Welcome to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the 1989 NES classic where you play as Trevor C. Belmont, Grant Danasty, Sypha Belnades, or Alucard to battle Dracula's forces across treacherous castles. This single-player action-platformer challenges you to navigate dangerous environments, defeat iconic bosses, and make crucial choices that determine your path to victory.
This guide is your key to mastering Dracula's Curse. We'll help you navigate the game's multiple paths, understand each character's unique abilities, and overcome the toughest boss fights. Whether you're aiming to find all the secrets, achieve the best ending, or simply survive the onslaught, we've got you covered.
Guide Opening
Welcome to the Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse guide, the pick of the 8-bit Castlevania games, featuring multiple routes, characters, and endings.
This document is Copyright ©2021 Ryan Harrison and Gregory Wright. All rights reserved.
Updates & Revision History
Version 1.00 | 4 May 2021 | Initial version, everything complete
Introduction
Hello one and all, and welcome to the third instalment of both my, and Greg's trilogy of Castlevania guide/walkthroughs: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. Undoubtedly, this is the pick of the bunch as far as the old 8-bit Castlevania games go, with multiple routes, characters and endings, as well as a much more refined playing experience.
Instead of being a follow-up to the events of the first two games in the series, Castlevania and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, this game is actually what we would term a "prequel", with the story set some 200 years prior and featuring one of the great forefathers of the Belmont family, Trevor C. Belmont. Handling very much just as his descendant Simon, you guide Trevor on his way to Dracula's castle, using the usual array of whips and weapons to defend yourself from the count's deadly minions of the night. The path will occasionally split and the route you take to get to Dracula is entirely up to you, with the levels and challenge changing accordingly.
Trevor can be joined by a handful of additional characters with their own unique powers and abilities, who can make life easier in certain parts – but the twist is you can only have one assistant character with you at a time, so opting to take on a new partner results in other partners being dropped for the remainder of the game. Ultimately reaching and defeating Dracula whether with Trevor alone, or paired with one of three additional characters will result in a different ending, so there is a lot of replayability here for the Castlevania enthusiast!
You've got the usual assortment of information within this guide: a complete walkthrough to cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects) every stage in every path, enemy and item lists, boss strategies, secrets and useful information to know before getting started. We aim to make this guide as thorough as possible, and welcome feedback or any helpful info you think we could include! If that's the case, feel free to get in touch with either of us. Thanks for reading, and let's crack on with taking down Dracula once again!
~ Ryan Harrison
Hello everyone!
We are back with another Castlevania guide. This time it is for the most popular NES Castlevania title: Castlevania III! We're going back to the old-school style of Castlevania here, with pure platforming goodness, but we're also bringing some friends along!
This game actually lets you pick your path towards Dracula, but no matter what path you pick (or which allies you take along with you), you know that Ryan and BK have your back!
I'm still on my quest to write for every Castlevania game out there, as it has always been one of my favorite series in gaming. This is my 20th Castlevania guide in fact, and who better to write it with than my good friend Ryan Harrison, certified old-school game lover and long time GameFAQs author/reviewer.
With all of that said, I'm glad you're here with us playing through this classic game! Let's get into the guide!
~ Gregory Wright
Guide and Walkthrough (NES) by RJHarrison / Bkstunt\_31
Navigate every stage of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse with this comprehensive walkthrough, covering levels from Town of Warikiya to Dracula's Final Clock Tower.
- 1Level 1 – Town of Warikiya
- 2Level 2 – Clock Tower of Untimely Death
- 3Level 3 – Forest of Darkness
- 4Underground Route: Level 4 – The Murky Marsh of Morbid Morons
- 5Underground Route: Level 5 – Alucard's Cave
- 6Underground Route: Level 6X – Underground Catacombs
- 7Underground Route: Level 6Y – Sunken City of Poltergeists
- 8Underground Route: Level 7 – Underground Mines
- 9Surface Route: Level 4A – The Haunted Ship of Fools
- 10Surface Route: Level 5A – Curse Tower
- 11Surface Route: Level 6A – The Moat Bridge of Peril
- 12Surface Route: Level 7A – Castle Courtyard
- 13Level 8 – Devil Castle: The Main Hall
- 14Level 9 – Devil Castle: The Inner Halls
- 15Level 10 – Devil Castle: Dracula's Final Clock Tower
Related Sections:
- Bestiary (Enemies and Bosses)
- Items (Weapons and Pickups)
- Cheats
Controls
Learn the ins and outs of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse controls on NES, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U. Master every button for a smoother vampire hunt!
Alright, let's get you up to speed on how to actually play Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. It might seem a little daunting at first with all the characters and their unique moves, but once you get the hang of the basic controls, you'll be whipping Dracula's minions in no time. This guide covers the original NES controls and also touches on how they map to the Virtual Console versions on 3DS, Wii, and Wii U.
NES Controls
Here's the breakdown of how to control your characters on the original NES:
| Control | Action |
| D-Pad | Press Left or Right to move characters to the left or right. Press Up or Down to climb up or down stairs. |
| Select | Press to select Opening, Password or Continue. Also press to transform into a partner spirit. |
| Start | Press to begin the game and to pause the action during the game. |
| A | Press to jump. |
| B | Press to attack with your Main Weapon. Also press the Control Pad Up and the B button simultaneously to attack with a Warakiya War Item currently displayed in the Warakiya War Item Window. |
Character-Specific Moves
Some characters have special moves that use the basic controls in unique ways:
Guiding Grant
Grant can cling to walls and climb around. To do this, press and hold the Control Pad toward the wall you want Grant to cling to. Then, press the Control Pad in the direction you want him to move, and he'll climb. You can also vary the height of his leaps by how hard you press the A Button.
Assisting Alucard
Alucard has a cool transformation ability. Press the Control Pad Down and the A Button simultaneously to transform Alucard into a bat. If you want him to turn back into his human form, just repeat this procedure.
3DS/Wii/Wii U Virtual Console Controls
If you're playing on a more modern Nintendo system, the controls are emulated, but you can use various controllers. The button mappings are pretty straightforward, just match them up with the NES layout above.
Button Key
Here’s how the buttons on different controllers correspond to the original NES controller:
| 3DS | Wiimote | Wii Classic Controller | GameCube Controller | Wii U GamePad | NES Controller |
| Circle Pad | D-Pad | D-Pad | Analog Stick | Left Analog Stick | D-Pad |
| D-Pad | Left Analog Stick | D-Pad | D-Pad | Right Analog Stick | |
| B | 1 | B | B | B | B |
| X | |||||
| A | 2 | A | A | A | A |
| Start | + | + | Start | + | Start |
| Y | − | − | Z | − | Select |
| Select |
Other Controls (3DS)
| Control | Action |
| L + R + Y | Switch between first and second controllers (second controller not used). |
| Touch Screen | Enable Virtual Console Menu where you can choose to Resume Game, Reset and (if enabled) Create/ Load Restore Point. |
| Home | Bring up Home Menu while pausing the game; press again to hide Home Menu and resume play. |
Other Controls (Wiimote & Wii Classic Controller)
| Control | Action |
| Home | Bring up Home Menu while pausing the game; press again to hide Home Menu and resume play. |
Other Controls (Wii U GamePad)
| Control | Action |
| Touch Screen | Enable Virtual Console Menu where you can choose to Reset, change Controller Settings or Create/ Load Restore Point. |
| Home | Bring up Home Menu while pausing the game; press again to hide Home Menu and resume play. |
Guide and Walkthrough (NES) by RJHarrison / Bkstunt\_31 (2)
Complete Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse walkthrough covering all levels, characters, enemies, and items.
- 1Level 1 – Town of Warikiya
- 2Level 2 – Clock Tower of Untimely Death
- 3Level 3 – Forest of Darkness
- 4Underground Route: Level 4 – The Murky Marsh of Morbid Morons
- 5Underground Route: Level 5 – Alucard's Cave
- 6Underground Route: Level 6X – Underground Catacombs
- 7Underground Route: Level 6Y – Sunken City of Poltergeists
- 8Underground Route: Level 7 – Underground Mines
- 9Surface Route: Level 4A – The Haunted Ship of Fools
- 10Surface Route: Level 5A – Curse Tower
- 11Surface Route: Level 6A – The Moat Bridge of Peril
- 12Surface Route: Level 7A – Castle Courtyard
- 13Level 8 – Devil Castle: The Main Hall
- 14Level 9 – Devil Castle: The Inner Halls
- 15Level 10 – Devil Castle: Dracula's Final Clock Tower
Bestiary:
- Enemies
- Bosses
Items:
- Weapons
- Pickups
Other Sections:
- Story
- Controls
- Characters
- Basics
- Cheats
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