Halloween is quickly approaching which means that it's time for another journey into the lore of Castlevania.  Each game in the series includes a trek through Dracula's famous (and notorious) castle, and while the castle is supposed to be the same structure in each game, there are enough basic architectural and design changes to bring about new challenges from familiar areas.  The castle changes form each time it reappears.  Alucard himself once called it a "creature of chaos".  Now you can explore the many manifestations of the castle in this very detailed guide to Dracula's realm.

It seems true what the short description on the main page states: This Castlevania place never looks the same. "Why is that?" someone with a suspension of disbelief might ask his or herself. There are two opposing explanations--from both an external and in-game view--that I will use to make at least a modicum of sense: Externally, obviously, the castle has to be different or else Konami would simply be creating the exact same game again and again. But to give those changes made from game to game some semblance, there's the "Creature of Chaos" theory supplied by Alucard in Symphony that states that the castle may take many incarnations. Based on the preceding, I'll look at these many instances of change to see that the more things do change in this crazy Castlevania world, the more they're actually staying the same.

Some of the similarities are glaring obvious, such as the reappearance of the familiar red tattered curtains and gray stone columns that make up the castle entrance.  There are plenty of small subtle similarities that I bet most fans have missed included in this long pictorial, and if nothing else you'll come away from this feature with more respect for the Castlevania design staff.  The amount of detail that is reproduced in new ways is truly astounding.