Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse -- Stage 10, Grant Ending

And now we drop in with the fastest man in Wallachia...maybe. At least he's the fastest we've seen, and nobody else but these heroes seem to be interested in fighting Dracula, so I guess it's not completely unfair to give it to the man.

Grant's got some serious advantages in his mobility and climbing talents as far as the second room is concerned, although it does tend to present more than a couple of potential pitfalls anyway...but that's pretty much always been the case for Grant and his special brand of acrobatics.

Although they're not exactly the most useful talents, Grant's ability to crouch low enough to remain unscathed by passing Bone Pillar fireballs or Blood Skeleton whips is neat enough to be worth mentioning...I actually didn't find out except by accident in the case of the latter, but it's not exactly an earth-shattering revelation given how close you have to be to hit the skeleton anyway.

A nice side note is that Grant is capable of wielding the Axe subweapon, freeing up Trevor's inventory to take another one. Too bad that just leaves us with the Stopwatch (useless), Dagger (might as well be useless, unfortunately), or Holy Water...and having to admit that last one isn't exactly going to be all that useful really does eat away at me inside. Still, it's probably the best choice for the job anyway, since you won't exactly be attacking at long range...and the hearts you get are put to much better use in something that can actually inflict damage.

Oh, and I'd be completely remiss if I didn't point this out...nice choice of second form, Lord of Darkness...a conglomerated mass of vomiting faces. Great. And each of the faces screams when you reduce it to a skull and put an end to its attacks. What on earth could Dracula have been thinking on that one? The most dangerous thing about it--besides the fact that you have to run under the things, of course--is the fact that it will irregularly corner you with its flight path as it reaches the corner you might be foolish enough to take refuge in. Which I do...an embarrassing number of times. I just can't figure why he doesn't do that all the time.

Otherwise, the form isn't too terribly difficult...but it is annoying and time-consuming to reach the top faces. Oh, and the face on the right side might be slightly problematic to deal with if you're excessively cautious like I can get sometimes after having been chased down and cornered one too many times, but Trevor's whip can actually reach all the way through to it if you're careful about your timing.

Oh, and I'm just as surprised as you are how much HP Grant had left here...I suppose this goes to show that for being so sorely underestimated in combat the whole game, Grant is actually the one character with the skills most suited to taking on Dracula. Go figure.

Grant's name, now Romanized as "Danasty" is actually most likely based on the surname of the Dinesti clan, something of a blood feud with the particular branch of the Wallachian royal family to which Vlad Tepes Dracul belonged, perhaps giving extra meaning to his statement that "Dracula killed my family" when you first meet Grant.

It would explain why he's so dedicated to rebuilding the shattered remains of the country...although we really only have a single line (in this game, anyway) out of the rather simplistic wording of the story such as it is to indicate that.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Castlevania
• III
• Konami
• NES
• 1990
• Trevor
• Belmont
• Grant
• Danasty
• Dracula
• Vampire
• Killer

[YuuGiJoou]

See? Trevor is THAT good at stealing the glory...he even stole your attention away.

[Overhazard]

I guess the Neanderthals get the nice clothes from unfortunate visitors who happen to pass by Prehistoria.

Oh, did it say Grant will be the one to take on rebuilding Wallachia? That Trevor, taking credit for other people's work...

[YuuGiJoou]

A caveman with nice pants--neanderthals always have either a loincloth (leopard print optional) or torn pants (wherever they got them in the first place).

Well, that and what I assume to be a black vest, because the lines are too perfect for a simple shadow due to his hunch, and an awesome do-rag.

"Grant will start to rebuild the destroyed areas of the city"--but enough about the "Acrobat," the Belmont name will be honored for all time, and that's all that really matters.

[Overhazard]

You know, I think I'll choose this time to say it: I thought Grant was a caveman at first because of his hunched posture. He still kind of makes me think of a Neanderthal when I see him. (Hey, a caveman isn't THAT far-fetched in a game like this, where Frankenstein's monster stalks you.)

Hmm. Grant's name isn't mentioned at all in the credits...he's just seen as a sidekick to Trevor.