With the thirtieth anniversary of Konami’s legendary Super Castlevania IV looming large, there is perhaps no better time to shine a light on arguably some of the biggest stars of the series – namely the bosses. They’re a motley crew of rock-hard adversaries that always provide our heroes with an often overwhelming challenge. So strap in and be prepared to take more than a few on the chin, because these guys are the hardest Castlevania bosses to fight across the entire franchise.
Dracula
It’s perhaps fitting that the hardest boss fight in all the Castlevania games is none other than the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula. Harder than Mike Tyson if he was made entirely of sledgehammers, Dracula is an absolute trial, and arguably a definitive test of a player’s monster-smacking acumen. In particular, the tall fanged one is especially challenging in the remastered version of Rondo of Blood in Dracula X Chronicles where, after being killed for a second time, his third “life” has him morphing into a terrifying dark angel that does frankly ridiculous amounts of damage. Maybe if Gary Oldman’s Dracula had just half of the butt-kicking ability that his Castlevania counterpart possesses, Francis Ford Coppola’s classic gothic silver screen effort might have ended a little bit differently.
Death
Easily one of the hardest Castlevania bosses, Death is similar to Big Drac in that he is something of a regular fixture in the franchise. Though Death isn’t as consistently difficult to beat as the big D, he does have some proper standout battles that will comprehensively batter even the most veteran players. Chief among these is his appearance as one of Castlevania 3’s most difficult bosses, where he literally floods the screen with totally deadly, flying scythes that the player must dodge. Furthermore, if you fancy a stauncher challenge, just try and take on Death in the original Castlevania…because if you don’t have sufficient holy water to pelt him with, your bacon is cooked. So yeah, best of luck with that.
Cornell
Look, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow‘s resident werewolf boss is not to be trifled with. One of the most taxing boss battles of the entire franchise, Cornell is a savage enemy that wields a massive Warhammer to devastate his foes. Worse still, our man can not only also augment his sizable skull smasher with shadow magic for extra damage, but he can also shapeshift into a massive werewolf that dashes across the screen at the blink of an eye. Oh, but it gets better – Cornell can also make himself immortal by splintering his essence into special statues while preventing players from leaping over him to gain a tactical advantage. What a lad.
Saint Germain
A time-travelling swagger merchant with style to spare, the seemingly uptight Saint Germain is easily one of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness’ most challenging boss fights. He comes complete with his trusty sabre, pistol and time-altering pocket watch (think Doctor Strange with a gun and stabby, and you aren’t too far off). What makes the mustachioed Saint Germain especially difficult to deal with is his overhead attack, which poisons your character if it lands…but what’s a bit of poison between friends, eh? Well, a bit of poison pretty quickly turns into a whole heap of the stuff when Saint Germain speeds up time after you’ve been poisoned, hastening your demise in the process.
Abaddon
The insect-like Abaddon is a putrid, shambling mess of twisted limbs and swarming locusts, and is easily one of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow’s most horrendously-difficult boss fights. While simply touching Abaddon will cause great damage to the player, it’s his gargantuan swarms of locusts that prove to be the most challenging factor in the fight, requiring the player to pull off some crazy acrobatics to avoid being overwhelmed and seeing the fight reach a premature end. Bring bug spray. Lots of it.
Relive the agony of losing over and over to the hardest Castlevania bosses; check out our selection of Castlevania titles over on the Green Man Gaming Store. Just please promise us that no keyboards will be harmed…
