This is where you begin right after you defeat Richter and Shaft reveals himself to be behind the whole plot. This will be a good place to save the game before moving on, since the difficulty jumps up very high from here. Fortunately, it's not too heavily populated with enemies--only tombstones and skull lords will get in your way. One of the stranger enemies, Yorick, can be found here, too. As you'll learn, like all of the other areas of this castle, you'll have to utilize a lot of magic as a bat, as many platforms are now out of reach.

Stage Track: Heavenly Doorway

Area Boss: None

Skull Lord | Tombstone | Yorick

The three main towers that comprise the Clock Tower are now guarded by primarily by yellow medusa heads and cloak knights. And do they ever make traveling upward a terror--you must avoid contact with the Medusa heads because a stone condition in this area will lead to a quick death. The pendulums in the next room are gone, replaced with crushing piston-like spike contraptions; bomb knights will be taking up a lot of space, too. valhalla knights guard the rest of the wide-open areas.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata
Boss Track: Festival of Servants

Area Boss: Darkwing Bat

Bomb Knight | Cloaked Knight | Medusa Head | Yellow Medusa Head | Valhall Knight

Patience and a lot bat power will be needed to travel all the way to the top of this area. Stone skulls, Jack o' bones, nova skeletons and others will try to slow you down. This should be the perfect place to stop and gain levels, as the Nova Skeletons are high on experience points. If you remain on a low level, you'll be easy prey for the Guardians and other strong enemies that rest within the reverse Marble Gallery.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata
Boss Track: Festival of Servants

Area Boss: The Creature

Jack o' Bones | Nova Skeleton | Paranthropus | Stone Skull

Before exiting into the Marble Gallery, you may or may not want to stop here--it's not even necessary to come to the library the second time around, as no bosses or the Master Librarian can be found; unless you like collecting everything, it's best to come back later when you feel ready to deal with the extra-annoying enemies that rule this area. In any event: The library and its storage room have many aisles packed with enemies. This selection of foes, you'll find, would other make up the cast of The Wizard of Oz.

Stage Track: Lost Painting

Area Boss: None

Lion | Scarecrow | Schmoo | Tin Man

This is the most heavily guarded area of the castle, since Shaft is contained here. You'll pass through here much earlier than you'd expect, but you won't be able to reach Shaft until you collect the relics that represent the five pieces of Dracula--as seen in Simon's Quest--and bring them to the clock room. You'll have to utilize a lot of power as a bat to fly around the huge, otherwise unreachable inclines, too. Another danger: The crushing dual-spikebed traps that are hidden all over the place--try to stay airborne as much as possible as to not get smashed between a set.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata
Marble Gallery Pit: The Door to the Abyss
Shaft Battle: Death Ballad
Dracula Battle: Black Banquet

Area Boss: (1) Shaft, (2) Dracula

Blade | Corpseweed | Guardian | Gorgon | Gurkha | Medusa Head | Nova Skeleton | Stone Skull | Jack o' Bones | Thornweed

There's no way around it--you're going to have to drain a lot of magic flying up to the near unreachable corridors, whether inside the branching caves or outside near the castle's center. The only extreme danger here is the spiked-lined floors that were once spike-lined ceilings within the area's small dungeon; if the ghost dancers knock you into a spike pit, your energy will drain greatly. However, this can all be avoided if you equip some Spike Break armor.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata
Boss Track: Festival of Servants

Area Boss: Akmodan II

Azaghal | Ctulhu | Flying Zombie | Ghost Dancer | Karasuman | Malachi | Medusa Head | Yellow Medusa Head

The long halls and vertical chambers of the chapel are now stuffed with black panthers, balloon pods, imps, and other mostly-airboren foes. Amazingly, as you can see in the picture to the right, the trees outside are also upside-down; it seems that Shaft has somehow turned the whole world upside-down. All I could recommend is to not go too fast through this area, lest the aforementioned enemies, which include the leopards--a breed that can turn to slime and slide under your attacks repeatedly--will pile up on you.

Stage Track: Lost Painting
Boss Track: Enchanted Banquet

Area Boss: Medusa

Archer | Balloon Pod | Black Panther | Imp | Sniper of Goth | Spectral Sword

The only notable quirk of this area is the water that now floats in the air. Only in wolf form can Alucard swim his way through it to fill in all of the spaces--"rooms" as the instruction manual calls them. Some of the more annoying enemies, like blue venus weed and rock knights, attack in closed-in, narrow caverns where you have no choice but to fight them. It's in this early portion of the caves, where the closed-in areas are many, where you'll perish quickly if you don't fight intelligently.

Stage Track: Lost Painting
Boss Track: Festival of Servants

Area Boss: Doppelganger40

Balloon Pod | Blue Venus Weed | Cave Troll | Dark Octopus | Killer Fish | Imp | Jack o' Bones | Nova Skeleton | Rock Knight

Reversed, the now upside-down halls are overcrowded with the likes of dragon riders, dodo birds, Jack o' bones and other sizely foes. No bosses lurk here, so you could just as soon pass this area by. Unless you like collecting all of the items, I suggest avoiding this area--especially the main halls, in light of their crowdedness--until later. All of the sections in the reverse castle, as you may have guessed by now, lead to the same places as in the original castle--only reversed order, of course--so refer to the first page for those exits.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata

Area Boss: None

Blue Venus Weed | Dodo Bir | Dragon Rider | Fire Warg | Jack o' Bones | Nova Skeleton | Orobourous | Warg Rider

Climbing up the vertical caves early on will be made tougher by the thornweed that are conveniently placed on top of the narrow, isolated platforms. Their job is obviously to annoy you enough to get you to keep falling all the way back down to the bottom. Once you climb up and enter the lion's head area, you'll be accosted by swarms of Slogras and Gaibons, but they won't be as tough, obviously, as when you met their single forms in the real castle. The most important battle thusfar will be fought deep into the mine, so make sure that you're ready before coming here.

Stage Track: Abandoned Pit
Boss Track: Death Ballad

Area Boss: (1) Death, (2) Death 2

Bat | Corpseweed | Gaibon | Slogra | Thornweed

Like some of the other reverse areas, the Alchemy Lab is now inhabited by former bosses turned lesser enemies--and there are a lot of them throughout the castle. You'll need to call upon your bat powers frequently, since you won't be able to jump high enough to get up to some platforms. Even though it's out of the way now that things are reversed, try to utilize the save room that rests before what was once Slogra and Gaibon's chamber, since one of the more powerful bosses now resides within it.

Stage Track: Finale Toccata
Boss Track: Death Ballad

Area Boss: Beezelbub

Bitterfly | Ctulhu | Fire Demon | Gremlin | Imp | Lesser Demon | Salem Witch

The Reverse Colosseum is one of the first areas where you'll run into former bosses (or "boss-like," in this case) that act as minor enemies--namely the derivative Werewolves and Minotaurs, which are very similar to the two guardians who protected Richter in this same area in the normal castle. The area's quirk remains the same: Its collection of the narrow chambers is stuffed with different combinations of obtrusive enemies, with white dragons (skeledragons) and azaghals mostly patrolling the connector rooms.

Stage Track: Door of Holy Spirits
Boss Track: Festival of Servants

Area Boss: Fake Trevor, Fake Grant and Fake Sypha

Azaghal | Minotaur | Stone Skull | Werewolf | White Dragon

All of the enemies here are hell-bent on guarding the ruler of this area, Galamoth, the ultimate Castlevania boss and the second in command to Shaft himself. Though, by my battles with him, I doubt that he needs much guarding. Among the more annoying enemies you'll find here are the blood skeletons--which are much more quick and numerous than usual--and the frozen halves, which will call upon storms if you don't finish them off quickly. Once you're done here, you can head back to the reverse Marble Gallery and finish off Shaft and Dracula once and for all.

Stage Track: Curse Zone
Boss Track: Death Ballad

Area Boss: Galamoth

Bat | Blood Skeleton | Frozen Half | Salome | Skeleton

While as equally pointless an area this time around, this Prison is a good place to battle some of the newer and more experience-laden foes. Your most likely entry will be from the Black Marble Gallery, and you'll be forced into another zigzag-fest, this time against the some of the game's peskiest assortment of lesser enemy. The top part of this first large room as well as the following hall are jammed with wights, who will do everything they can to frustrate you and slow things down. This may set you up for a surprise attack by a cloaked fiend that guards the exit. So the only good part about passing through here is that you can skip to the lower part of the Gallery, right into the Entrance, without having to battle the intimidating Guardians.

Stage Track: Chaconne C'Moll

Area Boss: None

Gargoyle Lv2 | Flying Zombie | Nova Skeleton | Jack o' Bones | Wight | Wraith

This version of the garden is the pure recreation of Hell; the immediate assault of the devils will make this clear. It's all straightforward across what was once the garden's ceiling, in contrast to the usual upside-down areas, but that doesn't make things any easier. You'll meet a large amount of resistance, made more of a terror by the presence of the bitterflies, who will surely foil your plans to jump or fly over the grounded foes. The greenhouse this time is populated by the castle's most dangerous plant life, blue venus weed, and two types of knight and more bitterflies that will surely slow things down to make the Venus weeds' attacks more effective. Fighting past all of this madness will earn you a prize in the following gazebo room.

Stage Track: Beginning

Area Boss: None

Ifreet | Bitterfly | Cave Troll | Copper Armor | Skeleton Guardian | Blue Venus Weed | Cloaked Knight