Castlevania 3 Regional Differences

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (USA)/Akumajo Densetsu (Japan) differences:

Read through all of this link: https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_III:_Dracula%27s_Curse/Regional_Differences

Below are some of the speedrun gameplay differences for the Alucard route:

Stage 1:
I grab the 2nd whip upgrade in the medusa room via whipping a candle because the holy water hit box is smaller and so I end up with one less heart as a reset. A few of the ghoul spawns are a bit different but I jump over them just the same. The holy water is a tad less effective on the Skeleton Boss so I stand further to the left and try to trigger it to hit me, which fixes its position on the holy water fire.

Stage 3:
The owls give 3 damage per hit in JP instead of 2 making this section more reset heavy. We grab the cross here which will be our main weapon for the rest of the game, making all drops after the cross grab a reset. Because we have the cross we will be doing the final stretch a tad slower, hitting objects with the cross so we can get to a multiplier at the beginning of stage 4. The fireballs are also much slower in the JP version.

Stage 4:
We do a standing cross through at the start to get the double multiplier, and use our crosses to help clear out the frogs as much as possible. The Mud Men section is a little bit more volatile without the holy water so we do one standing cross in the mud to help clear the way, and we take the top route towards the rosary to keep out of the mud. We plan to get the triple multiplier at the end of this stretch from a candle before the door. In the room with the ghosts, there is a spawn at the end before the stairs that we need to hit to slow down so we can jump over it. The Bat Boss is green and mean, the bat gets to move before it can be hit again making grouping more difficult so we can not use the simple whip strat. For better consistency I stand on top and wait for the Bat to move up, which is a variant time loss, and we hope to time our first 3 whips just right so we can take out all the small bats in a cross or two. Usually we get hit in the process, knocked back off the platform, so we need the health to spare.

Stage 5A:
The fire men give 3 damage but their flames give 2 damage, so we need to clear out the fire men and only take damage from their small flames because we have to take one more hit at the end of the level. The spike presser boost actually can boost you off to the right with a well timed jump, unless getting boosted to the top of the presser such as in the US version. We take damage from the last fuzz on the stairs because we don't have the holy water to stun him. The Alucard fight is still done in two cycles but we are using the Cross instead.

Stage 5B:
We do two immediate jumps here to get the extra hearts, which we are doing because we want to fly all the way to trigger the Skeleton Boss. The mummies do not throw wrappings so we can avoid damage from them. At the beginning of the next section after the map cut scene we do a standing attack to get another heart, and this delay makes it possible to just jump over to the platform on the left without taking damage. We kill the Skeleton Boss without switching to Trevor which will save time from having to switch back and forth. Since we start stage 6 with Alucard, we lose no time with character switching by using Alucard to kill the Skeleton Boss. Unlike the US version, in the JP version Alucard can do more damage to the Skeleton Boss, it is not possible to quickly kill this boss with Alucard in the US version which is why it is faster to switch to Trevor in the US version.

Stage 6:
Most of this stage is the same except that the knight at the start of the long flying section is a bit less predictable, which may lead us to do this stage as shown in the JP Alucard TAS. The skeleton at the end sometimes does not throw a bone but thankfully this does not cause problems because we boost up on the 3rd throw which seems to always occur. Frankenstein does less walking and there is less lag.

Stage 7:
The second Bat Boss is once again green and mean. You can't quick kill this boss with Alucard but can still be beaten by Alucard faster than switch characters back and forth in order to do it with Trevor. This fight just takes longer because the small bats can fly all over the place and containment is not 100%. Through out the whole level we grab more hearts, especially during the auto scroller which I do with Alucard and grab everything we can. I also try not to lose an extra heart when triggering the Bat Boss, if you debat too soon you fail to trigger the Boss and lose time, if you debat too late you will trigger the boss but will lose a heart. The final fight with the Triple Boss we use Crosses with Trevor. It is ideal to have 18 hearts to start this fight. We also try to do a setup that will kill the mummy on the right after we kill the one on the left so the ghost has less distance to fly to trigger next Boss.

Stage 8:
Everything is the same except for two things. Enemies do less damage so you can take more than 4 hits before you die making it less likely for a faster phase one to end a run. The green blobs are different in that you have to set them up so they don't jump into you. Mimicking what you do in the US version will cause you to get hit.

Stage 9:
The most important difference in this stage is that we will be fighting the Boss with Alucard so we need full health. This means that we must get through the whole level without taking a hit. A slightly different waterfall room strat followed by not taking a hit on the knight up on top. There is meat near the end of the level which Ohon gets but the goal is to avoid needing it. Next are the troll birds, if I take a hit it means that I will most-likely die on the Boss, could be an instant reset. Not switching to Trevor in the JP version because we don't have the holy water this time, and we would just be switching back to Alucard in stage A so this saves from switching back and forth.

Stage A:
We start this level with Alucard so our goal is to just get through the birds and down to the auto scroller as fast as possible, no axe grab or multiplier like in US version. There are no candles in auto scroller and therefore no hearts there, but there are a few more medusa heads. Slower fireballs again from the pillars but it does not effect game play. A small heart replaces the large heart above the first skeleton so we don't have enough hearts to do the clip, which would only save 2 seconds. So no final clip. The dracula fight is now done with a Cross. Phase one is rather quick, Phase two is very tight execution with lots of lag, Phase three should be simple.