It really is a shame that the Turbografx-16 never took off in the West and we had to miss out on Rondo of Blood until it was localized in the late 2000s. To make up for this, we had to make do with a reimagining of sorts with Castlevania: Dracula X. The plot and characters are the same, but it is a clearly different beast than its 1993 PC Engine release. In this review, I want to talk about what they've changed in Dracula X that really impacted how I feel with this game particularly
Right off the bat, there are no cutscenes in the game, which is to be expected since cramming it into a Super Nintendo cartridge is a technical impossibility. All of the same controls, sub-weapons, and item crashes all were carried over from Rondo of Blood, so I'm not going to reiterate of what they do; but what I can say is that Richter controls here are nice and responsive
For this adventure, the ones that needs rescuing only are Maria and Annette, and yes you can save Maria, but you can't play as her; it's Richter from beginning to end in this game. There are a total of 9 levels with only two altenate stages with Stage 4' and 5', with one you need to get to if you are still willing to go for the true ending, like I did
Later in Stage 3, you must obtain the key and cannot fall off because if you do, it will send you straight down to Stage 4' meaning you are unable to save the girls. You must also carry the key to Stage 4, and if you die on this stage where Maria is being held captive, you lose the key, meaning you have to go back to the menu and put in the specific password to try again. I honestly can't do this without using save states beause that is a huge task for someone who is playing this blind. And this isn't the only time I had to use save states, and oh boy I will get to that later
I can say that the music is kept relatively intact in the transition, and they are worthy to be called Castlevania music. There are a few songs I prefer over Rondo of Blood like Ghost Ship Painting and Den, but it just cannot compete with the CD audio that made Rondo of Blood's soundtrack so excellent
The major culprit here is the level design. It is needlessly difficult and that's where my frustration came into play. Bottomless pits are back full force, and I cannot tell you how stupid the level design is in the second-half of the game. For some reason, there are no invincibility frames in this game, meaning I can get hit constantly by enemies, and it's more aggravating with the smaller ones like Bats and Medusa Heads. It's like if the developers looked at Stage 5' from Rondo of Blood and implement its bullshit difficulty to all of the levels
Stage 6 in my opinion is the worst level in the game. The first-half isn't awful, but the second-half can just fuck right off. In the vertical section, there are Spear Guards placed in very awkward positions with bats coming out from the right. They randomly spawn just to ruin Richter's day and I was not having it. After the vertical section, there are certain gears Richter has to jump to, but Skull Heads can easily mess you up, and they are a one-way ticket for plummeting to your death. I was also not having it with Death either, and most of my deaths were by his spin attack. All of this combined led to an exercise in frustration and using save states as my saving grace. I don't mind a challenge, and the level design could've been decent if they got rid of the unnecessary shit and add in invincibility frames, cause this is just poor level design in the later half
Lastly, who the hell designed the Dracula fight? Dracula in Rondo of Blood was a decent challenge, but did they really have to add bottomless pits into the mix? Just one wrong move and I plummet to my death. It also takes forever for Dracula to reach the destination you were expecting him to warp to in order to attack; so not only is this frustrating, it's also tedious. The best sub-weapon for this fight in particular is easily the Cross, and please save your hearts for his second form to trigger multiple item crashes that can drain his damage. This took me about an hour to finish him off with me mindlessly abusing the save state feature that takes me back to the beginning of the fight. This is easily the worst Dracula fight I've ever encountered so far, and I don't want to think of coming back to it
Castlevania: Dracula X is ok at best, but bullshit at worst. Comparing to its SNES predecessor, Super Castlevania IV, feels like a downgrade in mostly all departments. I want to say it was decent when I first started playing it, but I can't bring myself to do that. This was a painful experience, and this was not fun to play
Right off the bat, there are no cutscenes in the game, which is to be expected since cramming it into a Super Nintendo cartridge is a technical impossibility. All of the same controls, sub-weapons, and item crashes all were carried over from Rondo of Blood, so I'm not going to reiterate of what they do; but what I can say is that Richter controls here are nice and responsive
For this adventure, the ones that needs rescuing only are Maria and Annette, and yes you can save Maria, but you can't play as her; it's Richter from beginning to end in this game. There are a total of 9 levels with only two altenate stages with Stage 4' and 5', with one you need to get to if you are still willing to go for the true ending, like I did
Later in Stage 3, you must obtain the key and cannot fall off because if you do, it will send you straight down to Stage 4' meaning you are unable to save the girls. You must also carry the key to Stage 4, and if you die on this stage where Maria is being held captive, you lose the key, meaning you have to go back to the menu and put in the specific password to try again. I honestly can't do this without using save states beause that is a huge task for someone who is playing this blind. And this isn't the only time I had to use save states, and oh boy I will get to that later
I can say that the music is kept relatively intact in the transition, and they are worthy to be called Castlevania music. There are a few songs I prefer over Rondo of Blood like Ghost Ship Painting and Den, but it just cannot compete with the CD audio that made Rondo of Blood's soundtrack so excellent
The major culprit here is the level design. It is needlessly difficult and that's where my frustration came into play. Bottomless pits are back full force, and I cannot tell you how stupid the level design is in the second-half of the game. For some reason, there are no invincibility frames in this game, meaning I can get hit constantly by enemies, and it's more aggravating with the smaller ones like Bats and Medusa Heads. It's like if the developers looked at Stage 5' from Rondo of Blood and implement its bullshit difficulty to all of the levels
Stage 6 in my opinion is the worst level in the game. The first-half isn't awful, but the second-half can just fuck right off. In the vertical section, there are Spear Guards placed in very awkward positions with bats coming out from the right. They randomly spawn just to ruin Richter's day and I was not having it. After the vertical section, there are certain gears Richter has to jump to, but Skull Heads can easily mess you up, and they are a one-way ticket for plummeting to your death. I was also not having it with Death either, and most of my deaths were by his spin attack. All of this combined led to an exercise in frustration and using save states as my saving grace. I don't mind a challenge, and the level design could've been decent if they got rid of the unnecessary shit and add in invincibility frames, cause this is just poor level design in the later half
Lastly, who the hell designed the Dracula fight? Dracula in Rondo of Blood was a decent challenge, but did they really have to add bottomless pits into the mix? Just one wrong move and I plummet to my death. It also takes forever for Dracula to reach the destination you were expecting him to warp to in order to attack; so not only is this frustrating, it's also tedious. The best sub-weapon for this fight in particular is easily the Cross, and please save your hearts for his second form to trigger multiple item crashes that can drain his damage. This took me about an hour to finish him off with me mindlessly abusing the save state feature that takes me back to the beginning of the fight. This is easily the worst Dracula fight I've ever encountered so far, and I don't want to think of coming back to it
Castlevania: Dracula X is ok at best, but bullshit at worst. Comparing to its SNES predecessor, Super Castlevania IV, feels like a downgrade in mostly all departments. I want to say it was decent when I first started playing it, but I can't bring myself to do that. This was a painful experience, and this was not fun to play