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This Japan-exclusive Castlevania game perfects the old-school formula

This classic Castlevania game was released only in Japan, which is a shame because its a solid entry in the series. It was released exclusively for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1993, being developed and publsihed by Konami. Konami went all-out with this game, boasting impressive visuals, cutscenes, and great music. After playing the game, I'm not sure why it wasn't released in North America and Europe.

The game has voice acting, but of course, it's in Japanese. Here's the basic premise of the story as far as I could tell: a young woman is sacrificed in order to resurrect Dracula, so Richter Belmont sets out to defeat him. The opening cutscene is great, showing Richter taking down some enemies using his whip; the game has other cutscenes, but they're hard to figure out if they're just talking. For example, at one point in the game they have a cutscene where Dracula is talking to a young woman, and I have no clue what that conversation was about.

The game actually starts you at Stage 0--the Prologue. We see Richter riding in a horse and carriage in a rainstorm. Suddenly, Death comes out of nowhere and you have to fight him! The setting for the game seems to be the 1800s, and it looks like its set in England. I can tell this because the buildings in stage 1 look like the Victorian Era.

If you've played old-school Castlevania games before, you'll feel right at home with this one. The button configuration is typical: one button will attack, another will jump; up plus the attack button will use an item. Richter can move in mid-air somewhat, but is difficult to control. The controls are intuitive, and never a problem. The biggest problem is the thing that's always been the biggest problem in these games, and that is getting knocked back when you get hit; it's still just as annoying as ever. Items in the game include the axe, knives, cross boomerang, holy potion, holy book, and the clock.

Rondo of Blood is not a long game; its nine stages are pretty short. However, the game has four alternate routes, which gives great replay value. Sometimes if you fall down a hole, you won't die, but rather fall into another area. The game seems to be a love letter to the series. Stage 2 is an homage to the original Castlevania, complete with the same design inside the castle with bats and zombies coming at you. One section of the game is like a boss rush mode, in which you fight five bosses in a row; these are classic bosses from the series, such as the giant bat, the mummy, and Frankenstein.

Most enemies will make a noise when they're killed; the voices sound really good for being on such an old console.The level design is solid and typical of what we've seen before. The backgrounds are very detailed. The enemies are all classic enemies which we know: skeletons which throw bones, flying medusa heads, knights with spears, and those annoying bats. But I can't really complain about any of these things because it's what I want from a classic Castlevania game.

Before you fight each boss, you'll go through a prepatory room, complete with creepy music. Here you can demolish some candles, grab some hearts, and get the item you want (hopefully). Then you enter the next room to face the boss. Some of the bosses are certainly difficult, but they all have recognizable patterns, so you should be able to defeat them after enough tries. Some of the bosses can hurt you after you kill them, which keeps you on your toes. My life was usually pretty low when I beat a boss. Some of the bosses include a headless knight, a werewolf, a wizard who can summon other monsters, and of course, Death and Dracula.

I noticed some pretty neat details in the game as well. In one stage, there are three mirrors which Richter will walk in front of; the first two mirrors accurately show his reflection, but the third mirror shows a monster on the other side. The monster will not come out and attack you or anthing, but the detail there was neat. In the first stage, you can see a dragon in the background as you approach the boss; at the last moment it flies in to fight you. These details make the game more enjoyable and enrich the overall experience.

Rondo of Blood also has a seond playable character if you rescue her (so it's optional), and that is Maria. With more agility and a large variety of attacks (plus a double jump), Maria is a great character to use. However, she will die faster than Richter, so you have to be careful. This inclusion further cements this game as a stellar addition to the series.

If I had to complain about any parts of the game, it would be the very beginning section of Stage 7, in which you have to run across a collapsing bridge (a long collapsing bridge) while bats periodically fly by; this part is very annoying because (1) you will get hurt a lot and (2) you will probably fall off and die due to Richter jumping back when he gets hit. I found this to be the only truly aggravating part of the game. Of course, other sections of the game were annoying, but that's because medusa heads were present.

The music in this game is incredible. It far outshines the music of any previous titles in the series. In fact, it almost outshine the music of Symphony of the Night, but not quite. The four composers really put their best work into this game. Many of the themes are driven and fierce; the sound quality is very good. The songs are also long and actually end and fade out before starting over (I don't know why they couldn't loop them, but they're awesome nonetheless). This simply adds to an already stellar game.

Final Verdict--4.5 Stars: Highly Recommended

With solid controls, great level design, detailed graphics, challenging bosses, good replay value, and awesome music, Castlevania Rondo of Blood is one game in the series you don't want to miss. It holds up perfectly today! Until recently, this game was not available to those of us in North America, but now the game is available on the Wii Virtual Console, and it is worth it! This game has everything you would want in a classic Castlevania game (it even has a clock tower section). Konami proved with this one that they can make a great Castlevania game on any system, not just a Nintendo one (of course, they would further prove that when Symphony of the Night came out). How does this game stack up against the other classic Castlevania games? It's all your opinion. But there's no denying that this is one of the best.

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