Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Review

God, Grant Me Strength

This is exactly where you need to go to unlock Symphony of the Night. Kill the skeleton snake, attack that plant, head along the platforms.

Now that unpleasantness is out of the way, time for the actual introduction to the review.

As the prequel to Symphony of the Night never released outside of Japan, Rondo of Blood has gained a near-mythical status, particularly as it was released on a system that was never very popular outside of Japan anyway (the PC Engine) and then received an incredibly inferior port to the Super Nintendo that was released internationally.

Well, series führer Koji Igarashii (who was only nominally involved in the creation of the original) decided to update and port the title to PSP, and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is the result: a 2.5D remake of Castlevania's "holy grail" that includes the PC Engine original and Symphony of the Night as (gnngh) unlockables.

An Evil Prayer Summons Darkness

Similarly, you want to stand on that button and head up here to get to the area which will unlock the original Rondo of Blood.

I'll be completely honest. As a big fan of the Castlevania series, I've played through the PC Engine original, and while in many fans eyes it's the perfect fusion of the brutal, old-school NES Castlevania titles and the Metroid-esque direction "IGA" has taken the franchise, I think that's a load of old twaddle. Main character Richter Belmont is as limited as Simon Belmont, crawling along like he's cacked his pants and completely unable to react swiftly to anything (his one special move, the backflip, is practically useless) and the game is simply too rigid in its rote-learning based design to be rewarding at all, especially when it comes to the punishingly hard bosses.

If there's one saving grace to the original title, it's the ability to unlock Maria, a second playable character who, by virtue of her quick attack and double jump, makes the game bearable enough that you might actually enjoy discovering the innovative aspects of the title, such as alternate routes through the levels.

A Nightmare Reborn

It's more apparent in the original, but swathes of Rondo of Blood pay tribute to the NES titles, such as this, a town similar to those in Simon’s Quest.

Although some changes have been made for the remake, such as new sections and a ludicrously tough third form for Dracula, for the most part the Dracula X Chronicles is the same game as Rondo of Blood, right down to requirements including pixel-perfect jumps (much harder in 3D, especially when they usually require that your character be hanging off the edge of platforms to be able to reach the next) and frustratingly difficult set-pieces. This is the kind of game that will happily drop you down a bottomless pit (and lose you a life) if you forget to hold a diagonal when walking up or down some stairs. God only knows how unbearable that is on a fat PSP.

There's something oddly compelling about the complete package, however. The remake features some great new art (from Symphony of the Night character designer Ayami Kojima) there's always the original PC Engine version if you really don't like it, and the version of Symphony of the Night that's included is the best available, with re-written and recorded dialogue (so no "a miserable pile of secrets!" for better or worse) extra familiars and even the ability to play as Maria. For completionists, it's far better than the downloadable version available at the PlayStation Store.

You can even play through any of the games with Japanese or English voices. Now that's attention to detail.

Bloodlines