Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse


- Time Period: 1476
- Main Hero: Trevor Belmont
- Antagonist: Count Dracula

The third NES entry is the direct sequel to Legends. Though it's noted in the game's manual that this is "100 years before the time of Simon Belmont," this is a mistake; its true placement is 200 years before Castlevania, which leaves room for another hero.

After Sonia's spectacular display in temporarily ousting Dracula from his position of power, matters took an unfortunate turn for the worst. Instead of coming to hail the Belmont family as heroic, the people of Warakiya instead began to fear the Belmonts--they became not only suspicious of the family's many abilities but fearful of what could happen if those abilities were used for wrongful means. Forming a coalition, they approached the Belmont family in its home and strongly suggested that it leave the town and never return. The family, though disappointed and resentful of these actions, willingly complied and ushered itself into isolation.

Meanwhile: Fifteen years after suffering his first defeat, rumors of Dracula's return spread across the countryside. The rumors looked to be all the more true when all types of undead creatures and savage demons continued to scour their way through Warakiya and its surrounding towns during the nighttime hours. Things got all the more violent when the monsters began setting fires, in all locations east and west, leaving carnage all throughout the landscape of Transylvania. With their town being destroyed little by little, the Warakiyan natives fled for their lives, helpless to stop the monsters' march. When the Eastern Church is alerted to this activity, it investigates only to find that Dracula is indeed behind the relentless attacks. In response, the Church gathers a secret team and sends it out in the hope of destroying Dracula; all attempts to suppress the Count end in failure. Having no other option, the Church turned to and allied with the recently expelled Belmont clan, whose ancestors (especially Leon Belmont, who was once of the Church's knights) were brave enough to meet such a threat. They call upon Trevor Belmont, son of Sonia Belmont, who gauging from a distance the chaos knew what he had to do: It was time for him to take command of the Vampire Killer whip and the mystic sub-weapons, to charge full force into the Count's castle (now called "Castlevania") and to confront the Prince of Darkness like his mother did years earlier. While the odds against him were great, fate was on his side--he, too, would find allies, those with a certain know-how, to this cause. In following along the path to the ancient castle, he found help in the form of three allies, those whom would offer assistance in the form of unique powers and special abilities.

He first met Grant Danasty, the quick and agile pirate whose family had been killed by Dracula; Grant was transformed into a vile beast by Dracula's dark magic and was forced to guard the clock tower outside of Warakiya. It was Trevor's whip that undid the transformation and returned to Grant his sanity. It was in a graveyard where he met Sypha Belnades, a woman gifted with great magical power; having had a bad life, Sypha threw it all away in favor of becoming a vampire hunter. She was ambushed by a Cyclops and magically embedded within stone. After being granted freedom thanks to Trevor's efforts against the Cyclops, she joined Trevor and would aid him with her strong magic spells. Later, finally, Trevor met with in the catacombs a freshly re-risen Alucard; Alucard sensed that his father had not been truly defeated, and he waited patiently in a dark cavern for Trevor (whose power Alucard could easily sense) to arrive. He would test Trevor's mettle in a contest and hope to gain his trust so that the Belmont would help him reach the castle for an inevitable showdown.

With the aid of his newfound allies, Trevor traveled by land, by ship, through caves and clock towers, across a sunken city, and finally through Dracula's Castle before reaching the castle keep for yet another duel. Their resolve forming as one, Trevor and his company defeated the revenge-consumed Count Dracula. With the Dark Lord's reign brought to a forcible end, Trevor and his friends headed home, where their separate relationships began to grow. Grant and Trevor became great friends, and they set in motion Warakiya's rebuilding process. Alucard, whose inner struggle continued to suppress his need for camaraderie, spent some quality time with his new friend before submerging his powers for good. And Sypha Belnades took Trevor's hand in marriage and through procreation undoubtedly helped to continue strengthening the Belmont family chromosomes. After this victory over the Count and his evil forces, the Belmont name became legend, and the people that had earlier discriminated against and persecuted the clan now came to embrace and champion the family.

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