Video Game Review - "Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles"

Within this past year, I have started playing Castlevania games.  Now I can imagine what many people are saying to me right now, "wait...you never played Castlevania before?"  Well....no.

Let me explain something.  When I was younger, I had a PlayStation, and the games I were playing were Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Twisted Metal, etc.  I didn't even know about the existence of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" until last year when the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed it in his Castlevania Marathon.  In fact, the Angry Video Game Nerd is what made me decide to pick up a Castlevania game.

The first Castlevania game I bought back in January 2010 was "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" for the Nintendo DS.  While I won't give it a full-fledged review here, I will say that the gameplay was enjoyable and Julius Mode was a nice throwback to the gameplay style of "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse."  This was also the first time that I was introduced to the Metroidvania style of gameplay.

The next Castlevania game I played was "Super Castlevania IV" for the Super Nintendo (well, in this case, I got it from the Wii Virtual Console).  Again, after hearing that this was James Rolfe's personal favorite of the series, I wanted to check it out.  Everything he said about the game was true.  The music is great, as is the level design and look.  The backgrounds are fantastic and whipping in eight directions makes the game challenging, but fair.  It truly is a masterpiece of side-scrolling action, well worth the 800 Nintendo Points I paid for.

So after playing "Dawn of Sorrow" and "Super Castlevania IV" (and being exposed to the Metrodivania gameplay and the old-school side-scrolling gameplay), the next game I wanted to play was what many fans consider to be the greatest Castlevania game ever made: "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night."

Which leads us to the game being reviewed today, "Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles" for the PlayStation Portable.

"Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles" is a collection of two-three different Castlevania games (depending on your viewpoint).

1) "Castevania: Dracula X Chronicles," a 2.5D remake of "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood," featuring enhanced graphics, new character designs, and remade music.
2) "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood," a port of the original "Rondo of Blood" game released in Japan for the PC-Engine.  Up until 2007, it has never been released in North America.
3) "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night," a port of the PSOne classic, featuring slightly altered voice acting and dialogue, but still retaining the Metrod-style of gameplay.

Seeing as how "Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles" contained a portable version of "Symphony of the Night," I decided to pay the $15 it cost and see if "SotN" lived up to the praise it gets.

But before we can review "SotN," let's talk about the other two games, "Dracula X Chronicles" and "Rondo of Blood."  Seeing as how you have to unlock "SotN" by playing "DXC," it seems appropriate to talk about that game first.

As I briefly mentioned before, "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood" was originally released in 1993 for the PC-Engine in Japan.

In America, we didn't have the PC-Engine, but instead the Turbografx-16, which was released in 1989.

While the Turbografx-16 seemed to be a fine console in its own right, it didn't sell very well compared to its Japanese counterpart, due to the popularity of the Nintendo and Sega consoles.  The Turbografx-16 was discontinued in 1995, with "Rondo of Blood" never making its way to the States.

The closest America got to playing "Rondo of Blood" was a Super Nintendo game loosely based on "Rondo of Blood," entitled "Castlevania: Dracula X."  The plots were similar, but "Dracula X" featured radically-redesigned levels, altered gameplay, and a different art style (not to mention "DX" was much harder than "RoB").

In 2007, "Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles" was released, finally giving players a chance to play the original game as well as a remake.  I'm going to review the remake, but both games have the same style of gameplay.

Richter Belmont, as he appears in "Dracula X Chronicles"

In "DXC," you take control of Richter Belmont.  Like the other Belmonts in the Castlevania series, he must make his way to Dracula's castle to put a stop to his evil reign once more and to rescue Annette, his fiancée.  Along the way, he must also rescue Annette's younger sister, Maria Renard, and two other maidens, Terra and Iris.

Immediately as I begin playing, one thing that disappoints me is that unlike "Super Castlevania IV," you cannot  whip in all eight directions.  You can only whip on a horizontal plane, which is like the original Castlevania trilogy on the NES.  But now, just like those games, you'll have a difficult time trying to kill those pesky enemies such as bats, fleamen, and Medusa heads as well as those enemies that throw projectiles (like the armored knights and the bone-throwing skeletons).

The visuals in this game are wonderful.  While the original "Rondo of Blood" had an anime/cartoon appearance, "Dracula X Chronicles" goes for a more realistic, darker appearance.  In addition, much like "New Super Marios Bros." or "Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1," the game features 2.5D graphics, meaning that the gameplay is a 2D side-scroller with 3D backgrounds and character models.  It all looks really nice, especially the cutscenes that play before you take on a boss.  For a PSP game, these are some of the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen.

Being that this is a Castlevania game, it should come as no surprise that the musical soundtrack is fantastic!  Whether it's the remake or the original game, both soundtracks feature catchy melodies that greatly enhance the atmosphere of each level.  Along with classic Castlevania tunes (such as "Vampire Killer" and "Bloody Tears"), the game also has some excellent new tracks as well.  My personal favorite is "Cross a Fear," which plays on stage 2'.

It's hard to describe how awesome the music is.  Just listen:


But as amazing as the visuals and sounds are, the actual gameplay could use some work.

The gameplay is simple, very similar to the original Castlevania games on the NES.  You go from point-A to point-B, defeating enemies with your whip.  Once you reach the exit, you fight a boss.  You defeat the boss and then move on to the next level.  Typical Castlevania gameplay.

However, the game also includes elements found in "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse" in that you can take different paths and find hidden secrets.

The different passageways add some exploration to the game, as well as add replay value.  By taking different passageways, you can find hidden treasures such as additional background music.  This is also how you unlock the original "Rondo of Blood" as well as "Symphony of the Night."

However, finding these different passageways and hidden items isn't always easy.  There are times when you would have to know something like falling down what appears to be a bottomless pit or pushing aside a gravestone to move on to the next level.

Finding the two maidens also requires some out-of-the-box thinking.  For example, to find and rescue Iris, you have to let a blue frog hop onto a pillar to reveal a secret stairway.  How would you know to let the blue frog live?  Chances are, you'll probably kill it the minute you see it the first time playing it (seeing as how it's identical to the other frog enemies in the area).

Maria Renard, as she appears in "Dracula X Chronicles"

Another cool feature about this game is that you can play as another character.  Early on in the game, you can rescue a girl named Maria Renard.  Once you rescue her, you can play as her.

Maria Renard runs faster than Richter Belmont and can do a double-jump, which comes in handy sometimes during the harder parts of the game.

Speaking of hard, that is the biggest problem I have with the gameplay: the difficulty.  Now, don't get me wrong.  Challenge is a good thing.  Without challenge, gamers would be bored.  However, in the case of "Dracula X Chronicles," the challenge comes from stiff controls and clunky movements.

Richter moves so incredibly slow.  There are times when you need to get away from an enemy's attack, but you're unable to get away in time and thus you end up dying.

Richter's jumping is another problem.  It feels awkward.  There are times when there you need to jump onto a platform that's just out of your reach, like in stage 4.  Also, you have to jump over several spike traps and land on very narrow platforms.  Since you have limited control on where you land after you jump, there's no room for error.

Thankfully, Maria is a much more agile than Richter and she can double jump, making those tricky jumps easier.  But really...why would you want to play as a little girl?  I mean, yeah, she really makes the difficulty more bearable, but this is a Castlevania game!  You want to be the badass Belmont with the whip!  Besides, as useful as Maria is, she also dies much quicker than Richter.

In conclusion, while "Dracula X Chronicles" has amazing visuals and music, the stiff controls and jumping physics really make the game much harder than it should be.  But that's just my opinion.  My recommendation, play the game yourself and see what you think.

That's all I got to say about the "Dracula X Chronicles."  As for the original PC-Engine game, it has the same gameplay style and the same levels, but the graphics resemble the 16-bit games of SNES and Sega Genesis.  If you liked "Dracula X Chronicles," you'll probably like the original game too.




Next time, I'll be reviewing the other game that comes packaged with "Dracula X Chronicles" and the game that fans say is the best out of every Castlevania game: "Symphony of the Night."  Is it really that good?  I'll tell you about it next time!