Changing Faces

 

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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
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The Dark Lord returns at a most desirable time--when no Belmont is there to answer the call. Shanoa's efforts will have to be enough as she squares off with one of the more concentrated versions of the Count. Dracula's assault is spread over a two-stage battle, the first of which is pretty standard fare: The teleporting Dracula will randomly unleash a flurry of fireballs; four spherical energy clusters, alternating high and low; and the fatal ray, which causes eight such rays to rain down at once. Dracula will attack an up-close Shanoa with a swipe of his cape and punish a flying Shanoa by canceling any current attack with a column-of-flame spell. When he's done playing games, at which point he'll usher the duo into the second stage of battle, he'll supplant the usual fare with more deadly attacks, including a vicious high-kick; the "soul steal," in which the quickly teleporting Dracula grabs onto Shanoa and sucks her blood in order to replenish his health; the destruction ray, which instead rains down eight consecutive rays wherever Shanoa is standing; two swarms of bats sent waving in either directions; and eight hellhounds, released one after another, that generally disract Shanoa as they crowd the area by running and jumping about.


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Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth
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If Rebirth is all about bringing the series back to the starting line, it's then appropriate that the initial phase of our introduction to the Dark Lord should be handled as it was back in the original NES classic; this is to say Dracula's first form is a fairly constrained version of the Count, who's capable of only teleporting and releasing a wall of three large, slow-moving fireballs. The catch is that the middle fireball slightly trails the one lowest, with the top fireball doing the same to the one placed middle; this makes leaping over the attack a bit more challenging than usual, and attempting to clear them away, one by one, will give Dracula plenty of time to vanish.

Once things get serious, Dracula uses his sacred power to transform into the usual large winged beast, whose attack-pattern quickly becomes obvious but is even then difficult to manage. He'll first spit out a rapid stream of fireballs, diagonally downward and at short range; he'll then jump straight up, four green rays raining down to accompany his descent and ground-shaking landing; he'll finally leap directly over Christopher's head, causing the same four rays to rain down but exactly the position he was in before leaping. Due to the size of the rays and the propensity to somehow forget the simple pattern (as things are more chaotic than they seem), the real challenge will be successfully landing a shot without getting clipped.

The mere trials finally over, Dracula is granted the power to transform into a giant demonic head, its abilities many. The battle takes place in two stages. First you'll focus on the demon's jaw while the head launches its brand of offense--six red symbols/portals appear at random, three on either side of the screen, before exploding and burning for a few seconds; and a number of yellow portals open up top-screen and fire down parallel blasts of lightning (which we've seen before). After the jaw is destroyed in a relatively easy sequence, the head will lower and introduce newer, nastier symbol-based attacks: Two portals will appear and become large heat-seeking electrical orbs that can be repelled and destroyed with some resistance, blue bubble-like formations will drop from open portals then arc back upward, fireballs will pour down from similarly placed portals, and a number of rolling eyeballs will also drop in to clutter the area; it'll later summon in a wave of portals that cause mini-explosions in several on-screen locations. Dracula isn't limited to launching these attacks one a time, as multiple such strikes can be executed at any point, making the encounter random but in any case completely insane; hurting your effort is that the head becomes more resistant to damage as the fight drags on, soon requiring many hits to deplete a single bar of health. Your only help will be the two-level platforms that occasionally and temporarily rise up on either side of the screen, which gives you a window to score clean hits on the head's weakness--its glowing eyes.


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Castlevania: Harmony of Despair
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Harmony of Despair is at its core an amalgamation of the 2D adventure-RPG titles dating back to Symphony of the Night. In honor of the winning formula it patented way back in 1997--a style of gameplay which still endures to this day--the developers naturally chose for its final boss to be the Symphony version (the Rondo variant encountered in the opening "Final Stage"). The ol' boy sticks firmly to his teleporting scheme, whereby he stops to release, at random, 5-directional fireballs or those pulsating, fiery spheres that are released high and low in alteration. Though, like Despair's very theme, there are a few new twists; mainly, he can command six flame-pillars to rise up from random locations, with a fair amount of warning, or six flame-pillars spread at parallel length and executed during his sphere-releasing phase. When "playtime is over," Dracula will transform.

This familiar brute retains its penchant for overwhelming heroes using its long jumps and large frame, but it, too, has a few new tricks up its sleeve. Its most derivative attacks are (a) its single exhaled fireballs, which hit the ground, form into a small flame pillar, then wave forward along the ground; and (b) its high jumps, during which it drips down a storm of acidic liquid, any drop capable of inflicting a poison status. Since the creature is less active then you'll remember, often leaving itself wide open to large amounts of abuse, you may be lulled to sleep and fall victim to its laser attack, during which it dives backwards and fires down, diagonally, an exceptionally large, devastating beam. Pound on it long enough and you'll reveal Dracula's darkest form.

Dracula's final form is actually his Symphony of the Night final form (as encountered post-Shaft) upgraded considerably. Now, you'll know from experience that Dracula will take swipes at you with his large claws, which will otherwise hurt you via simple contact, but you may not be prepared for his new array of attacks. There's no particular order to them: The three active heads will spit down a fireball that will immediately split in two and wave in either direction. He'll fire out seven triangle-shaped projectiles, the glowing charges tossed directly toward the scattering heroes. He'll command flame pillars to rise up in random locations, each blaze capable of limited movement; as could his first form could, he can also command seven parallel flames, spread across the entire room. He'll summon a demonic force that gathers into the screen's center then quickly expands outward in all directions, engulfing the entire room except for its very edges and killing exposed heroes in one shot. Using "Dark Meggido," he'll command at either of the room's sides three flame pillars, all of which can also instantly kill. He'll conjure a circle of bladed, heart-shaped projectiles, then fire them out in all directions; as a side effect, the attack will "charm" one of the heroes, who will then assault his or her allies. Similarly, he'll channel rage and fire out beams in all directions. Finally, he can render himself temporarily invulnerable, able to guard himself against attacks. As it was before, only the three vampiric heads can take damage.

               

Despair's 10th DLC chapter, a retro-themed stage that replicates the look and feel of original Castlevania experience, features the appropriate 8-bit enemies and a "surprise" final boss: Count Dracula as we remember him from the NES classic. The old boy has pumped up a bit and has some new tricks, like his new fireball attack, using which he unleashes three 3 sets of 8 fireballs arcing speedily in three directions--downward, eye-level, and back toward the ceiling--and spreading farther out as they travel across the room (he now has up to six enemy combatants to deal with, after all). Too, Dracula can both teleport and dash his way out of danger. His energy depleted, Drac'll transform into the familiar blue beast, who'll start the proceedings by spewing three separate fireball streams--the trio of flames rotating around the beast and progressively stretching farther out and with increasing arc. It has two modes of travel: High jumps of variable distance and a long, swooping dash attack executed with much quickness. Quite simply: This version of Dracula, in either form, is far more versatile than its original incarnation.

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