Castlevania is a franchise that many people know and love today, from Castlevania the anime to Castlevania the games, the brand has exploded in popularity since its inception taking its place as one of Japan’s most iconic franchises. However, not many people know that Castlevania began its dominance with Castlevania 1, a classic adventure story to rid the world of big bad Count Dracula, which was released 40 years ago from today.
Castlevania 1 was the starting point of the Castlevania lore we know and love today. So for its 40th anniversary, Konami is going all out with multiple events for this momentous occasion. The Company released a YouTube video titled “Castlevania 40th Anniversary Celebration”, and a press release detailing all the stops they pulled to make this special.
The 40th Anniversary Video is Castlevania through the ages, showing clips from Castlevania 1, where our protagonist slashes and jumps on his way to the Count, to quick flashes of all the Castlevania games that spurned from the first in 1986- all the way to 2026! Die hard fans of the game will no doubt notice their well-walked hallways and clip choices, for all but 2026, as 2026’s clip is of Castlevania Belmont’s Curse, the next Castlevania game which will be out October 15th. It then peters off into Castlevania 1’s protagonist walking through darkness, castle stairs and hallway to a celebration done by characters in the Castlevania game, even the infamous Count Dracula is there to wish a “Happy Birthday.”
It doesn’t stop there, its press release notes that as you’re reading this, Castlevania 1 is out on Mobile for 20 days until the end of October 15th for a grand total of zero dollars. The rest of the “Castlevania series titles” all have a massive “sale” in the 50% to 80% range (80% seems to be the most common on Steam) on two platforms: the aforementioned Steam & PlayStation as well, and possibly more. However, these discounts are only until October 7th for PlayStation and October 8th for Steam. Apart from this, there are a lot of other things planned like the “Castlevania 40th Anniversary An Orchestral Concert,” next year, and tracks on Castlevania Black & Red by September 26th, all info can be found here!