Characters / Castlevania Antagonists

Beware of unmarked spoilers.

Main Villains

Dracula

See Dracula.

Death

Voiced by (Japanese): Chikao Ohtsuka (Rondo of Blood), Masaharu Sato (Symphony of the Night, Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness and Harmony of Despair), Takuo Kawamura (Harmony of Dissonance), Tetsu Inada (Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow), Yukitoshi Hori (Curse of Darkness as Zead), Yasuhiko Tokuyama (Portrait of Ruin), Masaru Suzuki (Order of Ecclesia), Kōichi Sakaguchi (Castlevania: Judgment),

Voiced by (English): Dennis Falt (Symphony of the Night), Tom Wyner (Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, Portrait of Ruin, Harmony of Despair), Ken Lally (Curse of Darkness as Zead), Patrick Seitz (The Dracula X Chronicles, Order of Ecclesia), Douglas Rye (Castlevania: Judgment, The Adventure ReBirth),

"Then for the Master, I'll feast on your soul this night!"

The Grim Reaper, stealer of souls, possibly the ruler of Hell and apparently Dracula's right-hand man. If nothing else, his closest confidant. It's hard to say how this came about, although many suspect the Crimson Stone ever since that has been added to the continuity. A recent game has suggested that a higher power may be responsible.

As he is a god of death, one would expect the protagonists of the series to be incapable of killing him. Somehow, they manage it. Fortunately, he is never gone for long, ensuring a long career of Sinister Scythe battles that have made him beloved and feared by the fanbase.

Outside of battle, his role is inconsistent. At times, he is only there to fight. At other times, he drives the plot, bringing the revival of his lord to fruition by any means necessary. He has been known to interact with the protagonists more often than his lord, as he tries to dissuade Alucard from interfering, compares notes with Juste, manipulates Hector under a false identity, and shares a common enemy with the vampire hunters when Brauner arrives. He is always loyal to Dracula (although this does not include Soma, his master reincarnated), and is Lawful Evil. Dialogue from Judgment and Curse of Darkness hints that he has strong hate toward time travellers.

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• Affably Evil: Despite being Enemies with Death, the Belmonts tend to get little or no enmity from the Grim Reaper. Death tends to be somewhat polite towards his enemies, and is even on a First-Name Basis with Alucard (as seen in Symphony of the Night). In the Japanese dialogue for said game, he even addresses him with keigo.
• Ascended Extra: Started off as a standard recurring boss in the series, and one that didn't even appear in every game (note the first two Game Boy games and Haunted Castle). Rondo of Blood gave him a few lines during his fights, but it was Symphony of the Night that gave him significant dialogue and solidified his role as Dracula's trusted confidant.
• Attack Reflector: Try to use a subweapon on his second form in Rondo of Blood or in the fight against him in Lament of Innocence, and he'll summon a hexagram to take the hit and send nigh-undodgeable projectiles your way.
• Badass Long Robe: It's Death.
• Bald of Evil: As "Zead" in Curse of Darkness. In other games, it's justified in that he's a skeleton.
• Battle Butler: Very samurai-like in personality.
• Big Bad Ensemble: In the games where he becomes Dragon Ascendant, he usually shares the title of Big Bad with another villain. In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin with Brauner and in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance with Maxim are a couple of examples.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He is notably hesitant to fight Alucard in Symphony of the Night, even going so far as to spare him entirely during their first encounter so that Alucard might reconsider his choices. Likewise, he would rather not have Soma Cruz dead, as without Soma there is no hope of Dracula's return.
• The Dragon: The most loyal of Drac's servants.
  • Despite initially battling Soma due to him rejecting his destiny as the next Dark Lord, in the IGA-approved Light Novel "Akumajō Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku", Death asks Soma to be the next Dark Lord and peacefully leaves him alone when he says no.
• Dragon Ascendant: In the games where Dracula has yet to revive, Death usually steps onto center stage in order to carry out his master's wishes.
• Enemy Mine: Subverted in Portrait of Ruin: he almost makes an offer to team up with Jonathan and Charlotte to defeat Brauner, but Jonathan rejects him since he's still working for Dracula, after all. They still wind up helping him, regardless.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Often cast with a cold, menacing baritone to further emphasize the horror of his presence.
• Expressive Skull: Usually averted, but Dawn of Sorrow gives his eyes more movement, allowing him to make angry glares. Portrait of Ruin likewise gives his skull a permanent scowl.
• Final Boss: In Lament of Innocence.
• Four Is Death: In most of his Metroidvania incarnations, he has 4,444 HP.
• Game-Over Man: He does appear on the Game Over screen for a few games, but most notably taunts the player in the PSP version of SotN.
• The Grim Reaper: Or Shinigami, his name in Japan.
• Hero Killer: In the "Vampire Killer" trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he came close to killing Luigi by slicing his soul out of his body. Luckily, Simon wasn't having any of it.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: He tends to be a fair bit more active in the plot than Dracula, and he's known for usually being a more difficult boss fight.
• Instant Costume Change: In both of the Dracula X games, he switches costumes at least once in the story.
• Kaizo Trap: As if he himself isn't hard enough to fight, in some games, some of his attacks remain active after you deal the killing blow, such as in Chronicles of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia (and in case of Aria, he throws his scythe not as a Death Throws, but rather Last Ditch Move), meaning you can die after beating him.
• Karmic Death: Puns aside, in a few games after the protagonist wins Death is destroyed in some ironic fashion. For example, in Rondo of Blood he's decapitated by his own scythe after Richter defeats him on top of the haunted ship they're fighting in.
• Lawful Evil: invokedIn-universe. The Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin manual explicitly states him as such. Oddly, this is the only canonical example of Character Alignment in the whole series.
• Light Is Not Good: Rondo of Blood depicts his sickles as spawning from one-pixel particles of light sent out from his body, with many games after it using variations of this effect. Leon from Lament of Innocence also acknowledges that he is a divine being, even while lumping him with the forces of darkness that he is sworn to destroy.
• Master of Disguise: While he later gives himself away early on in Curse of Darkness, he does so as Zead manipulating Hector and Isaac to fight each other to make one of the two into Dracula's new body.
• Mister Exposition: In an odd move in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, when he figures out what's going on with the castle(s) and Maxim, he explains it to Juste. This happens well before his boss battle.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Considering Lament's reveal that Death aided Dracula centuries before he ever tried to kill humanity, and his opposition to Brauner in Portrait even as he sought to accomplish what Dracula had failed to do so often, it's likely that Death is not so much devoted to Dracula's goals as he is devoted to Dracula himself. As long as it is in Dracula's best interest, he will abide vampire hunters or even aid time travelers.
• Not Me This Time: Inverted in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Death was completely unaware of a vampire other than Dracula having control of Castlevania during the events of the game until the protagonists (who deduced that Dracula was not responsible for Castlevania's return) accused him of working for Brauner (the vampire in question).
• Old Retainer: Alucard describes him as an "old man" in the redub of Symphony of the Night, and he has been in service to Dracula for at least five centuries by the time of Symphony.
• One-Winged Angel: Sometimes transforms into a skeletal dragon thing with scythes for arms. Often is much easier to defeat in this form. He does have other One-Winged Angel forms, and a list of them can be found here.
• The Plan: Loves to use these to help Dracula revive.
• Power Floats: He's almost always seen floating in midair without visible means (excepting his wings in 64) and is often portrayed without legs. The only exceptions to this are Legends, Judgment (which limits him to temporary flight that uses meter), and an arguable example in his second form in Rondo.
• Praetorian Guard: Slogra and Gaibon report directly to him, and he himself often acts as a Praetorian Guard to Dracula on occasions where he is the last line of defense in Castlevania.
• Put on a Bus: In Castlevania: The Adventure. He came back big time in the remake.
• Sdrawkcab Alias: In Curse of Darkness, he uses the alias "Zead".
• Sinister Scythe: He's Death, what did you expect? He ups the ante with a wicked dual-bladed scythe in Aria of Sorrow, and in Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, he gets laser scythes. That's before getting into the million sickles he can summon out of thin air...
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He prefers a collected, cold tone of voice and rarely ever raises it.
• Soul Power: In games where he has a wider moveset, he will often summon apparitions of skulls or other varieties of spirits as projectiles.
• Spam Attack: As mentioned above, one of his most common attacks consists of conjuring countless sickles from thin air.

Appeared in Castlevania / Simon's Quest

Medusa

Voiced by (Japanese): Haruko Kitahama (Lament of Innocence)

Voiced by (English): Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lament of Innocence, Portrait of Ruin)

"With that body, you'll make an excellent statue."

One of the three Gorgon sisters, she is one of the few bosses in the series to appear in nearly every game, in some form or another, mainly by the annoying Medusa Heads or in the flesh.

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• Final Boss: For Henry's mission in Legacy of Darkness.
• Flying Face: Appears as one in both the original game and Lament of Innocence.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Averted for the most part, where she looks more hideous or disturbing than beautiful.
• The Ghost: Stheno and Euryale are mentioned in her description, but never appear in the main timeline.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: She turns to stone upon defeat.
• Karmic Death: In a few games, after being beaten, she's Taken for Granite herself.
• King Mook: Technically one for the Medusa Heads, but she has also been referred to as "Queen Medusa".
• Mistaken for Granite: In both her debut appearance and her Super Smash Bros. Ultimate cameo, she starts off looking like a mundane stone bust of a woman before revealing her snake-haired monster form. In the "Vampire Killer" trailer for the latter game, she uses this to sneak up on and frighten Luigi.
• Mook Maker: She sheds snakes that quickly slither along the ground to attack you. Portrait of Ruin has her shedding Medusa Heads instead.
• Scaled Up: Portrait of Ruin lets her turn into a giant snake for an attack.
• She's a Man in Japan: Rather than show her bare breasts, the Western release of Dracula's Curse turned her into a man for the haunted ship's midboss fight, naming her the Snake Man Sentinel.
• Snake People: When not depicted as a giant floating head, she's usually depicted as a lamia-like creature, taking a page from Clash of the Titans (1981).
• Snakes Are Sinister: It's Medusa. Comes with the territory.
• Taken for Granite: Her most well known ability is her petrifying gaze, though she doesn't posses it in every version.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting:
  • In Portrait of Ruin, she can briefly turn into a giant snake.
  • Something similar occurs in Bloodlines where Elizabeth turns into Medusa for the first phase in her boss battle.
• You No Take Candle: In Portrait of Ruin, her manner of speech sounds simplistic when she shouts "SHATTER HUMAN" after petrifying you. This is a sharp contrast to her appearance in Lament of Innocence, where she was quite eloquent.

The Creature

Frankenstein's Monster in all but name, flat head, neck bolts, and all. Has appeared in numerous Castlevania titles. He is identified as Frankenstien in earlier games, though later ones settle on naming him 'The Creature.'

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• Anachronism Stew: Appears in games that take place before the original Frankenstein story took place.
• Chainsaw Good: Has one for his right hand in Legacy of Darkness.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: A frequent attack is to stomp the ground or punch the wall, causing debris to fall from the ceiling.
• Degraded Boss: On-again, off-again. This began with Circle of the Moon with enemies called "Frankens" appearing in the Eternal Corridor.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Mainly uses attacks that involve throwing rocks or bricks.
• Dual Boss: A Flea Man, identified in the English manual as Igor, accompanies him in the original game. This was the main threat of the fight — the Creature just stands back and lets him fight Simon.
  • Two of him appear in a room in the Nest of Evil in Portrait of Ruin.
• Dub Name Change: His name was initially Frankenstein; however, since this was actually the name of the scientist in the original story, it was later changed to "Franken" in Japanese and "The Creature" in English.
• Flesh Golem: Was made out of pieces of corpses, sewn together and reanimated through an undisclosed method.
• Frankenstein's Monster: Inspired by the original film by Universal.
• Gatling Good: Has two built into his arms in Portrait of Ruin.
• Hypothetical Casting: The first game suggests that the Creature would be played by Boris Karloff, who inspired the principal appearance of the Monster in the aforementioned film by Universal.
• King Mook: Goliath in Order of Ecclesia is a larger version of the Creature with many more powerful attacks.
• Lightning Bruiser: Can become this in some games. In Symphony of the Night, his rolling attack is fast and hits hard.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Makes use of it in some fights.
• Mighty Glacier: In games where he's not a Lightning Bruiser, he moves at a plodding pace but hits like a truck, often backed with a high health pool.
• Mini-Boss: Only in Bloodlines and Chronicles.
• More Dakka: He can fire missiles out of his arms in PoR.

Appeared in Harmony of Dissonance

Dracula Wraith

See Dracula.

Appeared in Rondo of Blood / Dracula X / Symphony of the Night

Galamoth

An extremely large, demonic-looking being who resembles a dinosaur. Though originally introduced as the Big Bad in the Kid Dracula games, he made his first proper appearance in the Castlevania series in Symphony of the Night, followed by a cameo in Aria of Sorrow and a significant yet unseen villainous role in Castlevania: Judgment. Not much has been confirmed about him, but from what has been clearly established, he directly opposes Dracula and seeks to replace him as the lord of darkness. For some reason, he has spent far more time fighting Dracula's offspring.

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• Breath Weapon: He breathes fire in Kid Dracula. Given his appearance, this may also qualify as Dinosaurs Are Dragons.
• Bus Crash: Implied. Is a background villain that wants to oppose Dracula. According to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, one of Dracula's abilities, and possibly his most powerful, is the power of Dominance, which lets him take the souls of defeated enemies. What do you find hidden in a lantern, which according to Word of God contains the souls Dracula has stolen? That's right, Galamoth's soul, suggesting that some time before Dracula's death, he finally settled things with Galamoth and won.
• Cool Sword: Wields a standard sword in Boku Dracula-Kun and a Laser Blade in Kid Dracula. He also holds a circular blade in his off hand in Symphony, but never actually uses it.
• Evil Versus Evil: Each time, the forces of good favor Dracula as the dark lord.
• The Ghost: Despite his involvement in Judgment's plot, he never appears in the game, save for a Say My Name from the Time Reaper.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In Judgment, he was the one who sent the Time Reaper back in time.
• Immune to Fate: Given that he's the only villain to date to attempt to change history in his favor, and his soul's purpose in Aria is to prevent a Time Master enemy from turning back time, he likely possesses this ability in some form.
• Inconsistent Spelling: He was known as Garamoth in Kid Dracula.
• Magic Knight: Wields both magic and swords.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: His attempt to remove Dracula from power by changing history in Judgment.
• Not in the Face!: His rather hilarious weakpoint in Symphony of the Night.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: He has so much HP that his bestiary entry doesn't display it.
• Rent-a-Zilla: Though several other bosses in the series outsize him.
• Shock and Awe: In all of his appearances, right down to his special ability in Encore of the Night.
• The Starscream: Depending on his true role in relation to Dracula.
• Superboss: In Symphony, he is found in the Floating Catacombs, a completely optional area in the Inverted Castle, and is stronger than Dracula himself. He also plays this role in Encore, in which he is located in the Royal Chapel instead and drops the Alucard Sword.
• Walk Like an Egyptian: In addition to his Symphony outfit's influences, he is animated in a manner that keeps him in constant profile.

Legion

A recurring boss ever since its introduction, with its design almost always being the same — a tentacled, orb-shaped being surrounded by a shell made out of corpses.

Generally, its boss fight consists of the trying to break off the shell to reveal its core, then killing the core.

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• Body of Bodies: It usually appears as a ball of corpses.
• Degraded Boss: Appears as a common enemy in Circle of The Moon, though having a remarkably different form.
• Dub Name Change: Called Granfalloon in Symphony of the Night
• Eldritch Abomination: Even without the shell, it would still qualify.
• Energy Weapon: Its core's primary attack in all of its appearances, except for in Curse of Darkness.
• Fetus Terrible: In Aria of Sorrow, its core resembles a fetus in a circular cage.
  • The shell in the same title also has the resemblance of a curled up fetus.
• Flunky Boss: Often summons zombies by having them detach from the shell. In Harmony of Dissonance, it instead summons either maggots or miniature versions of itself.
• I Am Legion: Literally. Its Monster Compendium entry in many games often alludes to the Biblical Legion.
• Sequential Boss: In Curse of Darkness, defeating its shell will cause Nuculais to burst from the core.
• Status Effects: Can inflict curse in Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of the Moon.
• Superboss: It, especially as Nuculais, is among the most difficult bosses in Curse of Darkness , found under Garibaldi Temple.
• Underground Monkey: Strangely there are two versions of it in Harmony of Dissonance, differenciated by a title in parentheses. The normal version is called "Legion (Saint)" while the second version is called "Legion (Corpse)". Nothing about the "Saint" version is saintly, appearing exactly like the one in Symphony, while the "Corpse" version is more of a misnomer since it's made of bones.

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