Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (PC-Engine) Vs. Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)

[Magister]

Up until a few weeks, I owned every Castlevania game made EXCEPT Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo.  I even own the arcade machine Haunted Castle, as painful as that game is.  I guess the reason I was in no hurry to get my hands on Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo was either the price it was going for or that my Turbo Duo was broke for quite some time and had just forgotten about it.

  After all this time, I finally got my hands on a copy and couldn't wait to play it.  For years, all I heard was how much better it was compared to the SNES version.  It was harder, the music was better, it was just an overall better game.

  Well, I will say the music is better for sure.  When you pit a CD up against a Cart, I would hope the music would be better on the CD.  As far as being harder, I thought the game was too easy.  Hell, I beat Dracula on the first try.  The only thing I found difficult in the game was the damn collapsing bridge on Stage 7.  It's the same BS they pull on the last stage of Haunted Castle.  Almost impossible to not get hit.  The secret areas weren't hard to find.  I found myself going through the Alternate routes before the normal ones.

  I'm not trying to compare the two games since they are almost completely different.  But playing through Dracula X first and then going through Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo expecting it to be the same, just more of a challenge, I was bummed out.  Love both games though.

[Michirin9801]

Rondo is one of the only Castlevania games I've managed to beat, so I know for sure it's one of the easiest in the series, that said though I think it's the best in the series, it's got the most satisfying gameplay, the best level-design, some of the best graphics, I love the semi-linear structure of the game with the alternate paths, it's an all-around great time! I'm glad it was my introduction to the TurboGrafx...

As for Dracula X on the SNES, that was my first Castlevania game, I've played the heck out of it and I'm VERY nostalgic towards it, I can get to Dracula, but I just could never beat him, the gameplay is a little slower and more stiff, the graphics are, well, better in the first stage, a little unremarkable in the rest of the game in comparison to Rondo, but still really well-drawn, although it lacks some frames of animation...
It's certainly A LOT harder than Rondo, and I personally think that it's the perfect 16 bit sequel to the original Castlevania on the NES, take that as you may... Also, the level design doesn't really hold a candle to Rondo's...
But you see, the one thing I like better in SNES Dracula X than in Rondo of Blood is the sound and music... I've made it no secret that I'm very biased towards the Super Nintendo sound, I think it's the best-sounding game system there ever was (and most likely there ever will be), and Dracula X is one of the more impressive-sounding games on the system, the sheer quality of the samples being used is something else, and there was pretty much no loss in composition detail in the transition from CD music to the SNES, but the SNES somehow managed to sound considerably more hype and bombastic than the CD counterpart...
You know how many times I've listened to the CD soundtrack outside of the game? Not even once... As for the SNES version? There was a time that I've listened to it almost every day, it gives me the chills and puts an ear-to-ear nostalgia grin on my face~

Of course this is all a matter of taste and one's own biases, but yeah, Rondo is better in pretty much every way, save for the sound and music which I like better in SNES Dracula X...

All that said though, my favourite version of Richter's Theme is this one:

Which was arranged as a PCE chiptune ;3
(What can I say? I'm just a huge fan of chiptunes)

[Black Tiger]

XX is more difficult to play because the gameplay and stage design/enemy placement is broken. You can get clipped and be juggled to death from full HP without any control over it. The designers didn't understand the game it was based on, nor the game they made.

You also haven't experienced the full game of Rondo if you only played through once. Some stages are more challenging than others.

If you were in no hurry to buy the best Castlevania game because of price, how the hell did you wind up with Haunted Castle, the 68K game, etc?

Dracula X is one of the more impressive-sounding games on the system, the sheer quality of the samples being used is something else, and there was pretty much no loss in composition detail in the transition from CD music to the SNES, but the SNES somehow managed to sound considerably more hype and bombastic than the CD counterpart...

XX's music may be above average as far as typical SNES sound issues go, but most tracks still have lots notes that are off, missing instruments, a noticeable number of derpy sounds, whistling artifacts, etc. Lots of it transitioned well, because it's simulating the simulated instruments of the original, but almost every track from Rondo is kind of broken or distorted one way or another.

The sound effects in XX suffered the most, using the usual methods to save on space, so that the music didn't could be as intact as it is. The few that there are were sped up and trimmed down so that they no longer sound natural and reverb and echoing stretch out several of them. Separate from the overall quality, it feels weird playing the game with most of the voices and sounds absent. The game kicking things off with Dracula chuckling as he forces out a long drawn out bubbly fart was not a good sign, but does prepare you for what to expect from the game.

[Magister]

If you were in no hurry to buy the best Castlevania game because of price, how the hell did you wind up with Haunted Castle, the 68K game, etc?

I'm not sure what you mean.  When I got my hands on Haunted Castle($150), arcade machines weren't overpriced like they are now.  The machine itself was in bad shape, which I scraped a long time ago.  I have the PCB, NOS side art(which by the way people keep trying to buy it off me it seems I'm the only person that owns any) and marquee I plan down the line to makes its own dedicated cabinet for which it never had.  Hell, I own Splatterhouse as well and only paid $130 for that BitD.

Like I said, I was in no hurry to get it since my Duo wasn't working for the longest time.  Plus considering what I was making at my job years ago compared to the job I have now, I have more money to play with.

I completed Rondo of Blood 100%.  It wasn't that hard of a game.  None of the bosses were.  Only level I had trouble with was Stage 7 in the beginning.

[gex]

As far as being harder, I thought the game was too easy.  Hell, I beat Dracula on the first try

Were you playing as my profile picture? Or that bdsm whipping hunk richter

[Magister]

As far as being harder, I thought the game was too easy.  Hell, I beat Dracula on the first try

Were you playing as my profile picture? Or that bdsm whipping hunk richter

Both.  As easy as he was, I was expecting a third form.

[Magister]

But you see, the one thing I like better in SNES Dracula X than in Rondo of Blood is the sound and music... I've made it no secret that I'm very biased towards the Super Nintendo sound, I think it's the best-sounding game system there ever was (and most likely there ever will be), and Dracula X is one of the more impressive-sounding games on the system, the sheer quality of the samples being used is something else, and there was pretty much no loss in composition detail in the transition from CD music to the SNES, but the SNES somehow managed to sound considerably more hype and bombastic than the CD counterpart...
You know how many times I've listened to the CD soundtrack outside of the game? Not even once... As for the SNES version? There was a time that I've listened to it almost every day, it gives me the chills and puts an ear-to-ear nostalgia grin on my face~

Music wise, I enjoy the music from Bloodlines and Curse of Darkness.  Game play wise, I hated Lament of Innocence. 

[Michirin9801]

Music wise, I enjoy the music from Bloodlines and Curse of Darkness.  Game play wise, I hated Lament of Innocence.

The music in Bloodlines is fine, I don't remember Curse of Darkness though... My favourite Castlevania Soundtrack might actually be the Adventure Rebirth for the Wii though, now THAT's a good soundtrack if I ever heard one!

As far as Gameplay goes, I'm not a big fan of the Metroidvanias, and I have only played the N64 games as far as 3D Castlevania goes, and well, they were rubbish... (But to be fair, Legacy of Darkness was a step in the right direction)
To me, real Castlevania is the classic linear stage-based style, I'll pick the worst linear Castlevania over the best Metroidvania any day...

[Magister]

Music wise, I enjoy the music from Bloodlines and Curse of Darkness.  Game play wise, I hated Lament of Innocence.

The music in Bloodlines is fine, I don't remember Curse of Darkness though... My favourite Castlevania Soundtrack might actually be the Adventure Rebirth for the Wii though, now THAT's a good soundtrack if I ever heard one!

As far as Gameplay goes, I'm not a big fan of the Metroidvanias, and I have only played the N64 games as far as 3D Castlevania goes, and well, they were rubbish... (But to be fair, Legacy of Darkness was a step in the right direction)
To me, real Castlevania is the classic linear stage-based style, I'll pick the worst linear Castlevania over the best Metroidvania any day...

I don't mind the Metroidvania games.  They were fun for what they were.  But I agree, I preferred the old style.  Curse of Darkness was for the Xbox.  You didn't play as a Belmont but as a Demon Forger.  Music in that game was some of the best.  Especially the music when you fight Trevor Belmont.  http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/multi/mp3s4.htm#cod  Loved the Lords of Shadow games.  Second one wasn't as good as the first though.  Just a shame about the direction Konami is going in.  Makes me wonder about the future of Castlevania.

[gex]

Eh i haven't played through it in forever, but i remember there were some levels with richter that i was never able to beat. But always playing with Maria makes the game a breeze

[SuperDeadite]

For what's it worth Haunted Castle is the broken version.  The Japanese PCB (which is worth an INSANE amount these days) is much more fun, still unfinished, but actually fun.

[Arkhan]

But you see, the one thing I like better in SNES Dracula X than in Rondo of Blood is the sound and music... I've made it no secret that I'm very biased towards the Super Nintendo sound, I think it's the best-sounding game system there ever was (and most likely there ever will be), and Dracula X is one of the more impressive-sounding games on the system, the sheer quality of the samples being used is something else, and there was pretty much no loss in composition detail in the transition from CD music to the SNES, but the SNES somehow managed to sound considerably more hype and bombastic than the CD counterpart...

I'm glad you admit your bias towards the SFC, since objectively, it's not very capable compared to CD audio, lol.

You realize bombastic is sort of a negative word, right?   I'm not sure if you'd really want to claim something is more bombastic while stating that you subjectively think it's the better OST, lol.   Unless you really want to say that the SFC OST is more pretentious / overblown for no reason than the PCE CD one.

Anyways, this is confusing to me, since the SFC one is often using nearly studio-ish quality samples while the PCE CD is just using straight up high quality digital tunes.   

There's nothing super chiptuney about the SFC soundtrack really, other than the jittery start/stop sample sound that you get with sample-based synthesizing, and the clippy sounding strings, which I do admittedly have a fondness for, having grown up with them.

Like:

vs

vs

I think the litmus test for a CV soundtrack is to basically listen to Bloody Tears.  I can't say the SFC one is bad, but, the percussion and legit pipe organing basically wins the war.   That song has been dying to have real pipeorgans since it was composed and appeared in Simon's Quest.

It seems you like what lower quality audio and sampling synthesis produces over real instruments.  That's fine, it is just odd to land at that as the personal preference for chiptunes.  To me, SNES songs are barely chiptunes since they're so close to real instruments most of the time.  (Like, FF4,5, and 6 OSTs for example) 

I am pretty certain if I composed a song using studio stuff (some Roland synths and drum machines), and then took the composition, moved it to SFC, sampled the very same instruments, and played both back, you'd probably pick the SFC version even though it's just a goobered up version of the same song, right?

You're basically the younger, console-equivalent of the Amiga people, lol.   



I think Rondo is probably my favorite Castlevania, along with SotN.   The rest of the metroidvanias are pretty tedious, but SotN is pretty great.

The PCE one is a shining example of tight controls, thoughtful level design, and excellent sprite work.

The SNES one is a shining example of phoning it in.   I'd take Super CV over Dracula X, any day of the week. 

but I would take Bloodlines over Super CV. 


I remember thinking Super CV was the tits until I rented Bloodlines and went "whoa".

[MobiusStripTech]

I can agree that I did not find Rondo to be overly hard, but honestly I am OK with that. I just genuinely enjoy the gameplay and the soundtrack is in my opinion one of the best there is. The game is easily my favorite Castlevania.

[fragmare]

Rondo, hands down.  Not that SNES Drac X is bad.  Not at all, it's just Rondo is just better in just about every way (wavy fire effect aside).  I have zero nostalgia towards either of these games.  I didn't get a chance to play either until well into my adulthood.   It basically boils down to Rondo being a 5-star game where as DracXX is a 4-star game.  Back in the early 90s, when Konami went all out for a game, they went ALL-f*ckING-OUT.  And for Super CV4 and Rondo they definitely went all out... for DracXX, not so much.

[Michirin9801]

You realize bombastic is sort of a negative word, right?   I'm not sure if you'd really want to claim something is more bombastic while stating that you subjectively think it's the better OST, lol.   Unless you really want to say that the SFC OST is more pretentious / overblown for no reason than the PCE CD one.

I don't really see it as a negative description... I like my soundtracks to be high-energy and hype, and 'bombastic' is a word that fits the description...

Anyways, this is confusing to me, since the SFC one is often using nearly studio-ish quality samples while the PCE CD is just using straight up high quality digital tunes.   

There's nothing super chiptuney about the SFC soundtrack really, other than the jittery start/stop sample sound that you get with sample-based synthesizing, and the clippy sounding strings, which I do admittedly have a fondness for, having grown up with them.

Well, let me put it this way: The SNES soundtrack sounds more like Video Game music than the PC engine soundtrack... The thing about the SNES is that it's the perfect mid-term when it comes to video game music, it's good enough to sound much more advanced than 'normal' chiptunes, but it still doesn't sound like 'real music' you see... It still has its limitations, it's only got 8 channels, 64kb of sound RAM and then there's the whole 'Bit Rate Reduction' thing, the low-pass filter and the infamous reverb, but within those limitations and quirks it still managed to produce absolutely incredible-sounding music!

The next obvious step up is CD audio (either that or MIDI, as in, samplers with no meaningful limitations), but by the time you get to CD audio everything is sounding pretty much the same... You can tell a song is a SNES song just by listening to it because the system still has an "Audio Identity" of its own, but when you move on to CD audio whatever song you put on it could be from anything... There are no more limitations, and thus no more "Audio Identity", and to me that means no more fun...

It seems you like what lower quality audio and sampling synthesis produces over real instruments.  That's fine, it is just odd to land at that as the personal preference for chiptunes.  To me, SNES songs are barely chiptunes since they're so close to real instruments most of the time.  (Like, FF4,5, and 6 OSTs for example) 

I REALLY do prefer that... And well, that technically still counts as chiptunes, because they're still being produced on-the-fly by some sort of soundchip, even if there's no real 'synthesis' involved...
Heck, my 2nd favourite sound system (tied with the PC engine) is the Game Boy Advance! With that one you have to lower the bit depth of the samples in order to soft-mix more than one sample in the same channel, because you know, the GBA only has 2 sampler channels, and if you want stereo audio you have to pan each to one side and play the same thing in both channels and adjust the volume of each sample in each channel in order to pan stuff side-to-side...
Other than that the GBA has the GB soundchip that it carried over for backwards compatibility, so GBA games often mix low-bit-depth samples together with GB chiptunes, and in my personal opinion, the lower bit depth of the samples makes them blend-in BETTER with the GB sounds than they would otherwise! To me, the GBA makes for the perfect mix of sampled music and stereotypical 8 bit music, they just fit together really well!
To put it short: The GBA was the last game system with its own "Audio Identity", after it, everything sounds the same to me, and that's not a good thing in my book...

I am pretty certain if I composed a song using studio stuff (some Roland synths and drum machines), and then took the composition, moved it to SFC, sampled the very same instruments, and played both back, you'd probably pick the SFC version even though it's just a goobered up version of the same song, right?

You're basically the younger, console-equivalent of the Amiga people, lol.   

I most likely would prefer the SNES one, but not just because of my bias, but because of the SNES's aforementioned quirks which give it its "audio identity"...

Also, the SNES is WAY better than the Amiga because of its 8 channels, no hard-panning and because of its almighty reverb ;3
(Yeah I know Capcom music on SNES often abused the reverb, but when used correctly that reverb is a god-send~)

The PCE one is a shining example of tight controls, thoughtful level design, and excellent sprite work.

The SNES one is a shining example of phoning it in.   I'd take Super CV over Dracula X, any day of the week. 

At least in that we agree xD

but I would take Bloodlines over Super CV. 


I remember thinking Super CV was the tits until I rented Bloodlines and went "whoa".

Okay we stopped agreeing now >w>
Bloodlines is really good, one of the best Genesis games, but I just don't think it competes with Super Castlevania IV...
I think I like SNES Dracula X more than Bloodlines, although admittedly that has mostly to do with nostalgia (and that soundtrack), and I also like Castlevania Rebirth on the Wii better than Bloodlines, and that one has mostly to do with the soundtrack (Btw, that's what modern games SHOULD sound like, that and the Etrian Odyssey series are the prime examples) but I think I'd still pick Bloodlines over the NES and GB games... 16 BIT FTW!!