Castlevania 64
- Time Period: 1852
- Main Hero: Reinhardt Schneider

- Antagonist: Death, Actrise, Dracula

The first N64 title is the incomplete version of Konami's original vision, therein a pseudo-sequel to Legacy of Darkness, the game it precedes. Still, its account of Reinhardt and Carrie's adventures is unchanged, making it convenient to treat it as a unique entry.

The trio's incantation held true, and Dracula was indeed reborn into this world. Unbeknownst to them, he grew up and lived among the people, who were given nary a clue that they were imbuing in the presence of ultimate evil. His power was growing, as was evil in the world, and soon, people began to return to the path of wickedness. Heathens gathered with the belief that the Dark Lord would finally raise from his slumber and lead them to victory. Death and Actrise, too, continued to plan for his return.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Wallachia, a young man named Reinhardt Schneider was coming of age. Reinhardt was the son of Michael Gelhardt Schneider, elder of the Schneider faction related the Belmonts by blood, who came into possession of the Vampire Killer whip and the mystic weapons after Nathan Graves had played well his role to vanquish Count Dracula as the world continued to wait the Belmonts' return. Thus, Reinhardt, heir to the Belmont clan of legend, was faced with a dilemma: Since it was difficult to prove that such links still remained to the famed family, as they had not been seen for many years, Reinhardt always felt that he had to prove to himself, and to all of Wallachia, that he could live up to his ancestral legacy. Trained by his father to be a fierce warrior and a man of God, he grabbed the Vampire Killer whip and the mystic weapons and vowed to hunt down the forces of evil. He would not be alone: Carrie Fernandez, a magically gifted young woman descended from Belnades family, would do her best to deal with side-matters concurrent to his journey.

Reinhardt followed a trail through the Forest of Silence that led him to the ancient Castlevania. From there, he searched the castle and its outland high and low looking for answers. He met a few friends along the way, too: First, there was Charlie Vincent, a master vampire hunter who insisted that it was his destiny to destroy Count Dracula; the foolhardy hunter made no bones about his mission to reach the Dark Lord first. Renon, the demon salesman from Hell, proved to be an unlikely ally despite his questionable intention. And then he made the acquaintance of the enigmatic Malus, a young boy whose family was supposedly killed by Dracula years before. Reinhardt rescued the boy from the castle's monster-inhabited Villa; while for this act Malus was gracious, the boy continued to lurk about, his actions thereafter becoming more and more suspicious.

Finally, he met a beautiful woman named Rosa in the Villa's indoor rose garden. What he discovered is that all who lived in the Villa were under the influence of Dracula's curse, Rosa especially. While consumed deeply by the curse that threatened to make her an eternal slave to the Count, she had not yet been overcome--still, an inescapable conflict existed within, and, though she took a liking to him, she did her best to distance herself from Reinhardt. Though Reinhardt insisted on trying to save her from an undead fate, she warned him over and over again that there was no hope of saving her soul. Much later, in the heart of the castle, he again encountered Rosa, whose pain had boiled over so much that she tried to destroy herself by exposing her flesh to a beam of sunlight; Reinhardt stopped the event, to her dismay, and tried to ease her pain through even religion. "God forbids suicide," he lectured. His efforts proved to be for naught when in the castle center Death intervened to force a confrontation between the two; Rosa could not resist the vampiric urge anymore, and a saddened Reinhardt was forced to unleash his wrath. Though justified, he promised to extract revenge for her soul by destroying the Count and his followers.

Reinhardt arrived at the top of the clock tower. Before he could even gather his bearings, the unseen Death attempted a surprise attack. The scythe sped toward the now-sensing Reinhardt, who could muster no defense. Suddenly, Rosa appeared and threw herself in front of Reinhardt, shielding him from the attack by instead taking the fatal blow. As she lay in his arms, Reinhardt wondered why she would come to his protection after the preceding events. "Because you are pure and have the power to defeat Dracula," she admitted. When Rosa confessed a fear that her soul could know no forgiveness, Reinhardt placed in her hand a cross and assured her that God forgives all. As she fade away, the enraged Reinhardt stood up to deal with her tormentor. "I will never forgive you!" he shouted at the all-too-pleased Death. An encounter was theirs.

After tangling with and vanquishing Death, Reinhardt arrived at the castle keep. While Reinhardt investigated his empty casket, Dracula appeared from behind and began to attack in his usual method. The vampire menace fell briefly to Reinhardt's onslaught; it was "too easy," Reinhardt thought. However, there was no time to reflect: The castle started to crumble and shake, and Reinhardt struggled to escape. He climbed to the top of one of the castle's steady towers, where he was met, conspicuously, by a unicorn-riding Malus. Much to Reinhardt's disbelief, the seemingly innocent boy turned around and claimed to be Vlad Tepes Dracula incarnate, bragging that the "Dracula" Reinhardt defeated was merely his servant. This looked to be reality when Malus revealed his true self by transforming into a rather youthful-looking Count Dracula.

The two battled atop the tower, the struggle between good and evil in their hands. Reinhardt unleashed his fury and brought Dracula to knees, from where he evaporated into nothing; just then, Malus appeared from out of the mist, "free from possession," Reinhardt thought. "Is it over?" Malus asked. "Is Dracula dead?" As Reinhardt went over to console the child, a vial of holy water exploded in front of him, knocking him back and engulfing Malus' flesh. "Don't be fooled," an arriving Charlie Vincent boasted. "That boy is Dracula." His plan thwarted again, the Count used his remaining power to magically usher both he and Reinhardt into a desert realm and to transform himself into the behemoth-like Drago! Though the battle that followed was increasingly violent, even in this, his most powerful form, Dracula still was not able to negate the cruel hand that fate had dealt him; he was defeated yet again, and his plot to fool all of Wallachia had failed.

Reinhardt escaped from the desert realm and watched from seaside as the castle collapsed into the ocean. Exhausted, he looked toward the heavens; a lone rose fell from the sky, its meaning eluding him. To his surprise, this divine contact signaled the sudden re-materializing of Rosa, whose soul had been saved by the defeat of Count Dracula and her will to be forgiven; finally, she was free of his curse. Sharing a hug, the pair pondered the events past. They knew that the battle was eternal, that Dracula would continue to return to this world. "That is the fate of humanity," Rosa considered. Reinhardt, as he always had, proclaimed his faith in people. "As long as we have hope, evil can never defeat us!"

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