Castlevania Chronicles is more or less a slightly enhanced port of the little-known Akumajou Dracula for the X68000. X68000 Akumajou Dracula was designed to be a more faithful remake of Castlevania 1 than Super Castlevania IV was, complete with heavily altered and redesigned yet familiar level layouts, setpieces, and areas. Where it fell flat for most lay in its absurd difficulty, of which the developers themselves stated was made the way it was to appease "hardcore gamers". It's no doubt an interesting entry, lacking an initial console release and being a Japanese computer exclusive on a platform typically reserved for arcade ports, being made with the intent of subverting that trope....
But if I'm gonna play Castlevania 1 again, I think I'd just prefer to play Castlevania 1, honestly. Not this.
See, I played the "Arrange mode" added to Castlevania Chronicles - a mode exclusive to this port that tried to remedy the difficulty of the original release. Keyword tried. It is undoubtedly much, much easier, and better off for that, but the fact that the original release was made difficult for the sake of being difficult still shows through the cracks. This is made most noticeable in the later stages, with the total abundance of things being thrown at you at once (the Death boss fight is especially egregious of this). While Castlevania 1's enemy placement and movements felt very deliberate, designed to get you to really wait and think, this remake's enemy placement feels more like "oh, yeah here's a bunch of enemies or stage hazards that you either won't see coming or are extremely unlikely to get past unfazed without prior knowledge of level layouts". Giving Simon more air control, directional whipping and greatly reduced knockback is basically just applying a big bandage over the frankly inherently flawed level design.
Thankfully, as per usual Castlevania tradition (I neglected to mention Bloodlines' limited continues sucking, but its passwords save your lives and continues used so you can use them as save points you can go back to), continues are unlimited and the game remains very conquerable. I didn't struggle too much, but the levels felt far less tightly and fairly designed than all the other Classicvanias.
I'd knock this down half a star if it weren't for the amazing FM soundtrack still being usable during gameplay. Sucks that it's only accessible via an easter-egg. While the arrange mode soundtrack is amazing, I don't think it works well in the context of the game. Great stuff to listen to elsewhere, though. Plus another half a star for creating my favourite Simon design. I just think he looks cooler here, and fits in better with the more baroque, gothic style Castlevania took following SoTN.
But if I'm gonna play Castlevania 1 again, I think I'd just prefer to play Castlevania 1, honestly. Not this.
See, I played the "Arrange mode" added to Castlevania Chronicles - a mode exclusive to this port that tried to remedy the difficulty of the original release. Keyword tried. It is undoubtedly much, much easier, and better off for that, but the fact that the original release was made difficult for the sake of being difficult still shows through the cracks. This is made most noticeable in the later stages, with the total abundance of things being thrown at you at once (the Death boss fight is especially egregious of this). While Castlevania 1's enemy placement and movements felt very deliberate, designed to get you to really wait and think, this remake's enemy placement feels more like "oh, yeah here's a bunch of enemies or stage hazards that you either won't see coming or are extremely unlikely to get past unfazed without prior knowledge of level layouts". Giving Simon more air control, directional whipping and greatly reduced knockback is basically just applying a big bandage over the frankly inherently flawed level design.
Thankfully, as per usual Castlevania tradition (I neglected to mention Bloodlines' limited continues sucking, but its passwords save your lives and continues used so you can use them as save points you can go back to), continues are unlimited and the game remains very conquerable. I didn't struggle too much, but the levels felt far less tightly and fairly designed than all the other Classicvanias.
I'd knock this down half a star if it weren't for the amazing FM soundtrack still being usable during gameplay. Sucks that it's only accessible via an easter-egg. While the arrange mode soundtrack is amazing, I don't think it works well in the context of the game. Great stuff to listen to elsewhere, though. Plus another half a star for creating my favourite Simon design. I just think he looks cooler here, and fits in better with the more baroque, gothic style Castlevania took following SoTN.