Dracula X: Rondo of Blood thoughts

[Mathius]

I haven't been in the import scene for very long, only a few months now. The Land of the Rising Sun has always been a fascination to me, and for many of you as well I'm sure.  I am 31 and grew up in the early era of video game magazines when EGM, and the like, would print articles on all the japanese exclusives for the Super Famicom, PC Engine, etc. I would drool over pages containing pictures of games like Spriggan and Actraiser(at the time unreleased in the US). I don't remember where I read about Dracula X: Rondo of Blood then, but I remember being aware of its existence.

Well, last monday guess what came for me in the mail? Yes that elusive classic was in my hands. Needless to say, I was psyched beyond belief! I had to go to work, so I decided that I would savor the experience by waiting until I got off work later that night to play it.

Now it's early friday morning here in the widwest and I would like to share with you my thoughts after a few days of play:

To be honest I wish I hadn't played Symphony of the Night before I played Rondo. Rondo's heralded gameplay seemed softened by that fact. Not to say that I was majorly disappointed. I avoided gameplay vids on the internet just to be sure nothing was spoiled. The prologue stage was pure awesomness!! I really enjoyed Death's voicework, though too bad they didn't keep the german voiceovers going throughout the entire game. The flaming backgrounds in stage one, along with it's parallax was another good piece of eye candy. I have a tiny gripe with how Richter controls. I wish they kept with the multi-directional whip controls from SCVIV, but I actually prefer Rondo's body movements. I feel more at ease making jumps from platform to platform.

I planned to go straight through the stages, without taking any of the optional routes. for my first time through. I have made it to stage 5 so far. I can't seem to beat Death with Richter yet. Even after watching the "techniques"  on how to beat him. Of course I could just use Maria for an easier playthrough, but my inner Belmont scoffs at the idea. I'll use Maria after I beat the game, or if I just plain get stuck. Granted, Rondo is one of the easier Castlevanias, but these Konami games have always given me a run for my money.

So, the real question is do I think Dracula X: Rondo of Blood is overrated? A little honestly. Because I played SOTN first I was kind of expecting an experience akin it. But, that's my own fault, not the game's. The music is great, but the sound effects are lacking in some areas. It sounds like most are chip generated, which isn't a bad thing but COME ON, it's a CD-ROM for God's sake. There are some really poor enemy death screams like the barrel throwing guerilla skeletons in stage one. They just kind of make a very low "ooh" noise. Not very exciting. They are not all bad though. I am not sure what the name of the floating sword swarm is in stage five but that thing shrieks like you just chopped it's testicles off(if it even has any). 

So yeah, a little overrated, but what do I expect. A perfect game? I wish! But, what I do have is a great, polished, well rounded PC Engine title that I will never get rid of for any good reason. I wish I could gloat to my friends about it, but all they would go is "huh, what's that, PC Engine? Is that for your car?" "Ronondo of what?" "Castlevania? I didn't know they still made those games." Sheesh 
 

[SignOfZeta]

It seems to me like it wouldn't be a matter of whether or not you have played SotN, but rather whether you had played all the games that came before Rondo since SotN has about as much in common with previous games as it does with Rolling Thunder.

Personally, I didn't like CVIV very much. The whip was just...weird in that game, and the colors were fruity. Rondo goes very well with earlier CV games. It was hard core old school before it was cool. Since it didn't cost me crazy amounts of money (and I bought it something like 14 or 15 years ago) I just consider it a really good game. People who weren't lucky enough to get a copy back then have been subjected to a decade and a half of hype and eBay price hikes and honestly nothing could live up to that.

[Tatsujin]

here some quite more thoughts and a poll

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=6738.0

[Mathius]

It seems to me like it wouldn't be a matter of whether or not you have played SotN, but rather whether you had played all the games that came before Rondo since SotN has about as much in common with previous games as it does with Rolling Thunder.

Personally, I didn't like CVIV very much. The whip was just...weird in that game, and the colors were fruity. Rondo goes very well with earlier CV games. It was hard core old school before it was cool. Since it didn't cost me crazy amounts of money (and I bought it something like 14 or 15 years ago) I just consider it a really good game. People who weren't lucky enough to get a copy back then have been subjected to a decade and a half of hype and eBay price hikes and honestly nothing could live up to that.

I just went about playing them in the wrong order. Sure, I played Castlevania(NES) back in the day and I did get SCVIV when it came out. But, I just recently got Castlevanias II and III. III by the way kicks major ass!! I didn't even play SOTN until I got it on XBOX Live. I loved it so much that that's when I started buying the Nintendo DS games. If I had played them chronicalogically then the styles of gameplay wouldn't have been so jarring.

We all know the beginning of SOTN where we see the end of Rondo and get to play as Richter again. I was kind of expecting gameplay more along those lines. But, then again part of me didn't know what to expect. Point is I got a great game that I simply love more and more as the days go by. The only thing to fault is is like you said, decades of hype followed be inflated eBay prices.

[Black Tiger]

Wow, I have like the exact opposite thoughts. Maybe it's because I experienced the game back when it came out and was able to judge even the little things for the time the game was made.

Rondo spoiled SotN for me, not the other way around. I really don't like the multi-directional whip from CIV and SotN and gameplay aside, it seems incredibly lame to me for a Belmont to stop in the middle of an action packed adventure to stand still and twirl flick part of his limp whip at something like 9 year old girl gymnist twirling a ribbon (I do like the full whip spin in CotM though).

One of the things that makes Drac X so great is that none of the sfx (except "Pause") are chip generated and every single enemy in the game has an original sampled sound or voice. It was a huge deal at the time and really stood out to me and my Genesis & SNES loving friends. You may not like some of the sounds that Konami chose to record (I love 'em), but they've gone on to be featured in future Castlevanias. That ghostly shriek that the sword lets out seemed perfect to me, since it's not an inanimate sword lying on the ground and it seemed pretty obvious to me that its possessed.

As time goes on my appreciation of still Rondo grows, even as it diminishes for SotN. There's no such thing as a game that's "perfect", but there is a point where a game is as good for its type/genre as you'd expect, the point where it deserves a perfect or "full" overall score. Drac X is well within that range.

[Mathius]

One of the things that makes Drac X so great is that none of the sfx (except "Pause") are chip generated and every single enemy in the game has an original sampled sound or voice. It was a huge deal at the time and really stood out to me and my Genesis & SNES loving friends. You may not like some of the sounds that Konami chose to record (I love 'em), but they've gone on to be featured in future Castlevanias. That ghostly shriek that the sword lets out seemed perfect to me, since it's not an inanimate sword lying on the ground and it seemed pretty obvious to me that its possessed.

As time goes on my appreciation of still Rondo grows, even as it diminishes for SotN. There's no such thing as a game that's "perfect", but there is a point where a game is as good for its type/genre as you'd expect, the point where it deserves a perfect or "full" overall score. Drac X is well within that range.

Yeah, that sword shriek was awesome. Some of the other sound effects still seem chip generated to me, but I'll take your word for it.

[Tatsujin]

it wasn't for nothing konamis most expensive development at that time. they packed in so much effort and details, and you actually can feel it at every single second of playing.

[Necromancer]

I really don't like the multi-directional whip from CIV and SotN and gameplay aside, it seems incredibly lame to me for a Belmont to stop in the middle of an action packed adventure to stand still and twirl flick part of his limp whip at something like 9 year old girl gymnist twirling a ribbon (I do like the full whip spin in CotM though).

I'll agree that flailing the whip about is pretty lame, but what's wrong with being able to whip straight up, at angles, and what not?

[Tom]

Thanks for sharing your experience on this. I always wondered what people think that never played the game BITD, but had to live through the hype all this time.

 As for SOTN, I played it BITD too. I remember it fondly up until you have to do the upside down castle. That was a cheap and low point of the game for me. Having played all the three NDS games that use the SOTN engine, I can honestly say they're much better games. People just have nostalgia for SOTN who say otherwise. OoE is by far my favorite castleroid/metriodvania game. OoE>PoR>DoS > SotN. And yes, I've recently played through SotN (my 3rd time through).

 Anyway, what's great about DracX is that it's soo polished. All the little things they added. The animation and details are great. The music is fantastic. I also love how Konami went the extra mile to design the stages around Duo's "parallax" limitations. And the gameplay is perfect IMO for the classic series. Love all the SFX too. Even the chippy sounding ones. To be honest, most Duo CD games have much more "chip" SFXs to them than DracX. I never understood that. A perfect waste of a ADPCM sample ram.

[Black Tiger]

Yeah, that sword shriek was awesome. Some of the other sound effects still seem chip generated to me, but I'll take your word for it.

Did you play the game on real hardware? Other PSG sounds I remembered are the potion and item pickups and some of the item crash sounds. But all the enemies exclamations and such are sampled, except maybe Death's scyth spin. It's still like 98% of the sfx that are sampled.

Even if I hadn't figured it out already, I had a PCE CD-ROM that developed that problem that turns adpcm samples into static and it was most noticeable in Drac X since it happened with every sound effect.

I'll agree that flailing the whip about is pretty lame, but what's wrong with being able to whip straight up, at angles, and what not?

Yeah that's alright and it's cool that there are Castlevania's that do it, but I still prefer Rondo and CotM style gameplay and it still seems to counter the flow of Castlevania gameplay to me. Nothing near game ruining, but for me it just feels like it doesn't add enough to be worthwhile (unless it was in the last game or two which I have yet to play). I also don't like tall thin characters for Castlevania's. Rondo hit the perfect size and proportions for the main character and I'm glad they kept it ever since for the "Metroidvanias".

[awack]

Yes, Rondo uses allot of sampled ADPCM sndfx, skipping the prologue which is being streamed form the CD(sounds awesome) and talking only about the first level, there is the already mentioned ape skeleton, theres the shattering glass snd from the windows, the snd the lanterns make when you pop them, then you will meet a swordsman who will let out a scream when you kick his butt.

Now, going downstairs you can go to the left and break the wall which makes a nice snd, travel through the opening and kill the floating green spectre, again, a different scream, instead of going left you can go right, through the doors, where you will come face to face with a giant rock creature, he lets out a nice roar as he burst into flames(nicest animated enemy death flames in a 16bit console game, not counting neo geo)....and of course you have the two bosses for this level, the serpent and the dragon. All the snds i have mentioned are ADPCM.

                                     
Oh, check out the fight against shaft, he says something different for each of his attacks..fire, lightning and orb attacks.

[Mathius]

I really don't like the multi-directional whip from CIV and SotN and gameplay aside, it seems incredibly lame to me for a Belmont to stop in the middle of an action packed adventure to stand still and twirl flick part of his limp whip at something like 9 year old girl gymnist twirling a ribbon (I do like the full whip spin in CotM though).

I'll agree that flailing the whip about is pretty lame, but what's wrong with being able to whip straight up, at angles, and what not?

Word!

[Mathius]

Black Tiger wondered if I am emulating. Nope, I have a Turbografx CD-ROM attatchment that so far hasn't crapped out on me(knock on wood). I paid a guy at Racketboy.com $100 plus EMS shipping last week for Dracula X and got it on monday. I never got anything that fast from Japan...EVER!

I look forward to getting further into the game and experiencing the things you guys have described.

[awack]

I like the ability to swing the whip at angles as well, but i don't feel that Castlevania IV was designed around this new ability as well as it should have been, the result is a game that is very easy, for me, i die mostly from disappearing platforms and falling off stairs as appose to regular enemies and bosses...you could say something similar about Maria in rondo.

[nat]

I had a very similar experience when I finally played Ys I & II after many years of hearing the hype. I grew up with the TG-16, but for whatever reason Ys didn't appeal to me back in those days and I didn't end up picking them up until finally within the past 5 years. When I played through 'em I found them to be highly overrated, and while they were good enough fun, they don't crack my top 10. I think Zeta makes a great point when he says that listening to hype for such a prolonged period of time sets your expectations so high, it's virtually impossible for anything to live up to them.

All that said, I think Rondo of Blood is a fantastic game that fully lived up to my expectations. It feels fresh every time I go back to play through it again, and it has aged very well.