Prepare for some Castlevania Mania!

By Cole Luke

Published: Friday, 01 March 2024 at 10:28 AM


With the first game coming out in 1986, the almost four-decade-old Castlevania series has oodles of games.

And we’ve got them in order of story and release, as well as the multiple timelines explained to make sense of the convoluted titles.

There’s been renewed interest in the series owing to the animated Netflix Castlevania series, as well as Castlevania: Nocturne and its upcoming season 2.

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Despite the popularity of these series, we haven’t had much in the way of new games other than Grimoire of Souls, which is exclusive to Apple Arcade.

Fortunately, there is a veritable wealth of Castlevania games to dive into. Read on for all things Belmont, vampires and confusing millenia-spanning story arcs!

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How to play the Castlevania games in release order

Artwork of Shanoa from Castlevania: order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS. She is holding a large red staff
Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
Konami

Below are all of the Castlevania games and their spin-offs (excluding slot, medal and pachinko games) by release order, if you would like to play them in the same way that they came out.

We also have every platform they were released for, but the first listed is the initial platform it came out on.

  • Castlevania (1986 | Family Computer Disk System, NES, PC, Commodore 64, Amiga, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Vampire Killer (1986 | MSX2, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987 | Family Computer Disk System, NES, PC, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Haunted Castle (1988 | Arcade, PS2, PS4, Switch)
  • Castlevania: The Adventure (1989 | Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989 | Family Computer Disk System, NES, PC, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (1991 | Game Boy, Game Boy Color)
  • Super Castlevania IV (1991 | SNES, Nintendo Virtual Console, Super NES Classic Edition)
  • Kid Dracula (1993 | Game Boy)
  • Castlevania Chronicles (1993 | Sharp X68000, PS1, PSN)
  • Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993 | PC Super Engine, PSP, PSN, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania Bloodlines (1994 | Sega Genesis)
  • Castlevania: Dracula X (1995 | SNES, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997 | PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Xbox Live Arcade, PSP, PSN, Android, iOS)
  • Castlevania Legends (1997 | Game Boy, Super Game Boy)
  • Castlevania (1999 | Nintendo 64)
  • Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999 | Nintendo 64)
  • Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001 | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002 | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003 | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Virtual Console)
  • Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003 | PlayStation 2, PSN)
  • Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005 | Nintendo DS)
  • Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (2005, PlayStation 2, Xbox)
  • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006 | Nintendo DS)
  • Castlevania: Order of Shadows (2007 | Mobile phones)
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008 | Nintendo DS)
  • Castlevania: Judgement (2008 | Nintendo Wii)
  • Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (2009 | Nintendo Wii)
  • Castlevania: The Arcade (2009 | Arcade)
  • Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night (2010 | iOS, Windows Phone)
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (2010 | XBLA, PSN)
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (2013 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS)
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014 | PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
  • Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls (2019 | Android, iOS)

How to play the Castlevania games in story order

Artwork of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night wearing a black outfit and holding a long blade
Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Konami

As with many longstanding series with many entries, there are multiple timelines in Castlevania: the main, alternate and Lords of Shadow.

The latter two are not considered to be canon, making Dawn of Sorrow or Grimoire of Souls the last canonical point of the Castlevania main timeline – depending on who you ask.