Manual Story Description

CORNELL A.K.A BLUE CRESCENT MOON
Through the magic of the Ancients, this man-beast warrior has obtained a physical body of near immortality, and power that surpasses that of a wild beast.

The man-beasts, choosing to live in harmony with the humans, sealed away their enormous magical powers to prevent them from being used. However, through severe ascetic training, Cornell acquired the art of releasing the sealed man-wolf power.

Returning to his village after a year of ascetic training, Cornell finds the village engulfed in flame, and his only living blood relative, his sister Ada, kidnapped by evil spirits. Using his man-wolf's acute sense of smell to track the scent of his sister's blood, Cornell begins his long journey to rescue Ada.

REINHARDT SCHNEIDER & CARRIE FERNANDEZ
We go back in time eight years, before the time in which these two young warriors risked their lives battling against Dracula. Now, the truth that has been shrouded in the veil of darkness will be revealed.

Objective/Overview

When Castlevania 64 finally arrived for play on the Nintendo 64, many of its promised features were inexplicably missing. Due to those always-troubling deadlines, KCEK was forced to cut down on the number of playable characters, the number of stages, and a number of smaller details that worked to make Castlevania 64 feel like an unfinished product. Konami was prepared to remedy its miscalculation by commissioning a special edition, an upgraded version that more fit the developers' original vision. Its final form is Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, and while upgraded in different ways, its gameplay mechanics are identical to Castlevania 64's.

The setup is a bit different in that you can only play Cornell's mission initially and have to unlock the three other playable heroes by meeting certain conditions. Using his man-beast powers, Cornell must endure thirteen stages, which come in two types: Those that offer straightforward room-to-room action, and others that feature free-roaming areas whose puzzles must be solved through exploration. Therein, he must deal with with the instigator Ortega, sporadic and erratic boss appearances, and finally the game's major villain. The day-to-night system has no real effect, as Cornell has available only one ending.

Henry's mission is different in that he has to save six children in a seven-day period, and he has free-roaming access to the six stages where they're being held. The more children he saves, the better the ending he receives. Reinhardt and Carrie's missions, objectives and story arcs, otherwise, remain as you remember them from Castlevania 64. Readily available is an "easy" mode, and a "hard" mode can be unlocked by meeting certain conditions during Cornell's mission.

Japanese/European Differences

The Japanese version has no changes in mechanics, but it does have different variations on some of the character names, like "Belnades" rather than "Fernandez." While the change to Fernandez is a product of western localization, it seems to be one part mistranslation. That is, it was translated through the Japanese dialect of katakana, which is used to write words in a more simple fashion. For instance: Fer-nan-dez can easily be construed as Bel-na-des. In effect, the enemy known in the U.S. version as "Carrie's Cousin," described as a recent castle invader, is actually meant to be Sypha herself, resurrected by Actrise in a further attempt at mind games.

Otherwise: It's in the Japanese version where the mostly underdeveloped character Gilles De Rais is in fact more defined; that is, it's he who is actually posing as "Dracula's servant" in the case of Reinhardt and Carrie's respective quests. It's in this version, also, where you can play as Henry Oldrey from game's start without having to earn the honor through playing Cornell's mission. (Thanks to Belmont Yang and Vcthug4life for some of this information.)

The European version's logo is a bit different in design, more elegant in look--but this is for no particular reason. Otherwise, there are no mechanical changes.

Soundtrack and Credits

Soundtrack
Opening and Ending Themes: 1 - Introduction | 2 - Setting | 3 - Necronomicon | 4 - Prologue | 5 - Carrie's Good Ending | 6 - Bad Ending | 7 - Schneider's Good Ending | 8 - Credits
Stage Themes: 1 - The Watchtower | 2 - Annex - Silent Madness | 3 - Maze Garden | 4 - Unseen Entry | 5 - Sinking Old Sanctuary | 6 - Thorny Grave | 7 - Invisible Sorrow | 8 - Sinking Feeling | 9 - Dungeon | 10 - Encounters | 11 - Specimen | 12 - Deadly Ambition | 13 - Mystic Tower | 14 - Toothed Wheel | 15 - Stairway to the Clouds | 16 - Castle Escape
Battle Themes: 1 - Shudder | 2 - First Struggle | 3 - Second Struggle | 4 - Dance of Illusions | 5 - Concert of Another Dimension
Miscellaneous Themes: 1 - Intrusion | 2 - Hamlet People | 3 - Rose | 4 - Mysterious Coffin | 5 - Lamented Rose | 6 - Malus Reappears | 7 - Sypha | 8 - Actrise | 9 - Planetarium | 10 - Unexpected Encounter | 11 - Moment of Silence | 12 - Melodies of Castlevania | 13 - A Night of Peace and Quiet | 14 - Vampire Killer (Slow Version) | 15 - Theme of Simon (Slow Version)

Links
Music Files: MP3 and MIDI
Soundtrack Release: Castlevania Best Music Collections Box
Game Credits: Available

Other Characters

Lesser Enemies: Fishman, Skeleton, Exploding Skeleton, Motorcycle Skeleton, Lizard Man, Wolfman, Snake, Ghost, Hound, Zombie, Crawling Zombie, Goblin, Skull Head, Blood Skeleton, Medusa Head, Frankenstein Gardener, Spider Woman, Bloodborn, Machine Gun Guard, Knight, Hell Knight, Cerebros, Flame Cerebros, Hell Cerebros, Mudman, Pillar of Bones, Bone Head, Minor Vampires, Vampire Bat, Stain-Glass Knight, Crystal Shard and Ice Monster
Bosses: Water Dragon, Giant Ape Skeleton, Guardian Skeledragon, Gilles De Rais, Vampires, Harpy, Security Crystal, Were-Leopard, Werewolf, Were-Bull, Were-Tiger, Warewolf, Chimera, Death, Actrise, Spider Woman Queen, Medusa, Demon Bull, Carrie's Cousin, Renon, Vampire Charlie Vincent and Dracula's Servant
Hard Mode Bosses: Frankenstein Gardener
Dracula Forms: For Cornell: Dracula's Servant and Ultimate Dracula; For Reinhardt and Carrie: Dracula and Drago
Supporting Cast: The Ferryman, Ada, Ortega, Gilles De Rais, Master Oldrey, Mary Oldrey, Henry Oldrey, Charlie Vincent, Renon, Malus, Rosa, Actrise and Mutated Lizard Man

Character Lists

Lesser Enemies | Bosses | Dracula Forms | Supporting Cast

Limitations: Henry is the strongest of the bunch, and his defense is increased due to his church knight armor. Of course, he pays for this in the speed and agility categories. But since these attribute differences are negligible at best, it's not really that big a deal. However, both he and the main weapon he commands are a bit uncontrollable, however quick. The lock-on feature will help, but this is of no use against enemies who are either far away or always on the move; enemies too close will be difficult to target, too, so the short sword will have to be utilized in this instance; this lack of potent in-close fighting will make it tough to deal with enemies like goblins, Medusa heads, ghosts and others that wave and flutter. Since Henry is only afforded his own shorter mission, this may all be moot.

Limitations: Reinhardt is average when compared to the other three characters. He's above average in the categories of strength in defense, but his range due to limited whip length will hinder his campaign. The whip can be truly powered up this time, twice, to take a morning star form and then a magically enhanced flame whip. The short sword isn't all that useful, either, because enemies aren't going to just stand there while you hack away; it works well against bats and snakes, yes, but their appearances are limited. Since sub-weapon use is parallel for all characters, he gets no points here. The sliding attack, while quick in execution, is hardly worth the trouble because of its lack of accuracy. If you're going to choose Reinhardt, it should be strictly for traditional purposes.

Limitations: Carrie is the weakest of the four, in attack power and endurance, and she takes the most damage for enemy contact, but her weaponry is clearly superior to all of the others'. At her command is the homing ball, which can be powered up two levels, and using it she can battle enemies while stationary or while on the move without much worthy because the attack will find its mark; additionally, she can charge up the attack before release for a larger, more impactful blast. Her in-close attack, the ring smash, is a good move to use in fending off enemy clusters and coming out unscathed. Using the steel-bladed rings, also, Carrie can execute a diving slide that speedily slices through all enemies in its path. Her sub-weapon use is parallel to that of Reinhardt's, so there's no advantage here. Though you can see the effort to tone down her effectiveness, hers still amounts to the more enjoyable play-experience.