History VideoGame / Castlevania64

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Carrie, Malus and Actrise.

* CheckpointStarvation: The Duel Tower in the original game has zero Save Crystals, but it does have four werebosses [[note]] You can take an alternate route between the second and third were-monsters and skip the third one, a Werebull, but you'll have to deal with the others [[/note]] and a bunch of jumps and hangings over a giant acid pool, including two long jumps between the last mini-boss, the Weretiger rematch, and the stage exit; the next area has a Save Crystal right at the entrance. Fail at any point in this tower, and you're sent back to the Castle Center elevator and have to start the tower all over.

* DifficultySpike: The nitro/mandragora escort business; before it, you are happily [[WhipItGood whipping]] or [[MagicMissile magic missiling]] enemies on your path, but now you have ''carefully'' move a dangerous item along a hazardous path.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Used on two different occasions during the game. The first example is the Behemoth encountered in the Castle Center, which uses the same battle theme as the final boss (there's one more boss just after it that also counts, and who is it depends on who you're playing as, but on the Easy mode, after defeating both bosses and taking an elevator out of the Center, the game cuts off; you have to be playing on Normal to continue past them). The second is [[spoiler:Dracula's Servant]] atop the final stage, which has a unique battle theme to himself.

** At the top of the first tower in the outer wall, you'll run into a pair of serpent dragon heads covering the portculis controls. They initially breathe small puffs of flame, but after doing enough damage to one, it sheds it skin, TurnsRed, and starts breathing giant plumes of fire. You must kill both of them to reach the controls, raise the first portculis, and leave the room.

** In the path to good ending, [[spoiler:Malus approaches the player on a winged horse. It would be suspicious enough by itself, but the horse has bat wings]].

* HedgeMaze: The villa stage has a nasty hedge maze you have to run through while being chased by its Frankenstein's gardener (who has a chainsaw) and his two [[AttackAnimal stone dogs]], who can stun you by just biting you. Of course you only have to explore about an eighth of the maze and, if you know where to go, will likely get through before the chain-saw monster and his pals even show up (at least on the last trip through the maze; having to follow Malus through it earlier '''will''' force you to deal with the deranged inhabitants on your way through, and they cannot be killed permanently; you can knock them down for a second, but you run the risk of getting carved up by the other enemies. You'll want to save before entering the maze.

* IntimidatingRevenueService: Renon starts out as a demon shopkeeper; you can use his contract to summon him if you should happen to find it lying around for a DungeonShop, and purchase any supplies you need. Just before the final boss, he shows up to let you know you won't see him ever again, but how the story plays out depends on your spending habits; if you were thrifty, he tells you a war is brewing elsewhere, which will give better profit margins than selling chicken drumsticks to a single adventurer. If you spent more than 30000 gold, he reveals that there was some fine print in the contract that your character [[LoopholeAbuse could not read because it was written in a demonic language]]; specifically, there's a tax on his services that he has to collect now, and that tax is '''''your soul!''''' Cue fighting for your very life.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: [[spoiler: Malus is actually reborn Dracula, the one you fight in the Castle Keep is just an impostor]].

** Lizardmen armed with [[ProngsOfPoseidon tridents]], [[DualWielding dual weapons]] and swords and shields are an encounters in the Undergorund Waterway and inside the Dracula's castle.

* LoveRedeems: The vampire Rosa appears in everyone's plot, but it is Reinhardt who comes to know her, stops her SuicideBySunlight attempt, [[spoiler: and refuses to kill her in battle later. She eventually [[RedemptionEqualsDeath sacrifices herself to save him from Death]], and [[DeusExMachina she is reborn as a human at the end]].]]

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[spoiler:Malus, whose name means "evil" in Latin. Then there's his ''real'' name, Dracula (Romanian for "dragon)]].

* NoFinalBossForYou: [[spoiler:For Reinhardt or Carrie, if you spend too much time fiddling around in the game, Charlie Vincent, who you meet in the Villa, will get turned into a vampire (this can be hard to do normally, but abusing the Sun and Moon cards WILL result in this happening). Charlie will then stop you one room before you reach Dracula's Crypt and force you to fight him, and he dies at the end of the fight (it's possible to fight both him and Renon if you were also a heavy spender at Renon's shop). Should this fight take place, you'll only fight the first form of the FinalBoss, Dracula's Servant, and the game will end with the real Dracula, Malus, surviving and, for Reinhardt, Rosa does not come back to life and is essentially sentenced to Hell. For Cornell, you'll get a second and last fight with Dracula's Servant after defeating his first form no matter what the situation.]]
* NoShirtLongJacket: Malus's outfit when turns into an adult. [[spoiler:An adult Dracula, that is]].

* OneWingedAngel: Dracula's final form, which has an upped body of a demon/dragon and [[OurCentaursAreDifferent the lower body of a centipede]].
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The [=N64=] games are the first games (And still one of the few) in the franchise to have vampires as common {{Mook}}s, and vampirism is even a [[StandardStatusEffects status effect]]. If you contract it and it's not healed in time, you get a NonstandardGameOver after watching your character sprout an angry face and fangs.

* PuppyLove: [[spoiler: In Carrie's imperfect ending, Malus convinces her to promise to marry him...]]

* StorybookOpening: The game starts with the book already open on the a page holding the file select menu. Starting a new game results in your signature appearing on the document, and the pages flipping backwards to reveal it's a copy of [[spoiler:the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Necronomicon]]]].

* VillainBall: In the good endings, [[spoiler:the player doesn't catch on the ruse that Dracula that they just defeated was just an impostor until Malus reveals himself to be the real Dracula, for no other reason than to give the player a TrueFinalBoss]].
* WarForFunAndProfit: In the final, non-confrontational (if you played your cards right by not paying too much for his items and invoking the hidden clause in his contract concerning your soul) encounter with Renon, he states he is needed elsewhere, since an impending global war is about to break out, and it is going to open wonderful business opportunities. [[note]] If you invoke the contract clause by spending 30,000 gold or more on his shop, "your soul is forfeit", and you'll be forced to fight an armored, goat-headed, legless Renon with a trident in an arena that you can fall out of; this fight is virtually identical to the Death battle in design, if a little harder; this fight and the clause is in place to punish the player for spending too much by depleting their resources and health, if not killing them, just before they reach the FinalBoss. [[/note]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the path to good ending, Vincent appears to dose [[spoiler:Dracula, who has again assumed the shape of young Malus to trick the player character,]] with holy water. After the ensuing TrueFinalBoss fight, he disappears from the game.

** While you are outside the Villa, if you stand upon a hexagonal stone in a fountain at midnight you will be raised up into a hidden area where you can obtain a variety of useful items.

* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: If a vampire succeeds in biting you, you will become a vampire. If you don't receive a cure by midnight, you will succumb to the urge and lose the game.

* {{Determinator}}: The enemy AI in this game are all this. They will ''never'' stop perusing you no matter what. They'll even jump past obstacles to get at you.

** Skeletons on motorcycles... in the 19th century(the earliest prototypes were created in 1885, but even that is later than this game takes place). And some of them have a buddy in a sidecar wielding a machinegun! [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C0xI41RtaU And this is lampshaded by]] WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd.

* AnArmAndALeg: King Skeleton loses three of his limbs (first his free arm and then his legs) as he comes closer to defeat.

** In the path to good ending, [[spoiler:Malus approaches the player on a winged horse. It would be suspicious enough by itself , but the horse has bat wings]].

* FastForwardMechanic: The Sun and Moon cards can be used to advance the current time so you can (among other things) have certain timed encounters and battle vampires during the day when they're weaker. [[spoiler:If you're playing as Reinhardt or Carrie, you're actually going to want to be frugal with the cards and only use them when you're more or less forced to; using about four will force them to fight a vampire-turned Charlie Vincent just before Dracula's Servant, and because of Vincent's role in the endgame, if this happens, then it's NoFinalBossForYou since the game will end prematurely after Dracula's Servant is killed with the real Dracula surviving. This mechanic does not apply as Cornell, since his story takes place prior to Reinhardt or Carrie's, meaning there's no one to turn into a vampire, plus one of his stages requires liberal usage of the Sun and Moon cards to get through it; he'll face the FinalBoss of his campaign no matter what.]]

* IntimidatingRevenueService: Renon starts out as a demon shopkeeper; you can use his contract to summon him if you should happen to find it lying around for a DungeonShop, and purchase any supplies you need. Just before the final boss, he shows up to let you know you won't see him ever again, but how the story plays out depends on your spending habits; if you were thrifty, he tells you a war is brewing elsewhere, which will give better profit margins than selling chicken drumsticks to a single adventurer. If you spent more than 30000 gold, he reveals that there was some fine print in the contract that your character ([[LoopholeAbuse could not read because it was written in a demonic language]]); specifically, there's a tax on his services that he has to collect now, and that tax is '''''your soul!''''' Cue fighting for your very life.

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: The middle game is different for each character, with their own levels and recurring characters.

* IntimidatingRevenueService: Renon starts out as a demon shopkeeper; you can use his contract to summon him if you should happen to find it lying around for a DungeonShop, and purchase any supplies you need. Just before the final boss, he shows up to let you know you won't see him ever again, but how the story plays out depends on your spending habits; if you were thrifty, he tells you a war is brewing elsewhere, which will give better profit margins than selling chicken drumsticks to a single adventurer. If you spent more than 30000 gold, he reveals that there was some fine print in the contract that Carrie ([[LoopholeAbuse could not read because it was written in a demonic language]]); specifically, there's a tax on his services that he has to collect now, and that tax is '''''your soul!''''' Cue fighting for your very life.

** Player character also comes across one Heinrich Meyer, a merchant who was turned into a lizardman when he came to the castle looking for a good deal. He helps the player by giving information regarding the upcoming nitro and mandragora business, and handing out a key.

* NoHeroDiscount: Justified. Renon is a demon, and he has no reason to care less about saving the world from vampires. As long there is profit to be made, he is content.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The [=N64=] games are, thus far, the only games in the franchise to have vampires as common {{Mook}}s, and vampirism is even a [[StandardStatusEffects status effect]]. If you contract it and it's not healed in time, you get a NonstandardGameOver after watching your character sprout an angry face and fangs.

* CheckpointStarvation: The Duel Tower in the original game has zero Save Crystals, but it does have four werebosses and a bunch of jumps and hangings over a giant acid pool, including two long jumps between the last mini-boss, the Weretiger rematch, and the stage exit; the next area has a Save Crystal right at the entrance. Fail at any point in this tower, and you're sent back to the Castle Center elevator and have to start the tower all over.

* FourIsDeath: [[spoiler:One of the ways to turn Charlie Vincent into a vampire and erase any chance of confronting the TrueFinalBoss in a playthrough is to speed up the clock by using four Sun or Moon cards; taking too long in the game will trigger the transformation, and that's considerably easier to do if you use the cards for any time where you're not really required to expend one. If you don't turn Charlie Vincent evil, you can have up to 4 bosses in the final area if you still spend too much on Renon and break your contract with him.]]

* FourIsDeath: [[spoiler:One of the ways to turn Charlie Vincent into a vampire and erase any chance of confronting the TrueFinalBoss in a playthrough is to speed up the clock by using four Sun or Moon cards; taking too long in the game will trigger the transformation, and that's considerably easier to do if you use the cards for any time where you're not really required to expend one.]]

* SeeYouInHell: Upon defeat, Death angrily tells Reinhardt that he'll be waiting him in hell, and "keep a warm place" for him.
* ShamuFu: Death can cast a spell that throws a giant demonic fish at you.

* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Malus is the real Dracula, and if you make it to the final area of the game, Castle Keep, and do not fight Charlie Vincent (that fight is triggered by spending too long in the game and/or using too many Sun/Moon cards), you'll encounter him on your way out of Dracula's Crypt. Following a falling staircase montage and an elevator ride to the roof of the Clock Tower, Malus will turn into a young Dracula and you'll fight him in a modified version of the false Dracula fight. If you survive, Vincent will appear and use Holy Water on Malus, and then you're taken to face a dragon/centipede version of Dracula, which is the official FinalBoss of the game, with the good ending playing if you win).

* NitroExpress: Carryin the nitro causes the player to explode from enemy attacks and attempts at jumping, forcing the player into various InsurmountableWaistHeightFence situations.

* WarForFunAndProfit: In the final, non-confrontational (if you played your cards right) encounter with Renon, he states he is needed elsewhere, since an impending global war is about to break out, and it is going to open wonderful business opportunities.

* HedgeMaze: The villa stage has a nasty hedge maze you have to run through while being chased by its gardener and his two [[AttackAnimal stone dogs]]. Of course you only have to explore about an eighth of the maze and, if you know where to go, will likely get through before the chain-saw monster and his pals even shows up.

* FastForwardMechanic: The Sun and Moon cards can be used to advance the current time so you can (among other things) have certain timed encounters and battle vampires during the day when they're weaker.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: Used on two different occasions during the game. The first example is the Behemoth encountered in the Castle Center, which uses the same battle theme as the final boss. The second is [[spoiler:Dracula's Servant]] atop the final stage, which has a unique battle theme to himself.

* ChainedByFashion: Cornell, the initial protagonist of ''Legacy of Darkness'', was supposed to be in the game in a ball-and-chain prisoner outfit.

* WickedWitch: Actrise, who is willing to slaughter children in order to gain her goals.

** Skeletons on motorcycles... in the 19th century. And some of them have a buddy in a sidecar wielding a machinegun! [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C0xI41RtaU And this is lampshaded by]] WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd.