Regional Differences

This is a sub-page of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.

Title#

Japan	US	Europe

The Japanese title screen is rather barebones compared to the US and European versions, which add the usual copyright and licensing info and arrange the OPENING and PASSWORD options horizontally to fit. For some reason, the European release awkwardly places these in the middle of the copyright info.

The European release also replaces nearly all mentions of Konami and their logo with "Palcom Software", which was a Konami subsidiary that handled PAL conversions at the time. It suffers from some minor palette issues on the "TWARE", the "III", and the "r" in "Dracula's."

Mapper and sound hardware#

Akumajou Densetsu was the debut game for Konami's VRC6 memory mapper, as well as the VRC6's marquee title (since only two other games ever used it; both of them relatively obscure). It provided standard features for NES/Famicom mappers at the time, such as ROM bank switching and programmable interrupts, but was most notably one of the few mappers to feature expansion audio. On top of the NES/Famicom's 5 built-in sound channels (two square waves, triangle, noise, and (D)PCM), the VRC6 adds two square wave channels with a larger variety of duty cycles, and a sawtooth channel; this allowed Akumajou Densetsu to have a rich 8-channel BGM soundtrack, a technical feat matched by only a few other Famicom games. However, the game leaves the triangle channel completely unused, making it 7 in practice.

When Akumajou Densetsu was localized into Castlevania III, it was ported to Nintendo's top-of-the-line MMC5 mapper. At the time, Nintendo did not allow third party developers to manufacture their own cartridges outside Japan, which disqualified the VRC6, since it was developed by Konami in-house. The MMC5 does also feature expansion audio, with two additional square waves (though without expanded duty cycle options) and a PCM channel. However, the NES' cartridge slot replaced the Famicom's audio passthrough signals with general-purpose signals for its expansion port, which ended up completely unused by official cartridges, causing Castlevania III to be stuck with the default 5-channel sound. The MMC5 was likely chosen because it is the only Nintendo-designed mapper which supports the same bank switching modes as the VRC6, a trait which would have greatly simplified the porting process.

When the soundtrack was adapted for the standard NES APU, Konami made some tweaks to the BGM by replacing drum samples, changing the compositions through adjusting the tempo, or adding/removing extra melodies, as well as using the triangle channel this time.

• Prelude: For the final section of the song, the NES version swings the triangle bass down, while the original FC version just has the sawtooth bass go to a lower note directly.
• Epitaph: The song is played exactly one octave lower in the NES version, but the ascending gliding notes at the end are played at a higher key compared to the FC version.
• Prayer: The ending notes in the NES version are played more slowly and are sustained longer instead of being played as a quick riff like in the FC version.
• Beginning: Different bass drum samples are used in the NES version, along with arguably worse and weaker tom and snare samples; the toms also play solo with no cymbals during the NES intro. Additionally, the NES ending section does a descending sequence before the song loops again, rather than ascending like in the FC version.
• Boss Fight: The NES version plays in a lower key compared to the FC version.
• Destiny: There's a stark difference with the NES version - it features no percussion whatsoever compared to the original. All bass drum samples and noise drums have been completely removed.
• Mad Forest: The section leading into the main portion of the song is somewhat off-key in the NES version compared to the original FC version.
• Rising: Interestingly enough, the NES version adds an arpeggio effect in place of the chords that play on the 2nd part in the FC version.
• Aquarius: Although the notes played by the backing melody in the first onboard pulse channel for the NES version (moved from the second pulse channel in the FC version) are the same, the duty cycle has been altered to make it stand out more due to the removed extra channels.
• Riddle: The most significant difference with the NES version is that it is shorter than the original FC version. More specifically, the second section in the NES version plays only one time before leading into third and final section. In other words, if the original FC version's structure was A-B-B-C, then the NES version is A-B-C.
• Pressure: The NES version plays at a noticeably faster tempo than the original FC version.
• Big Battle (Parts 1 & 2): The original FC version has both songs, after playing the intro section, going into a higher key for the next section. The NES version instead just has both songs play the next section in the same key as the intro.
• All Clear: The original FC version plays chords on both the onboard pulse channels as the countermelody to the main melody that plays on the VRC6. The NES version, in addition to moving the main melody to the first pulse channel, plays a different countermelody which uses arpeggios that roughly follow the chord patterns of the original FC version.
• Flashback: The highest note that plays at the end of the third section of the song on the FC version is not hit at all in the NES version. Additionally, different notes play on the backing melody at the end of the NES version.

Other sound differences#

• As with the music, the sound effects for picking up hearts, recovering health, and switching between characters have been modified to use the standard 5-channel sound.
• Hitting consecutive enemies with subweapons no longer produces the scoring noise used when picking up money bags.
• Eyeballs, Fishmen, Mummies, and bone-throwing Skeletons have lost the sound effects for their respective attacks.
• A sound effect has been added for the blood dripping from Dracula's second phase, and when each head is skinned, they use a higher-pitched version of the scream when a boss is defeated, rather than being silent. Dracula's third phase also has a slightly higher-pitched scream, instead of the same as other bosses.

Graphics#

Intro#

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

During the intro scroll, dark clouds sweep in above Dracula's castle in Akumajou Densetsu. Castlevania III lacks this animation, though it can be restored using the Game Genie code ZZEZSPPZ. Interestingly, the function has modified parameters to make the animation look different, suggesting that it was intended to be used at some point.

English font#

Castlevania III uses a completely different, more stylized font, compared to the more typical NES font used by Akumajou Densetsu. This change affects the appearance of all text within the game, including the status bar and the end credits. (The opposite change went on to happen between the Japanese and overseas versions of Super Castlevania IV.)

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Censorship#

Castlevania III managed to slip a lot of religious imagery under Nintendo's radar, but all of the game's nudity has been censored.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The nude statues seen on the name entry screen and password screen have been given dresses and their shading has been updated. The vines that were originally on the statues were removed.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The same also applies to the nude statues in Block 8-1.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The cross in the intro scene originally had a "glowing" effect surrounding it, which was removed.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Medusa lost her female characteristics. Interestingly, Medusa kept her female characteristics in all versions of Super Castlevania IV.

Besides the breast reduction, the completely messed up animation frame for her aiming upward stance was cleaned up. Still, three of her animation frames were less than perfect. Her head looks suspiciously mispositioned in one of her aiming straight ahead frames.

A few Medusa-tiles went unused in the Japanese ROM, an arm meant for the glitchy animation frame. And a different part of the body found in both ROMs, meant for this frame:

In-Game	Mock-up

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The leftmost statue where Sypha is met and the similar one where the Bone Dragon King is fought received additional clothing. Interestingly, a statue depicting the same woman does appear in headless form on the first stage of the game, but that one was left unaltered in the international releases.

Items, enemies, and bosses#

Various graphics have been modified or largely redone, in addition to fixing some glitches with the original versions.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

In Akumajou Densetsu, the thrown Holy Water sprite lacks the black outline it has in the original Castlevania. This was fixed in Castlevania III, but it somehow ended up with a reverse color palette.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Zombies were almost entirely overhauled. The emerging from ground sprite was completely redone, and the walking cycle was altered.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The sprites for the Ghoul Rabbit (Gremlin) enemy were replaced by those of the Fleaman from the original Castlevania, which behaved identically.

Akumajou Densetsu (unused)	Castlevania III (unused)

The jumping frame was also updated, but went unused, and in fact appears to be a leftover of an earlier redesign.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Toads get more spikes and look angrier. In what appears to be a palette glitch in Akumajou Densetsu, they change color for the animation frame when they launch and retract their tongue.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Eyeballs are less bloodshot.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Mummy enemies were overhauled, dropping the zombie pose completely. Their projectile was also redrawn.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Giant Bat's palette was changed and it was given visible eyes. In Akumajou Densetsu, the sprite with widespread wings is only properly depicted in its upside down state, and the bat(s) flash with the player's colors when hit. In Castlevania III, this sprite was altered by mirroring a part of the opposite wing instead, and the bat(s) flash with their own designated palette when hit.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The palette of the other three phases of the bat boss was of course updated as well, but the glitched animation frames in the second and third phase were never fixed.

As intended:

Akumajou Densetsu (Mock-up)	Castlevania III (Mock-up)

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Water Dragons' heads were redrawn with less fins, a cleaner snout, and a redesigned fire breath expression that is more accurate to the hitbox. Their head and body are also no longer separated by one pixel, and the completely messed up head for the middle frame of their emerging animation was fixed; in Akumajou Densetsu, it uses the player's color palette and its tiles are not flipped properly when facing right. A tile meant for the end of their snout is also erroneously placed on their back, which Castlevania III ended up removing altogether.

The dragons' fire breath attack was redesigned as well. In Akumajou Densetsu, it consists of four flames with three individual animation frames, which can be aimed up or down, while in Castlevania III, it is a singular, longer fire stream with a distinct color palette, and is animated by flipping the sprite vertically in quick succession.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Demon received a complete graphical overhaul. In Akumajou Densetsu, one of the frames of animation is missing the tile that makes up part of its leg. Its fireball attack was also made larger and received unique graphics, rather than using the same basic fireball as enemies like Bone Pillars and Fishmen.

The animation frames seen when the Demon is inside the coffin don't show up properly, and were never fixed in Castlevania III. As intended:

Akumajou Densetsu (Mock-up)	Castlevania III (Mock-up)

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Doppelganger's crosses, daggers, and axes when copying Trevor or Grant use a different, red color palette, rather than the same palette as the player's subweapons, allowing them to be more easily distinguished.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

In Akumajou Densetsu, Dracula's third form has a misplaced tile on one of his wings, intended for the throne. This was corrected in the international versions. His laser attack was also overhauled: instead of a single sprite with two basic frames for straight and angled shots, it consists of a stream of six smaller sprites that flash between two palettes, and have five distinct frames that are flipped according to the laser's trajectory.

Stages#

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

A few segments of the Murky Marsh received a graphical overhaul: the backgrounds were changed and received a different palette along with added rays of light shining through from above. The mud was also given a different texture throughout the stage.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Catacombs' palette in the early part of the stage was changed in the international versions.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The Deadly Towers' spiky platforms received a different palette in the international versions.

Trevor's handshake#

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Trevor switched his shaking hands between regions in order to fix some very awkward handshakes with Grant and Sypha. Alucard also had to be redrawn as a result.

Also, for some reason, one of the cracks below the pyramid-like structure in the background was replaced with a skull.

Credits#

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

"Sypha" was changed to "Syfa" and "Ralph Belmond" was changed to "Trevor C.Belmont." The player's name was also repositioned.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The alternate credits were rearranged and updated with the NES staff, and the original Famicom staff received a special thanks section. The titles were also updated with lowercase characters.

Other graphic differences#

Like many NES games that use both horizontal and vertical scrolling with the default limit of two nametables, Akumajou Densetsu and Castlevania III change the nametable arrangement mid-game as needed to avoid incomplete graphics from showing up onscreen before they are loaded. However, the Sunken City's flood portion (Blocks 6-4 and 6-5) is a special case where the stage scrolls horizontally, but another nametable is needed to scroll the water vertically at the bottom of the screen. Because of this, Akumajou Densetsu uses a nametable for the water, and leaves only one for the stage, instead masking the left 8 pixels of the screen. While this was a common setup for other NES games (such as Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega Man 3), it poses complications that Akumajou Densetsu's rendering logic does not fully account for, resulting in part of the status bar getting cut off, as well as wrong tiles and colors showing up at the horizontal borders of the screen.

For Castlevania III, the MMC5 provides additional RAM that can be used as a third nametable for the water, fixing these issues and allowing the stage to use a standard horizontal arrangement. Some other graphical oddities were also fixed:

• When passing through a checkpoint door, the screen no longer bounces downward one line as the door closes.
• Bone Dragons would sometimes not open their mouth when spitting a fireball if hit with a certain timing before they start moving.
• In the ending, the character sprites no longer flicker when the castle collapses.

Additionally, for some reason, the Bone Dragon King boss no longer produces splashes when its head and parts fall into the water, despite the Water Dragons' heads still doing so.

Gameplay#

Playable characters#

Notably, Grant's standard attack was completely redesigned. In Akumajou Densetsu, he throws a dagger across the screen, which functions like the dagger subweapon, but does not consume hearts and can be used while crouching, as well as while clinging to a wall or ceiling. Like the non-upgraded subweapon, only one dagger can be onscreen at a time. The only subweapons available to Grant in this version are the axe, which can be upgraded to a double shot, and the stopwatch.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

In Castlevania III, Grant's standard attack is a stab with a small handheld dagger, which has much shorter range and cannot be used while clinging to a surface, but can be used at a faster rate and with no onscreen projectile limitation, functioning more like Sypha's staff attack. The dagger subweapon has instead been made available to him. He can now also upgrade both the axe and dagger subweapons to a triple shot like Trevor, rather than only a double shot.

Sypha's ice spell was also changed to work on all bosses and most boss attacks, which it previously had no effect on. However, bosses still cannot be damaged while frozen, and the duration is generally negligible: 0.5 seconds for all bosses except the Doppelganger (0.25s), Death and the Bone Dragon King's ribs (1s), and 1.07s for most boss attacks, except the Mummies' shards (0.5s). The Water Dragons' flame breath, Medusa's gaze, and all of Dracula's attacks still cannot be frozen. Additionally, a glitch making Sypha stand up to 8 pixels above some frozen enemies was corrected, but it still exists when standing on Zombies frozen on the ground.

Boss rooms#

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

In Akumajou Densetsu, the Cyclops in Block 3-4 cannot reach the player when standing on the blocks at the edges of the room, making these completely safe spaces to attack it from. In Castlevania III, the Cyclops can walk through the blocks, and the pit at the right side was covered up, allowing it to hit the player in these spots and preventing it from being easily exploited. This also makes it so the characters have something to walk on when leaving the stage after the Sypha cutscene.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The rooms in Blocks 4-E, 7-7, and 7-C where the coffin bosses are fought have been modified, removing the rightmost pit in the first two, and the middle blocks on both sides in the last two. Much like the previous change, this allows the Mummies and Cyclops to walk all the way to the edges of the room, preventing the player from simply attacking them from a safe spot. The coffin doors for the bosses in Block 4-E also do not open properly in Akumajou Densetsu, which was fixed in Castlevania III.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

In Block 5-C, a few blocks were removed from the bottom left corner where Frankenstein's Monster enters the room, probably to not make it seem like it walked right through the blocks. The background was slightly altered as well.

Akumajou Densetsu	Castlevania III

The room where the Doppelganger is fought in Block 9-4 was changed, removing the tunnel below the middle platform. This makes the fight more difficult for Grant, as he can no longer stay out of the Doppelganger's reach easily by crawling under the middle blocks.

Second quest enemies#

In the international versions, some enemies are replaced by improved variants with new graphics after beating the game once.

First Quest	Second Quest

Medusa Heads become flying skulls with a more erratic pattern, randomly changing the timing of their arcs and their vertical speed, making them harder to avoid.

First Quest	Second Quest

In most rooms, the Knights gain a shield and learn to attack by thrusting their spears. These Knights have more health (12 → 16), and like Axe Armors, the cross flies back if it hits their shield rather than going through them. They also yield no points when killed, and can still thrust their spears when frozen by the stopwatch, possibly as an oversight.

First Quest	Second Quest

The Zombies in Stage 8 get some stylin' robes like they had in the original Castlevania. These versions have considerably more health (2 → 10) and yield no points when killed. The sprites for emerging from the ground went unused, as all Zombies in Stage 8 appear from the side of the screen.

Special names#

In the international versions, five names have unique effects when entered as the player's name. These allow permanent access to each partner, even in stages where they are normally unavailable in the first quest (which is explicitly blocked by the password system otherwise, and impossible in the Japanese version), as well as starting the second quest without a password. Most notably, however, it provides a cheat code for extra lives in the form of the "HELP ME" name (which must be typed as such, not "HELPME" as erroneously reported by some sources). The rest of the names are actually the surnames of staff members who were involved with the game, with Akama being short for Akamatsu (the director of the original Castlevania trilogy).

Damage system#

In Akumajou Densetsu, damage the player takes is specific to each enemy. Some of them deal an additional bar of damage from Stage 7 onward and in the second quest, while others keep their damage output consistent throughout the game. For example, Axe Knights' axes deal 2 damage before Stage 8, and 3 damage from this stage onward, while Skeletons deal 3 damage on contact in every stage. Each enemy's attacks can deal different damage as well; for example, Bone Pillars deal 3 damage on contact, and 2 damage with their flames, which increase to 4 and 3 (respectively) from Stage 7 onward.

In Castlevania III, damage taken instead depends on the stage, and the player takes the same amount from any source, like in the first game: 2 damage from Stages 1 to 3, 3 from Stages 4 to 7, and 4 from Stage 8 onward and in the second quest. However, there are a few exceptions:

• In Stage 2 in the first quest, Nasty Grant deals 3 damage.
• In Stages 3, 4A, 7, and 7A in the first quest, the Cyclops deals 4 damage, or 3 if the player makes contact with its head.
• In Stages 7 and 7A, the Demon deals 4 damage.
• In Stage 9 in both quests, the Doppelganger deals 3 damage with Trevor's non-upgraded whip.
• Spiked blocks deal 8 damage, while other stage hazards (acid droplets, falling blocks, and spiked flip-platforms) deal 2 damage, which are unchanged from Akumajou Densetsu.

In both versions, Grant and Sypha take an additional bar of damage from every source.

The table below shows the specific damage values for each enemy in Akumajou Densetsu.

Enemy and boss health#

In Castlevania III, the holy water deals more damage against all enemies and most bosses, instead of the same damage as Alucard's orbs. For damage dealt to enemies, both versions categorize the player's attacks into various tiers, as shown in the following table.

In Castlevania III, all damage values were doubled except the holy water's, which was instead tripled. Most enemies had their HP doubled to compensate, boosting the holy water's damage by 50% against them; two notable exceptions are the Axe Armor (16 → 48) and Bone Pillar (10 → 36), which got effective increases of 50% and 80% (respectively), making them bulkier much like in the original Castlevania.

In both versions, all bosses have 64 HP, and instead use damage tables with specific values for each tier. The holy water's damage was similarly increased against all of them except the Demon. A few bosses also take less damage across the board, effectively increasing their HP; the Mummies and Frankenstein no longer have less HP in earlier stages, the Doppelganger has 50% more HP, and the Skull Knight in Stage 5 has twice as much HP.

Enemy and boss behavior#

Several enemies and bosses have been made harder through improved attacks and other pattern differences, in addition to the aforementioned HP increases for some of them.

• Alucard: The fireballs travel twice as fast.
• Axe Armor: Their shield causes the cross subweapon to fly back instead of going through them, like in the original Castlevania, so it can no longer hit them twice.
• Bone Dragon: Only their head can be damaged. In Akumajou Densetsu, each body segment has its own HP, and fully reducing the HP of any segment can kill the Bone Dragon.
• Bone Dragon King:
  • Only the boss' head can be damaged instead of any part of its body. This effectively gives it more health, as attacks can no longer hit multiple parts at once for additional damage.
  • In Akumajou Densetsu, it only loses a segment if its body is hit (not the head), and only once even if multiple parts are hit, while in Castlevania III, it loses a segment with any hit to its head. This causes it to generally have less segments for the second battle and move faster as a result.
  • In the first battle, it leaves when its HP reaches 23 (36%) instead of 11 (17%), and it cannot drop below 23, allowing it to have more health for the second battle.
    • In Akumajou Densetsu, it is actually possible to kill the Bone Dragon King in the first battle with proper damage distribution, as it takes 13 damage from Sypha's fire and lightning spells, skipping the condition entirely if they hit it with 12 or 13 HP. In this case, the flood cutscene is not triggered, so the player remains stuck until the time limit runs out.
• Bone Pillar: The fireballs travel around 25% faster. The ones found in the staircase sections in Stages 5A and 9 also have a shorter delay between fireball rounds, with a random amount between roughly 1.75 and 3 seconds, down from 2 to 4 seconds.
• Cyclops: In addition to the changes made to the boss rooms, the boss is more likely to use its ram attack when the player is at a far distance, making it harder to avoid damage without staying close to it or near the blocks. Its proximity-triggered hammer attack also has a roughly 33% faster wind-up.
• Demon: The fireballs travel twice as fast, have larger hitboxes, and the attack consists of three fireballs that spread outward, instead of one shot forward and one shot diagonally based on the player's position.
• Doppelganger: The boss is generally more aggressive, chasing the player more often and attacking at a faster rate. (Worth noting is, despite Grant's modified dagger attack, the Doppelganger still copies the original version, throwing both daggers and axes.)
• Dracula:
  • The second phase's blood droplets can hit the player when crouched, unlike in Akumajou Densetsu, where this can be exploited to easily avoid damage as he floats over the player.
  • The second phase's heads no longer lose their hitboxes after getting skinned. However, this also has the unfortunate side effect of preventing Alucard's orbs from hitting the middle head, unless he clips into it with damage invincibility, leaving him unable to finish the battle alone.
  • The third phase's lasers are longer and can be aimed in any direction, instead of only at downward angles, allowing them to hit the player while on the moving platforms.
• Fuzz Buster: In both versions, this enemy has the maximum HP of 127, and can actually be killed by attacks. Castlevania III tries to avoid this by resetting its HP after it exits hitstun from an attack; however, it can still be stunlocked by fast enough attacks such as holy waters or Grant/Sypha's default attack, in which case it can be killed with half as many hits as in Akumajou Densetsu.
• Medusa:
  • The snake-arrows travel around 50% faster and have generally better accuracy: she only aims them diagonally upward when the player is at a higher position than the top left blocks, rather than at any position higher than her, and arrows shot straight ahead can instead deviate up or down, based on the player's height relative to her when she starts aiming. The latter prevents the player from simply remaining crouched to easily dodge arrows; instead, they must crouch after she starts aiming.
  • The gaze attack travels around 50% faster and now reaches the left edge of the room, so it can only be dodged by staying on the top left blocks.
• Mummy (enemy): Upon spawning, they shoot their shards only 0.5 seconds after starting to walk, then after around every 1.5 seconds of walking, instead of taking around 4 seconds for both, making them considerably more aggressive.
• Mummy (boss): The shards fly in a wavy trajectory like the enemy versions, rather than in a straight line, making them much harder to hit or dodge.
• Nasty Grant: The thrown axes travel twice as fast. A glitch that could cause him to get stuck in the left wall when attacked with holy water was also fixed.
• Water Dragons: The redesigned fire breath attack has longer horizontal range, making the dragons harder to attack from a safe position. As it consists of a single object instead of multiple, it also results in considerably less slowdown, and a glitch has been fixed where the flames could sometimes be displaced across the stage the first time the dragons attack.

Conversely, a few bosses have been made easier in some ways:

• Demon: The three jumps before it shoots fireballs all have the same duration, instead of the first two being shorter, giving the player more time to walk under it.
• Dracula: The first phase no longer attacks the player almost immediately at the start of the fight, instead waiting for around one second, and the delay between the first two flame pillars, the third flame pillar, and the subsequent teleport is around 60% longer, no longer reappearing while the third pillar is still active. This gives the player considerably more time to dodge the attacks and avoid getting cornered into a position where they become unavoidable.
• Giant Bat: The bats are immediately vulnerable after splitting, unlike in Akumajou Densetsu, where they get 13 frames of invincibility. This makes it much easier to time attacks after each split and immediately hit all bats at once, trivializing the fight.
• Skull Knight: The slash attack does not hit as low, allowing every character to crouch under it, instead of only Grant.

Stage changes#

• The descending section back to the entrance of the Clock Tower in Block 2-6 features Medusa Heads throughout as additional enemies.
• The Red Whip Skeleton and Ghosts in Block 5-7 appear during both quests, rather than only the second quest.
• In Akumajou Densetsu, the Bats in Blocks 6-4 and 6-5 only appear during the second quest. In Castlevania III, the second quest has them spawn at an even higher frequency.
• If the player dies in Block 6-5 (second part of the flood section), rather than respawning at the right side of the room, they are sent back to the start of Block 6-4.
• The pendulum room before Dracula in Block A-2 has Bats spawn throughout, rather than being free of enemies.
• Dying in Block A-3 (where Dracula is fought) sends the player back to the start of Block A-2 (before the pendulum room). Alongside Block 6-5, this makes it the only Block in any version of the game to not serve as a checkpoint.
• It is possible to skip the stages between 4-1 and A-1 with Grant, by abusing a wrong warp glitch involving changing characters in stairways.

Item placements#

Most stages have had items dropped from candles changed, either redistributing them throughout the stage or replacing them altogether with different ones. While some stages remove certain subweapons entirely, most notably Stage 4A no longer allowing the player to obtain the cross or holy water, others have received new items, such as a 1UP in Stage 10.

Some stages in Castlevania III also gained additional candles:

• Block 1-4 has a candle containing a small heart at the right side of the boss room.
• Blocks 2-3 and 2-4 have two candles in the boss room, with a small heart in the left one and a large heart in the right one.
• The start of Block 5-1 has a candle in the enclosed area where acid droplets fall, containing a cross.
• The last stretch of Block 5-B has a candle in the lower floor containing a cross, and another in the upper floor containing a large heart, both right before the door leading to Block 5-C. The start of Block 5-C also has a candle right after the door, containing a small heart.
• Blocks 6-4 and 6-5 have received a complete assortment of candles throughout them, with two near the start of Block 6-4 containing a dagger and holy water, and the rest containing hearts and money bags. In Akumajou Densetsu, these sections lacked candles entirely.
• Block 7-2 has a candle containing holy water above the lowest pair of crumbling blocks.
• Block A-1 has four candles throughout the descending portion, with the topmost one containing a stopwatch, and the rest containing small hearts. In Akumajou Densetsu, this portion lacked candles entirely. Block A-3 also has a candle below the right cup in Dracula's room, containing a small heart.

Lastly, Castlevania III removed one hidden item from Akumajou Densetsu: a 1UP in Block 5-4, in a ceiling block before the top right door, which was effectively replaced by the new 1UP in Block 5-1. All other hidden items remained the same between versions.

Castlevania III also makes it so candles can only drop 1UPs once until the player clears the current stage or dies, before which any further candles with 1UPs drop small hearts instead. Akumajou Densetsu has no such protection, so the player can exit and re-enter rooms with 1UP candles to easily farm extra lives, which is doable in Block 4-C. However, this also prevents the player from getting both 1UPs in Stage 5 in one life.

European version#

The European version is largely identical to the US version, but has a few changes to make the game easier, undoing some of its increased difficulty. All damage taken by the player is reduced by one bar; thus, all enemies and most bosses deal 1 damage from Stages 1 to 3, 2 damage from Stages 4 to 7, and 3 damage from Stage 8 onward and in the second quest.

All enemies also have reduced HP, except the Fuzz Buster and the second quest Knight:

• Axe Armor: 48 → 36
• Balloon, Fire Eye, Fishman, Flying Skeleton, Frog, Giant Spider, Gremlin, Harpy, Medusa Head, Mud Man, Owl, and Slime: 4 → 3
• Bat, Crow, Headless Hunter, Skeletons, and Zombie (first quest): 2 → 1 (negligible since no attack deals less than 2 damage)
• Bone Dragon: 64 → 48
• Bone Pillar: 36 → 24
• Fireman, Ghost, Knight (first quest), and Skull Swordsman: 12 → 8
• Mummy: 6 → 3
• Zombie (second quest): 10 → 5

Additionally, to compensate for the conversion from 60 to 50 Hz, the stage timer decrements every 50 frames, instead of 64 in the Japanese and US versions (slightly longer than a real second). However, since the general gameplay is also slower, this gives the player less time to complete the stages.