Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

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Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

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a port of the game widely received as the best in the series, the thirty-two bit Symphony of the Night! And the issues are few and far between.

Let's start off with Rondo, which is only now making its North American debut. The enhanced port of this game looks great - the graphics are reminiscent of those from last year's PSP Mega Man X Maverick Hunter, and that's a good thing. 2D gameplay with 3D graphics, it looks awesome. The occasional cut scenes are of amazing quality, considering this is a handheld

The game plays true to the original. You'll start the game as Richter Belmont, the latest heir to the Belmont clan. He gets the traditional whip, as well as several secondary weapons - some familiar, some new. In addition to being able to collect small hearts to use secondary weapons, he can use a ton of hearts at once to perform an Item Crash - a huge, flashy attack that damages multiple foes. Why hasn't this feature been seen in more games?

As you play through the game there are tons of secrets and alternate pathways. You can rescue young girls as you progress, with each one usually granting you a new ability. For instance, one will unlock the new playable character, Maria. She seems more like a "joke" character than anything else, with her animal-based attacks, but she's still fun to play.

However, one issue people are going to have with Rondo is its insane difficulty. The level continue points are few and far between, and when you lose all your lives, you have to start the level over. Nearly every pre-Symphony Castlevania is like this, but this one is different in the fact that it's a LOT easier to lose life. It doesn't take a whole lot to die this time around. Rondo's not for those seeking a walk in the park.

Just the same, Rondo is an AWESOME game, quite possibly the finest pre-Symphony game in the series. As I had previously stated, the original sixteen-bit PC Engine version of the game is unlockable as well.

Also unlockable, as I previously stated, is the holy grail of the Castlevania series, Symphony of the Night. This game, long out of print and fetching massive prices on sites like eBay over the years, was the precursor of the Metroid-style titles in the series that have graced the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS systems. However, you must UNLOCK the game, which is an inconvenience. Honestly, this is not that big of a deal, however the game's packaging rambles on about the game's inclusion and fails to mention that you are required to unlock it. Once again, not a big deal, but it's sure to disappoint fans that just want to rush home and play Symphony. This could be taken as false advertising.

Sadly, this is more-or-less a straight port of the Playstation version of Symphony. We don't get the enhanced Saturn port with the extra areas added to that version of the game. Still, this isn't going to bother most fans, who are only familiar with the Playstation version anyway.

As you play through the enhanced version of Rondo, you'll also be able to find new pieces of music to unlock for the game's sound/music test mode. A pretty nifty little feature, especially considering this is a series that has always had great music on its side.

I do have to make one final complaint, but it's a big one that needs to be addressed - DRACULA XX IS NOT INCLUDED (this was the game called Dracula X in America.) The Super Nintendo remake of Rondo is the version of the game best known to North American gamers, and it too has long been out of print in the states. How can you make a game called Dracula X Chronicles and not include the game in the subseries that is the most well known for American players?

Ultimately, this package DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. Arguably the finest PSP title to date! Aside from the little flaws here and there and the gaping omission of XX, it's an awesome package that every PSP owner should pick up. Considering how rare some Castlevania games have become, I would advise every PSP owner who is a fan of action-adventure titles to rush to the game store right now, and pick this up. If you're a fan of this series you will not be disappointed.

One of the year's best. Thumbs way up.

Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

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more than the $30 price tag.

Quite possibly the most superior aspect of Rondo of Blood compared to ALL other Castlevania games (including SOTN)is the music. The soundtrack is the most top notch you will ever find in a video game and it makes for an extremely satisfying experience (don't get me wrong, SOTN also has an insanely good soundtrack, but it completely lakcs any original Castlevania remakes - Rondo of Blood has most of the classics). The game designers were obviously aware of the superiority of the score and that is most likely why so much of this remake focuses on music collection and customization. That's right, you can actually take songs from the orginal Rondo of Blood or SOTN and place whatever tracks in whatever levels you want of the remake! For me, this completely enhances replayability. Bored of the game? Well try substituting the orignal soundtrack into the new game, or better yet throw in some SOTN clasics like "Wandering Ghosts" or "The Tragic Prince" and see how the levels play out. It may not seem like much to some, but this is actually one of the greatest features I could have asked for.

As far as difficulty, this game is probably on par with Castlevania 1 or 3. Some people will complain that the play control in Rondo of Blood is not as good as in SOTN or Castlevania 4 for SNES, but to be honest with you, I think these people are way too spoiled on the newer Castlevania games, and the point behind Rondo of Blood is to keep the classic NES Castlevnia play control intact. Rondo of Blood truly is the missing link between the older and newer Castlevania generations.

All good points aside, there are a couple of criticisms I have about the remake. First off, Richter's backflip was a pretty handy technique in the orginal Rondo of Blood because it played smoothly into the controls, but in this remake it is absolutely ridiculous. I find myself accidentally doing backflips almost everytime I jump. In fact, I'd say unintentional backflipping is my number one cause of death in this game. I didn't remember the backflip being such a nuisance in the original so I figured maybe it was just weird because I was playing it on a PSP, but when I unlocked he original and started playing it, everything seemed as normal as ever, so this is obviously an annoyance exclusive to the remake. It's so bad it's hard to not choose Maria over Richter every level.

Another small gripe I have is about the screen size settings of the original Rondo of Blood and SOTN games included. First off, full screen is a must, unless you like feeling like you're playing a gameboy game on a TV with a super gameboy adapter. Full screen mode does eliminate the bottom borders, but still leave you with the side borders, which you fill in by choosing on of a few different frames. The frames all look completely lame, and why they could not allow you to choose just a solid black frame is beyond me. And I do realize these are old games that were made years ago to fit different resolutions, but come on - I had the original Rondo of Blood on my PSP over a year ago with an emulator and was still able to choose a stretched fit that looked fine, so this cheesy border thing is just inexcusable.

One final complaint about the originals is the voice acting. Rondo of Blood was never made in English, so I can't complain too much about the voices and dialogue. But there was absolutely no reason to toy around with the voice acting in SOTN. The voices are definitely different, and I even think some of the direct dialogue has been changed. Besides Richter now sounding like a whiny kid and Death, instead of sounding like a skeleton, now sounds like just some regular dude, the changes are in fact probably better overall because, to be honest with you, the voice acting is the original SOTN was just plain terrible. However, going back and changing something so major from what was supposed to be an "original game" definitely seems to diminish it's authenticity.

In summary, despite some minor undesirable nuances, this is still the best game released for the PSP to date, and if you're a Castlevania fan picking it up shouldn't even be a second thought. This is a great opportunity to own two of the best games ever made, along with a semi-decent remake enhanced with tremendous sountrack customization. I may as well toss the game case, because this game is never coming out of my PSP.