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

Oh boy, a tense reunion and confrontation between father and son. I realize it's 1990 and all, but you'd think that the two might want to exchange a few words before having at each other...but I suppose they're saving it all for later games where the Tepes family tends to get somewhat long-winded in expressing themselves. Ah, enjoy the early days and relative silence.

Interestingly, even though you wouldn't know it from this game, in spite of Alucard's animosity towards his father for his crusade against humanity, apparently Dracula does not feel the same way: still rather fond of his rebellious son, if not just a bit exasperated by this defiant streak of his. It must be difficult to be a single dad locked in eternal conflict with his immortal progeny.

Unfortunately for Alucard...he's not exactly in possession of much in the way of a means to hope to take on Dracula on even terms...although he will indeed pose a serious threat in later games that let him deviate from this questionably gimmicky fireball attack pattern, completely lacking the potency that his father could put behind such an attack, but for this game, he's essentially not going to work any huge miracles while plinking away at the three forms.

Incidentally, Alucard can't even hope to reach by any means of attack...at least Grant would have the option of tossing Axes through the mass of faces. Maybe that second form was exactly why Alucard had been waiting for someone to come along to help him defeat Dracula.

The third form is pretty unique among bosses for this game...more like a platforming challenge with lasers than your typical fight. The Axe's attack pattern makes it a rather simple proposition to hit Dracula in his large statuesque (vaguely reminiscent of the demon Pazuzu and various sculptures in his likeness) shape, but you've still got to watch out for those deadly lasers and be careful of the platforms that would just fly out from under you if you're not careful.

The one thing that you have to watch out for the most...or maybe it's just what I find myself having to be careful around...is that diagonal lasers, upon contact with the ground have this strange habit of "crawling" along the floor just a bit further than you would suppose they should, inadvertently killing an unwary challenger who thought themselves safe just out of reach. It should show up a couple of times out of all the footage collected in combat against this form.

All things considered, Alucard's powers of flight are pretty useful in this stage and for avoiding the awkward moments other characters would spend cornered or riding a platform in front of the sources of Dracula's lasers.

It's still a shame that he can't do much else in a more active role in bringing down his father...but that would just take longer than I figure Dracula would want to let the player live, what with the power those lasers pack.

Man...I've got to point it out again...but Alucard is freakishly tall in this game.

Also, he's the one sidekick with an accurately-Romanized name in this game.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Castlevania
• III
• Konami
• NES
• 1990
• Trevor
• Belmont
• Adrian
• Alucard
• Fahrenheit
• Tepes
• Dracula
• Vampire
• Killer

[Overhazard]

Well, that was a strange graphical...whatever it was at 5:34. You switched from Alucard to Trevor and kept Dracula as a swarm of tiny faces instead of a glob of big faces. For a little while, at least.

The way the game shoehorns in "After this fight the Belmont name shall be honored by all people," it makes it seem like Trevor feels sad that Alucard killed his father but no one else cares.

Like:

Alucard feels sad. So does Trevor. But enough about that! Trevor becomes famous!