This is the area in which you'll begin the game after Dracula blows a hole in the ground of the Ceremonial Room. You'll have to work downward and then upward through the caves, labyrinths, gold mines and tunnels to reach the fiery courtyard that holds Cerberus. Before leaving this area, you will have collected the double-jump boots. The enemies here are relatively weak, save for the Earth demons, but when you return late in the game, most of them will be replaced by grizzlies and arachnes.

The abyss stairway is hardly a conventional area. Each of the platforms in this section comprise one step in a spiral staircase that can be seen in the background; the only purpose this area serves is to connect three or more areas of the castle to each other. Crumbling bricks and narrow passages packed with enemies will be the challenge here. If you return here later, a siren or other new foe may get in your way in the initially dormant areas.

The audience room is the heart of the castle, and it's very large; if anything, it could be directly compared to the "Marble Gallery" in Symphony. You'll pass paintings and other impressive attractions as you travel through rooms of pillars and tiles to get to the boss room. Of course, there are many annoying enemies to respectively accommodate each section of this area. Things will become more difficult when you pass through here later, as wind demons, imps and forest armor will take the place of most of the weaker lesser enemies. On your first pass-through, you should leave here with tackle boots.

The machine tower is just your average Castlevania clock tower. It's mainly upward via the moving platforms and spiraling spokes. If you haven't figured this series out by now, you'll be shocked when you're repeatedly haunted by Medusa heads the whole way--the type that can stone you. Electrical currents from loose wiring and well-hidden enemies will also be a danger. Later on, you'll have to crash your way through big cracked blocks using your tackle boots to solve a puzzle that blocks the latter areas. If you progress in the right direction, you'll find a boss in a gear-filled room, with kick boots close by.

The eternal corridor, like the abyss stairway, is another connector area--only this one is all forward with a short looping area that leads to a warp room. Through these similar-looking corridors, you'll run into some of the more powerful enemies to this point; it'll be well worth the experience to hang around and fight them, since the Chapel's enemies are pretty advanced for what will otherwise be your low level. Later on, you may find Frankens, killer bees and archdemons in place of the usual enemies. The corridors themselves lead to the Chapel Tower and to the Underground Gallery.

The chapel tower consists of a couple of similar-looking large rooms, where your regular and double-jumping ability will be tested. The many hovering enemies here will make the jumping aspect a terror. When you begin nearing bell towers, you're close to the boss. Outside of one of the towers, the powerful legions and a fallen angel will try to block your entry into the battle arena. When you finish here, you'll find a room with a switch that lowers the pillars that were blocking certain entrances in some of the early areas.

These ancient rocky ruins were probably created by mining slaves before they became part of the castle's foundation. The stone sculptures and statues, however, will be second nature to the poisonous killer bees and other equally dangerous insects. Needless to say, you'll have to tread slowly and depend on antidotes. To compound this, as you reach the lower portions of this area, deadly poison armor will become more numerous--this signals that a boss is nearby. Once you've defeated the boss, the heavy ring will be yours.

This area is a combination of a storage room, a production facility and an abandoned library. You'll have to utilize your heavy ring and dash boots to push your way through the maze of boxes and huge stones; there are many instances where rooms use these elements to act as puzzles. The action moves mostly downloading, with frequent zig-zagging platforming. Be sure to whip the walls to find some of the more important secret rooms. When you reach an area heavy with forest armor and poltergeists, the boss is near. The cleansing artifact you find will allow you to enter into another area.

That area will be here, the drainage and tunnel system of the castle. Without the cleansing, the toxic water will kill you. The test here is to hit switches that lower and raise bridges to work your way around this maze of water pits. It's important to handle enemies like ice armor and ice demons by keeping your distance--if not, you'll be frozen, and they'll damage you heavily by striking you while you're in that that frozen state. The person responsible for Dracula's rising will be found here, and its defeat will land you the the roc wing.

This wide-open area is another connector, this time from the Audience Room into the Observation Tower. It's basically two large rooms, and the broken bridge present throughout both is your means for progression forward. In most instances, you'll have to drop down to ground-level and proceed through the bridge's damaged structures--bomb skeletons, will-o'-wisps, brain floats and electric skeletons will be stuffed high, low and in between the crevices to block you. The maze of pillars located high above the bridge holds some power-ups, and they're guarded by some were-beasts and wind armor.

Yet another connector area, the familiar castle halls will be found just beyond the Audience Room. Mainly, this is the only way to enter into the Underground Warehouse. But your short trip through this area won't be without nostalgia, as zombies and will-o-wisps will represent all enemies to ever travel through this area. You can go outside to the castle entrance, which is guarded by a lone flame knight, to collect a power-up--this is another Symphony-like element.

The Battle Arena isn't a real "area," per se, as it doesn't serve to further the game's plot. What it is is a seventeen-room arena that you can fight through to gain the ultimate of equipment: The shining armor. Each room is comprised of enemies--either a bunch of one particular enemy or pairs of complementary attributed enemies--and you'll have to defeat every one of them to escape and move on to the next room. After each mini-battle is a safety area where you can gain hearts for your sub-weapons, in place of using magic, which is here off limits; from these safety rooms, you can also escape the arena in lieu of fighting onward in a scenario where you may stand no chance.

The very top of the castle is a combination of a lookout tower and an observatory; it also has its own omnitheater-like room for productions that entertain the castle's evil. And it's also the home of the castle keep, where the game's strongest enemies and Hugh Baldwin await. This area will be the greatest test of your jumping ability, narrow-passage-battling and patience. The epitome of this struggle is the game's strongest lesser enemy, the devil, who will block your way out of here after the boss battle. After defeating that boss, Hugh Baldwin, the Last Key will be yours; you can then find and fight Dracula.

Early in the game, Camilla holds the Dracula-reviving ritual in the entryway to this small area. After you open the locked door, all that rests beyond is a short vertical hall connected to Dracula's throne room; it's here that you'll have to fight the Dark Prince's initial form in order to save Morris Baldwin. After defeating his first form, you'll have to enter into a dark realm to face his true form. You can go back and save your game before fighting the second form, however. Good luck--you're going to need it.