Here Is How ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ Is Connected to the Video Games

We all know that the storyline of ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ continues the story of the first ‘Castlevania’ animated series. Of course, the storyline of ‘Nocturne’ is now different compared to the first series because it now follows a cast of new characters who are set to have their own story and journeys. But we all know that, like the first series, ‘Nocturne’ was also based on the ‘Castlevania’ video game franchise. So, how is ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ connected to the video games?

Richter Belmont is the star of ‘Nocturne’

It was never in doubt that the new ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ series would be a continuation of the original ‘Castlevania’ animated series, which had a total of four seasons. The storylines of Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Alucard, and even Dracula were given closure in the first animated series. As such, the storyline of ‘Nocturne’ follows an entirely new generation of characters.

Because there would never be a ‘Castlevania’ story without a Belmont at the center of the plot, ‘Nocturne’ focuses on Richter Belmont as the star of the entire series. We know that Richter is a character that was taken straight from the video game series. Specifically, he debuted in ‘Castlevania: Rondo of Blood’ as the main character. He also returned as a supporting character in ‘Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.’

Of course, the story of ‘Nocturne,’ takes place hundreds of years after Trevor Belmont’s own story in the first ‘Castlevania’ series. This is similar to the fact that ‘Rondo of Blood’ also takes place more than three hundred years after Trevor Belmont’s own story in ‘Curse of Darkness.’ As such, we already see a connection to the video games as the main characters were taken straight out of the video games.

Some of the other main characters include Maria and Tera Renard, Annette, and Olrox. However, ‘Nocturne’ altered the characters and backstories of some of the other main characters, including Tera and Annette. But it stays quite true to Richter’s character as a vampire slayer who seeks to follow in the footsteps of his legendary vampire-slaying clan. 

‘Nocturne’ takes a different approach to Richter’s story

While we do know that ‘Nocturne’ follows the story of Richter Belmont, just like how some of the ‘Castlevania’ video games have Richter as the main character, the storyline of this animated series is actually quite different from what we’ve seen in ‘Rondo of Blood’ and ‘Symphony of the Night.’ And this is where things get interesting.

Richter’s story in ‘Rondo of Blood’ follows his journey to rescue his girlfriend, Annette, from the clutches of Dracula after the vampire king’s army attacked Annette’s village. He had to endure many things in Dracula’s castle but was able to rescue Annette and give her a chance to flee while he continued his mission of killing Count Dracula. Richter successfully defeats Dracula at the end of ‘Rondo of Blood.’

However, in ‘Symphony of the Night,’ the story starts with Richter killing Dracula, only for him to suddenly disappear after doing so. Meanwhile, Dracula’s castle still remained even though the vampire king had already been killed. It was revealed that Shaft’s wizard had taken control of Richter’s body to make him the new lord of the castle and to use this opportunity to revive Dracula. And the one at the center of everything is none other than Alucard, who we know is the half-human son of Dracula.

However, Alucard and Richter work together to defeat Dracula after Shaft successfully revives him. And Richter was likely able to live happily ever after with Annette after defeating Dracula.

But while Dracula was the main threat in the storyline of ‘Rondo of Blood’ and ‘Symphony of the Night,’ we know that the storyline of ‘Nocturne’ takes a different approach. No damsel in distress needs to be saved this time, and a castle that Richter has to invade. Instead, the story takes place in a French town during the 18th century as Richter and Maria work together to support the French Revolution and defeat the vampires who were either part of the French aristocracy or were supporting the French nobles.

However, things took a different turn when they heard about the coming of the Vampire Messiah, who was said to be able to bring eternal darkness to the entire world. A Haitian girl named Annette, who is different from Annette in the video games, joined Richter and Maria in their quest to learn more about this Vampire Messiah and prevent her from attaining her goal of taking over Europe and possibly the entire world.

This Vampire Messiah was not Count Dracula, who was always the main villain in the many different ‘Castlevania’ games that we saw. Instead, the main villain is a powerful noble vampire named Erzsebet Bathory, who drank the blood of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet to acquire godly powers.

As such, instead of Dracula as the main villain, ‘Nocturne’ has an entirely different vampire villain. There is no castle that Richter needs to invade here. Instead, he and his allies seek to free an entire town from the influence of Bathory, who is looking to use her powers to take over the entire continent of Europe.

At the end of season 1, we saw Erzsebet successfully plunging the entire world into darkness. Richter, Maria, and Annette had to flee because they realized that Bathory’s powers were too great to handle. And that was when we saw the return of Alucard, who we last saw more than 300 years ago when he aided Trevor and Sypha in their defeat of Dracula.

So, with all that said, we can see that the storyline of ‘Nocturne’ is very different from the video games that featured Richter as an important character. As such, while the characters in ‘Nocturne’ were taken straight from the video games, their storylines in the animated series are far different. Of course, the overarching plot of ‘Nocturne’ also departs from the overall story of both ‘Rondo of Blood’ and ‘Symphony of the Night.’

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