As Richter rides along on his horse-pulled wagon toward Dracula's castle as a storm rages on, Death swoops in from above. His goal is to only intimidate the young Belmont--a short battle will ensue before in which Death will unleashe green skull-head-shaped blasts as sort of a warning. The rain and fierce winds will be a big distraction, too, as you'll be pushed backwards in your attempts to jump up and whip him. After you make contact a few times, Death will say a few more words before laughing and flying off, but Richter will continue onward.

Stage Track: Richter vs Death

End Boss: None

There are no minor enemies in the prologue.

You start at the town limits and battle a couple of ape skeletons. You'll make your way into the very familiar town, Aljiba, as seen in Simon's Quest (though, its design is more reminsicent of the Town of Jova); you'll be attacked by more ape skeletons and a blade soldier. Most of them break through the windows. You can break through the leftmost wall of the town's exit to get to an alternate stage, but you'll first have to face an alternate boss. If you continue on regularly, you'll reach the town's outer limits, where you'll battle two huge rock monsters while fending off bats. The boss can be seen flying through the background of the next area, waiting for your arrival.

Stage Track: Opposing Bloodlines
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Wyvern
Alternate Boss: Water Dragon

Ape Skeleton | Blade Skeleton | Ectoplasm | Stone Rose | Bat | Golem

You'll start outside in familiar fashion to how all of the other games begin. After battling ravens, skeletons and an axe knight, a trip over a drawbridge will bring you into those familiar halls. Zombies and floating eyes litter the halls. In the next part of the hall, a behemoth breaks through the wall and gives chase. Falling in a hole while he's chasing you will lead you to an alternate area. If you outrun the bull, and avoid all the zombies, he'll crash into the wall of the next room. You must then go downward into the basement to battle the fishmen. If you found a key while the bull was chasing you, you can save Maria here. You'll emerge in the final hall and exit into a battleground, where you'll face the boss.

Stage Track: Vampire Killer
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Werewolf
Alternate Boss: Bone Golem

Black Crow | Skeleton | Axe Knight | Zombie | Floating Eye | Behemoth | Bat | Fishman

If you took the alternate path in Stage 1, you'll wind up here. You'll go over a series of long bridges guarded by blade skeletons, bone pillars, ravens and spiders. If you cross all of the bridges without falling into a pit or slipping through a collapsible part of the stage, you'll be back on the regular path. If you fall off the third in the series of bridges, you'll battle an Armor Lord and move on to face a boss whose defeat keeps you on the alternate path. The Ferryman lurks somewhere underneath the second bridge. If you can drop through the right pit and find him, a long fishmen-infested trip will take you directly to the alternate Stage 3, without having to face a boss.

Stage Track: Cross a Fear
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Werewolf
Alternate Boss: Bone Golem

Black Crow | Bone Pillar | Fishman | Blade Soldier | Spider | Gargoyle | Armor Lord

The first hall of this stage is guarded by spear guards and bone pillars. The next area features a long room that has skeletons swinging from the ceiling. Continuing on, you'll climb a giant staircase that has flea men sliding down its banister. You'll then come across rotating platforms with Medusa Heads trying to knock you onto them. Falling into a pit eventually leads to the same place the regular path leads. A Paranthropus guards the exit. The next room has giant candles and is guarded by ghosts, spear guards and a giant flea man, who will steal your sub-weapon if you run into him. Chances are that you'll have an axe here; if you can sneak by the flea man, you can access a lift to an alternate stage, using the axe. The boss lies ahead.

Stage Track: Bloody Tears
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Minotaur
Alternate Boss: Dogether

Spear Guard | Bone Pillar | Skeleton | Bone Golem | Fleaman | Giant Fleaman | Medusa Head | Ghost

You can get here from either of the Stage 2s--if you battled the Bone Golem on either stage, you'll wind up here. You'll start in a mud-filled area guarded by mud men and bone-throwing skeletons. Some of the tombstones will come alive and attack you. You'll face the 3-eyed skull soon after then travel through more mud. The next rectangular area has grave keepers, skeletons and bone pillars. The top part of this section has spiked-balls on the end of chains. If you break the chains, one of the spiked-balls will fall to the screen below and open up a path to yet another alternate boss. If you don't go that way, you'll travel through more mud and more of the same enemies, winding up back on the original path. Tera is being held captive by the Grave Keepers.

Stage Track: Cemetery
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Minotaur
Alternate Boss: Dogether

Mudman | Tombstone | Bat | Three-Eyed Skull | Skeledragon | Skeleton | Grave Keeper | Bone Pillar | Zombie Hands

The first section features the cell area guarded by fleamen, bone-throwing skeletons and blood skeletons. Moving up, you'll run into the first skeledragon; then, you'll have to jump over spinning toothpick-like blades while fending off more bone-throwing skeletons. You can go one of two ways here: You can hit a switch guarded by a fleaman and go through an area with plenty of axe knights, crushing spike platforms, and spinning ball-and-chain barricades; or you can continue on and go up a group of stairwells guarded by flea men riding boulders dispatched by a cyclops, blocking your progress upward. Both lead to the same place. The final hall has more axe knights, axe lords, bone pillars and spinning ball and chains. An alternate boss can be found by hitting a bomb hidden in a wall. The regular boss awaits you here, though.

Stage Track: Beginning
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Dullahan
Alternate Boss: Carmilla and Laura

Fleaman | Floating Eye | Blood Skeleton | Skeleton | Spine | Cyclops Worker | Axe Knight | Bone Pillar | Axe Lord | Skeledragon

If you battled Dogether, you'll take this path instead. You'll travel across the marshlands, jumping on moving platforms while trying to avoid frogs and ravens. You'll come to an area that has a waterfall with rafts floating alongside. This is yet another split path to an alternate boss. If you don't take the waterfall ride, you'll cross log bridges guarded by more frogs and skeletons swinging from vines. Hit the frog statues to find Iris' holding chamber. Next is an area that has hawks dropping hunchbacks and skeletons hiding behind trees. The boss is just beyond. If you did ride the raft down, you'll take a long ride down the watery slope (the "Ravine of Death," as a sign refers to it), and you'll have to on the way down battle Bone Halberds on their own personal rafts, jumping off when you near shore. Owls will swoop in and leave you some weapons--if you hit the boxes they're carrying. More platform riding follows after the Ferryman helps you along. Jump on his raft twice: Once for nourishment, the other for a key that opens the door to escape this area. The alternate boss isn't too far off.

Stage Track: Slash
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Dullahan
Alternate Boss: Carmilla and Laura

Frog | Fleaman | Bat | Skeleton | Fishman | Spear Skeleton | Hawk

You'll start at the bay, battling phantom skulls, flail guards and blade soldiers. Then you'll enter the ship and take on some bone archers. This leads to a room guarded by a spectral sword. When you first enter the ship, though, you can enter a shortcut by pushing a steel barricade after breaking bricks on the other side of a wall. What follows is more bow-and-arrow skeletons, with another room guarded by the spinning picture. Maria can find a hidden room by crawling around near the ship's engine. You'll then head up the ship's deck; it's there you'll have cross the ship while battling flea riders, ball-and-chain knights and bone muskets. If you make it past all the foes, you'll climb the ship's mast for another encounter with Death.

Stage Track: Picture of a Ghost Ship
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: The Grim Reaper

Phantom Skull | Flail Guard | Blade Skeleton | Bone Archer | Spectral Sword | Spinning Picture | Bone Musket | Flea Rider | Mace Knight

The path through the hidden docks becomes available for traversal only after Dracula has been defeated. Think of this as a special challenge stage. The good news is that there's no boss battle; upon reaching the stage's endpoint, you skip right along to Stage 6. The bad news is that the docks represent a long and tortuous path. The lengthy trek starts on a pier where ravens and bats clog up the open air and attempt to knock you into the water as you perilously leap from one moving platform to the next. The last pier leads into the castle basement, wherein the screen is split into two paths: The upper path is guarded by spear guards, and the lower one is littered with Medusa heads. If you continue along the upper path, you'll engage in series of encounters with axe knights and armor lords. Along the lower path, there are more moving platforms. Both lead out onto a bridge that's being patrolled by floating eyes and a lone axe knight. The bridge leads you back indoors, to a series of halls, but the interior is different depending upon which of the aforementioned paths you took. In either case, you'll deal with Medusa heads, spear guards, axe knights and flipping platforms.

Stage Track: Opus 13

End Boss: None

Fishman | Black Crow | Bat | Spear Guard | Axe Knight | Axe Lord | Medusa Head | Yellow Medusa Head | Armor Lord | Floating Eye

This marble hall, where Shaft has been hanging out, is hardly a stage; this small area's only purpose is to serve as your means to power up for the bevy of boss battles that are soon to follow in the next room. Even if your arsenal is lacking at the time, you'll find a few big hearts and five other candles that contain all of the striking mystic weapons. Personally, I'd take the boomerang. Really, make sure to take something with range, because man--you're going to need it. The gang of bosses are but a door away.

Stage Track: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Poison Mind
Shaft Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: (1) Phantom Bat, (2) Medusa, (3) The Mummy, (4) Frankenstein, (5) Shaft

There are no minor enemies in the Marble Gallery.

Anyone who's played Symphony will immediately recognize these environments. First you have to cross a very long collapsing bridge being patrolled by multiple mutant bats--some of them with swords in tow. You'll then go through the clock tower area, which is made up of three sections, all containing water skulls, bone-throwing skeletons, harpies and Medusa Heads. As in Symphony, there's a gear you can whip to make a door open; it contains a key to rescue Annette in the next tower leg. The whole next area requires that you pick the correct paths while going up and down stairways, battling sword lords, wereskeletons and panther skeletons as you do so. Don't mind the wereskeleton that takes the place of your reflection in one of the mirrors. When you take the right route, you'll have to swing over pendulums. The next hall has a series of breakable walls that require certain sub-weapons to break them; the reward, if the puzzle is solved, is merely a stopwatch. You'll then exit to face the boss in exactly the same place you fight the Karasuman in Symphony.

Stage Track: The Den
Boss Lead-In: Road to the Enemy
Boss Track: Dancing in Phantasmic Hell

End Boss: Shaft's Ghost

Mutant Bat | Water Skull | Skeleton | Medusa Head | Yellow Medusa Head | Hawk | Harpy | Sword Lord | Panther Skeleton | Wereskeleton

Much like Stage 6, this is less a stage and more a small collection of screens. You know the drill: You head up the stairway, collect the items in the candles--including a handy sub-weapon--and then head to the throne room to face off against the game's ultimate evil. Though, there is more than meets the eye here: Just left of the overhang, there's an invisible stairway that you can climb; it leads to a hidden attic--the same area you can access via a secret stairway in Symphony. To exit this money-bag-filled room, walk along the surface while pushing downward until you lock onto the stairway. Then head left and finish off the Count!

Stage Track: Poison Mind
Boss Track: Illusionary Dance

End Boss: (1) Dracula, (2) Dracula's Ghost

There are no minor enemies in the Castle Keep.