This forest proves to be not-so-silent when, early on, lightning immediately begins knocking trees down. When you locate a deceased villager, the dead will begin coming alive. You'll soon face a short trial against the stage's giant boss before it flees. The objective here is to run past and fend off the never-ending stream of skeletons, exploding skeletons and were-beasts to find switches that open up gates spread throughout the land. Your platform-jumping and cliff-hanging skills will be put to the test here. When you get through the final gate, you'll have to once again deal with boss and, this time, its motorcycle-riding friends before you can gain access to the castle.

Stage Track: None
Mid-Boss Track: Shudder
Ape Skeleton Battles: Shudder

Mid-Boss: (1) Giant Ape Skeleton, (2) Were-Tiger
End Boss: Giant Ape Skeleton

Skeleton | Exploding Skeleton | Bat | Bone-Throwing Skeleton | Were-Tiger | Werewolf

When you enter the castle, two large gates are blocking the way. You'll have to enter the right tower and travel up and around a lengthy, unsteady spiraling staircase, filled with moving platforms and guillotines devices, to reach the top and battle a boss that guards the lever that raises the initial gate. You'll drop down from there, pick up the key in the now-open central area, and use it to go up the other tower, it filled with spiked rotating platforms and more guillotines. When you reach the the top, your character will automatically activate a switch and raise the other blocking gate. After a short skirmish with "Dracula," you can drop down and proceed on.

Stage Track: The Watchtower
Boss Track: Bone Dragon

End Boss: Guardian Skeledragons

Bone Pillar | Medusa Head | Bat | Skeleton | Exploding Skeleton

Once in the courtyard, three sets of successively powerful Cerebroses block the Villa gates. Ghosts, skeletons and skull heads clutter the rest of the entrance. Once inside, it's a series of events: You'll have to locate Charlie Vincent who in turn will tell you how find Rosa. You'll then find different keys, open locked doors, and make your way into the Villa garden--the hedge maze--where Malus is waiting to be rescued. To save him, you'll have to follow him to the garden's exit while fending off the now-alive stone hounds and a chainsaw-armed Frankenstein Gardener. You'll find a copper key near the exit, which you can then use in the garden to open a certain door that leads to the Villa's basement.

Stage Track: Silent Madness
Vampire Battle: Shudder
Cerberus Battle: Cerberus I
Flame Cerberus Battle: Cerberus II
Hell Cerberus Battle: Cerberus III
Vampire Battle: Shudder
Hedge Maze Chase: Maze Garden
Boss Track: First Struggle

Mid-Boss: (1) Cerberus, (2) Flame Cerberus, (3) Hell Cerberus, (4) Vampire
End Boss: (1) Vampire, (2) Female Vampire

Skeleton | Ghost | Skull Head | Vampire | Stain-Glass Knight | Bat | Motorcycle Skeleton | Hound | Frankenstein Gardener

This stage is only for Reinhardt. After passing some rock-crushing blades, you'll descend down a lift to discover the frightening reality that the sea has become a beacon for what the future could hold--a slow, poisonous death. Spider women will emerge from its depths for a surprise attack and become an instigating presence for the rest of the way. The rest of the stage requires that you fight your way through bat-filled passageways, all with multiple split paths and dangerous platform jumps over interconnecting ponds. Midway through, you must ride a transport lift system to arrive on the stage's second half. More of the same madness ensues until you find the correct path to the exit.

Stage Track: Invisible Sorrow

End Boss: None

Bat | Spider Woman | Medusa Head | Bone Pillar | Ghost | Skull Head

If you play as Carrie, you'll wind up here after entering the open casket in the Villa's basement. This underground waterway's supply also feels the effect of Dracula's rebirth, and it's deadly to touch. Your only means for travel are the narrow walkways carved around the stone walls. The different-powered fishmen will launch a surprise attack early on and become a constant threat for the rest of the stage. The object here is standard fare: Most passageways are blocked by waterfalls caused by drainage into this area; you must find the switches that close these valves by braving fall-away bridges, taking leaps of faiths, and tightrope-walking over really narrow passageways.

Stage Track: Sinking Feeling
Lizard Men Battle: Shudder

Mid-Boss: Lizard Men
End Boss: None

Lizard Man | Medusa Head | Bone Pillar

This multilevel stage has a sub-task: Find magical nitro and mandragora and put them together to blow open two rickety walls. The catch is this: When carrying nitro, you can't jump, attack, or take any hits, so carrying it from the top to the bottom floor is a task. A mutated lizard man, who resides on the top floor, will give you the key to the Mandragora room on the bottom floor. The rickety wall on the top floor must be blown up first to get to reach and align the angel statues to remove Dracula's seal. After blowing up the bottom wall, you can open the way to the next stage--after fighting two bosses first. Depending on the character you're using, the second boss will be different.

Stage Track: Dungeon
Demon Bull Battle: Fourth Struggle
Reinhardt End Boss: First Struggle
Carrie End Boss: Second Struggle

Reinhardt Bosses: (1) Demon Bull, (2) Rosa
Carrie Bosses: (1) Demon Bull, (2) Carrie's Cousin

Motorcycle Skeleton | Vampire | Bloodborn | Bat | Lizard Man | Knight | Cerebros | Bone Pillar | Stain-Glass Knight | Medusa Head | Ghost

The lift that exits the castle center leads here for Reinhardt. And this rather square stage features many tall pillars; the focus: Four caged towers in each corner of the room. The objective is to defeat the four different were-beasts that await a challenge atop each tower; the defeat of the were-beast will open up new platforms that you can manipulate to reach the next battlefield. To get from one such tower to the next requires difficult jumps and slides around, under and over sinking stone platforms, rotating spiked battering rams, collapsing ceilings and narrow ledges. After defeating the final boss, the tower's exit will become accessible.

Stage Track: Encounters
Boss Track: Shudder

End Boss: (1) Were-Leopard, (2) Werewolf, (3) Were-Bull, (4) Were-Tiger

Fishman | Medusa Head

Carrie winds up here after taking the secret path in the Villa's basement. The objective is to make your way up and around the tower's large center structure using the production system's conveyor belts; obstacles here include dissolving lasers, reverse mechanisms, and spiked crates that will be released from the structure's openings. The highest point of the tower is the lab and its security system. Turrets (which are similar to laser-shooters in Zelda: A Link to the Past) guard the ground while cannons that are hooked to the ceiling guard the air. You'll have to work around this ambush, entering the smaller rooms that branch out from this one to find keys to open the locked doors.

Stage Track: Specimen

End Boss: None

Turret

This is another Reinhardt-only stage. This stage's objective, like the tower of science, revolves around climbing up the the middle structure--each corner housing guillotines that rise and fall without warning. To work your way upward, you'll have to utilize the platforms that branch out from the center structure while fending off bone pillars, blood skeletons, and swinging scythes; you must also make difficult jumps over series of emerging-vanishing platforms to reach higher ground. Medusa heads will often show up in these areas. An execution key, found in a sarcophagus, can open a locked gate at the midpoint.

Stage Track: Deadly Ambition

End Boss: None

Bone Pillar | Medusa Head | Blood Skeleton

This mystical area is only for Carrie--she gets here from the tower of science. To escape this tower of worship, you must climb high up using the icy pathways, crystal platforms and disappearing-reapearing cones. Some platforms can be forced to realign by striking switches of a similar color, which is a necessary if you wish to continue to trek upward. The danger in this area is that the transparent nature of the stage will force you to take wild leaps, and, in these instances, you'll misjudge some jumps and plunge to your death. Also burdening: Crystal foes, such as the ice monsters and laser conductors, pop up unexpectedly and force you to slip, slide and make mistakes.

Stage Track: Mystic Tower

End Boss: None

Ice Monster | Crystal Shard | Ghost

The Room of Clocks isn't so much a stage but rather a quick access point to the tower-top where the game's respective antagonists await a given hero--Death and Actrise, in this case. On the way there, you'll pass through the circular clock room whose alcoves give shelter to eight grandfather clocks (and it a bears a strong resemblance to the fleaman-occupied clock rooms found in Symphony of the Night's Marble Gallery). This room represents your only chance to save your game and summon Renon. When you're ready, head right; there you'll find a lift that will carry you up to the tower-top and trigger the big encounter. Once Death or Actrise has been defeated, you can head back down into the Room of Clocks and subsequently exit the stage.

Stage Track: None
Death Battle: Second Struggle
Actrise Battle: First Stuggle

Reinhardt Boss: Death
Carrie Boss: Actrise

There are no minor enemies in the Room of Clocks.

The Room of Clocks foreshadows what comes next: the classic clock tower. It's all linear from this point on. The tower itself is basically three large chambers filled with moving gears, cogs and spokes--these will be your means for climbing and navigating the large chambers; the three chambers, conveniently, also contain the keys necessary to open the rooms' exit shafts. You must be careful, as it's very easy to fall from high places. The only other danger here is infrequent bone pillars.

Stage Track: Toothed Wheel
Reinhardt End Boss: Second Struggle
Carrie End Boss: First Struggle

Reinhardt Boss: The Grim Reaper
Carrie Boss: Actrise

Bone Pillar | Bat | Medusa Head

The final clock tower room leads here. From here, it's just three staircases that lead to the keep, and they're conjoined by two large rooms. These rooms are reserved for potential bosses. Renon will greet you in the first such room. If you spent too much money, you'll have to fight his demon form. If you took too long to finish the game (sun/moon cards count), you'll fight Charlie Vincent in the second room. The first of the final battles awaits you in the keep. (If you fought Charlie, there's only one boss fight.) When you beat the impostor, you'll have hurry down the collapsing structures and jump to an elevator on the left, which leads to the final two battles: The tower top and the desert realm.

Stage Track: Stairway to the Clouds
Renon/Vincent Battle: Second Struggle
Dracula's Servant: Third Struggle
Escape Theme: Castle Escape
Dracula Battle: First Struggle
Drago Battle: Fourth Struggle

Potential Bosses: (1) Renon, (2) Charlie Vincent
End Bosses: (1) Dracula's Servant, (2) Dracula, (3) Drago

There are no minor enemies in the Castle Keep or Desert Realm.