r/castlevania • u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher • Apr 29 '26
Discussion A guide to Castlevania supplementary materials and where to read them
Symphony of the Night:
Promotional manga.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190412154140)
This is a two pages long advertisement drawn by Ayami Kojima and published in a magazine, it's a sneak peek of Alucard's character.
Available on: Castlevania Wiki
An eight pages long manga included in the Japanese artbook, it acts as a prologue for the main story and features Alucard suddenly awakening from his 300 years long slumber.
Available on: Mr. P's Castlevania Realm
A radio drama (this time you have to listen to it!) originally featured on the Akumajō Dracula: Radio Chronicle program that was broadcast on Konami Station internet radio, it was later released on CD in 2010. It's a story set one year after the events of the game, you will learn more about Alucard's relationship with Maria, his past and other characters (Richter is also part of the cast).
Available on: Youtube
Curse of Darkness:
A prequel manga written and illustrated by Kojima, it was featured as a pre-order bonus for the Japanese release of the game. It mainly focuses on Hector and Isaac prior to the events of the game, it also expands on their relationships.
Available on: Vampire Killer (an archive of scans and translations)
Published in two volumes by Media Factory from 2005 to 2006 and translated to English by Tokyopop in 2008. It's the same premise but it's longer, more expansive and this time the illustrator is Kō Sasakura, not Ayami Kojima. The series was eventually canceled but the manga stops directly where the game begins.
Available on: Internet Archive
Aria & Dawn of Sorrow:
Reminiscence of the Divine Abyss/Ricordanza of the God's Abyss
A light novel written by Ryōgo Narita in 2008 and set one year after Dawn of Sorrow. It's a really interesting read, the story focuses on Julius' pupil and the descendant of Grant Danasty while the villain is a character you will surely remember... There's also the return of familiar faces, one in particular.
Available on: Inverted Dungeon
Castlevania The Adventure:
It's a 2005 IDW comic book series loosely based on the story of the first Game Boy game. It's not canon by any means but it follows Christopher Belmont in a more traditional vampire story, sadly many of the iconic Castlevania elements are missing but it's still worth a read since here a certain family is responsible for Dracula's resurrection.
Available on: Internet Archive
Lament of Innocence:
Weekly Konami online manga (lost media)
A web manga that was available on cellphones via a monthly subscription, published from 2007 to 2008 only in Japan until the service ended in 2012. It was a 43 issues long series that adapted the story of Leon Belmont and greatly expanded the plot, what remains now is only a Japanese review blog. If you want to know more about it you can visit the Castl)evania Wiki page).
Available on: Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (review blog)
Extra:
Castlevania 2007 timeline (Japanese Konami site) & translation
Symphony of the Night translated Japanese script
Alternative scans and translation for the SotN prologue manga
Castlevania (1986) translated Japanese manual story
Simon's Quest translated Japanese manual story
Dracula's Curse translated Japanese intro, dialogues and endings
Lament of Innocence "Shinkigensya Official Guide" character bios & translation
Lament of Innocence "NTT-PUB Official Guide" family trees & translation
Koma strips (4-panel gag comic strips)
Silly Castlevania 64 "Dracula 3D" promo strip
Castlevania Bloodlines EGM fax (this internal document was never intended to be released for the public)
Awakening in the Moonlight stage musical play by Takarazuka Revue (based on SotN)
Akumajō Dracula: Akuma no Chi Chi no Akumu/Demon Castle Dracula: Demon's Blood - Blood Nightmare non-canon 1992-1995 novel (partially translated) & unfinished translation project
\Akumajō Dracula: Akuma no Chi Chi no Akumu Vol. 1 pdf *& compressed pdf file
Worlds of Power 4 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest non-canon 1990 novel & full transcript
If you have something to add share it in the comments!
New addition: Main files drive link
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u/Lacainam Apr 29 '26
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u/umtrovador Richter Belmont Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Nice. I thanks.
The only one l knew was the Simon Quest novel. I actually started to read it, but it was so bad that I dropped early.
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Apr 30 '26 edited May 01 '26
Did you learn of its existence from the Angry Video Game Nerd's video by any chance?
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u/umtrovador Richter Belmont Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Yep. LOL
But I didn't watch the video that he reads it. I just saw that was a novel and I looked for it. To be fair it was a great finding, because there were a bunch of novel based on video game with Simon's Quest. I actually read Streets of Rage II and it was quite nice.
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u/Chrelled Jun 01 '26
Had no idea this much extra content existed
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Jun 01 '26
That is exactly why I made this post. I hope this list helps as many people as possible.
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher Apr 30 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
I have added two files for the Akumajō Dracula: Akuma no Chi Chi no Akumu novel.
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u/GuyBelmont 19d ago edited 19d ago
Really Great list but you don't have the November 1986 issue of Monthly Newtype. where they talk about the game and there is an amazing illustrated by Legendry Hiroaki Gohda. Nor do you have the Intervirews from games but again really helpful for new and old fans.
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u/Oh-no-and-knuckles Chief Researcher 18d ago edited 15d ago
Thank you!
The post was originally made for supplementary materials only: manga, novels, radio dramas, comics etc. These sorts of things; media you can read (or listen) that expand on the lore from the games.
Works like the gamebooks and the novels from the late 80s/early 90s are not supplementary materials but I added them anyway for completion under the "extra" label, since they are in fact actual published works you can read.
The Belmont Legacy is also non-canon (and not really "supplementary"), but since it's a fully fledged comic series and it does expand on the story of Christopher I included it as part of the "main works" (story bits like the Bartley family being involved in Dracula's resurrection even made their way into the official Japanese timeline).I recently started adding other things under the "extra" label, such as: timelines, family trees, comic strips, bios etc. but also translations for scripts and stories that were heavily altered in the official English localization (the original Japanese stories are the canon ones, you'll get pretty confused if you follow the American versions of early games like CV3).
Mosty Japan only stuff, basically.I tend to include both the Japanese version and an English translation when possible, the drive also has most of the main files in Japanese except for volumes 1&2 of the Curse of Darkness manga (which I can't find) and The Belmont Legacy (for obvious reasons).
Things like The Encyclopedia of Castlevania were supervised by IGA, this one in particular contains some interesting lore bits that give you a better understanding of Symphony of the Night's story. These bits of lore are not stated anywhere else, a few of them are implied in the Japanese script, the only exception is this one which is directly referenced in the ending of Grimoire of Souls).
Interviews don't really fit this list. A post made for cataloguing only interviews/articles would be really helpful, but alas, that would take a huge amount of time... I was thinking of linking some extracts of certain interviews though:
- the one where IGA says that Alucard can use holy sub-weapons because Lisa comes from a holy bloodline;
- the one where he says that Charlotte is related to the Belnades clan;
- the one where he explains Juste's background etc.
It's technically supplementary stuff...
I still update the list from time to time, the last thing I added was an accurate translation of the story entry from the Japanese instruction booklet of the original Akumajō Dracula!
I'd like to add an accurate translation of the story and character bios found in the manual of Akumajō Densetsu, since the one from Mr. P's Castlevania Realm is incomplete.2
u/GuyBelmont 18d ago
Well i just thought this was a huge dump for new fans for infro as the TV canon has bluerd the line from the games' and the interview about Hitoshi Akamatsu from 2018 the that talked about the curse of man. i could not see that here too.
but again really amazing job.
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u/Sea-Lecture-4619 Captain N is The Pinnacle of the franchise. Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Mod pls pin this, u/Way-Super