Friday, April 27, 2018

Review: Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

Game: Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles
Platform: Sony PSP
Initial Release Date: October 23, 2007
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Directors: Akahiro Minakata, Koji Igarashi
Designer: Ayami Kojima
Original Version Name: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Original Version Platform: PC Engine CD ROM
Original Version Release Date: October 29, 1993










I just (sorta) beat my the first game that I bought for my PSP. This is going to be shorter than my typical posts, I think, but I thought I'd go ahead and share my thoughts on it. 

What is Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles?
Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (Akumajo Dracula X Chronicle in Japan, literally "Demon Castle Dracula X Chronicle") is a remake of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, a Japan-only release for the PC Engine CD ROM system (that's the Japanese name; PC Engine was called Turbografix 16 in the US). Dracula X is a 2.5D remake of Rondo, meaning that it's a 2D side-scroller like most Castlevania games, but the characters are rounded out and there are some techniques such as parallax scrolling to make the game appear more 3D. 

Rondo of Blood was a novel introduction to the series. Released in 1993, it was the 10th Castlevania game. It was the first to get rid of the upgradeable whip system and also introduced a few new ideas to the series, such as the Item Crash ability, in which the player can do a special item attack while using up a large portion of hearts. The game also included some things from some of the earlier games such as branching, alternate paths and unlockable playable characters. It was also the first game in the series to come on CD and made use of the Redbook Audio format, which allowed you to listen to music from the soundtrack by placing the CD into a regular CD player. Using a CD allowed the addition of animated cut-scenes, voice-acting, and higher quality music. 

The naming of these games can be confusing. First of all, in Japan, Konami could never decide what naming convention to use, resulting in several different games called Akumajo Dracula then some using Castlevania and others not. But in America, we got a game for the Super Nintendo (and I think the Sega Genesis) called Dracula X. It's a watered-down version of Rondo of Blood that mostly plays the same, but with some major differences, such as taking out the playable characters. Then, when Konami released their remake of Rondo of Blood for the PSP, they named it Dracula X Chronicles in all regions, even though it's a true remake of Rondo, not Dracula X.
"Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo," or "Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood" 

So, how is it?
Okay, so now that we've gotten all of that confusion out of the way, how is the game itself? I've actually written about it a little before in my "Retro Gaming with the PSP" article. My only experience with Castlevania prior to this was the original and the N64 game. I got the original Castlevania for the NES back around 1990. My dad came home from work one day with an NES and a handful of games that he had bought from someone at work (I already had had an NES at my mom's house for a year or two). I assume that some poor teenager had gotten busted for something or other and his punishment was that his dad sold his NES. I think my dad gleefully told me that he had only paid $60 for it, too. I can't remember the other games for sure - I think Commando and Ice Hockey. Anyway, I loved the original Castlevania and played it for hours and hours, but even in my teen years going back and playing it again, I was never able to get past the 3rd stage and only even made it that far once or twice. 

Likewise, I found Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles to be very difficult. It felt exactly like playing the original Castlevania in just about every way. Richter Belmont jumps and falls with that famous Castlevania gravity just like Simon did. Swinging the whip has exactly the same little delay that makes it so hard to hit swooping enemies like Medusa heads and ravens. Getting hit still makes you fly backward in a very frustrating manner, often into more death. Speaking of which, there is this one boss that you fight while inexplicably standing atop the crossspar at the top of a very high mast. If you get knocked back or just make a bad jump and jump off, you fall all the way to the bottom of the level and die. Fun times. And of course, you have a very limited number of lives. When you lose them all, it's all the way back to the beginning of the level.

All of that aside, I really enjoyed the game anyway. I found it very hard, but in a way that pushed just the right nostalgia buttons. The addition of saves really helps. I probably replayed the third level 30-40 times before I finally beat it. Beating the game was very satisfying, though I think I got the worst ending possible, having failed to rescue any of the four missing women. I know that if you rescue them you can play as at least one of them, if not all of them. I don't really feel a burning desire to go back and do so, though.
In other words: "You beat the game, but you really sucked at it."
Final Thoughts
The best thing about Dracula X Chronicles is that it includes a port of Symphony of the Night. There is a thing you have to do in the second level (I won't spoil it here). I had heard about it on the Retronauts podcast, but I actually did it completely by accident. Once you do this series of tasks, you find a little floating CD. Hitting it unlocks Symphony of the Night, playable from the main menu. As of writing this, I'm about 20 hours into Symphony. If you have never played this game and don't believe the hype around it can possibly be justified, let me tell you: you are wrong. I think it might be one of the very best games I've ever played. You should play it now. If you have a PS1 or a PS2, go buy it. If you don't and you have a PSP, then buy Dracula X Chronicles and unlock it. Either way, you owe it to yourself to play it.

Speaking of unlockable little CDs, let me save you some time. You can unlock music files from the soundtrack by collecting these little floating CDs, but most of them are sitting in plain sight behind a little red pillar thing. When you hit the pillar, it goes down, but then it pops back up before you can pass. I spent a lot of time trying to get past these things, using items, the backflip, and even wasting my precious hearts on item crashes. I finally looked it up: you have to play through the game as Maria, the first maiden you can rescue, in order to get these. There you go; I just saved you an hour of futility.

So, should you play Dracula X Chronicles? I think that depends. If you really love the original Castlevania, Castlevania III, and/or Super Castlevania IV and you've never played Rondo of Blood or Dracula X, then yeah, totally. If you love Symphony of the Night but find the older Castlevania games kind of tedious, then it's fine to pass up. I think once I finish Symphony of the Night, I'm going to try Super Castlevania IV (I just bought an SNES Mini - stay tuned!). Then I might see about coming back and playing Dracula X Chronicles again for the unlockables, maybe with a strategy guide. No shame in that, my friend; anything to lay Dracula to rest.

6 comments:

  1. I know what game I'll be playing this weekend now!

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  3. SOTN is also available on Xbox live arcade and I believe the ps store! So there is a lot of ways to own it for real! My Xbox 360's main is is playing that or halo, lmao.

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    1. Oh, yeah, that's true. They also have a version of it for the Sega Saturn, lol. I'll make sure to mention that when I write about it eventually.

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