mutters.

When Reinhardt's father, Michael, decides to become a vampire hunter to honor the family tradition, Reinhardt spends his time training in a forest near to his hometown of Wallachia. After his father's retirement ten years later, a rumor surfaces that Dracula has been resurrected, and Reinhardt begins his journey to the castle holding the whip of the Belmonts... According to those villagers who know him, Reinhardt has an unapproachable atmosphere around him. This is due to his revered but mysterious background. An intrepid figure, he is a gentle yet highly combative young man with a righteous mind.

Carrie Fernandez

The family of Fernandez, Spanish immigrants travelling throughout Eastern Europe, chanced upon Dracula's castle many moons ago, and utilizing a sacred family power of the orb, managed to repel both bandits, demonic intrusions and all manner of evil from their wagon train. However, after a particularly vicious attack by a form of Dracula himself, the patriarchal figure of the Fernandez family (a great warrior known as Sypha) fell under dark trickery.

The family, although wracked with despair, did not cease to be. A small orphan called Carrie, exhibited strange talents of light summoning and was traced back to the family after a lengthy search through records by her foster mother. A gentle child, Carrie watched with horror as a band of devils descended upon their Romanian village and attempted to attack her. Diving to save her child, Carrie's mother was killed and at that moment, a great orb of light was instantly summoned by the screaming Carrie and directed at the demons, which promptly writhed in agony and vanished. Her destiny has called, and Carrie realizes she must fight the demonic intrusions.

Carrie's parents exhibited the same power and were condemned and burnt as witches by a suspicious judiciary, fearful of anything that could be likened to the resurrection of Dracula. Only recently realizing this fact, Carrie halts her beliefs in an uncaring God and closes her mind to adults, disliking them. Hearing of Dracula's most recent resurrection, Carrie decides to investigate the castle...

Other Notable Characters

Ada

Cornell's cheerful, lively little sister who has been kindnapped by the evil Count Dracula's minions. She is to be used as a sacrifice in order for the Vampire Count to fully complete his recovery.

In order to save his sister from the clutches of Dracula Ultimate, Cornell relinquishes his man-beast power.

Ortega

Cornell's childhood friend, Ortega is a fellow beast-man soldier and master of the martial arts. Though he is Cornell's best friend, he is also his rival. Ortega is often frustrated because it seems that whatever he does, Cornell does it better. From this jealousy, Ortega sells his soul to the devil, and allies himself with Dracula's minions in return for a power that can surpass that of Cornell.

Mary Oldrey

The mother of Henry Oldrey. After learning that her husband has become a vampire, she hides herself inside of her room until Cornell appears. She then asks the man-beast warrior to seek out and protect her son.

Master Oldrey

Lord of the Castle's Villa and father of Henry Oldrey. He was turned into a vampire by Actrise and Gilles de Rais. After failing to apprehend his wife with the intention of drinking her blood, he decides to attack Cornell instead.

Malus

In a tiny hamlet to the south of Wallachia, Malus lived a a happy life with his parents. However, when the resurrection of Dracula occurred, a messenger rode into his village with the news that dark flying figures had been seen in the nearby moors. Surely enough, the hamlet was subsequently attacked and burned to the ground by devils. Amid the ashes, Malus is plucked from the smoldering ruins of his home, borne on the back of a devil, and flown to Dracula's citadel where he remains a prisoner in a dungeon cell. Obviously, the ingenuity of the child knows no bounds, and he seems to have broken free of his prison.

He has no clue to why Dracula kidnapped him, indeed he appears startlingly calm for one so young...

Rosa

A beautiful, yet luckless woman who has recently been infected by a vampire. Once a servant girl in the castle's rose-garden, tending to many bouquets of white satin roses. Alas, since the bit infected her nervous system, she no longer feels like the Rosa of old, but continues to water her roses... although she has found a new liquid fertilizer. Despite her vampirec appearance, her soul has been fighting this state, and she has been known to shout "I curse my own rotting body" and "do not let my unsaved soul die!"

Somewhere deep in her thoughts lies the promise of salvation, she sees a brave man striding in to save her and the world from the terrible fate that awaits...

Vincent the Vampire Killer

A rather boastful and arrogant, yet slightly jolly fellow, especially for a Vampire Hunter, Vincent calls himself "the strongest vampire Killer". He is a scholar who has spent his entire life studying vampires and lycanthropy, and well-known in literary circles as an authority on these dreaded beings, publishing his results of "field study" in hugely detailed tomes.

His clothing comes complete with a number of additional extras, including holy water, garlic, a wooden stake and a crucifix. Although he loves to sleep, he provides vitally important information in regard to the quest.

Heinrich Meyer

Heinrich Meyer, a nearby merchant, visited the castle of Dracula five years prior to ply his trade of wooden artifacts, aware of the presence of evil, but not letting that get in the way of a sale. Once inside the castle, he was offered some tea buy a rather pale looking butler... Waking up three days later, he discovered to his horror that he was tied to a huge wooden operating bench, and a small mad scientist was working furiously on inserting a number of needles into his arm. The rest of his body covered in leeches, Heinrich let out an awful scream and then realized the true terror of his predicament. A thick rasping noise sounded from his lips... As he looked down, he saw blue scales covering his torso and legs. He was changing...

The fearful and quite mad Heinrich, now completely transformed into a lizard man, is kept in a castle bedroom. He keeps a key for company, and runs from the slightest aggression.

Renon the Salesman

Masquerading as a salesman (complete with an old suit, a rather dapper bowler hat and ornate hand watch), Renon's pointed tail gives his true nature away, he is a devil.

His chosen profession however, is to sell items to adventures or brave souls who visit the castle, before watching their demise with amused glee. A mysterious man who is initially very friendly and cooperative, though his contract comes with some fine print that is not to be ignored.

Actrise

Actrise was a stage actress who wished for eternal beauty and fame. To this end, she bargained with the Devil himself, and her soul was thus sold. Now completely deranged after years of creeping madness, she shows her willingness to become a vampire by journeying to the Count's castle and proclaiming her foul deed: She slays one hundred children a year in praise of Dracula, and collects their souls in a number of gems. To make matters worse for this hated hag, she sacrificed her own doughter to the Devil when her contract with him suddenly ended, and was restored to eternal life shortly thereafter.

Sensing the power present in Carrie, Dracula orders Actrise to win over the girl to the cause of evil, or die trying.

The Fernandez Warrior

One of Actrise's brood and Carrie's blood-relation, the Fernandez warrior only appears briefly during Carrie's journey, tormenting and taunting her to return to her family roots and become a witch herself. She can summon in spirits by a simple smile (she calls it her " death grin"), and physical attacks are difficult to land as she lives in the Astral plane, and her earthly body is completely ethereal. Recently vampiric, she strikes with force against her will, as she would never intentionally harm her family.

Death

The confrere of Dracula himself, this lesser God has descended from another world to pursue a perverse set of goals, to confront Reinhardt, blood-relations of the Belmonts, Dracula's arch rivals. Previously, Death controlled the soul of Rosa and sent her to defeat Reinhardt when he realized that Reinhardt could not be swayed to the path of Vampirism. Of course, the pure heart of Rosa allows her to protect Reinhardt, although she herself dies. A now furious Reinhardt faces this flying scythe-wielding fiend, who can summon both sickles and huge green fish to aid him.

Gilles de Rais

A faithful servant who has worked for Dracula since ancient times. His great age makes him the closest to a complete vampire in all facets, but he serves his darker lord all the same. Gilles de Rais knows that Dracula was born again as a human child. In order to locate his master and control the power, he commences a mass kidnapping of all the children from nearby hamlets, using both his devils and the help of Actrise to help his cause. He gathers the children in the castle, and locates the resurrected power of Dracula in a small boy called Malus. However, before the complete transformation and rebirth can be completed, he hears that two vampire hunters have infiltrated his castle. To deceive them, he changes his appearance and behaves as if he is Dracula himself.

Dracula

One devil was even honored enough to transform into a demonic steed for the boy. However, another even more frightening power he wields appears to be being summoned by Malus. By the ritual sacrificing of the children captured by the devils, Malus' powers of transformation begin to surface as he remembers his true vicious nature. Malus is only the initial stage of ultimate evil, as Dracula's true form reveals.

After being defeated be the Belmonts, Dracula's material body vanished, and his soul was banished for one hundred years, only to be resurrected in the form of Malus. Malus does not have any memories of his previous life, but the devils notice their evil leader's traits in the immense dark power that Malus wields.