Absolutely phenomenal game, the only downsides to Rondo of Blood are the bizarre cutscenes and to some at least the lack of Castlevania IVs whip controls, which I think are nice but ultimately change the game feel a little too much. Everything else about this game is peak classic Castlevania. They removed the strange whip upgrading aspect from the previous game to make the pace quicker after dying, the level design is great, there's an additional playable character in Maria that makes Castlevania IIIs swap system seem mundane in contrast, and most importantly, it's the most fun game in this style. Just playing as Richter feels better than any of the other classic Belmonts, his whip range is huge, he's the perfect size for the screen unlike CIV's massive Simon, and he has a backflip that takes some getting used to but feels great to pull off. Even though it's very hard to get your hands on, being as you either have to track down the original console and a copy of the game from Japan (good luck), download the fan PC port, or find some way to emulate it, the effort is worth it. If you want to play this, I'd recommend using RetroArch, there are some guides that can show you how to set it up for this game. It gives you save states, which I'd recommend using as both the saves on the PC port and on RetroArch just didn't work for me (don't know why) but having them as a backup is nice, even for such a short game. There's also the remake but I didn't want to beat it to unlock the original. Whatever you choose, go play this. It's one of the best games of its era and something anyone can like. Also Maria.

A lot of people would call this a butchered port of Rondo of Blood. I disagree. To me, the game feels more like a botched sequel than a port or reimagining, and I think in its gameplay and setting it slots really nicely into the transition between Rondo of Blood. The word "botched" is important here. That the game removed the mildly embarrassing cutscenes from Rondo of Blood due to lack of space is the last good thing I have to say about Dracula X. It's way too cheaply difficult even by Castlevania standards, the levels aren't nearly up to par with the other 16 bit games, and the final boss is horrendous. I may be calling this a 6/10, which is still good by my standards, most of that is because classic Castlevania is fun, and it becomes playable if you can use a few savestates here and there. It's only really good as a curiosity for fans of this series. To anyone who doesn't really care about playing through every game, I'd genuinely recommend playing Rondo of Blood twice.

To be honest I'm not sure why they decided to remake the first game again, and why it's not a completely faithful one this time, but I guess we're stuck with this one. This is a slightly better version of the NES original, except without nearly as much charm. It has a similar problem to Castlevania IV, where some of the settings feel somewhat bland and/or generic. Also similar to its remake twin, you can angle your whip strikes in every direction except for upwards in the air, which at least to me was the entire point of angled whipping. The game is still really good I'm honestly just left to question why it exists in this state at all, it would've been a lot cooler to see something entirely original.