Thanks to retro game club I organise, it’s back to the stage-based Castlevania well for the cut-down alternate retelling of Rondo of Blood, Dracula X/Vampire’s Kiss/Akumajou Dracula XX. I previously reviewed Rondo on PSP and it did eventually win me over. I can’t say the same for its SNES sibling.
It’s the spooky season apparently, so why not break out a Castlevania game? The only thing scary about this chibi-fied spinoff is its difficulty, but I was able to mitigate that through rampant savestate cheating.
Here’s a little oddity, groundbreaking in a few ways. It represents big publishers trying to get into the mobile phone game market, Konami collaborating with Westerners for one of their big franchises, and a hybrid of the two types of Castlevania gameplay. Too bad it’s not very good. Ok, ok, with the heavy disclaimer “for a mobile game” it’s fine.
Although this would normally be played in a narrow portrait view, using my java phone emulator I was able to expand the screen space, which really helped with visibility of enemies even if the UI ended up a little odd. Unfortunately I had other problems with my controller, apart from the regular control issues on mobile phones (only accepting one input at a time, button combos with overlapping functions, sketchy diagonal jumps). It looks decent for what it is, but you must toggle between music and sound effects; whatever midi rendering my emulator had made the SFX very unsuited so I kept the music, which was fine.
But let’s talk about how the game works, because it’s an interesting experiment. You have a slightly explorable world but broken up into stage-like bits. Progress gives you new abilities and you will loop back at one point, and you find sub-weapons that are permanently collected and switchable through the menu (but most of them are useless; either comparable to the whip but using hearts, or with more range but too weak). Desmond levels up with experience and can find usable health items and spells. So it’s a light Metroidvania in fact, albeit cut down for the platform, poorly executed and nowhere near as satisfying as its contemporaries. It didn’t really need the RPG elements and backtracking, especially as a mobile game.
At least we have a plot with cutscenes. Desmond is the Belmont of the day, and his sisters Dolores and Zoe pop up for exposition and to give you new abilities, such as alchemy (this and other plot elements tie it loosely to the PS2 game Lament of Innocence). It’s not really unique in Castlevania, except having multiple Belmonts, and it’s very brief. The game is over very quickly; I beat it in a bit over an hour without much trouble. Respawning in the same room on death helps.
So I don’t want this game to be overlooked; it’s not up to the standard set by many other Castlevania games, but it’s short and not difficult so as long as you can wrangle a mobile phone emulator, a fan of the series should give it a go. And I do push back against it being written off as non-canon, as I did with Legends for Game Boy, or the N64 games; I like being inclusive like that. Random trivia fact: the game’s designer went on to found indie publisher Nicalis very soon after this.
Konami’s Rebirth games on WiiWare were revivals or remakes of some of its classics into glorious… er, SD. Although the first Castlevania Game Boy game had previously had an upgrade on the GBC, it was chosen for a retool by the legendary M2. The result feels like a lost 16-bit classic with an extra sheen on top.
No SNES, PC Engine, or even PS1 game ever looked this good. It’s got the trademark evocative Castlevania style but smoothed over. I also appreciated them not simply reusing Rondo of Blood’s sprites yet again. The music is going for throwback synthesised tones but there’s maybe not enough variety in instrumentation. Still, it contributes to that neo-classic feel (architecture nerds will not like me using that term, I’m sure).
While the the visuals are a step beyond Rondo or SCIV, the mechanics are not up to that level. Christopher has very basic moves; no backflip, slide, fancy whip moves. All the normal sub-weapons are there, as well as the GB game’s whip upgrade system, but it feels simple compared to even the few small tricks Rondo had available; you can’t even jump on and off stairs! It’s by no means easy however; the level design and enemy behaviours are much more complex than the GB source and that’s where the fun and challenge arise. I did appreciate the option for more lives!
My main problem with the game was it didn’t seem to have much to say compared to other linear Castlevania games. I admit that my experience is limited but Rondo was more fun to play for me, especially with Maria. I suppose the retro style is exactly what they were going for, but I would have thought a remake would be a great opportunity to expand a bit more; a slightly more involved plot or second playable character (again, like Rondo). That said, and I’m no level design guru, but in terms of pure game-ness it does manage to elevate an extremely simplistic handheld game to a “proper” stage-based Castlevania experience. It does this by completely reworking almost everything about the game, but still.
Moving on with Castlevania games, I played the version of SotN which is unlockable on the PSP’s Dracula X Chronicles. This is a pretty faithful port of the PS1 original, but with improvements to performance/frame rate, a redone English script and voice acting, and the addition of Maria mode (a better one than the Saturn version).
Symphony of the Night is widely regarded as a great game and it started the “Metroidvania/Igavania” subgenre within the series, with a 2D open world-type experience, with levelling up and loot and all that good stuff. It was pretty great and just as smooth to play and satisfying to clear as the three DS instalments that I’ve played; however, I enjoyed those later games more than this.
There are intangible and possibly subjective tweaks that have been made over the years, such as balancing: I found almost half the game overly easy, even without grinding levels. There are conveniences like the DS’s second screen being used to persistently display the map, or selectable destinations in warp rooms. And I had the feeling playing this that it was cluttered with systems I didn’t feel the need to use, like the two-hand system or the spells that use complicated inputs. I often had an overabundance of hearts, and although I like familiars following me around they didn’t seem that useful. There’s also little variety in the different weapons you find; overall I was unprepared for how many improvements I perceived to have been made to the sequels.
The classic twist in this game is the inverted castle, which opens up if you fulfil the right conditions. This is a neat idea with potential, but the design of the castle made it unnecessarily hard to traverse the inverted version; the superjump maneuver was needed too often, and while I understand that castles really aren’t designed for you to get around them upside-down it made it less fun.
As always there are some bonus modes; Richter is more versatile than in Rondo of Blood but still sluggish. Maria was delightful to play as again, with challenge coming from her low damage output that needs to be offset by using her animal companions. I’ll note here that being a direct sequel to Rondo a few years later works in its favour, and not just in reusing enemy sprites; continuing the story with the same characters is fun and reintroducing Alucard makes for a great dynamic between the three as well as Shaft, Dracula, and Death.
So for the most part the game is built to the high standards expected of the best Castlevania games. But I think they managed to do better as they went on. Sorry fans.
Playing the Dracula X Collection on the PSP, it’s a really nice set of companion games going from Rondo of Blood to Symphony of the Night. So here’s the goodie team and the baddie team, with a mix of designs from both games. I even threw in Victoria Fortescue from the Japanese pachinko game based on Rondo of Blood! (It’s execrable but hey, new characters for the headcanon.)
Alucard, Richter Belmont, Maria Renard, Victoria Fortescue, Death, Dracula, Shaft
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles was high on my list of PSP gems. Primarily a remake of the PC Engine game into 3D graphics, it’s known for having one of the best unlockables of all time: the PS1 classic Symphony of the Night, tweaked with a new script and other improvements. I’ll get to that later, but to play it I had to get through the main feature.
In 2D Castlevania land, I haven’t had much experience with the older stage-based style. I prefer the free-roaming RPG ones, but even with my preferences this game won me over. Eventually. To get to the point of appreciation and satisfaction, I had to learn, and death was my teacher. Literally in some cases, because you fight the Grim Reaper. Yes, it was difficult, but mastering the controls and finding the secrets turned out to be fun and rewarding.
I also enjoyed the game much more after unlocking Maria, the second playable character. She’s faster than the sluggish Richter, can nimbly double jump and slide, and has more versatile weapons. I also had to understand the game’s structure: I was expecting to do whole runs of the game, but a portable-friendly stage select can easily take you to any point to find the hidden levels and optional bosses, and you can change character at any time.
I may still prefer the open-world freedom and self-paced experience of the later games, but Rondo is a great example of how a game’s design can deliver a focused, challenging, and fun experience; all of which is more or less identical in this remake to the 1993 original. For what it’s worth, of the 2(!) linear Castlevanias I’ve played, this is the best! Also, check out the Castlevania 4koma I translated; there’s officially translated ones for this game too, linked in that post.
Thanks to Shizumon and the other mangaka, Konami, Castlevania Realm, Castlevania Wiki, and my friends who supported this endeavour. Please share this post around to any fans you know!
