10 Things You Didn't Know About Castlevania
8. Igarashi Koji Isn't The Original Creator
Now, don't get me wrong - Igarashi Koji is a masterful developer and he was a leading force behind one of the best in the series: Symphony of the Night, which basically created the Metroidvania subgenre. Igarashi's future wife worked on the Castlevania team and he is said to have played the game she was working on, Rondo of Blood, during his breaks from writing Konami's 1994 dating sim, Tokimeki Memorial.
After Tokimeki's success he was allowed to join the Castlevania team. But here's the thing: Igarashi gets blanket credit for Castlevania's existence, when in reality he didn't join the Castlevania dev team until Symphony of the Night - which he wasn't even he lead developer on.
Credit for the actual creation of the franchise should be placed on Akamatsu Hitoshi. Hitoshi wrote, designed, and helped program the first Castlevania game, and he then directed the following two games: Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse. Igarashi would admit in an interview that his favorite game in the series was Akamatsu's final title, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - so much so that it is the basis for the Netflix animated Castlevania series, which Igarashi helped Warren Ellis dream up way back in 2007.