Talk:Vampire Killer

Dracula's Satanic Castle

The literal translation for this game is actually Dracula's Satanic Castle, not Demon Castle Dracula, which is different from the later games, or from what we know as Castlevania in Western nations. VGMuseum and Castlvania Dungeon both address this translation issue as being the "better translation of the period," but yes, it does change slightly as the series evolves. --Brahman 19:37, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Since people keep fixing my change of the translation of "Demon Castle Dracula," I will once again note the fact that the original translation of the game was actually "Dracula's Satanic Castle." According to this page of the Castlevania Dungeon, the authors note the fact that in Vampire Killer, the title was translated to "Dracula's Satanic Castle" (only in Europe and Brazil, since it never made it to the United States). This is what they had to say about it:

"Apparently, the original translation of ‘Akumajou Dracula’ was ‘Dracula’s Satanic Castle’ as opposed to ‘Demon Castle Dracula.’ Even though it is a viable translation, I’m sure we’re all glad it was officially changed to ‘Demon Castle.’ I highly doubt the word ‘Satanic’ would have found its way onto the NES in any case. Also of note is that the game takes place in ‘Dransylvania,’ apparently because the Transylvanian government did not want its likeness to appear in a videogame of this kind. So as the legend goes, Konami of Europe visited the small, little-known city-country of Dransylvania and the government accepted. However, the Spanish translators were never fully involved in the deal and since they figured the game would never be sold in Spain, and nobody could read Spanish anyway, they blatantly wrote ‘Transylvania’ instead."

Anyway, it makes sense that back then they would not keep the title "satanic," but would instead change it to something else, something that also fit and yet would perhaps be less "offensive." "Demon Castle Dracula" fit and has stuck through the years. --Brahman 03:45, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Just because the back of the European box translates it as such, doesn't make it the official translation. The translation used exclusively for the Japanese series is now "Demon Castle Dracula". The title could also be translated as "Satanic Castle Dracula" or "Dracula's Demon Castle", but for the sake of being consistant with the other articles, let's leave it to the official "Demon Castle Dracula". Buzda 04:36, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, the current format of the article now is fine. We won't really ever know for sure what the original intention of the translation was, but for consistency's sake, it would be fine to keep it this way but to recognize the fact that it was also mentioned as "Dracula's Satanic Castle." --Brahman 17:05, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

original castlevania game?

Commenters on a YouTube video of this game say that the MSX version began development first, as the original, earliest Castlevania game, but that the Famicom version was released first, owing to its more streamlined nature. This would be an interesting addition to the article if anyone can corroborate. Renfield (talk) 20:03, 3 September 2008 (UTC)