While it may have been a remake of the original Castlevania and not a completely original game, Super Castlevania IV was, without a doubt, one of the best Castlevania games ever made. Not only did it add plenty of content to make it the definitive version of the original game at that point, but it also made controlling Simon much more enjoyable and satisfying, with full midair control while jumping and being able to whip in eight different directions. There were no real complaints that I had about the game overall, and it is definitely the best way to bring the series to the 16-bit era. With all that being said, however… in my original review of that game, I did mention that it was not quite my favorite Castlevania game, or even my favorite classicvania game. That game would be released just a couple years later, but only in Japan, while us in the west would get the inferior Castlevania: Dracula X. Eventually, we would get the original version of that game released as part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, where it would get fully translated in English as Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
In many different ways, Rondo of Blood could be seen as nothing too extraordinary when it comes to a classicvania game, and in other ways, it could even be seen as a step back when compared to what Super Castlevania IV brought to the table. However, what it does add greatly outweighs what was lost in this title, making for what I would consider without a doubt to be the best of the classic Castlevania games. Even back in the day, when I was just playing it for the first time on my Wii out of curiosity, I knew that I preferred this over all the others, despite all the additions that they would bring to the series. There is so much to love about this game, as it manages to still retain the good ol’ Castlevania gameplay intact while still being pretty fun, while also adding plenty of elements that benefit it just enough to make it edge out over the others.
The story is, for the most part, exactly what you would expect for a Castlevania game, but it does add several other elements to make it seem somewhat more original, such as there being several maidens that were kidnapped to be used to bring back Dracula, which does add a little more flavor to the story other then it just being “dracula bad, go kill”, the graphics are incredible, with this definitely being the best looking Castlevania game at this point, and the designs of the enemies, bosses, and Richter himself still looking great all the way to this day, the music is as great as you would expect for a Castlevania game, with plenty of rocking tunes, as well as remixes of classic tracks that hold up extremely well, the control is exactly what you would expect from a Castlevania game, and it works pretty well, even if it isn’t as versatile as what Super Castlevania IV gave us, and the gameplay is also what you would expect from a classic Castlevania game, while also adding in several new additions to make it stand out from others.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you primarily take control of Richter Belmont, take on a set of at least eight stages across plenty of different gothic environment, fend off plenty of different monsters, both classic and new, which will give you quite the challenge if you aren’t properly prepared to take them on, gather plenty of hearts, money, sub-weapons, and health items throughout the game to assist you in your quest to vanquish the unholy creatures before you, and take on plenty of different bosses that range from familiar faces, to all new foes that will test your strength and reflexes. For the most part, it plays pretty much like your standard Castlevania game, and it doesn’t really warrant any reason to play it over other titles, at least, on the surface level. But, what it does add to the series greatly benefits it in the long run, and makes it fun to come back to even now.
Like with Castlevania III, this game has plenty of different alternating pathways that the player can take, but unlike with Castlevania III, you aren’t just flatout given the option to choose between them, but rather, you have to find them in the stages for yourself. That may seem like a hindrance to some, but for me, I always love shit like this, where you are encouraged to explore these seemingly linear levels to see whatever kinds of secrets you can find, and it is all the more rewarding whenever you do eventually find them. And also like Castlevania III, this game brings back the option of being able to play as multiple characters. As you go through the stages, you can end up finding and saving the maidens that got captured at the beginning of the game, and while most of them are just there for you to save, one of them, Maria, ends up becoming a character that you can swap between at any point. For those of you who haven’t played this game, let me tell you, when you unlock Maria, you will not wanna switch back from playing as her, because she is AWESOME. Not only is her main attack pretty cool and very useful, but the sub-weapons she gets are extremely helpful in certain circumstances, especially against bosses. The only downside to her is that she takes double damage, but with all that stuff that I mentioned earlier, plus having the ability to double jump and perform a special attack on top of that, how can you not want to stick with her for the entire game?
In addition to those new features, we also get fully animated and voice acted cutscenes for the first time in a Castlevania game, and they are pretty well done……… or at least, I would say that, if I wasn’t playing the Japanese version, and I could understand what they were saying. I would play through the English version, but that’s only part of The Dracula X Chronicles, which I don’t have, and I wanna save those for whenever I do get around to that game, so for now, I will just say that the cutscenes do look and sound really good, even if I can’t understand anyone. And finally, this may be a tiny little thing, but I gotta mention it anyway: you no longer permanently lose sub-weapons upon picking up a new one. For every Castlevania game before this, whenever you picked up a new sub-weapon, the one that you were currently holding gets completely replaced, which does kind of suck in some instances, where you end up picking up a sub-weapon that you REALLY didn’t want. Any classic Castlevania player knows this struggle, we have all gone through it. Thankfully, this time around, whenever you do grab a new sub-weapon, the one you were holding gets tossed aside, and you can choose which one you want before proceeding forward. It may not seem like much, but trust me, that is a fix that I am incredibly thankful for.
With all that being said though, as much as I have sung this game’s praises, and while I myself don’t have any problems with it, I can see why people may not prefer this over the previous title. This game returns to the classic control style of the original games, meaning that you can only whip whatever is directly in front of you, and you have an arching jump. While I myself don’t personally mind this, as I am very used to this style of gameplay, those who didn’t like this style and loved the changes that Super Castlevania IV introduced will probably be disappointed when going to this game. But again, that would probably only apply to some certain players, as this didn’t bother me at all. And not to mention, you get a backflip and slide, which Super Castlevania IV didn’t have, so your argument is invalid either way. For me, this game was still great to play through even to this day, and with the added replay value of the many different pathways and the multiple endings that you can get depending on who you beat the game with, it gives the player many different reasons to want to try this game out and go through it again and again.
Overall, this is, in my personal opinion, the best classic Castlevania game ever made, as it not only is another round of that incredibly fun and satisfying gameplay that we all know and love, but the many additions that this game would introduce adds to the amount of charm and fun that can be experienced from it, which I’m sure any longtime fan of the franchise could appreciate. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of Castlevania, or even for those who want to get into the series, because even if it may not be as accessible as Super Castlevania IV, it has plenty going for it that makes it worth checking out. Just, you know, make sure you are playing the CORRECT version of the game, and not Dracula X. It isn’t bad by any means, but nonetheless, it should be ashamed of itself for even existing in the first place.
Game #412
In many different ways, Rondo of Blood could be seen as nothing too extraordinary when it comes to a classicvania game, and in other ways, it could even be seen as a step back when compared to what Super Castlevania IV brought to the table. However, what it does add greatly outweighs what was lost in this title, making for what I would consider without a doubt to be the best of the classic Castlevania games. Even back in the day, when I was just playing it for the first time on my Wii out of curiosity, I knew that I preferred this over all the others, despite all the additions that they would bring to the series. There is so much to love about this game, as it manages to still retain the good ol’ Castlevania gameplay intact while still being pretty fun, while also adding plenty of elements that benefit it just enough to make it edge out over the others.
The story is, for the most part, exactly what you would expect for a Castlevania game, but it does add several other elements to make it seem somewhat more original, such as there being several maidens that were kidnapped to be used to bring back Dracula, which does add a little more flavor to the story other then it just being “dracula bad, go kill”, the graphics are incredible, with this definitely being the best looking Castlevania game at this point, and the designs of the enemies, bosses, and Richter himself still looking great all the way to this day, the music is as great as you would expect for a Castlevania game, with plenty of rocking tunes, as well as remixes of classic tracks that hold up extremely well, the control is exactly what you would expect from a Castlevania game, and it works pretty well, even if it isn’t as versatile as what Super Castlevania IV gave us, and the gameplay is also what you would expect from a classic Castlevania game, while also adding in several new additions to make it stand out from others.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you primarily take control of Richter Belmont, take on a set of at least eight stages across plenty of different gothic environment, fend off plenty of different monsters, both classic and new, which will give you quite the challenge if you aren’t properly prepared to take them on, gather plenty of hearts, money, sub-weapons, and health items throughout the game to assist you in your quest to vanquish the unholy creatures before you, and take on plenty of different bosses that range from familiar faces, to all new foes that will test your strength and reflexes. For the most part, it plays pretty much like your standard Castlevania game, and it doesn’t really warrant any reason to play it over other titles, at least, on the surface level. But, what it does add to the series greatly benefits it in the long run, and makes it fun to come back to even now.
Like with Castlevania III, this game has plenty of different alternating pathways that the player can take, but unlike with Castlevania III, you aren’t just flatout given the option to choose between them, but rather, you have to find them in the stages for yourself. That may seem like a hindrance to some, but for me, I always love shit like this, where you are encouraged to explore these seemingly linear levels to see whatever kinds of secrets you can find, and it is all the more rewarding whenever you do eventually find them. And also like Castlevania III, this game brings back the option of being able to play as multiple characters. As you go through the stages, you can end up finding and saving the maidens that got captured at the beginning of the game, and while most of them are just there for you to save, one of them, Maria, ends up becoming a character that you can swap between at any point. For those of you who haven’t played this game, let me tell you, when you unlock Maria, you will not wanna switch back from playing as her, because she is AWESOME. Not only is her main attack pretty cool and very useful, but the sub-weapons she gets are extremely helpful in certain circumstances, especially against bosses. The only downside to her is that she takes double damage, but with all that stuff that I mentioned earlier, plus having the ability to double jump and perform a special attack on top of that, how can you not want to stick with her for the entire game?
In addition to those new features, we also get fully animated and voice acted cutscenes for the first time in a Castlevania game, and they are pretty well done……… or at least, I would say that, if I wasn’t playing the Japanese version, and I could understand what they were saying. I would play through the English version, but that’s only part of The Dracula X Chronicles, which I don’t have, and I wanna save those for whenever I do get around to that game, so for now, I will just say that the cutscenes do look and sound really good, even if I can’t understand anyone. And finally, this may be a tiny little thing, but I gotta mention it anyway: you no longer permanently lose sub-weapons upon picking up a new one. For every Castlevania game before this, whenever you picked up a new sub-weapon, the one that you were currently holding gets completely replaced, which does kind of suck in some instances, where you end up picking up a sub-weapon that you REALLY didn’t want. Any classic Castlevania player knows this struggle, we have all gone through it. Thankfully, this time around, whenever you do grab a new sub-weapon, the one you were holding gets tossed aside, and you can choose which one you want before proceeding forward. It may not seem like much, but trust me, that is a fix that I am incredibly thankful for.
With all that being said though, as much as I have sung this game’s praises, and while I myself don’t have any problems with it, I can see why people may not prefer this over the previous title. This game returns to the classic control style of the original games, meaning that you can only whip whatever is directly in front of you, and you have an arching jump. While I myself don’t personally mind this, as I am very used to this style of gameplay, those who didn’t like this style and loved the changes that Super Castlevania IV introduced will probably be disappointed when going to this game. But again, that would probably only apply to some certain players, as this didn’t bother me at all. And not to mention, you get a backflip and slide, which Super Castlevania IV didn’t have, so your argument is invalid either way. For me, this game was still great to play through even to this day, and with the added replay value of the many different pathways and the multiple endings that you can get depending on who you beat the game with, it gives the player many different reasons to want to try this game out and go through it again and again.
Overall, this is, in my personal opinion, the best classic Castlevania game ever made, as it not only is another round of that incredibly fun and satisfying gameplay that we all know and love, but the many additions that this game would introduce adds to the amount of charm and fun that can be experienced from it, which I’m sure any longtime fan of the franchise could appreciate. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of Castlevania, or even for those who want to get into the series, because even if it may not be as accessible as Super Castlevania IV, it has plenty going for it that makes it worth checking out. Just, you know, make sure you are playing the CORRECT version of the game, and not Dracula X. It isn’t bad by any means, but nonetheless, it should be ashamed of itself for even existing in the first place.
Game #412
Aged poorly
I knew from inescapable reputation that Rondo was the one where Castlevania first dipped into Full Anime for its style of presentation, but nobody had prepared me for the fact that this is not the the Dragon Ball ass Slam Dunk ass 90s shonen extreme hard shit jump treatment I was expecting. Rather Rondo of Blood swerves hard into shoujo aesthetics and this is endlessly infinitely more delightful to me as someone who likes that side of the industry way more and as an American has to work harder to find my shit a lot of the time.
It would be easy to say that Rondo is just giving Sailor Moon, specifically its anime adaptation, and that’s not NOT true. You can hear it in the ethereal jazz pop of most of the arrangements, you can see it in the way characters are framed and in the intense and bright color choices used in the cutscenes, you can see it in the shape of Richter’s face even. But there are details all over these cutscenes and voice performances and castle designs and everything that harken not only to Takahashi’s 90s behemoth but as far back as stuff like Rose of Versailles and Moto Hagio’s European-set works. The VIBE is just more akin to the DRAMA and INTENSITY and FORCE of classic shoujo, where feeling is empowerment but not the same as power, and tragedy mars beauty around every corner. Really unexpected, really delightful.
Delightful is the name of the game, and it’s so so cool to see that of the three main branches of sixteen bit Castlevania, each of the first two have sought to be radically different visions of what the franchise could evolve to be and both are equally exciting and worthwhile. Rondo is not quite as immediately game changing as Super IV; in terms of game feel it’s much closer to tradition, but it starts to differentiate itself i subtle ways. Unlike the NES games you do get a LITTLE leeway midair in jump control, and Richter Belmont can execute a sick backflip in midair from a flat jump. He can’t whip in all directions or swing around but he DOES have fuck off stupid super moves tied to his subweapons. These things are really important because while otherwise the player is as slow and tanky as they’ve ever been in Castlevania (and without any of the slick movement or combat options that other characters afforded in Dracula’s Curse), enemies are way more fast and maneuverable and generally aggressive. If the axe knights on the NES used to throw one or two axes at a time, now they throw three or four and toss out a vertical throw just like you do in the middle of it, and you can’t dodge it anymore. Spear skeletons stab through the floor layers, they’re assholes! It makes for easily the hardest game in the series so far and I had a much harder time getting a handle on it, my longest runtime and most deaths for sure. You NEED that backflip and those special moves to keep pace. It’s not an unfair challenge though, nor unbalanced, and the ever-present infinite continues and generous checkpointing of the series are welcome as ever. Unlike a lot of its peers and despite its appearances Castlevania never wants you to fail.
The appearances are sick tho. The game is absolutely gorgeous, top to bottom, some of the slickest uses of parallax layers I’ve ever seen. Full of little touches. Every boss has a little intro cutscene that happens during gameplay where they come in from the background element. You’re revisiting locations from past games, even Simon’s Quest! Flames look bright, spirits look properly ghostly, dungeons look dingy, you only see that the boss who chases you through that one level is just a torso if you let him catch up enough to fully enter the screen. It’s so cool, a game that really never stops giving.
And there’s Maria!! An entire second character who plays completely differently and is so fun and cool! She’s also hilarious, nobody in this game knows what to do with her. She gets the same like morale-breaking speech from Dracula that Richter does in the ending but she’s like eight years old and a badass so she’s like shut the fuck up Dracula you loser and he’s just like yeah fair enough I guess you’re not a weenie like Richter. I love her she’s so fuckin sick dude make Maria the Star these Belmont guys all suck ass and fail constantly. I don’t think Richter even kills Dracula in this ending?? Kind of hard to tell???? I’m not sure if I just can’t read the cutscene or if it’s ambiguous on purpose or I’m supposed to understand that he got away. I guess Symphony is a sequel to this one and I’ll find out in a couple games.
Regardless I get it I’m on board I’m not gonna be a contrarian here dude Rondo is sick as fuck just a rowdy ass game, good ass time, every five minutes I saw something that had me hooting and hollering. This is gaming for real, doesn’t get any better than this.
PREVIOUSLY: SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV
NEXT TIME: BLOODLINES
It would be easy to say that Rondo is just giving Sailor Moon, specifically its anime adaptation, and that’s not NOT true. You can hear it in the ethereal jazz pop of most of the arrangements, you can see it in the way characters are framed and in the intense and bright color choices used in the cutscenes, you can see it in the shape of Richter’s face even. But there are details all over these cutscenes and voice performances and castle designs and everything that harken not only to Takahashi’s 90s behemoth but as far back as stuff like Rose of Versailles and Moto Hagio’s European-set works. The VIBE is just more akin to the DRAMA and INTENSITY and FORCE of classic shoujo, where feeling is empowerment but not the same as power, and tragedy mars beauty around every corner. Really unexpected, really delightful.
Delightful is the name of the game, and it’s so so cool to see that of the three main branches of sixteen bit Castlevania, each of the first two have sought to be radically different visions of what the franchise could evolve to be and both are equally exciting and worthwhile. Rondo is not quite as immediately game changing as Super IV; in terms of game feel it’s much closer to tradition, but it starts to differentiate itself i subtle ways. Unlike the NES games you do get a LITTLE leeway midair in jump control, and Richter Belmont can execute a sick backflip in midair from a flat jump. He can’t whip in all directions or swing around but he DOES have fuck off stupid super moves tied to his subweapons. These things are really important because while otherwise the player is as slow and tanky as they’ve ever been in Castlevania (and without any of the slick movement or combat options that other characters afforded in Dracula’s Curse), enemies are way more fast and maneuverable and generally aggressive. If the axe knights on the NES used to throw one or two axes at a time, now they throw three or four and toss out a vertical throw just like you do in the middle of it, and you can’t dodge it anymore. Spear skeletons stab through the floor layers, they’re assholes! It makes for easily the hardest game in the series so far and I had a much harder time getting a handle on it, my longest runtime and most deaths for sure. You NEED that backflip and those special moves to keep pace. It’s not an unfair challenge though, nor unbalanced, and the ever-present infinite continues and generous checkpointing of the series are welcome as ever. Unlike a lot of its peers and despite its appearances Castlevania never wants you to fail.
The appearances are sick tho. The game is absolutely gorgeous, top to bottom, some of the slickest uses of parallax layers I’ve ever seen. Full of little touches. Every boss has a little intro cutscene that happens during gameplay where they come in from the background element. You’re revisiting locations from past games, even Simon’s Quest! Flames look bright, spirits look properly ghostly, dungeons look dingy, you only see that the boss who chases you through that one level is just a torso if you let him catch up enough to fully enter the screen. It’s so cool, a game that really never stops giving.
And there’s Maria!! An entire second character who plays completely differently and is so fun and cool! She’s also hilarious, nobody in this game knows what to do with her. She gets the same like morale-breaking speech from Dracula that Richter does in the ending but she’s like eight years old and a badass so she’s like shut the fuck up Dracula you loser and he’s just like yeah fair enough I guess you’re not a weenie like Richter. I love her she’s so fuckin sick dude make Maria the Star these Belmont guys all suck ass and fail constantly. I don’t think Richter even kills Dracula in this ending?? Kind of hard to tell???? I’m not sure if I just can’t read the cutscene or if it’s ambiguous on purpose or I’m supposed to understand that he got away. I guess Symphony is a sequel to this one and I’ll find out in a couple games.
Regardless I get it I’m on board I’m not gonna be a contrarian here dude Rondo is sick as fuck just a rowdy ass game, good ass time, every five minutes I saw something that had me hooting and hollering. This is gaming for real, doesn’t get any better than this.
PREVIOUSLY: SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV
NEXT TIME: BLOODLINES
After a succession of 9 games in the Castlevania series (yes, for some reason Konami counted Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle), each game making variations to the original formula in its own way, comes Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood, which is a return to the basic gameplay and also serves as a sort of tribute to all the Castlevania games up to that point, a game that came to the PC Engine exclusively for Japan in 1993.
I'll start by talking about what makes this game so satisfying to play, and that is that everything is super polished, calibrated and refined in every aspect, from tiny things like the speed at which Richter and the enemies move (which is a bit faster than past installments), to things like a very well constructed level design. All Castlevania games up to this point have always had parts that are designed to make you fail or trip you up the first time, often feeling unfair, however, in this game even though a bit of trial and error is required, every challenge from the levels themselves to the bosses feel like a perfectly balanced obstacle to be challenging, yet fair, to the point that it's easy to get hooked on this game as each attempt can lead to discovering the rest of the stage until you finally get to beat it.
Rondo of Blood simplifies many aspects of the gameplay, as there is less emphasis on the point system and the upgrades for the whip are completely eliminated in pursuit of having the whip at its maximum level from the beginning, not to mention that the limiter on the number of times you can use a sub-weapon no longer exists and now you can throw them as many times as you want (as long as you have enough hearts). And thanks to that the sub-weapons actually have a more prominent role in this game, as they were slightly re-balanced in terms of behavior, not to mention that when you pick one up, you can go back to the previous one in case you did it by mistake, making the game allow you to carry your favorites always and allow you to plan better strategies for the levels in some cases. Also, Richter can perform a "super-attack" with each of the sub-weapons, which despite consuming a lot of hearts, can save you on more than one occasion and is a pretty cool addition.
Still, there are small changes in the character control, which if you master well, can reward your skill. Richter can perform backflips if you press the button to jump at the right time while in the middle of a straight jump, and also be able to jump up stairs and jump when you're on them, as well as instantly jump down at any time. Also, while you can't redirect your jumps completely, you can redirect where Richter is looking, which makes it so you can jump backwards while flipping in the opposite direction to attack, and if you do a normal jump without moving backwards or forwards, you can slightly change the position you might fall into. I may have gone into too much detail when talking about this, but the way you move has always been a very important aspect, and it's partly these little tweaks and additions that make the gameplay feel so good despite keeping the classic control scheme.
The aesthetic of this game is timeless and perfectly captures the 90s era in all its glory. Certainly the fact that at the time it was a Japanese-only release makes this section have more explicit religious references, and above all, it was what allowed it to have those anime-style cutscenes (which feature voice acting!), which even though I'm more a fan of the somber and mystical atmosphere that Castlevania IV was trying to build, I won't deny that these little pixel art cinematics inspired by the anime of the time also have their charm. Graphically it's not as impressive as the aforementioned SNES title or Castlevania for Shap X68000, however, the artistic style of this game ages better by having a more refined pixel art that wisely combines bright colors with dark colors to give life to the scenarios, and the enemies in this installment look so good, that many of these sprites could be used even more than 10 years later in the installments released for the DS. I almost forgot, but mention to the simplified interface of this game that re-designs the old one so that the score, vitality and what sub-weapons you have can be displayed in an elegant way while covering less screen space compared to the old interface.
One of the things I love most about this title is the variety of stages it has to offer. Thanks to the fact that this game hides a series of secret levels, it can allow itself the freedom of having the typical castle levels, but also levels in which even the weather of the day is sunny, and it is quite entertaining to explore these levels to find the secret exits.
And finally, one of the best aspects of this game is undoubtedly its soundtrack, which thanks to the fact that the game is in CD format, has an extremely high fidelity and does not compare to anything of the time, just listen to this (Bloody Tears). This game has a lot of good remixes of songs from previous games, but it also has many new songs like Illusionary Dance, which is the melody that sounds when you face Dracula and instantly became an icon of the franchise, or my favorite;Opposing Bloodlines, the Richter's main theme and a piece that captures very well the essence of this game; classic enough to not clash with the setting, but at the same time modern, lively and even a little heroic.
Conclusion
And well, needless to say, this game is really solid and I dare say one of the best platformers of the 90s. Rondo of Blood doesn't innovate in gameplay, as it goes back to the basic gameplay as I mentioned before, however it perfects it to such a level that it is considered by many (including me) as the pinnacle of the classic Castlevania games.
And well, I'm glad to have finally reviewed this game, although for the moment I think this will be the last time I'll play it again, because I've already played it so many times, that if I did it once more, I would prefer it to be in its PSP remake, which I personally adore and consider it as the definitive version of Rondo of Blood, but that's a review for another day...
Anyway, play this game if you want to experience a good classic Castlevania, whether it's your first time or your twentieth, rest assured you'll have a spectacular time.
I'll start by talking about what makes this game so satisfying to play, and that is that everything is super polished, calibrated and refined in every aspect, from tiny things like the speed at which Richter and the enemies move (which is a bit faster than past installments), to things like a very well constructed level design. All Castlevania games up to this point have always had parts that are designed to make you fail or trip you up the first time, often feeling unfair, however, in this game even though a bit of trial and error is required, every challenge from the levels themselves to the bosses feel like a perfectly balanced obstacle to be challenging, yet fair, to the point that it's easy to get hooked on this game as each attempt can lead to discovering the rest of the stage until you finally get to beat it.
Rondo of Blood simplifies many aspects of the gameplay, as there is less emphasis on the point system and the upgrades for the whip are completely eliminated in pursuit of having the whip at its maximum level from the beginning, not to mention that the limiter on the number of times you can use a sub-weapon no longer exists and now you can throw them as many times as you want (as long as you have enough hearts). And thanks to that the sub-weapons actually have a more prominent role in this game, as they were slightly re-balanced in terms of behavior, not to mention that when you pick one up, you can go back to the previous one in case you did it by mistake, making the game allow you to carry your favorites always and allow you to plan better strategies for the levels in some cases. Also, Richter can perform a "super-attack" with each of the sub-weapons, which despite consuming a lot of hearts, can save you on more than one occasion and is a pretty cool addition.
Still, there are small changes in the character control, which if you master well, can reward your skill. Richter can perform backflips if you press the button to jump at the right time while in the middle of a straight jump, and also be able to jump up stairs and jump when you're on them, as well as instantly jump down at any time. Also, while you can't redirect your jumps completely, you can redirect where Richter is looking, which makes it so you can jump backwards while flipping in the opposite direction to attack, and if you do a normal jump without moving backwards or forwards, you can slightly change the position you might fall into. I may have gone into too much detail when talking about this, but the way you move has always been a very important aspect, and it's partly these little tweaks and additions that make the gameplay feel so good despite keeping the classic control scheme.
The aesthetic of this game is timeless and perfectly captures the 90s era in all its glory. Certainly the fact that at the time it was a Japanese-only release makes this section have more explicit religious references, and above all, it was what allowed it to have those anime-style cutscenes (which feature voice acting!), which even though I'm more a fan of the somber and mystical atmosphere that Castlevania IV was trying to build, I won't deny that these little pixel art cinematics inspired by the anime of the time also have their charm. Graphically it's not as impressive as the aforementioned SNES title or Castlevania for Shap X68000, however, the artistic style of this game ages better by having a more refined pixel art that wisely combines bright colors with dark colors to give life to the scenarios, and the enemies in this installment look so good, that many of these sprites could be used even more than 10 years later in the installments released for the DS. I almost forgot, but mention to the simplified interface of this game that re-designs the old one so that the score, vitality and what sub-weapons you have can be displayed in an elegant way while covering less screen space compared to the old interface.
One of the things I love most about this title is the variety of stages it has to offer. Thanks to the fact that this game hides a series of secret levels, it can allow itself the freedom of having the typical castle levels, but also levels in which even the weather of the day is sunny, and it is quite entertaining to explore these levels to find the secret exits.
And finally, one of the best aspects of this game is undoubtedly its soundtrack, which thanks to the fact that the game is in CD format, has an extremely high fidelity and does not compare to anything of the time, just listen to this (Bloody Tears). This game has a lot of good remixes of songs from previous games, but it also has many new songs like Illusionary Dance, which is the melody that sounds when you face Dracula and instantly became an icon of the franchise, or my favorite;Opposing Bloodlines, the Richter's main theme and a piece that captures very well the essence of this game; classic enough to not clash with the setting, but at the same time modern, lively and even a little heroic.
Conclusion
And well, needless to say, this game is really solid and I dare say one of the best platformers of the 90s. Rondo of Blood doesn't innovate in gameplay, as it goes back to the basic gameplay as I mentioned before, however it perfects it to such a level that it is considered by many (including me) as the pinnacle of the classic Castlevania games.
And well, I'm glad to have finally reviewed this game, although for the moment I think this will be the last time I'll play it again, because I've already played it so many times, that if I did it once more, I would prefer it to be in its PSP remake, which I personally adore and consider it as the definitive version of Rondo of Blood, but that's a review for another day...
Anyway, play this game if you want to experience a good classic Castlevania, whether it's your first time or your twentieth, rest assured you'll have a spectacular time.
After taking a brief detour to review Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, I'm back to finish up my Castlevania write-ups. This isn't part of my bucket list, because for some reason I didn't think to add my most favorite Castlevania game and instead force myself to play shit like Wrath of the Black Manta and Ecco the Dolphin. Nobody can harm me the way I harm me.
Rondo of Blood is well known as the direct predecessor of perineal favorite Symphony of the Night. Indeed, the connection between the games is so direct that Richter's final fight against Mr. Dracula serves as Symphony's opening, with Richter himself becoming the primary antagonist for the first half of the game. Unfortunately, if you grew up in the states your lead-in was instead the abysmal Dracula X, with a localization of Rondo not happening until 2007. The TurgoGrafx-16 CD did not do well here. It didn't do well at all! And that's a real bummer, because Rondo of Blood in a lot of ways feels like a send-off to "Classicvania," something that is made more apparent with its direct ties to Symphony. It's both a triumphant final lap and a passing of the torch, and if you rolled into Symphony of the Night off of Dracula X then... well, damn. I'm sorry you got did like that.
All of Castlevania's well-established mechanics are here. Jumping is still stiff, though like other Vanias of this era, you have mid-air control over the direction of your jump, which allows for smoother platforming. There is no diagonal whipping, but it's unnecessary as keeping your whip purely horizontal breeds challenge without ever feeling like a handicap. Familiar enemies return (especially if you've played Symphony first, cause oh boy does that game use every part of the buffalo), including Medusa Heads, Fleamen, and Axe Knights; and though you no doubt know how to deal with them by now, they're not even the slightest bit less threatening. Fleamen are still bastards. They were always bastards, and I will send them to the grave as bastards. However, for as familiar as everything in Rondo is, it's all been refined to a needle-sharp point. In a lot of ways I'd compare Rondo to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's really hard to beat the level of quality here, and it is in fact so good that it's difficult to envision Konami being able to do anything else to push this specific style of gameplay forward.
Rondo also brings back Dracula Curse's alternate routes, and a variation on that game's partner rescuing mechanic. In Rondo, accessing alternate routes is a bit more involved than simply choosing which path to take at the end of a level. Rather, certain pits, doors, and switches can open up new pathways for Richter to take mid-level, which provides a strong incentive to explore (see: whip everything.) Thoroughl exploration is also nessecary for saving Rondo's four "maidens," including Richter's girlfriend Annette and fellow vampire hunter Maria Renard. Maria can be found the earliest and also becomes a playable character should you free her. Maria's familiars deal an insane amount of damage and she has different movement tech than Richter, and is overall a lot of fun to play as, though not as much as she is in Symphony. But that's for Saturn fans only...
I can't possibly wrap up my thoughts on Rondo without touching on its aesthetics. The game opens with a German narration as Dracula is resurrected, and after starting the game proper, you're treated to an Anime as Hell sequence of Richter gearing up and whipping some ghouls. There's a few cutscenes done in this style throughout the game, and I have a big soft spot for these kinds of quasi-FMVs. They remind me a lot of the cutscenes in Snatcher, and that's always a good thing. The soundtrack is another highlight and is mostly comprised of remixes of familiar Castlevania tunes. Multiple composers worked on the OST, and among them is Metal Yuhki (sick name) who is responsible for Rondo's versions of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer. However, my favorite track not just in Rondo but across the entire series is Picture of a Ghost Ship, which just sounds so positively 90s in a way I can't quite pin down. I'm not normally one to link to remixes since they really don't have anything to do with critiques of a game's soundtrack, but I would be remiss in not sharing my favorite version of this song.
Every single part of Rondo comes together perfectly for me. The presentation, its sense of style, the tension, the atmosphere, and most of all the gameplay... Yeah I kinda suck at playing it because it's freaking hard, and I might get a bit frustrated at Level 4 - "The Inner Halls" due to its length and abundance of Fleamen, Axe Knights, and spike traps, but I also just can't bring myself to knock even a meager half star off my review. This one is an easy 5/5.
Rondo of Blood is well known as the direct predecessor of perineal favorite Symphony of the Night. Indeed, the connection between the games is so direct that Richter's final fight against Mr. Dracula serves as Symphony's opening, with Richter himself becoming the primary antagonist for the first half of the game. Unfortunately, if you grew up in the states your lead-in was instead the abysmal Dracula X, with a localization of Rondo not happening until 2007. The TurgoGrafx-16 CD did not do well here. It didn't do well at all! And that's a real bummer, because Rondo of Blood in a lot of ways feels like a send-off to "Classicvania," something that is made more apparent with its direct ties to Symphony. It's both a triumphant final lap and a passing of the torch, and if you rolled into Symphony of the Night off of Dracula X then... well, damn. I'm sorry you got did like that.
All of Castlevania's well-established mechanics are here. Jumping is still stiff, though like other Vanias of this era, you have mid-air control over the direction of your jump, which allows for smoother platforming. There is no diagonal whipping, but it's unnecessary as keeping your whip purely horizontal breeds challenge without ever feeling like a handicap. Familiar enemies return (especially if you've played Symphony first, cause oh boy does that game use every part of the buffalo), including Medusa Heads, Fleamen, and Axe Knights; and though you no doubt know how to deal with them by now, they're not even the slightest bit less threatening. Fleamen are still bastards. They were always bastards, and I will send them to the grave as bastards. However, for as familiar as everything in Rondo is, it's all been refined to a needle-sharp point. In a lot of ways I'd compare Rondo to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's really hard to beat the level of quality here, and it is in fact so good that it's difficult to envision Konami being able to do anything else to push this specific style of gameplay forward.
Rondo also brings back Dracula Curse's alternate routes, and a variation on that game's partner rescuing mechanic. In Rondo, accessing alternate routes is a bit more involved than simply choosing which path to take at the end of a level. Rather, certain pits, doors, and switches can open up new pathways for Richter to take mid-level, which provides a strong incentive to explore (see: whip everything.) Thoroughl exploration is also nessecary for saving Rondo's four "maidens," including Richter's girlfriend Annette and fellow vampire hunter Maria Renard. Maria can be found the earliest and also becomes a playable character should you free her. Maria's familiars deal an insane amount of damage and she has different movement tech than Richter, and is overall a lot of fun to play as, though not as much as she is in Symphony. But that's for Saturn fans only...
I can't possibly wrap up my thoughts on Rondo without touching on its aesthetics. The game opens with a German narration as Dracula is resurrected, and after starting the game proper, you're treated to an Anime as Hell sequence of Richter gearing up and whipping some ghouls. There's a few cutscenes done in this style throughout the game, and I have a big soft spot for these kinds of quasi-FMVs. They remind me a lot of the cutscenes in Snatcher, and that's always a good thing. The soundtrack is another highlight and is mostly comprised of remixes of familiar Castlevania tunes. Multiple composers worked on the OST, and among them is Metal Yuhki (sick name) who is responsible for Rondo's versions of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer. However, my favorite track not just in Rondo but across the entire series is Picture of a Ghost Ship, which just sounds so positively 90s in a way I can't quite pin down. I'm not normally one to link to remixes since they really don't have anything to do with critiques of a game's soundtrack, but I would be remiss in not sharing my favorite version of this song.
Every single part of Rondo comes together perfectly for me. The presentation, its sense of style, the tension, the atmosphere, and most of all the gameplay... Yeah I kinda suck at playing it because it's freaking hard, and I might get a bit frustrated at Level 4 - "The Inner Halls" due to its length and abundance of Fleamen, Axe Knights, and spike traps, but I also just can't bring myself to knock even a meager half star off my review. This one is an easy 5/5.
so ridiculously good it breaks my heart to say i am not skilled enough to beat the fight against death. honestly? people talk retroactively about SotN being a massive leap forward/huge reinvention of the franchise but rondo bridges the gap between bloodlines & co and SotN kinda perfectly? also jesus christ it speaks volumes to this game's deftness of level design that it works exactly as well to navigate with both richter and maria despite them playing so different they at times feel like they're from different games. wow! video games!
I love everything about this game, but especially Maria; disparagingly referred to by some as this game's easy mode, when the reality is her more free flowing movement just tests a very different skill-set to Richter whilst acting as the perfect bridge-point between the rigid, planned-out pathing of the Classicvanias and the more fluid motion we'd come to see from Symphony of the Night onwards. Whilst I can respect the strict jump arcs and very intentional movement of the older Classicvanias for what it is, I have to admit I find Maria's more modern movement sensibility here just much more fun to play with in basically every regard.
Shout-out to the kitschy cut-scenes and hyper-kitschy voice acting, and especially the orders of magnitude more kitschy that these get when you're playing as Maria (that ending, gods), and a bonus special shout-out to the stage names which are almost all just metal as hell (Dinner of Flames; The Vengeful King of Bloodshed; Atop the Corpses of Thy Brethren; Hear Now the Requiem of Blood).
Shout-out to the kitschy cut-scenes and hyper-kitschy voice acting, and especially the orders of magnitude more kitschy that these get when you're playing as Maria (that ending, gods), and a bonus special shout-out to the stage names which are almost all just metal as hell (Dinner of Flames; The Vengeful King of Bloodshed; Atop the Corpses of Thy Brethren; Hear Now the Requiem of Blood).
List of things the Netflix cartoon needs:
Recreation of Richter eating dusty ass wall turkey from the shot in the manual
A PEKE homage
Adapt the Maria ending
Richter using the key crash to no avail
No turbo clusters of F-bombs
Thanks for reading
Recreation of Richter eating dusty ass wall turkey from the shot in the manual
A PEKE homage
Adapt the Maria ending
Richter using the key crash to no avail
No turbo clusters of F-bombs
Thanks for reading
Oh my GOD this music
okay yeah this is probably the best one lol
there's a lot of stuff this game does right in my eyes. alternative pathways while you make your way to Dracula? check! another playable character who's unique and fun to use? check! kick-ass music that makes me want to dance and never gets out of my head, forever being trapped inside for eternity with no hope of escape? check.
Richter doesn't have any of the cool whip attacks that Simon has in Super Castlevania IV, but he doesn't really need them. not only can he make it by just fine, but the level design is based around just the one whip direction, so having diagonal whip movement would either be unnecessary or make things a little too easy, and we already have a character for the latter. besides he has a backflip and item breaks instead, and that's good enough for me. if you tap the jump button twice, Richter performs this radical and groovy backflip that lets him easily avoid enemy attacks and it is much more fun than it needs to be. as for the item breaks, if you press one of the buttons, you'll perform a powerful super move depending on what sub weapon you have at the cost of using up more hearts. they're good for getting enemies of the screen but you're better off saving the attacks for the bosses.
now let's talk about Maria. if you can figure out how to save her in Stage 2, you'll not only be greeted to a cheesy cutscene but you'll be able to play as her by going to your file select. playing as Maria makes you realize that the Belmont bloodline is facing the unfortunate reality that is power creep, she is overpowered. a double jump making platforming sections easier, a slide that makes hallways faster to traverse coupled with her already faster movement, being able to attack enemies while already moving, and her different sub weapons that are much more powerful than the ones Richter has. Maria is simply built different, and it's an absolute spectacle witnessing this dork slaughtering the likes of Dracula and Death. her only downside is that she takes more damage than Richter, making her a glass cannon, but in the right hands that doesn't matter because she has too many things going towards her favor. choose her if you want to have an easy time to get through this game.
this game is pretty hard if you play as Richter but it isn't unforgiving. this is probably the most balanced Classicvania, it's not ridiculously unfair, but it also isn't a curb stomp, it's the perfect balance. you'll find yourself falling in pits much less than you'd would in any of the other games because a majority of the game doesn't rely on something like that. most enemy attacks are also telegraphed so if you pay close attention to them you won't end up getting hit as much. the graphics of this game are very nice to look at, it's backed up with the vibrant colors and the fun presentation like the stage subtitles that show up at the beginning of each one. I also enjoyed the old fashioned 80s/early 90s PC anime style that the cutscenes have, I can't imagine how surprised a veteran Castlevania fan in the 90s would have felt being used to the more grounded and horror vibes of the old games then seeing how different the tone has changed with this game. obviously the music great too, every track here is excellent whether it'd be the rock tunes, the more peaceful tracks, or the spooky ones. predictably my favorite is Opposing Bloodlines, or Divine Bloodlines, or whatever the correct name is. this track was so cool that they had two different versions for it in the same game. the Stage Version is a blast to listen to from beginning to end and the Intro Version has this epic guitar that I wish was used in the former. excellent.
my only major gripe is that the Dracula fight was a little on the easy side. here I was expecting it to be difficult since I've figured that the Symphony of the Night version was made easier since that's the first boss you face there. but nah, they never nerfed him at all, he's just as easy here then he was there. outside of that it's just tiny nitpicks that don't matter too much. this game is cool, you want to be cool? finish this game so you can tell your friends "hey, I'm cool because I completed Castlevania: Rondo of Blood!"
results may vary
there's a lot of stuff this game does right in my eyes. alternative pathways while you make your way to Dracula? check! another playable character who's unique and fun to use? check! kick-ass music that makes me want to dance and never gets out of my head, forever being trapped inside for eternity with no hope of escape? check.
Richter doesn't have any of the cool whip attacks that Simon has in Super Castlevania IV, but he doesn't really need them. not only can he make it by just fine, but the level design is based around just the one whip direction, so having diagonal whip movement would either be unnecessary or make things a little too easy, and we already have a character for the latter. besides he has a backflip and item breaks instead, and that's good enough for me. if you tap the jump button twice, Richter performs this radical and groovy backflip that lets him easily avoid enemy attacks and it is much more fun than it needs to be. as for the item breaks, if you press one of the buttons, you'll perform a powerful super move depending on what sub weapon you have at the cost of using up more hearts. they're good for getting enemies of the screen but you're better off saving the attacks for the bosses.
now let's talk about Maria. if you can figure out how to save her in Stage 2, you'll not only be greeted to a cheesy cutscene but you'll be able to play as her by going to your file select. playing as Maria makes you realize that the Belmont bloodline is facing the unfortunate reality that is power creep, she is overpowered. a double jump making platforming sections easier, a slide that makes hallways faster to traverse coupled with her already faster movement, being able to attack enemies while already moving, and her different sub weapons that are much more powerful than the ones Richter has. Maria is simply built different, and it's an absolute spectacle witnessing this dork slaughtering the likes of Dracula and Death. her only downside is that she takes more damage than Richter, making her a glass cannon, but in the right hands that doesn't matter because she has too many things going towards her favor. choose her if you want to have an easy time to get through this game.
this game is pretty hard if you play as Richter but it isn't unforgiving. this is probably the most balanced Classicvania, it's not ridiculously unfair, but it also isn't a curb stomp, it's the perfect balance. you'll find yourself falling in pits much less than you'd would in any of the other games because a majority of the game doesn't rely on something like that. most enemy attacks are also telegraphed so if you pay close attention to them you won't end up getting hit as much. the graphics of this game are very nice to look at, it's backed up with the vibrant colors and the fun presentation like the stage subtitles that show up at the beginning of each one. I also enjoyed the old fashioned 80s/early 90s PC anime style that the cutscenes have, I can't imagine how surprised a veteran Castlevania fan in the 90s would have felt being used to the more grounded and horror vibes of the old games then seeing how different the tone has changed with this game. obviously the music great too, every track here is excellent whether it'd be the rock tunes, the more peaceful tracks, or the spooky ones. predictably my favorite is Opposing Bloodlines, or Divine Bloodlines, or whatever the correct name is. this track was so cool that they had two different versions for it in the same game. the Stage Version is a blast to listen to from beginning to end and the Intro Version has this epic guitar that I wish was used in the former. excellent.
my only major gripe is that the Dracula fight was a little on the easy side. here I was expecting it to be difficult since I've figured that the Symphony of the Night version was made easier since that's the first boss you face there. but nah, they never nerfed him at all, he's just as easy here then he was there. outside of that it's just tiny nitpicks that don't matter too much. this game is cool, you want to be cool? finish this game so you can tell your friends "hey, I'm cool because I completed Castlevania: Rondo of Blood!"
results may vary
god, how the monkey's paw curled when we got a castlevania "anime" with unbearable marvel-tier quippy modernized writing instead of something that channeled the 90s OVA aesthetic and hammy dialogue of this game. we could've had it all
Re-played this with Maria, and WOW she is overpowered. I enjoyed using her, but the game felt too easy tbh. Richter is the true way to play this. Still the best Castlevania, only competition is maybe Dracula's curse.
The best castlevania game of all time in my opinion and one of my favourite game of all times too. Everything that makes castlevania so fantastic is here in full force and its been improved to absolute peak perfection. The non-linear paths of castlevania 3 are back and are implemented even better here, resulting in a game that doesn't rely anymore on NES tricks to kill you, but rather carefully placed enemies and obstacles to let you use your whip on. The controls are back to their NES days, though they've been tweaked enough that it feels better to control than those games and it improves the experience as a result. And that soundtrack, oh my fucking god that soundtrack. Best castlevania soundtrack of the franchise. With the difficulty being just the right amount of hard and the iconic Richter Belmont and Maria Renard being introduced here, Rondo Of Blood is like a great melody that will be stuck in my head for years to come.
1: richter is a hunk. best belmont i think
2. this has a really good difficulty level on a richter-only run RIGHT UP UNTIL the stage with shaft's ghost. fuck that part
3. the copy-paste CV1 dracula fight these games love to trot out sucks so bad! it's so tedious... at least he doesn't teleport on top of you so much in this one though
game is fun! I can see why CV fans love it and it did occasionally get me v hyped up when it was at its peak w/ music and level design
2. this has a really good difficulty level on a richter-only run RIGHT UP UNTIL the stage with shaft's ghost. fuck that part
3. the copy-paste CV1 dracula fight these games love to trot out sucks so bad! it's so tedious... at least he doesn't teleport on top of you so much in this one though
game is fun! I can see why CV fans love it and it did occasionally get me v hyped up when it was at its peak w/ music and level design
I'm sure in 1993 this game was a masterpiece, but after 30 years of gameplay advancements, it's difficult for me to get past how clunky this feels compared to modern games in this style like Ori, Dead Cells, Katana Zero, or Shovel Knight. Aside from the terrible Dracula X, this is the first classic-style Castlevania game I've played, and honestly I much prefer the Metroidvania ones.
If you like extremely difficult old games, I'm sure this will be your speed. But I'd rather play a modern spin on this genre than this actual old game any day of the week.
+ The opening cinematics kick ass
+ Music rips
- Gameplay feels bad in the year 2023.
- Extremely difficult
If you like extremely difficult old games, I'm sure this will be your speed. But I'd rather play a modern spin on this genre than this actual old game any day of the week.
+ The opening cinematics kick ass
+ Music rips
- Gameplay feels bad in the year 2023.
- Extremely difficult
the game that timelessly encapsulates the occult appeal of classic castlevania. was incredibly impressed by the striking cutscene presentation and elegantly strong soundtrack, taking great advantage of the powerful hardware that was ahead of its contemporaries. multiple routes, playable characters, endings; rondo’s ambitions paved their way to success accompanied by rewardingly difficult gameplay. every stage is crafted with a level of expertise that enforces you to be at your best while not being frustrating. both an evolution of, and tribute to the formula. classicvanias werent really my thing, and still kind of arent, but i seriously commend rondo for what it does and i did enjoy myself a whole lot throughout the adventure. the artistic integrity and ingenuity of the series is probably represented best here. super memorable and visually stirring. everything is just very earnestly cool. so many details hidden within every level just for the sake of contextualizing each area that much more. statues, weapons, and even paintings animating to life never gets old. rondo of blood is THE castlevania, for both old and new fans. konami if you liked money youd get your asses on porting requiem to shit that isnt ps4. unexpectedly been in a castlevania mood as of late but im not complaining, love this series. important lesson here is that small children have the power to do anything in pursuit of accusing someone for being “mean.”
If a little kid can beat Dracula's ass with haste I think he should just give up and like go find a career in I.T. or something
If you haven't done a jumping whip while a Dracula voiced by Patrick Seitz materialises, then turned and backflipped over his flames, and landed where his body has begun fading thus negating contact damage, then my friend you have not lived.
The blood of Belmont is strong.
The blood of Belmont is strong.
whipping enemies so well positioned in its many places - with wonderful in-game-universe gothic architecture and amazing in-our-universe level design, with secret paths leading to alternatives levels and a lot of verticality, causing the sensation that you are exploring dark places and fighting hideous monsters. you can also play as maria, a girl that ritcher rescue in stage 2! some people say that playing with her is the "easy mode": not exactly. while ritcher is a lot more weighty and slow, turning the game into a strategic action where you must react with cautious while positioning yourself in the level's geometry, maria is a lot more agile and light, turning the game in a platformer action where you kill monsters with a cute girl - she can even double jump! however, the difficulty is more about controlling your jumps and agility to not suffer from your mistakes. the bosses and enemies itself are great! it's a little frustrating deal with flying enemies - as well with bosses' projectiles - but the patterns aren't hard to learn. the sound direction is suberb, creating hype and tension with amazing songs - i love the VA too!!
rondo of blood is not only the best classicvania - and probably the best castlevania? but also one of the greatest videogames of all time!
rondo of blood is not only the best classicvania - and probably the best castlevania? but also one of the greatest videogames of all time!
The best of them all. Kicks ass!!!!!!!!!
Every time I died when a boss had like a sliver of health left it felt like I had my balls chopped off. Overall very enjoyable experience, can't wait to play Symphony of the Night.
Rondo of Blood, my favorite Castlevania, is a unique mixture of the different approaches the series has gone through. It follows the "classicvania" controls but also gives you a backflip and extra mid-air movement. It's also the first installment where the graphics and music have a 90s anime flair, but still with that distinctive gothic horror inspiration. When it comes to difficulty, the game follows the intensity of the original but also offers Maria as a more relaxed playstyle option. If you're playing as the starting character Richter though, every enemy demands planning and timing to move forward. Whether checking out Rondo of Blood for the challenge or the vibes, it's a beautiful experience any way you play it.
If you're a TurboGrafx-16 fan, a Castlevania fan, or just an action-platformer fan in general, this is the #1 game to play for the spooky season.
If you're a TurboGrafx-16 fan, a Castlevania fan, or just an action-platformer fan in general, this is the #1 game to play for the spooky season.
Rondo is the most stylish Classicvania and a generation ahead of its contemporaries by way of artistry and scope. It also made me realize I just do not find Classicvania fun.
Not enough can be said about the art production - it's on par and beyond some Saturn and PS1 titles. There's an animation and limited color theory prowess on display that gives human believability and dimension to its universe, supported further by tons of ambrosial expressions and flourishes. But I think it seeps too deep into enemy composition, as their patterns feel more obnoxious than threatening. Even with all the visual windup they have, it's really hard to anticipate where hitboxes start and stop. Flying enemies were a huge nuisance, pestering you while trying to take down larger targets. Their movements are erratic and unreadable - closer to realism than their primitive NES counterparts' sinewaves and such, but those mathematical traits are part of what makes them learnable and readable. Richter's moveset was a main grievance for me: The backflip and fixed aim movement are fun to use but didn't feel circumstantially effective. Fixed aim is super finicky given you have to hold attack, then release and press again to trigger it - it's not the game's fault and more a limitation of the PCE gamepad, but something that should've been fixed for Dracula X Chronicles and Requiem. Backflipping is satisfying when used as a reverse retreat tool against big soldiers or for finding goodies, but every boss that expects you to use it is miserable. It feels extremely unnatural to move backwards, release the d-pad, then backflip towards a boss to evade a hit. And damn what's up with the i-frames in this game? They're barely there. You get hit once and just careen off 3 other things and die.
Maria's extremely fun to control. On paper, her and Richter are the best execution of multiple characters in a Classicvania: A lead Belmont as the intended challenge and a side character that breaks those rules for a smoother romp. Maria's double-jumps, bird projectiles and slides are a perfect summation of tight NES/SNES-era character control, like a coked-out Sir Arthur with slide-dashes. But damn, I really wish some of her toolkit was implemented back into Richter's. Replaying stages after death just to retry the boss is a miserable slog, and I would've loved to just slide-dash my way back instead of having to re-do puzzle-like encounters that I've already proven I can pass.
Running Rondo on the PS4 Requiem collection also had some annoyances - no savestates was the big one, but also the readability of some events. The Death fight was near-impossible until I realized his schythes have a 1-pixel-wide point showing where they'll spawn - something that would pop and pulse out on CRT, but looked like a particle effect on HD with original aspect ratio. Dracula's easy compared to past outings, but trying to read the narrow timing on his fireballs and 2nd-phase jumps was a nightmare until I switched to fullscreen. My understanding is this is an emulation of the PSP source code ports included in Dracula X Chronicles off of Sony's own PSP emulation kit - hence why it's PS-exclusive. I couldn't notice any more lag than normally expected from a Dualshock, but with how often I was fucking up simple bits, I swear there must've been a frame or two extra (totally not a scrub, totally not a scrub, totally not a scrub). I've also heard there's issues in the SotN port specifically because of how the emulator interprets directional inputs, but I couldn't say one way or another if they also apply here.
This was a great experience for the cool factor but I admittedly wanted to stop by the time I reached stage 5. Just couldn't tell you why it doesn't click the way I expected it should. I'd like to go back to one of the NES Castlevania's soon so I could formulate a better case on why Classicvania is something I get in abstract but don't actually like playing.
Not enough can be said about the art production - it's on par and beyond some Saturn and PS1 titles. There's an animation and limited color theory prowess on display that gives human believability and dimension to its universe, supported further by tons of ambrosial expressions and flourishes. But I think it seeps too deep into enemy composition, as their patterns feel more obnoxious than threatening. Even with all the visual windup they have, it's really hard to anticipate where hitboxes start and stop. Flying enemies were a huge nuisance, pestering you while trying to take down larger targets. Their movements are erratic and unreadable - closer to realism than their primitive NES counterparts' sinewaves and such, but those mathematical traits are part of what makes them learnable and readable. Richter's moveset was a main grievance for me: The backflip and fixed aim movement are fun to use but didn't feel circumstantially effective. Fixed aim is super finicky given you have to hold attack, then release and press again to trigger it - it's not the game's fault and more a limitation of the PCE gamepad, but something that should've been fixed for Dracula X Chronicles and Requiem. Backflipping is satisfying when used as a reverse retreat tool against big soldiers or for finding goodies, but every boss that expects you to use it is miserable. It feels extremely unnatural to move backwards, release the d-pad, then backflip towards a boss to evade a hit. And damn what's up with the i-frames in this game? They're barely there. You get hit once and just careen off 3 other things and die.
Maria's extremely fun to control. On paper, her and Richter are the best execution of multiple characters in a Classicvania: A lead Belmont as the intended challenge and a side character that breaks those rules for a smoother romp. Maria's double-jumps, bird projectiles and slides are a perfect summation of tight NES/SNES-era character control, like a coked-out Sir Arthur with slide-dashes. But damn, I really wish some of her toolkit was implemented back into Richter's. Replaying stages after death just to retry the boss is a miserable slog, and I would've loved to just slide-dash my way back instead of having to re-do puzzle-like encounters that I've already proven I can pass.
Running Rondo on the PS4 Requiem collection also had some annoyances - no savestates was the big one, but also the readability of some events. The Death fight was near-impossible until I realized his schythes have a 1-pixel-wide point showing where they'll spawn - something that would pop and pulse out on CRT, but looked like a particle effect on HD with original aspect ratio. Dracula's easy compared to past outings, but trying to read the narrow timing on his fireballs and 2nd-phase jumps was a nightmare until I switched to fullscreen. My understanding is this is an emulation of the PSP source code ports included in Dracula X Chronicles off of Sony's own PSP emulation kit - hence why it's PS-exclusive. I couldn't notice any more lag than normally expected from a Dualshock, but with how often I was fucking up simple bits, I swear there must've been a frame or two extra (totally not a scrub, totally not a scrub, totally not a scrub). I've also heard there's issues in the SotN port specifically because of how the emulator interprets directional inputs, but I couldn't say one way or another if they also apply here.
This was a great experience for the cool factor but I admittedly wanted to stop by the time I reached stage 5. Just couldn't tell you why it doesn't click the way I expected it should. I'd like to go back to one of the NES Castlevania's soon so I could formulate a better case on why Classicvania is something I get in abstract but don't actually like playing.
SO I've done it; after having played video games since I was 4 years old I have now, today, beaten a Castlevania game! In fact, having played this for even more than 5 minutes constitutes the longest I have ever played a Castlevania game!
And it was.....fine! Hahahaha like, really, it was pretty fun; totally fine platformer stuff. I will say it was wildly frustrating and I'm glad I had the ability to rewind in Retroarch because my goodness gracious there's lots of fiddly stuff with those enemies. For instance, that clocktower level?! Oh dear lordddddd I hated that.
I would say fully 2/3 of my enjoyment came from my favorite thing in video games: a wonderful opening and interstitial animated sequences. I love love love LOVE the Mega CD and PCE-CD because of those sorts of things, and this does not disappoint.
Anywho, Castlevania as a series pretty clearly isn't for me, but this was pretty fun. I now "get" Castlevania. Hooray for me.
And it was.....fine! Hahahaha like, really, it was pretty fun; totally fine platformer stuff. I will say it was wildly frustrating and I'm glad I had the ability to rewind in Retroarch because my goodness gracious there's lots of fiddly stuff with those enemies. For instance, that clocktower level?! Oh dear lordddddd I hated that.
I would say fully 2/3 of my enjoyment came from my favorite thing in video games: a wonderful opening and interstitial animated sequences. I love love love LOVE the Mega CD and PCE-CD because of those sorts of things, and this does not disappoint.
Anywho, Castlevania as a series pretty clearly isn't for me, but this was pretty fun. I now "get" Castlevania. Hooray for me.
This game rules, while the Castlevania series in general is essentially a celebratory mishmash of classic horror iconography, Rondo of Blood feels like a celebratory mishmash of Castlevania iconography while also being one of the coolest games out there. This is also the point where everything starts leaning harder into an aesthetic that's more anime and a bit more upbeat. It's made even better by the fact that said anime influence bears far more resemblance to the style of shoujo during that era, with the way that Maria straight up looks like a magical girl being especially fun.
Everything in this feels like an escalation of what was established in previous games, locations being far more chaotic than ever before, each enemy on its own being considerably more aggressive, returning music being waaay funkier, it just hits you all at once, sustains that intensity for the entire game, and brings along some of the tightest level design in the series at the same time. One of my favourite examples of this is the difference in how the player is expected to handle the axe armour enemies. In previous entries these would be handled by a mix of dodging and deflecting if the moment called for it, but here, dodging or anything else similarly defensive will ultimately overwhelm the player due to how quickly these enemies attack now, instead requiring the player to successfully deflect every projectile thrown at them. Instances like this appear all over the game, and make each encounter feel like 2 extremely strong forces being put up against one another, rather than the more oppressive nature of the situations that previous Belmonts found themselves in.
Obviously this is a matter of taste, but I do prefer this feel a bit more in this instance, even though both are good and have their place, it's just that Castlevania in general is so, so good at this specifically that I can't help love it wholeheartedly. I'm also very fond of the way the level design is handled here, feeling like a middle point between Castlevania 1 and Super Castlevania IV, being both a faster paced gauntlet, but carrying on for that bit longer than is comfortable to test your endurance as well. This works well as a way to balance out the item crashes being absurdly powerful, preventing them from being an instant win, but not making it overly tough to succeed if you eschew the use of them either. The alternate paths also go a long way in adding a bit of neat exploration to the experience, never really being a dominant enough force to take you out of that core loop, but providing more depth to the stages and making the game feel fun and varied on subsequent playthroughs as well.
Honestly just one of the coolest games ever while also being one of the most finely crafted in the series as well. In a series of games that I could gladly play through countless times and just continue soaking in everything about how it looks, sounds and feels, this is one of the ones I feel most inclined to play constantly, it's just peak gaming right here.
Everything in this feels like an escalation of what was established in previous games, locations being far more chaotic than ever before, each enemy on its own being considerably more aggressive, returning music being waaay funkier, it just hits you all at once, sustains that intensity for the entire game, and brings along some of the tightest level design in the series at the same time. One of my favourite examples of this is the difference in how the player is expected to handle the axe armour enemies. In previous entries these would be handled by a mix of dodging and deflecting if the moment called for it, but here, dodging or anything else similarly defensive will ultimately overwhelm the player due to how quickly these enemies attack now, instead requiring the player to successfully deflect every projectile thrown at them. Instances like this appear all over the game, and make each encounter feel like 2 extremely strong forces being put up against one another, rather than the more oppressive nature of the situations that previous Belmonts found themselves in.
Obviously this is a matter of taste, but I do prefer this feel a bit more in this instance, even though both are good and have their place, it's just that Castlevania in general is so, so good at this specifically that I can't help love it wholeheartedly. I'm also very fond of the way the level design is handled here, feeling like a middle point between Castlevania 1 and Super Castlevania IV, being both a faster paced gauntlet, but carrying on for that bit longer than is comfortable to test your endurance as well. This works well as a way to balance out the item crashes being absurdly powerful, preventing them from being an instant win, but not making it overly tough to succeed if you eschew the use of them either. The alternate paths also go a long way in adding a bit of neat exploration to the experience, never really being a dominant enough force to take you out of that core loop, but providing more depth to the stages and making the game feel fun and varied on subsequent playthroughs as well.
Honestly just one of the coolest games ever while also being one of the most finely crafted in the series as well. In a series of games that I could gladly play through countless times and just continue soaking in everything about how it looks, sounds and feels, this is one of the ones I feel most inclined to play constantly, it's just peak gaming right here.
Simply a perfect classic Castlevania game. Amazing level design, characters, visuals (especially for 1993) and of course music. At first I didn't love Rondo of Blood, but the more I played the more I realized how phenomenal this game really is. The difficulty is just right, not too easy for a Castlevania game, and not too hard. I couldn't recommend this to anyone enough!
goated ass OST, I just don't think this game is that great compared to other classic games
[Played on a RetroArch emulator.]
If you play Rondo of Blood, sometime around the second stage, you may suddenly become very, very aware of this game’s rules.
I’m not talking about stuff like “whip the bad guys” and “don’t die”, or even “you start off with 3 lives and get an extra life every 40,000 points.” I mean the actual rules of this video game. Richter’s jump is X pixels high and can travel a select few amounts of pixels of horizontal distance depending on your input, and is of course irreversible once you have begun your jump. Richter’s whip is Y pixels long, can hurt enemies for precisely Z frames, and has a startup and end lag that you must account for at all times. If Richter jumps from a standstill, you can execute a sick-ass backflip by pressing the jump button again within a very tight window. And so on.
If this makes it sound like a fighting game, it kind of is. But not quite: this game is not interested in having its rules be enforced by some candy-ass human being against you. Rondo of Blood has an overwhelming vision of what its designers think a video game should be: A crystal-clear set of rules ruthlessly and automatically enforced by a perfect machine. (Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it sort of makes sense that Konami would eventually get into pachinko.) The ultimate idea animating this game, like Dracula’s own necromancy, is the video game as bloodless bureaucrat.
Except that it’s good.
It all starts with the controls. Each possible action is purposely chunky and perfectly formed, a Tetris block of kinetic energy that you combine with others to form shapes on demand. You shall know the jump, and you shall know the whip: both designed to be small and easy to pick up at a glance. Mana-consuming subweapons fill hyperspecific yet immediately obvious niches – all the better to start testing your proficiency with them pretty much immediately.
And your proficiency will be tested. Rondo of Blood’s levels and enemies feel like they were constructed by hand with a ruler and a compass, and while they are certainly challenging, there is typically enough wiggle room to separate them from the Kaizo realm, especially if you have to rely on being crafty instead of having fighting game-caliber execution and reads. (The moment I discovered I could use the axe to set up enemies who automatically dashed back from the whip was extremely satisfying.) Only in a few sequences in the latter half of the game do you start to see the long hallways filled with multiple copies of tanky enemies that would later cripple Symphony of the Night, and while it’s about as unwelcome here as it is there, at least there’s much less of it.
Even the art is both stellar and purpose-built. Almost everything, visually, is both top-flight eye candy and easily comprehensible at a single glance: hitboxes of attacks and enemies, platforms, and other level elements are exactly as large as they appear to be and exist precisely where they appear to exist. Only rarely will you be caught off guard, for better or worse, by a wonky hitbox. (And some of those rare occasions will be purposeful! A few little Joker’s tricks from the folks at Konami.) Visuals custom-built to serve the vision: a perfect machine.
And obviously the music fucks too. It’s available on Spotify, and it’s a big part of why this game feels like a metal-heavy challenge and not a huge pain in the ass.
More than any other video game I have ever played, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood knows precisely what it is about. From beginning to end, it is always about what it is about, and it is never not about what it is about. Its creators whipped it into form from a few simple rules, ruthlessly enforced, and gave it a coat of paint that highlights every perfect cut and flawless corner. It is there, lattice-like, laid out in front of you – gleamingly visible, supremely confident. Even if you are not a capital-G Gamer (and goodness knows I’m not,) this trip to Drac’s castle has so much to show you.
If you play Rondo of Blood, sometime around the second stage, you may suddenly become very, very aware of this game’s rules.
I’m not talking about stuff like “whip the bad guys” and “don’t die”, or even “you start off with 3 lives and get an extra life every 40,000 points.” I mean the actual rules of this video game. Richter’s jump is X pixels high and can travel a select few amounts of pixels of horizontal distance depending on your input, and is of course irreversible once you have begun your jump. Richter’s whip is Y pixels long, can hurt enemies for precisely Z frames, and has a startup and end lag that you must account for at all times. If Richter jumps from a standstill, you can execute a sick-ass backflip by pressing the jump button again within a very tight window. And so on.
If this makes it sound like a fighting game, it kind of is. But not quite: this game is not interested in having its rules be enforced by some candy-ass human being against you. Rondo of Blood has an overwhelming vision of what its designers think a video game should be: A crystal-clear set of rules ruthlessly and automatically enforced by a perfect machine. (Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it sort of makes sense that Konami would eventually get into pachinko.) The ultimate idea animating this game, like Dracula’s own necromancy, is the video game as bloodless bureaucrat.
Except that it’s good.
It all starts with the controls. Each possible action is purposely chunky and perfectly formed, a Tetris block of kinetic energy that you combine with others to form shapes on demand. You shall know the jump, and you shall know the whip: both designed to be small and easy to pick up at a glance. Mana-consuming subweapons fill hyperspecific yet immediately obvious niches – all the better to start testing your proficiency with them pretty much immediately.
And your proficiency will be tested. Rondo of Blood’s levels and enemies feel like they were constructed by hand with a ruler and a compass, and while they are certainly challenging, there is typically enough wiggle room to separate them from the Kaizo realm, especially if you have to rely on being crafty instead of having fighting game-caliber execution and reads. (The moment I discovered I could use the axe to set up enemies who automatically dashed back from the whip was extremely satisfying.) Only in a few sequences in the latter half of the game do you start to see the long hallways filled with multiple copies of tanky enemies that would later cripple Symphony of the Night, and while it’s about as unwelcome here as it is there, at least there’s much less of it.
Even the art is both stellar and purpose-built. Almost everything, visually, is both top-flight eye candy and easily comprehensible at a single glance: hitboxes of attacks and enemies, platforms, and other level elements are exactly as large as they appear to be and exist precisely where they appear to exist. Only rarely will you be caught off guard, for better or worse, by a wonky hitbox. (And some of those rare occasions will be purposeful! A few little Joker’s tricks from the folks at Konami.) Visuals custom-built to serve the vision: a perfect machine.
And obviously the music fucks too. It’s available on Spotify, and it’s a big part of why this game feels like a metal-heavy challenge and not a huge pain in the ass.
More than any other video game I have ever played, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood knows precisely what it is about. From beginning to end, it is always about what it is about, and it is never not about what it is about. Its creators whipped it into form from a few simple rules, ruthlessly enforced, and gave it a coat of paint that highlights every perfect cut and flawless corner. It is there, lattice-like, laid out in front of you – gleamingly visible, supremely confident. Even if you are not a capital-G Gamer (and goodness knows I’m not,) this trip to Drac’s castle has so much to show you.
Simplesmente sensacional.
Castlevania em sua forma mais pura, justa, divertida e incrível.
O jogo que precede Symphony definitivamente não decepciona em absolutamente nada, com músicas incríveis, visuais lindos, personagens carismáticos e uma dificuldade balanceada. O mais próximo de perfeito que um Classicvania poderia chegar.
Castlevania em sua forma mais pura, justa, divertida e incrível.
O jogo que precede Symphony definitivamente não decepciona em absolutamente nada, com músicas incríveis, visuais lindos, personagens carismáticos e uma dificuldade balanceada. O mais próximo de perfeito que um Classicvania poderia chegar.
Dance of Illusions is only beaten by One Winged Angel in terms of hard as fuck final boss themes