I didn't think much of this game when I first played it, years later and after finishing it, I do think there's something I do see now but honestly it doesn't go any further than "oh that's neat" It's basically like Castlevania 3 except it's good, except we already have a Castlevania 3 that's good and that's called Akumajou Densetsu. This one though, idk its just kind of short and not very interesting. I think the multiple pathways for each level kind of feels pointless when only sometimes you'll find a hidden goodie. And with no real way to backtrack after beating the game other than completely altering your save file using the "curse of the moon" rewind feature, it just seems like a very bite sized game with not a lot of substance. Music and Spritework is amazing though.
But this one is just ok.

What a pleasant surprise this was, I actually really enjoyed my time here. For being the 2nd DS Castlevania game they really knocked it out of the park after Dawn of Sorrows admittedly poor experience. But I'm gonna chalk it up to the devs finally understanding how to do a handheld DS Castlevania. Having the areas be segmented with the Castle acting as the hub really makes it difficult for any new player to get lost. Which in my opinion is how this series should be handled when it comes to being on a handheld, Order of Ecclesia does the same and that game is also fantastic. But back to portrait of Ruin, taking the same gimmick from the hit indie 3D platformer game Mario 64, (you may have heard of it) you jump into paintings and then explore the worlds to fight a boss and move back to the hub. It's a fine gameplay loop that just makes sense for the DS. No more bullshit forced touchscreen gimmicks, it's a solid time throughout and one i'd recommend.

You know for a genesis game this aint too bad! In-fact, I'd say this is a great entry in the franchise. It's not too long nor is it too short I think its the right length and difficulty. However if you're playing on anything other than the collection or even switch online then you'll most likely have to deal with the limited continues so that's actually a downside i'd say. Most games had unlimited continues so idk why this one had to revert back. Still, a great game and entry in this long running series, this one is tied with Super Castlevania 4 in my opinion maybe underneath it.

You wanna talk about a good fucking Castlevania game, look no further than this beast. Rondo of Blood is everything you should be looking for in an old-school traditional 2D Castlevania game. Everything about this game is amazing to me. What I really love about it is that the level design is REALLY GOOD. Like I'm talking no more bullshit Castlevania moments that make me want to pull my hair out. The bosses are also a highlight. Them having actual enemy patterns and it just being a test of skill and no bullshit RNG is why I don't mind replaying these levels after a game over. Speaking of which, another thing is that these levels are SHORT and have multiple pathways and secrets to find. Leading to more replayability, and having a stage select really helps when you want to go back and do everything. Game Overs in this game don't carry the same weight as they do in other Castlevanias, you have unlimited continues and the worse it gets is just replaying the stage from the beginning. But again, may I remind you, these levels are not long to begin with. So that is just a non issue in my opinion. Richter may not be as nimble or capable of shit like Simon in Super Castlevania 4 but he doesn't even fucking need it. The level design is built around his moveset. And the music oh my god the music its all bangers. The main theme kicks so much ass and even the weaker levels have the best tunes to listen to. There's even 2D cutscenes with voice acting! A first for this series! The story is just "kill Dracula" but that was always the case with these games so it doesn't matter. Having an actual save file is also a first for this series up to this point. And little things like that you take for granted start to be more appreciative when you're a maniac like me who's marathoned like 8 games right now. I love that you can also play as someone other than a belmont, maria! Maria is like the easy mode of this game but I welcome it since she's just fun to play as. She reminds me of Grant, Sypher, and Alucard from Castlevania 3 except she clears all of them. Really the only flaw I can think of is that there's barely any invincibility frames when getting hit, leading to you getting juggled by enemies easily. But to be honest, I'll take that over any bullshit death from the previous Castlevanias.

Rondo of Blood is a game I think anyone can enjoy, and its definitely one you should be looking out for should you decide to ever get into the Castlevania series, it's the best of its kind.

Is it really a hot take to say that while I do think the improvements made to this game are definitely the highlight of it, the game itself feels like a step back in a few places. I'll start off with that Simon controls amazingly here, he's so capable of doing things he couldn't normally do in any Castlevania game. However, I do think this comes with a downside, because he is so capable now a lot of what made Castlevanias challenge is seemingly gone. Take the sub weapons for example, what purpose does the axe serve now if Simon can just whip up and diagonally? What does the holy water serve if the whip is the best course of action to tackle anything. I feel like they made the whip way too good in this game that in the first few stages the game practically plays itself. While accessibility is not an issue, part of what made the original castlevanias so charming is that they were challenging. Every sub weapon served a purpose and was supposed to be use for the situations at hand because the whip itself was very limiting.
But yeah, that's just what I think, this game at the end of the day can still be fun at times so it's not bad by any means. Just wanted to point it out, while its not my favorite. This one is definitely a good entry in the series.

So I instead decided to play the Japanese version of Castlevania 3 instead of the original for this marathon and yeah man this ost is fucking baller. Definitely recommend playing this version for that alone, but it also just balances the difficulty to that it's not as frustrating as the North American release. The partner system is the main gimmick of this game and it's great, I love the characters we have (except Alucard) on display here, Grant is a great projectile based fighter, and Sypha nukes enemies with magic, and Alucard is... well he doesn't do much until Symphony of the Night. Just give him a few years to get his beauty sleep and he'll be peak.

Man when you play this you'll notice right off the bat that its being massively carried by its fun gameplay, cause the moment you even start to listen to this story and dialogue of these characters you'll wish you were playing something else. Yeah its not surprise to anyone that the worst part of this game is the dialogue and story itself. And it really sucks to say that since these designs look amazing and the art of this game looks so good. But yeah, that aside its being carried by its overly fun gameplay, and honestly i'm not that bothered by it. This game is so fun to play that I can ignore the awful writing and can just have a great time getting immersed in the worlds and ost this game brings. This one is indeed a short game if you were to just blaze through it but I think if you spend the time mastering each level and getting the best time you'll more than get your moneys worth.

I'm torn on this one, cause while I legitimately liked it at points there's so much here that prevents me from liking it as much as the previous games. Well I mean for starters I downloaded a patch to get rid of all the magic seal touchscreen bs, It did help out my experience more but even looking past that this one isn't as memorable as Aria of Sorrow in my honest opinion. I got lost way too frequently and the game isn't really good at telling you or pointing you in the right direction to go in all the time. The story is just ok, the gameplay is ok, it's just an ok game not much more I can add, if you're going to play this i'd highly recommend the patch for it since you can bypass all the annoying touch screen magic seal gimmicks easily that way.

I think this is one of the most fun 3D platforming characters i've ever had the pleasure of controlling.
Penny is just momentum the game, and everything she does strings together in this kind of flow state where you just want to speed through the level. I will say though this is not a perfect game, the bosses are annoying and the overall story is just not really interesting nor the characters for that matter.
What this game excels at most is gameplay, visuals, and music. Which in all honesty is all you need.