Template:Infobox CVG Castlevania: Rondo of Blood [1] is the 10th installment in the Castlevania series, first released on October 29th, 1993 for the PC Engine CD-ROM².
Story
- "In the good old days, the people desired only prosperity and peace, and certainly everyone thought that the days of unrest would surely never come… But on the other side of peace and prosperity, there invariably exists evil. Rejecting the peoples’ prosperity, they corrupt the peace.
Those who sought to restore the powers of evil and remake this corrupt world gathered. Smiles crept across their faces as their expectations for the coming genesis swelled.
After one hundred years, a being of evil once again returned. This man could change his form into that of a bat, a wolf, or mist, particularly favoring to act at night. Sucking the blood of young women, he retained eternal life. Master of the Demon Castle, god of the wicked, Count Dracula has returned." - — Official manual description for Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Characters
Richter Belmont
- Main article: Richter Belmont
Age: 19.
Blood Type: B.
Voice Actor: Tadashi Horikawa
Descendant of Simon Belmont. Vampire hunter. Very righteous and dislikes unfairness. His weapon of choice is the time-honored Belmont family whip. Able to use axes and knives as well.
Maria Renard
- Main article: Maria Renard
Age: 12.
Blood Type: AB.
Voice Actress: Yoko Teppotsuka
Daughter of distant kinship with the House of Belmont. Held hostage somewhere in Stage 2. Once rescued, may be used by your player instead of Richter. A honest personality and tough fighter.
Annette
- Main article: Annette
Age: 17.
Blood Type: A.
Voice Actress: Atsuko Honda
Richter's lover. Held hostage somewhere in Demon Castle. Strong-willed and also dislikes the unfair. Has a very pleasant personality and is nice to all.
Tera
- Main article: Tera
Age: 19.
Blood Type: O.
Voice Actress: Hiromi Murata
A nun at the Village Church, also held hostage in Demon Castle. Warm hearted, lively, with a passionate soul.
Iris
- Main article: Iris
Age: 17.
Blood Type: A.
Voice Actress: Akie Yasuda
Daughter of the doctor and held captive in Demon Castle. A Bright and caring person, she looks out for others.
Dracula
- Main article: Dracula
Age: 800.
Blood Type: ?.
Voice Actor: Hironari Ishimaru
Lord of Demon Castle and the root of all evil. Though his cold character is without equal, he maintains the dignity telling of his royal lineage.
Overview
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is the first CD game in the series, which allowed for more features to be included, such as CD quality soundtrack and visual cut-scenes. The opening, ending, and various cutscenes done in a hand-drawn visual style are included in the game. However, at the time this wasn't considered to be a very popular decision. [2] Various details in the terrain are more polished than previous entries, and the behaviour of the enemies is more elaborate. For example, the boss characters in the game will perform an unique final attack when their health meter is depleted. If the player didn't sustain any damage during the fight and manages to avoid this attack, a "Perfect Bonus" (1UP) is obtained.
The mechanic of picking upgrades in order to power up the whip, which until that time was a staple of the series, has been been removed. A new feature is the Item Crash, a special sub-weapon attack during which the player becomes momentarily invincible and a powerful attack is performed, at the expense of a large amount of hearts. Similar to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, a branching path system has been implemented, but with some differences. Unlike the former, it's not possible to choose between two paths in between stages. Rather, there are two ways to proceed through a stage, one of the paths being hidden. Finding this path requires several tricks such as destroying a wall, deliberately falling down a pit, and so on. In addition, there are four characters who have been kidnapped by Dracula and require to be rescued. One of these characters, Maria, becomes playable after being rescued. She attacks with magical, whimsical skills, such as throwing doves at enemies, hiding in a turtle shell, and other animal based attacks. When playing with Maria, the cutscenes when rescuing the other characters, the conversation with Dracula, the ending, as well as the game-over screen become more light-hearted in tone.
Once a stage is cleared, it can be selected from the "STAGE SELECT" in the file screen at the start of the game. Choosing "PLAYER SELECT" allows switching to Maria. Other things which are displayed are the completion percentage, the amount of continues left, "SOUND TEST", and "TECHNIQUE". The latter are videos which show the correct strategy to use against bosses. These videos can be unlocked by collecting certain amounts of money.
Music
- See also: Akumajo Dracula X
The music this time around goes for a bit of a pop style, but still contains that classic Castlevania progressive rock feel of the older games. Since Dracula X is a CD based game, live guitars were brought in to back up the crisp sounding synth and drum beats. Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Beginning were all also rearranged for this game.
The soundtrack was released in a two disc set (the second disc containing the soundtrack to Castlevania: Bloodlines) in 1994 and has since been taken out of production, making it just as hard to find as the game is.
Composers
- Akiropito
- Overture / Divine Bloodlines
- Former Room (as a re-arranger)
- Poison Mind (as a re-arranger)
- Sound effects
- Player Out (as a re-arranger)
- Game Over (as a re-arranger)
- Stage Clear (as a re-arranger)
- All Clear (as a re-arranger)
- Jigokuguruma Nakamura
- Sanoppi
- Requiem
- Former Room (Compose)
- Dark Desires
- Dance of Illusions
- Mary Samba
- Tracks for demo scenes
- Metal Yuhki
- Vampire Killer (as a re-arranger)
- Bloody Tears (as a re-arranger)
- Beginning (as a re-arranger)
Unused Stuff
- On March 2015, an unused boss sprite from Stage 1 was discovered. The boss resembles a green, four-legged creature, quite similar to Super Metroid's Crocomire.[3]
Legacy
Dracula X has had remarkable impact and is something of a turning point in the series. The following games would be influenced by it graphics wise, with many sprites almost directly taken from the game. It is also one of the last "old-school" Castlevania games, featuring more linear, stage based gameplay, as opposed to the "Metroidvania" style introduced in this game's extremely popular direct sequel, Symphony of The Night.
The game is highly sought after by many fans, but due to the lack of an international release, copies are rare. The game often sells for well over $100 on eBay. It has been upgraded to a 2.5D game in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP, which also contains the original version as well as its sequel, Symphony of the Night. A direct port of the original version can also be found on the Wii's Virtual Console and is considered an import title outside Japan. While there is no translation made outside of Japan, the English VC version is still altered in that it contains the PSP intro audio and the censored version of the werewolf.
Staff
- Producer: Y.Yamada (Yoshiaki Yamada)
- Director: T.Hagihara (Toru Hagihara)
- Program: T.Hagihara, GAGENSAI, Shingo.T (Shingo Takatsuka)
- Character Design: T.Furukawa (Toshiharu Furukawa), R.B (Reika Bando), K.Yamada (Koji Yamada), KURO!
- SOUND STAFF: Akiropito (Shoji Akira), Jigokuguruma Nakamura (Keizo Nakamura), Sanoppi (Tomoko Sano), Metal Yuhki (Saitō Mikio)
- Guitar Solo: Motoaki Furukawa
- Visual Staff: Akiropito, Sanoppi, Imohore Imai (Kazuhito Imai)
- Package Design: Inumari, M.Yoshihashi (Masahiro Yoshihashi)
- Voice Staff: Ryuichi, AKT, NOR, Saushirau, Babbitt・K, Sanoppi, OPA
- OP Visual Narrator: Hans Ginita Klaud
Related Products
- Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo Official Guide - A Japanese guide book for this game.
- Akumajo Dracula X - Contains the OST for this game.
- Castlevania: Dracula X - A Super Nintendo semi-like, direct-sequel of this game. Considered a non-canon semi-sequel in Japan, and branded as a substitute game for Rondo of Blood to international gaming markets. It is known as "Dracula XX" in Japan and "Vampire's Kiss" in Europe and Australia, where it is considered as a standard sequel to Super Castlevania IV, presentation wise.
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - The official direct sequel to this game.
- Akumajyo Dracula Peke - A minigame included on the same disc as Rondo of Blood that was played if the user was using an older kind of System Card on the PC Engine.
- Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - A 2.5D remake of Rondo of Blood that also includes new English localized versions of the original game and its sequel, Symphony of the Night.
- Akumajō Dracula Best Music Collections BOX - Contains music from this game on Disc 4.
References
- ↑ Title screen of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
- ↑ Akumajou Dracula X - Gekka no Yasoukyoku CD liner notes
- ↑ Castlevania Dungeon Forums http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php/topic,7864.msg174416.html#msg174416
External links
- Castlevania: Rondo of Blood at the Castlevania Fan Wiki
- Dessgeega.com all-clear run
- Castlevania Dungeon (Review/Article of the game.)
- Castlevania Realm
- GameFAQs
- Konami Wii Product Page (Japanese)
- Hudson Wii Product Page (Internet Archive)
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Castlevania Wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License. |