Next Generation

The Castlevania series, in this day and age, is like any other that saw its roots in the early days of gaming--it's moving on up from its 2D roots and is always trying to find its place in the realm of 3D. It will continue to move in this direction in future titles as the hardware becomes more powerful, leaving portable gaming as the last vestige for 2D offerings. As mentioned on the page before: It doesn't seem appropriate to stick these three-dimensional foes on the list with the regular bosses. So this page will be reserved for them, the bosses from the next-generation games found on systems like the N64, PS2, GameCube, etc.

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Actrise
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Actrise only makes a boss appearance in Carrie's mission in Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness. She antagonizes Carrie all of the way until their eventual battle. Actrise positions herself in the center of the battlefield and surrounds herself with multiple crystals. You'll have to crack your way through the barrier while running, since the attack will be on. But as you destroy each crystal, others will be spawned; quick work will be needed to clear enough space to strike Actrise. While you're running in circles, looking for an opening, sharp crystal shards will be breaking through the ground--always near your position--so you won't be able to stand still. Actrise is also capable of using a 3-directional homing ball attack while you fend off the protruding crystals. Finally, Actrise can fire a blue projectile from her staff that will temporarily freeze you on contact, making you susceptible to shard and homing-ball attacks. When you finally make contact, she'll teleport in and out, starting the cycle again.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: None

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Carrie's Cousin
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Carrie is a descendent of Sypha Belnades, as are her magic-using relatives. In order to play mind games with Carrie, Actrise and Death use her own cousin against her. Days earlier, Carrie's cousin tried to venture into Castlevania to find and slay Dracula, but Actrise and company were able to capture her and turn her into a vampire before she could complete the task. As a boss, Carrie's cousin is another vampire-like enemy, capable of regular projectile and homing ball spells--both in threes; the regular projectiles are capable of trapping you within a crystal, wherein you'll be susceptible to her other attacks. As an in-close tactic, she'll spin her Warakiya staff through the air and emit steam all around the immediate area. She'll constantly hovering, which makes it easy for her to quickly catch up to you if you run--it's tough to break away, so you'll have to fight this one at close range.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Rosa

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Charlie Vincent
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Charles Vincent may be a friend early on, when you meet him in the Villa Mansion, and the one who unmasks Malus later, but if you waste too much time in Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness en route to Dracula, it will affect conditions so that this arrogant vampire hunter reaches Dracula before you do. Of course, to his own surprise, he'll stand no chance against what awaits in the castle keep and thus become a vampire who you'll have to face. His thirst for blood will surely mimic that of other vampires: He'll slowly stalk you around the room and try to suck your blood. His favorite (and only) attack, when you're far away, is to throw dark holy water vials all over the room, their lingering effect covering a fair amount of ground--contact with the residue of the holy water will result in a poison status. If you can keep your distance, you'll have a fighting chance.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: All vampires

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Crazy Armor
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The Crazy Armor is the result of the melding together of various parts of cast-off armor for evil intent. Hector's two-part battle against this monstrosity will begin when the form seen left stomps onto the scene. It will slowly stalk Hector about the chamber and assault the forgemaster by swinging, stabbing and clubbing with its two arms, which are capped with an axe and a blade respectively, and by extending its neck long lengths and thus using its head as a battering ram.

When its threshold for damage has been reached, it will explode into several pieces; however, it will magically pull itself back together and the battle will begin anew via its second form. This time, the Crazy Armor will greatly extend its arms and head while continuing its death march. From its head, it will begin to release fireballs, which can reach long distances to strike a distanced hero; if Hector remains close, though, the armor will instead use its arms to back and forth spray continuous flames, which effectively discourages close-range combat.


Games In: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Dullahan

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Demon Bull
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This seemingly dead creature comes back to life for one last fight. It circles the heroes in an attempt to charge in with its horns; if it misses, it'll either begin circling again or spew a ray that explodes over a large area--it can do this while standing on two legs, too, for longer range. If it makes contact in its initial horn-ramming, you'll be knocked for a loop--susceptible to another horn ram or a laser. You have very little time between when it stops charging and starts charging again, so every chance you get is critical; the area is so large that you'll spend 80% of the battle chasing it and dodging. Its monstrous size makes it a huge target, but its speed when running makes it hard to catch up to for a clean attack. You can strike it anywhere, though, but making contact with its damaged middle portion will hurt it the most. As you beat it down, it'll shed parts of its skin, dragging its skeletal remains along the ground when in its worst shape. At this point, it loses its mobility--but it gains the ability poison you through contact.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: None

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Dracula's Servant
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What appears to be Dracula at first is revealed to be nothing more than his servant. You wouldn't know the difference, though, as they fight similarly. Of course, his main offense revolves around teleporting in and out. Between teleports, he can do the following: (1) He can release his classic three-way fireballs, in actuality a flaming-bat attack with homing power. (2) He'll cause explosions that spread outward--all around and consecutively high and low--as blue sonic rings. (3) He'll expel from his hand pressurized steam. And (4) he'll use a spell to vacuum in the heroes so that he can grab them, suck their blood, and infect them with a vampire curse that must be cured if the heroes' weapons are to be used again. The Legacy version has one extra sequence: It will emit in all directions electrical charges. As is the norm, you can damage this ultimate evil only by striking its head.


Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Dracula & Walter Bernhard

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Female Vampire
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When Reinhardt or Carrie enter into the den that rests below the Villa's hedge maze, this corpse will drop from the ceiling as a grim sign that her vampiric predator is about to appear. After its defeat, the woman will surprisingly spring to life to continue the assault. Like a young version of Maria Renard, the woman will constantly be stalking you with a speedy crawling technique; when she gets near, she'll quickly stand upright and attack with the usual dual claw swipes or blood-sucking grabs. After you strike her, she'll acrobatically leap away and begin conjuring small bats to distract you while the stalking continues. When she's close to being destroyed, she'll begin channeling energy to turn herself into mist and thus become temporarily invulnerable; while in mist form, she'll continue conjuring bats while slowly, undedectedly, creeping up on you to reappear without warning. The tail-end of the battle will see this pattern repeat until the woman is defeated.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: All vampires

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Flame Elemental
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This flaming demon spawn is one of three such elemental demons. Flame Elemental is a sword-wielding devil with the offensive and defensive skills to back up its fire-based attacks. In a close-combat situation, Flame Elemental will slash its sword one-three times, randomly, and it can string together consecutive hits if the attacks are not blocked or dodged; it can also block most of your attacks and override most of them if you don't first allow it to exhaust its current flurry of sword slashes. Otherwise, Flame Elemental, while not the most packed of its kind in the special moves department, can call upon its flame essence for two attacks: It can slice its sword toward the ground and cause a wave of flame to rise up in your direction, or it can fiercly stab its sword into the ground and cause a ring of flame to expand outward, which will damage you heavily and knock you far back. In "Crazy Mode," it has an extra attack: It gains a five-step sword slash, similar to Leon's five-step weak-whip combination.

Games In: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Similar Enemies: Frost Elemental & Thunder Elemental

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Forgotten One
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The Forgotten One, a tortured demon who has been locked away for eternity, is best described as a three-dimensional version of Symphony's Beezelbub. This long battle takes place in three stages: (1) Its lower half. If you want to get this demon's attention, you'll have to destroy its lower organs and torso. At first, you can strike them by standing close, but when organs explode, you'll have to start aiming higher. A lot is going on at this time: Diving maggots of two sizes are jumping off of it and clogging up the platforms. If one connects with a dive, you will be cursed and unable to double jump; and its blood will spilling out into puddles, which will poison and kill both you and the maggots if either moves over them. When its lower torso has been destroyed, the platform moves up for the second round. (2) Its upper torso. Your concern now is its arm, which it drags along the platform left or right, crushing you against the walls; it pounds the ground where you're standing; and it opens a wound on its hand and drops its poisonous blood over large areas. Striking its arm will do more damage than striking its chest. (3) Its head. The Forgotten one will scream so loud that giant rocky debris will fall from the ceiling, and the bigger rocks are your only means for protection against its more dangerous attack: Its can spit out a crippling energy beam left to right and vice-versa, sometimes in succession. Each rock can take three hits before giving way, but there will always be at least one to hide behind. There are some differences in "Crazy Mode": There are more maggots crowding the area in round one, and they stone you instead of inducing a curse; and in round two, it uses the arm-dragging attack three consecutive times with unexpected time differences between each; it round three, it begins by spitting out the energy beam without warning.

Games In: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Similar Enemies: None

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Frost Elemental
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The Frost Elemental is a solid number two in the order behind the Flame Elemental. It's an altogether similar foe. Frost Elemental fights with a lance, which it can use to strike one-three times, randomly, and it can string together consecutive hits if the attacks are not blocked or dodged; it can also block most of your attacks and override most of them if you don't first allow it to exhaust its current flurry of lance slashes. As the second in line of power, Frost Elemental has a nice-sized collection of special attacks: It can jut its sword in your direction and accurrately fire a freezing laser. It can surround itself with blocks of ice and cause them to dart in your direction, one after another. It can hold the lance across its chest and spin around like a top, another attack that can string together multiple hits. And it can crash the lance into the ground and cause a ring of frost to expand outward, which will damage you heavily and knock you far back. In "Crazy Mode," it has an extra attack: It gains a five-step sword slash, similar to Leon's five-step weak-whip combination.

Games In: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Similar Enemies: Flame Elemental & Thunder Elemental

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Giant Ape Skeleton
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This is more than just a larger version of a regular ape skeleton. This particular skeleton is equipped with a giant club, which it can use to swipe forward with or bat you over the head. The only way to hurt it is to strike its head, but you'll have to jump to do it (unless you're Carrie), which is made difficult since it likes to run a lot. To get the odds in its favor, it'll strike the ground with its club, awakening the dead, as regular skeletons will pop up in threes and give chase. After an initial battle, it'll flee; you'll have to give chase and finish off it and its motorcycle-riding friends. The Legacy of Darkness version can cause electrical mini-quakes by jumping high into the air and crashing into the ground--this after generating lightning to surround itself in a shield; unlike the Castlevania 64 version, you have to attack its limbs and its head, depending on how much energy it has left.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: None

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Gilles De Rais
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Gilles De Rais is one of the trio that attempted to raise Dracula from the grave in Legacy of Darkness. He ran into Cornell in the crypt located in the Villa hedge maze and tested his mettle in order to see how the young man-beast measured up to his dark lord, Dracula. As a boss, Gilles De Rais is just another typical vampire, running, swiping and trying to vampirize you. When standing still, he can release a continuous stream of steam in the hero's direction for a long period--this until he's exhausted. When defeated, Gilles will have some parting words for the man-beast, mostly boasting about the impending return of Count Dracula. In effect, Gilles De Rais realized the potential power of Cornell; this led to he and Actrise using this information to surmise that his wolf form, after being encapsulated within a crystal as a sacrifce to replace Ada, could be used to make Dracula's real rising be that much more ideal.

Games In: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: All vampires

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Golem
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The Golem is your fairly typical giant rock creature, and it'll require two rounds of fighting to turn this thing into a pile of rubble. The first round is all about power; the Golem will mostly use its long limbs to fend you off: It will throw a single low roundhouse punch or two in succession, which will knock you far back in any form, and it'll raise its arms into the air and crash them into the ground with a double axehandle blow, a condensed but significantly more powerful attack. If you continue to stay close, the Golem will jump into the air and pound the ground with all of its weight to cause an expanding mini-quake, another move that'll knock you far back.

Once defeated in this form, its power source under its right arm will be revealed, and round two will begin. At this point, it'll continue to protect itself with roundhouse punches, and it'll unveil a new attack: It can dislodge its chain-attached arm and quickly crash it into the ground at long range; only a precisely timed dodge will prevent it from connecting for a crippling amount of damage. Hit or miss, though, the arm will become stuck, and as the Golem tries to wrest it free, it will leave its power source wide open for an assault. In "Crazy Mode," debris falls from the ceiling whenever it takes a step.


Games In: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Similar Enemies: None

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Guardian Skeledragons
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These strange creatures guard the castle wall in Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness. Two skeledragons are attached to a control panel that houses a switch to raise one of the gates at the stage's start. They must be attacked from all angles if you hope to fend off their attacks, and both of the skeledragons must be destroyed. At first, both will spit out mobility-killing balls of steam; when damaged, each skeledragon will explode, and they'll gain the ability to breathe heavy pressurized flames that are capable of seeping through structures. While running around and circling them repeatedly is the best strategy, it's a good idea to stay as close as possible, wherein you can break away from their sight--this way, while following you, the skeledragons will unwittingly wrap themselves around an object and become stuck.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: None

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Harpy
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This half woman, half bird remains mostly airborne, flying all around, back and forth, above the castle's outer wall and through the unforgiving sky--so much so that it'll throw off any typical attack you can muster. From the air, it will either try to blast you by darting its sharp-pointed feathers in threes, or it'll try to swoop down and catch you in its claws, which will damage you greatly before the release. As a final attempt to finish you off quickly, it'll land and flap its wings wildly, which'll cause fierce winds that can push you off the edge of the small battle area if you don't resist. But the battle remains mostly in the air--you'll spend most of your time chasing the Harpy around, trying to get your lock-on feature to find its mark, so that you can strike at a distance. If you're strong enough, and you get lucky when trying to lock on to it, the battle shouldn't be all that difficult or last all that long.

Games In: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Ortega

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Isaac
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Isaac is the devil forgemaster responsible for goading the unwitting Hector into contributing to a grand scheme. Their first confrontation, a test battle, takes place in the town of Cordova, where Isaac (Lv.34) and his Innocent Devil (called "The End) strike. Isaac will skillfully spin and twirl his Chauvre-souris to execute multiple combo attacks; complementary moves include a flaming uppercut and the generating of a tornado field. Otherwise, Isaac will direct the Devil by shouting commands: "Kill!" instructs the Devil to break through the ground, dredge beneath its surface to give chase, and pop up in a deadly blaze of debris; "Go!" is the command for a drill attack. Hector must find a way to concentrate his attack on Isaac while considering the Devil's presence.

The two will meet for a final confrontation in the keep of Dracula's castle. It's during this three-stage battle where Isaac (Lv.50) will showcase his new weapon--a beam sword (perhaps forged using the magical property of the fallen Trevor's whip)--a new set of combo attacks, and more in the way of Innocent Devils. After sustaining some damage in one-on-one combat, he'll summon a Crimson bird-type, which will annoy with its erratic flight pattern and flame-breath attacks. When the Crimson is felled, he'll summon an Iytei, which will flail its stubby limbs and attempt to flatten Hector with hip presses. As a last resort, Isaac will summon a deadly Rasetz, which with its samurai-style offense will carve up our hero. When out of Devil options, Isaac's attacks will become more rapid, and he'll repeatedly execute a choke-style attack that drains Hector's energy at an alarming rate.


Games In: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Trevor (boss)

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Joachim Armster
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Joachim Armster is a vampire menace, and, at first, it may seem like the arrogant foe is invincible. He surely has no intention of giving you time to figure out the puzzle. Joachim has the unique power to symbiotically surround himself with five swords and use them as both a circling shield and as means for his attacks: He can command multiple jagged, glassy shards to rise up, breaking through the ground to stab you. He can make five portals appear around you in random yet proximate locations, and it's from here that his five swords will come blasting out at a cross-section. He'll cause flames to rise up from the ground in the direction you're running. And he'll raise the swords overhead, each pointing in a different direction, and use a spinning, slashing maneuver that can be used to rebound around the room. To damage him, you'll first have to weaken the source of his power--the three electrical spheres resting in the room's three visible corners. Once they're destroyed, Joachim can be hurt, and he'll scurry about in desperation until he finds time to regenerate the spheres, which you'll then have to destroy again.

Games In: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Similar Enemies: None

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Nuculais
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Once the Legion's shell has been cleared away, its core will fall to the ground and break open to reveal a new threat--a globulous giant of light in humanoid form, imperfect due to its premature expulsion. The slow-moving, lurching Nuculais has several tricks, depending upon battle conditions. If Hector stays close, it will throw powerful hook punches, either one at a time or in a chain of three, or it will shapeshift into a pool of deadly lava, surprising Hector, and transport to another location. The rest of its attacks are random: (1) It will quickly stretch out its arm to grab him and drain away his energy with a devastating squeeze attack. (2) It will hover in place and from its chest-opening fire a long-lasting beam, which it will continue to direct in Hector's direction no matter the distance. (3) It will lift into the air a group of revenants and toss them toward Hector at an increasingly rapid pace. And (4) it will cross its arms, which will shapeshift into blades, and charge in Hector's direction with a heavily impactful dash. When it's been beaten down, it will fall to its knees and dig up from the ground a revenant, which it will munch down and use as a power source to grow four-times its own size. It sheer size will leave little room to maneuver about, and any contact with the lumbering giant will cause considerable damage; it will at any time leap into the air and upon hitting the ground cause an earthquake that sends out deadly shockwaves. It will eventually return to normal size and resume its noted attack pattern.


Games In: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Similar Enemies: None

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Ortega
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After years of secretly hating Cornell, Ortega had a really good plan to defeat his former friend. Ortega chooses to partake in battle by transforming himself into a Chimera, a three-headed beast, by using "Dracula's" added ascetic power of which man-beasts ordinarily are not capable. Initially, the beast will chase you around and swipe at you, as the lion portion sends its claws slashing everywhere. At this time, the goat head can spew a deadly venom all around. After a while, it'll take to the air, out of the reach of attacks. While in the air, its snake head will emit waves of sound that translate into large, hard-to-dodge sonic rings. When the goat and snake heads are decapitated, the remaining lion will continuously dive at you and swipe with its claws. Defeating this creature will put an end to Ortega's pain, and he'll gain a newfound respect for his former friend.

Games In: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Harpy

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Renon
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The demon salesman from Hell will certainly help you out during your journey, but spending too much money on his items will ultimately make Reinhardt the one who pays a price, as Renon will turn into a boss that you must face at the end. Reinhardt finds that the fine print was written in demon script, noting that he could not spend over thirty thousand gold without forfeiting his soul to Satan. As a boss who looks to carry out that sentence, Renon changes form and fights most similarly to the Grim Reaper. Right from the start, Renon will bombard you with an endless barrage of steam blasts; you'll have to maneuver frantically to dodge this onslaught and lock on to the hovering foe. When damaged enough, he'll twirl his trident wildly to signal his next attack--conjuring the same barracuda-like beasts, from Dracula symbols, that Death once used. While these beasts teleport in from all directions, the steam assault will continue.

Games In: Castlevania 64 & Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness

Similar Enemies: Death

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