Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released: October 29, 1993
Completed: March 15, 2020
There are those who will tell you that Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (aka Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo) is the best Castlevania game. Those people are wrong. It's a fantastic entry in the long-running series, and arguably the best of the more traditional games (though I would argue Super Castlevania IV is better as well), but Symphony of the Night is, was, and always will be the greatest Castlevania game.
I think some of the affection for Rondo stems from the fact that it was locked away as a Japanese exclusive for so many years. Gamers who were savvy enough to use emulators have had access to a fully translated version for a while now, but the first official translation and Western release wouldn't occur until 2007 when it was remade as part of the Dracula X Chronicles on the Sony PSP. I have no doubt people legitimately love the game - it's awesome - but I think there's also a small touch of wanting that hipster gaming cred for loving a title a lot of western gamers didn't even know about when it released.
I don't want to demean Rondo of Blood though. Contemporary magazines lamented, rightfully so, that it was stuck in Japan and all we got in the US was the heavily modified and quite inferior Dracula X on the Super Nintendo. There's no denying Rondo of Blood set the stage for the masterpiece that would follow, incorporating branching paths, swappable secondary items, unlockable playable characters, and introducing many of the sprites that would be reused in Symphony. With the added storage of CD-ROM, fans got to hear Castlevania's iconic tunes in ways they had never heard before, along with new material that was just as good. The traditional walk right and whip gameplay was refined to near perfection - only outclassed by Super Castlevania IV - offering just the right amount of difficulty for veterans and newcomers alike.
Yes, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is a phenomenal game. It's a perfect middle ground between the flawed Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, a game that in hindsight seemed too ambitious for the hardware it was on, and the more open, non-linear structure the series would head into. The fact is fans can argue for all eternity about which of the 16-bit entries is the best traditional 'Vania, and there's really no wrong answer because they're all great in their own way, and they all offered something unique.
The Dracula X Chronicles offered both a full 2.5D remake and, for the first time, a full official translation of the PC Engine CD-ROM version as an unlockable. The original 16-bit CD-ROM version also saw release on the Wii Virtual Console (untranslated), and re-release again in the Castlevania Requiem Collection for PS4, which is how I played it. Incidentally, the latter also includes the retranslated version of Symphony of the Night that was also on the Dracula X Chronicles, so you're essentially getting two of the greatest games in one of the greatest franchises for a song.
Graphically, Rondo of Blood features sharp, crisp sprites, superb animation, and a fantastic use of color throughout. Backgrounds look terrific, varying between the expected castles, graveyards, a spooky pirate ship, and more. With so many branching paths, you'll want to play the game several times just to see them all. The addition of Maria Renard as an unlockable player character enhances the replayability even further. She's easier to use for newbies, and plays quite differently from Richter Belmont, the de facto protagonist, making it worth replaying even the same stages over with her.
As mentioned previously, the music is a huge highlight as well. Castlevania has always had the best music, and the arrangements found here rank among my favorites in the series. I adore the soundtrack so much, I even bought it on vinyl (along with Symphony of the Night's, courtesy of Mondo). It's not quite fully orchestrated, still relying on MIDI instruments, but it's absolutely wonderful and surprisingly upbeat to coincide with the game's action. The whole thing is sort of like Castlevania club tracks. Brilliant stuff.
Richter controls exactly as any veteran of the franchise would expect. There's a heft and weight to him, requiring precise and deliberate jumps lest you be knocked backwards by an enemy into a pit. As is standard for most Castlevanias, you cannot change direction mid-jump. New to this game is the ability to swap sub-weapons. Accidentally picked up a dagger? No problem. Your prior weapon drops to the ground for a few seconds, allowing you to reclaim it. Rondo also introduces the item crash - a devastating clear-screen attack that costs way more hearts, but can kill most regular enemies and wound bosses. Gone, however, is the ability to brandish your whip or use it to swing across gaps, as introduced in Super Castlevania IV.
The series trademark difficulty is more manageable in this installment, but it will likely still frustrate those unfamiliar with earlier games. It's not a walk in the park by any means, but it's not on the level of, say, Castlevania III on the NES - or even the absurd difficulty of the SNES pseudo-port. Another welcome addition is the ability to save your game, replacing the unwieldy icon-based passwords of previous entries, so you can take a break and cool down if the frustration sets in.
It's true, I don't love Rondo of Blood as much as some people do, but that doesn't mean I don't love it. Most, if not all, of the game's issues with difficulty were old hat by this time, giving vampire killing veterans a bit of an edge. Whether you play it on the PSP, PS4, TurboGrafx Mini (where it is still in its original untranslated form), or if you're lucky enough to own a PC Engine and an original disc, play this one anyway you can.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood was completed on a PS4 Pro as part of the Castlevania Requiem Collection with no cheats.