13 Curated Videos
OST recordings, speedrun world records, longplays, and retrospective documentaries covering the classic Castlevania series.
Slope’s Game Room’s comprehensive two-part documentary covers the entire Castlevania franchise from Akumajô Dracula on the Famicom Disk System through to the modern era. Part one covers 1986 through Rondo of Blood; part two takes over from Symphony of the Night. An essential primer for new fans and a satisfying deep dive for veterans.
A comprehensive fan retrospective covering the Castlevania series from its 1986 NES origins through Symphony of the Night and beyond. Explores each game’s design philosophy, reception, and legacy with analysis of gameplay mechanics and soundtrack. Informative for fans approaching the series for the first time.
A detailed breakdown of how Super Castlevania IV’s speedrunning world record has evolved over the years — covering route discovery, trick development, and the competitive community that has pushed the game’s limits. A fascinating study in how dedicated communities reverse-engineer the games they love.
The complete Super Castlevania IV soundtrack composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo, recorded from the original SNES hardware using the Sony SPC700 audio chip. Includes Dracula’s Castle, Rondo, Simon Belmont’s Theme, The Cave, The Treasury, and all stage and boss themes. Widely considered among the finest scores in the SNES library.
Michiru Yamane’s masterwork: the complete Symphony of the Night soundtrack, featuring baroque harpsichord, orchestral strings, progressive rock guitar, and gothic choir. Includes Dracula’s Castle, Dance of Pales, Lost Painting, Wood Carving Partita, Marble Gallery, and the infamous vocal theme I Am the Wind by Cynthia Harrell.
Kenichi Matsubara’s Bloody Tears from Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987) rendered as a high-energy metal arrangement by RichaadEB. One of the series’ most frequently covered tracks, it has appeared in Bloodlines, Symphony of the Night, and numerous later titles as an in-series recurring theme. This cover captures the propulsive energy that made the original so memorable.
The original 1986 Castlevania completed in under 11 minutes. This world-record any% run demonstrates the damage-boost strats and movement optimisations that allow a player to blitz through Simon Belmont’s six-stage quest at a pace the developers almost certainly never anticipated. A testament to how thoroughly the speedrunning community has mastered classic NES games.
Super Castlevania IV’s 11 stages completed in just over 31 minutes — routing through the game’s boss fights with optimised whip strategies and stage movement. The run demonstrates just how precisely the game’s timing systems and hitboxes are understood by the community, decades after the game’s 1991 release.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night completed in under 16 minutes — a game that normally takes over eight hours to 200.6% complete. The any% run exploits Alucard’s movement abilities and skip strats to bypass huge sections of the castle, reaching Dracula via routes the developers did not intend. A remarkable demonstration of how thoroughly a beloved RPG can be deconstructed by determined speedrunners.
The other extreme: Symphony of the Night’s 200.6% completion world record broken down and explained, including the inverted castle, all equipment, and every boss. An essential companion piece to the any% run — showing the same game from its deepest, most complete perspective rather than its shortest possible path.
The original 1986 Castlevania played from start to finish by World of Longplays. Six stages, sub-bosses including the Mummy, Frankenstein, the Grim Reaper, and the three-phase Dracula fight. An ideal way to experience the game that started everything if you haven’t yet played it — or a nostalgic return if you have.
Super Castlevania IV played through in 4K 60fps — the ideal format to appreciate the Mode 7 effects, sprite scaling, and atmospheric lighting that made the game a showcase for SNES hardware. All 11 stages including the Mode 7 rotating room and the multi-phase Dracula boss fight. Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo’s soundtrack sounds remarkable at full quality.
World of Longplays’ playthrough of Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Sega Mega Drive — the only mainline Castlevania entry released for a Sega platform. Six stages across six European countries with John Morris. Michiru Yamane’s FM synthesis soundtrack shows exactly why she became the series’ defining musical voice in the years that followed.