Castlevania/Awesome Music

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Deborah Cliff isn't the only place where you might want to bang your head.

Castlevania has a proud tradition of awesome music. All the versions here are the originals (when available), since there's enough remixes out there to choke a horse:

The Big Three

Castlevania (1986)

Simon's Quest (II)

Haunted Castle

Dracula's Curse (III)

Legends

  • Meet Lord Dracula (Meeting With Dracula) is a greatly underestimated song from a unfairly shunned game. Assuming you don't mind Beeps and Boops, you might find yourself hypnotized by this one.
  • Banquet of Spirits has a somewhat mournful, yet classy tone to it. Like the above (And most of Legends' music) it can easily memorize.

The Adventure/Belmont's Revenge/The Adventure ReBirth

  • Battle of the Holy, one of the only worthwhile songs in the god damn hard Castlevania Adventure, Christopher Belmont's debut game (The final stage theme, Revenge, being the other.) Yep, the game may be frustrating. But that piece of music pretty much makes up for it.
    • The extremely catchy Death Fair makes one of the most diabolical stages in gaming history much more tolerable.
  • They improved on Christopher's awesome with his next game, Belmont's Revenge. Here's Original Sin, a great badass tune that just tells you that Chris has come a-knocking, and he's out to get Dracula for taking his son.
  • The absolute best piece, by far, from Belmont's Revenge has to be Praying Hands, though New Messiah, Ripe Seeds, and Psycho Warrior deserve a mention as well. Also, even though Illusionary Dance may be the ultimate official theme for Dracula, Sons of Satan is a good runner up. And then there's Chromatische Phantasie, the theme for the battle against Christopher's son, Soleiyu. Hell, the whole damn soundtrack was excellent. It is amazing that the original Game Boy was capable of such awesome.
  • Here comes The Adventure: ReBirth! Yes, it's filled to the brim with remixes from other games, but they're awesome remixes, with 'Retro' written all over them. Reincarnated Soul from Bloodlines, Lullaby Sent to the Devil from Haunted Castle, New Messiah from Belmont's Revenge, Final Road, A.K.A the X68000 Load BGM, Aquarius, Yet Another Vampire Killer Remix, Demonic Revival from Haunted Castle, "The Last Fight" also from Haunted Castle for Dracula's 2nd phase, Riddle from Castlevania III, and lastly, The End of Day from Belmont's Revenge. Shame Battle of the Holy isn't there, but as previously mentioned, that was one of only two worthwhile songs in the original game anyway.
    • Although that Battle of the Holy doesn't appear in game, it appears in the soundtrack inside the Akumajou Dracula Another Medley, along with a version of Lost Painting from SOTN, all in good ol' 90's arcade-styled splendor. You can listen the medley here.
      • I prefer this fan's rendition of Battle of the Holy to the one they actually put in the game! (or...didn't...I guess)

Super Castlevania IV

Akumajou Dracula X68000/Castlevania Chronicles

Rondo of Blood/Dracula X/Dracula X Chronicles

Bloodlines

Symphony of the Night

  • Prologue, the opening level theme for Symphony of the Night. Very rockin'.
  • Can someone please explain why nobody has remembered, so far, Moonlight Nocturne, the intro theme before the title appears(between the Prologue and the actual game), and one of the most freakin' epic and ominous intro themes in existence?
  • Nocturne, from Symphony of the Night, a solemn, beautiful vocal hidden track that becomes all the better if you can understand the lyrics. This English version of it, from a later rerelease, is one of the rare examples where a translation of a Japanese song manages to preserve both meaning and rhythmical/intonational structure, and is at least as good as - if not better than - the original.
  • The Tragic Prince. Possibly the single most rockingly awesome piece from Symphony of the Night; just get past that sneaky intro that lulls you into a placid state before pounding you with the most incredible guitar riffs. Amazing.
    • It's also in Harmony of Despair under the new name of Pitiful Scion
  • Door of Holy Spirits, the background music to the Reverse Colosseum in Symphony of the Night. Not for the musical quality, but for how it takes an otherwise-plain-looking area (albeit upside-down) and turns it into Nightmare Fuel.
  • Dracula's Castle. Rocks in an '80s synthesizer sort of way.
    • Harmony of Despair welcomes us back to 1997. Manly Tears optional.
  • Lost Painting, the surreal, ambient number that plays in some areas of Symphony's Inverted Castle.
  • Final Toccata. Admittedly, YouTube's limited audio here doesn't quite do it justice, but you have to love such a multilayered decadently evil-sounding organ-tacular 5/4 time track. Seriously. Some tropers may find it driving them insane - it does play almost everywhere in the Inverted Castle - but it's still fantastic.
    • You think THAT's an evil sounding organ-tacular piece? Then try Chaconne in C Moll! It's exclusive to the Saturn version of the game, sadly - it plays in the Haunted Prison, one of the two Saturn exclusive areas of the game. But this music more than makes up for it, it's practically Ominous Pipe Organ embodied.
  • Marble Gallery and Crystal Teardrops. Also, two of the best boss themes ever, Festival of Servants and Death Ballad. Then there's Rainbow Cemetery, which plays in the Catacombs, and Curse Zone, which plays in the Reverse Catacombs, both of which have this distorted, other-worldly feel to them.
  • Wood Carving Partita As can be seen from the huge list above, it's cruel to try and pick only a subset of the awesome tracks in SoTN, but it's simply impossible to ignore the haunting strings of Wood Carving Partita, played in the Long Library.
  • The end credits song I Am The Wind is a really perfect song for Alucard, it's a song that will really touch your heart and emotions when you first hear it. It's a shame that later versions of this game have replaced it (such as the PSP and Xbox 360 versions).
  • Guardian, the track that plays in the Saturn version of Sot N when you fight Maria. Why was this not included on the Dracula X Chronicles verion?!

Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness

  • It doesn't really have a name, but the opening theme to Castlevania 64 has an interesting violin tune with the child character Malus. Of course, it gets a bit creepier in hindsight when you find out a bit more about the kid...
    • He's playing Bloodlines from Rondo of Blood, or rather, Richter's theme.
  • The Level 6 stage music, The Sinking Sanctuary.
  • The Level 7 stage music, Thorny Grave.

Circle of the Moon

  • Awake! This is one of THE quintessential tunes.
  • Proof of Blood from Circle of the Moon. Easily one of the more memorable final boss music pieces in a Castlevania game.
  • Fate To Despair is also a memorable tune from this game

Harmony of Dissonance

Aria of Sorrow

Dawn of Sorrow

Portrait of Ruin

  • The OST contained two discs: One with the original DS music, and the other with the arranged music, or rather the originals before they were converted to DS.
  • Portrait of Ruin brought us Piercing Silence, one of the two boss themes which plays for the "Wake-Up Call" Boss Dullahan and the more classic bosses, like Death and Medusa. It pratically screams "you're fucked" and warns you that no, this Metroidvania is NOT that easy.
  • In Search of the Secret Spell, played in the Underground Pyramid in the game's second version of the Egypt aesthetic. The way this blends with the flickering, almost magically-charged backgrounds and foregrounds in the area creates an atmosphere that's bloody brilliant.
  • Despite the slew of excellent tracks in the game, its crowning achievement is easily the theme of the final battle, Banquet of Madness. If it wasn't made apparent that you're about to face what could be the most spectacular battle in history by the fact that Death and Dracula are tag-teaming you, much less by the fact that, halfway through the fight, Dracula uses his soul-stealing powers on Death, essentially the keeper of souls, transforming into a hideous beast with all the power that implies (including a one-hit kill), the haunting tune that accompanies this epic showdown will do the trick.
  • The Gears Go Awry is, hands-down, the best clocktower-level theme in the series.
    • Here is an orchestral version of it.
  • Hidden Curse is also pretty nice, as is Overture, a Castlevania 3 remix.
  • Gaze Up at the Darkness.

Order of Ecclesia

  • The recently-released Order of Ecclesia has longtime Castlevania composer Michiru Yamane continuing to provide us with damn amazing scores, such as Ebony Wings, Sorrow's Distortion (Albus's theme), and An Empty Tome (the music for the first part of Dracula's Castle).
    • An Empty Tome is also the intro theme to the game as well.
    • Dissonant Courage, one of the boss themes, will likely set even the most anti-digital headbanger off with digitized drumming, a jaw-dropping bass and one of the catchiest melodies ever.
    • "An Empty Tome" is particularly awesome not just because of the song itself, but because of how it was used, making it one of the best examples of this trope. The music starts playing at a moment where the main character has just defeated a difficult boss, lost a lot of her friends, and is finally venturing into Dracula's Castle to finish things. And when you do enter the castle, you discover that it's about as big as the rest of the game combined, and it's also the most difficult area yet, as opposed to every other Metroidvania so far, where you start off in the castle. The sense of accomplishment in reaching this level, combined with the music, made this one of the best moments in gaming in 2008.
    • "An Empty Tome" is remixed for Judgment as well, with 110% more electric guitar. Surprisingly, it works.
    • The Colossus, one of the best final level themes ever.
    • Chamber of Ruin, a boss battle theme from within the castle. As one of the comments on the video states, the first 40 or so seconds symbolize the threatening nature of one of the bosses that uses this theme, and then suddenly a mad beat kicks in symbolizing Wallman's flamboyant silliness.
    • A theme barely heard in the game, but Lone Challenger is awesome anyway.
    • The theme for Minera Prison Island, Rhapsody of the Forsaken is one of the better early game themes
    • The remixed version of Riddle.
    • Order of the Demon. They did the unthinkable by replacing Dance of Illusions as the Dracula Fight music, and then surprised everyone by having their replacement be one of the best final boss themes of all time.
    • Lament to the Master, the theme for the battle against Barlowe, really captures the mood of the fight.
    • How Hard Won Nobility hasn't been listed here for so long is beyond me.
    • Emerald Mist captures the state of the world in one of the first outdoor stages in a Castlevania in a long time. Its somber nature really makes one feel truly alone.
    • Wandering the Crystal Blue
  • Jaws Of The Scorched Earth is a very serene and melancholy-inducing theme. Also note the awesome bass part towards the end.

Lament of Innocence

Curse of Darkness

Harmony of Despair

Judgment

Pachislot

  • Trezire De Spirit may just be one of the most epic Castlevania (or for that matter all video games in general) songs to ever exist, if not THE most epic. The most awesome thing about it is that is was created solely for a Pachi-slot game!
  • Reinlich from the second Pachi-slot game isn't too bad, with its vocals.
  • The Pachislot version of Divine Bloodlines is perhaps the best one.

Resurrection

  • Too bad the game itself got cancelled but we did get to hear Have Mercy at least.

Lords of Shadow

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