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IGN’s final Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse walkthrough covers the Four Virtues, The Self Arcana, Dracula’s last fight, and the steps for the “true” ending.
IGN’s final Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse walkthrough focuses on the route to the game’s “true” ending. The video covers the Four Virtues trials in Notre-Dame, the fight against Doppelganger, also called The Self, and the final confrontation with Dracula.
The important detail comes after Dracula is defeated. According to IGN, you must equip The Self Arcana and use the Absolution spell at the end of that fight to trigger the “true” ending. This guide explains the order presented in IGN’s video and separates confirmed steps from practical planning advice.
IGN also describes this as part of a broader completion-focused walkthrough series covering all endings, relics, weapons, heart fragments, clues, and Arcana. The supplied video specifically deals with the final sequence rather than documenting every earlier collection step.
IGN’s sequence begins in Notre-Dame, where the player completes four Virtue trials or tests. They are presented in this order:
- First Virtue: Courage of Gabriel, Joan, at 00:00 in the video.
- Second Virtue: Temperance, Ferryman, at 03:00.
- Third Virtue: Justice, Saint Louis, at 05:03.
- Fourth Virtue: Prudence, Eleanor, at 12:05.
These timestamps are navigation points in IGN’s video, not separate release dates or officially named stages beyond the labels shown in the source. If you are following the walkthrough, the safest approach is to treat the Four Virtues as one connected objective and confirm that each listed trial has been completed before moving on to the boss encounter.
Analysis: The ordering matters for route planning because IGN places the Doppelganger/The Self fight immediately after the fourth Virtue. The source does not explain whether the trials can be completed in another order, whether they can be skipped, or what happens if one is revisited. Those details remain unconfirmed here, so this guide should not be read as evidence that the listed order is the only possible route.
IGN identifies the four associated names as Courage of Gabriel and Joan, Temperance and the Ferryman, Justice and Saint Louis, and Prudence and Eleanor. The source does not provide puzzle solutions or combat advice for the individual tests. Players looking for those details should use the corresponding portions of the video rather than assuming the names alone describe the required actions.
At 16:20, IGN’s walkthrough reaches the boss fight against Doppelganger, also referred to as The Self. The video then moves at 18:00 to the acquisition of The Self Arcana in the Main Hall.
For this section, the key progression point is not simply winning the boss fight. IGN’s stated route treats The Self Arcana as a required part of the ending setup. Once it has been acquired, the walkthrough leaves the immediate boss sequence and prepares the Arcana before returning to Dracula.
Analysis: That makes The Self Arcana the central item to track during the final route. If your goal is the “true” ending, do not treat the Doppelganger encounter as the endpoint. The source explicitly connects the boss fight, the Arcana, and the later Dracula battle, so the useful checklist is: complete the Four Virtues, defeat The Self, confirm that The Self Arcana has been acquired, and prepare it for the final encounter.
IGN also notes that the walkthrough tracks items found in each specific map, with numbers in parentheses appearing after many timestamps. Those numbers indicate how many of that particular item have been found in that map up to that point in the game. The source says this tracking continues across the walkthrough videos. The supplied excerpt does not identify the exact item counts for every location in this final video, so those counts should be read from the on-screen guide rather than reconstructed here.
After acquiring The Self Arcana, IGN spends part of the walkthrough leveling it. The relevant section begins at 22:45, and the video says the Arcana can be ground wherever the player finds suitable. IGN’s own route returns to the Entrance Corridor area of the Main Hall for this purpose.
This is the main preparation window before the last battle. The source does not specify a required level, a target number of uses, or a minimum amount of grinding for the “true” ending. It also does not report a test result comparing different locations. What is confirmed is that IGN levels The Self Arcana before going back to Dracula and uses the Entrance Corridor in the Main Hall as its chosen grinding area.
Analysis: The flexible wording gives players room to choose a familiar or convenient area instead of treating IGN’s grinding location as a mandatory destination. However, the ending condition itself is less flexible in the source: The Self Arcana must be equipped at the end of the Dracula fight, followed by the Absolution spell. Leveling is preparation, while equipping and casting are the stated ending triggers.
A practical checklist for this transition is:
- Make sure the Four Virtues in Notre-Dame are complete.
- Defeat Doppelganger/The Self.
- Confirm that The Self Arcana has been acquired.
- Level The Self Arcana in a suitable area, with IGN using the Main Hall’s Entrance Corridor.
- Return to Dracula and have The Self Arcana ready for the end of the fight.
The supplied source does not confirm whether changing equipment before the fight, during the fight, or only after Dracula falls affects the result. IGN’s instruction is specifically to equip The Self Arcana at the end of the Dracula fight, so that is the timing to follow if you want to stay within the documented route.
IGN returns to Dracula at 23:54 for another final fight. The Dracula battle begins at 27:23 in the video, and the “true” ending appears at 32:32.
According to IGN, the required closing sequence is to equip The Self Arcana at the end of the Dracula fight and then use the Absolution spell. The source directly identifies those actions as the way to trigger the “true” ending. This means beating Dracula alone is not presented as sufficient for the ending route covered by the video.
Analysis: The timing creates the most important possible failure point. A player may complete the Virtues, win against The Self, acquire the Arcana, and defeat Dracula, but still miss the documented trigger if The Self is not equipped at the required point or if Absolution is not used afterward. The source does not say whether the game provides a second chance, an alternate prompt, or a rewind after the fight, so it is sensible to treat the final equipment check as something to verify before committing to the battle.
IGN does not provide, in the supplied text, the full combat strategy for Dracula, the spell’s resource cost, or the exact interface steps for equipping The Self Arcana. Those details are therefore unconfirmed in this article. The reliable information from the video summary is the sequence and the required tools, not a complete boss build or a tested damage strategy.
This walkthrough summary is enough to outline the “true” ending path, but it does not answer every guide question. It does not state whether the Four Virtues must be completed in the listed order, whether other endings require different Arcana or spells, or whether The Self Arcana has any uses beyond this route.
It also does not give a recommended Arcana level, a precise number of enemies to defeat while grinding, or a comparison between the Main Hall’s Entrance Corridor and other possible areas. IGN says players can grind The Self wherever they see fit and shows its own return to the Entrance Corridor, but no performance test or efficiency ranking is supplied.
The source further does not identify the game’s broader ending requirements outside this final video. IGN describes the larger walkthrough as covering all endings and a wide collection of relics, weapons, heart fragments, clues, and Arcana, but the supplied material only documents the final “true” ending sequence. Do not assume that completing these final steps automatically confirms every other collectible or ending requirement.
If you are following the route, the most useful things to watch are the transition from the fourth Virtue to The Self, the moment The Self Arcana is obtained, and the final equipment-and-spell sequence after Dracula. Those are the points where the video provides specific progression information. Everything else, including exact trial solutions, optimal leveling targets, and alternate ending conditions, requires evidence beyond the supplied summary.
For another game from the same series, the supplied catalog includes Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. It is relevant as Castlevania context, but it is not identified in the source as the same game as Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and this article makes no claim that its mechanics or ending requirements match IGN’s walkthrough.