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Castlevania: Rondo of Blood video
Castlevania Video Marathon: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine) (Richter one life run)
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Graphics in this game is good. However palette is a bit monotone in some levels. Some rooms once again consist from square blocks, like in first three games on NES. Backgrounds are sometimes detailed and animation is flawless. Richter have classic Belmont strut, but his climbing-on-stairs animation is awkward. The same thing with Maria. Though her sprite in general looks a bit strange as, if it has no clear outlines. Bosses are big and very detailed. There are not much in the way of special effects (notable special effect is a background during Drcaula's battle).
For the first time Michiru Yamane composed music for the series. While soudtrack is quite disjointed in its feel, all tracks are excellent and memorable. Though some of them don't feel like they should be in the Castlevania game, like Stage 5' music. Classic trio of old tracks (Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Begining) received another remixes. Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears were given a decent facelift, while Begining sound somewhat boring. Out of the new music my absolute favorite is Bloodlines, which received multiple awesome remixes throughout the Castlevania history.
There are toatlly 14 levels, however during one playthrough you can get through only 8 or 9 levels (depending on the character). Some Stages have hidden alternative versions - 2, 3, 4 and 5. Alternate Stage 5 opens only after player defeats Dracula at least once and it doesn't have boss. You can get into alternative stages via some pits and secret passages scattered throughout the regular levels. However, even without ways leading into different stages, regular levels in the game could be completed in several different ways and there are multiple secrets hidden. Usually those alternate ways could be quite obscure. Sometimes specific actions needed to find a secret path - like destroying several bricks in the certain location or push buttons in the right order.
In the gameplay department this game was innovative in many ways. It was the second Castlevania game, where player could receive different endings. However this time deciding factor wasn't the time player spent in the gameworld (actually this game stopped using time limit alltogether). In order to receive good ending player must rescue four maidens in different levels. However, you could save only two or three of them in one run. Oddly enough there is no "bad" ending, just "good" and "the best" endings.
Visually levels in ROB look very big on the screen. Sadly more often then not they are quite empty. It goes for amount of enemies and animations. Besides, levels often feel devoid of life and soul. While they are beautiful and colourful they simply don't give any lasting impression. They look like they were created after calculation on computer. They served they function and present desired locations, but doesn't do anything beyond that. They are simply big sized levels without anything special. Clocktower for example looks very bland, when being compared to the same location from Akumajou Dracula 68000K released in the same year or Super Castlevania 4. Entrance Hall, that received another remake in this game, looks downright boring, even it's beautiful.
In the end this game is downright awesome, when it comes to pure content. Multiple stages with multiple alternative paths and alternative bosses, two playable characters, voiced cutscenes, impressive animation, what possibly more can you desire from a Castlevania game? But there is something...that I find kind of off about this game. For me, it lacks a very important factor - an atmosphere. It feels sometimes disjointed as if multiple ideas were thrown in, but there weren't kind of adapted to be the part of the same picture. The game feels like a puzzle picture created form different pieces. The kind of fit each other enough to not feel too alien, but at the same time they doesn't fit each other for 100%. It's like a playing different games in one. Though, when I was playing as Maria I didn't had a feeling that I was playing in Castlevania game at all. It was like as if I was playing some random Konami game that didn't have to do practically anything with Castlevania. Too modern soundtrack didn't help to create "Castlevaniaish" atmosphere. Maybe this game fell victim of the Castlevania 3 syndrome, being to big and all over the place to concentrate approriately on the atmosphere? But no. While Rondo is a big game, it is certainly much smaller than CV3. It's simply feels like it was being created from different parts. I am not sure what causes this. Maybe game feels to modern? Well, I don't have answer to this. One thing that I can say, while I don't hate this game, but I don't like this game either, it didn't left any lasting impressions on me.
For the first time Michiru Yamane composed music for the series. While soudtrack is quite disjointed in its feel, all tracks are excellent and memorable. Though some of them don't feel like they should be in the Castlevania game, like Stage 5' music. Classic trio of old tracks (Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Begining) received another remixes. Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears were given a decent facelift, while Begining sound somewhat boring. Out of the new music my absolute favorite is Bloodlines, which received multiple awesome remixes throughout the Castlevania history.
There are toatlly 14 levels, however during one playthrough you can get through only 8 or 9 levels (depending on the character). Some Stages have hidden alternative versions - 2, 3, 4 and 5. Alternate Stage 5 opens only after player defeats Dracula at least once and it doesn't have boss. You can get into alternative stages via some pits and secret passages scattered throughout the regular levels. However, even without ways leading into different stages, regular levels in the game could be completed in several different ways and there are multiple secrets hidden. Usually those alternate ways could be quite obscure. Sometimes specific actions needed to find a secret path - like destroying several bricks in the certain location or push buttons in the right order.
In the gameplay department this game was innovative in many ways. It was the second Castlevania game, where player could receive different endings. However this time deciding factor wasn't the time player spent in the gameworld (actually this game stopped using time limit alltogether). In order to receive good ending player must rescue four maidens in different levels. However, you could save only two or three of them in one run. Oddly enough there is no "bad" ending, just "good" and "the best" endings.
Visually levels in ROB look very big on the screen. Sadly more often then not they are quite empty. It goes for amount of enemies and animations. Besides, levels often feel devoid of life and soul. While they are beautiful and colourful they simply don't give any lasting impression. They look like they were created after calculation on computer. They served they function and present desired locations, but doesn't do anything beyond that. They are simply big sized levels without anything special. Clocktower for example looks very bland, when being compared to the same location from Akumajou Dracula 68000K released in the same year or Super Castlevania 4. Entrance Hall, that received another remake in this game, looks downright boring, even it's beautiful.
In the end this game is downright awesome, when it comes to pure content. Multiple stages with multiple alternative paths and alternative bosses, two playable characters, voiced cutscenes, impressive animation, what possibly more can you desire from a Castlevania game? But there is something...that I find kind of off about this game. For me, it lacks a very important factor - an atmosphere. It feels sometimes disjointed as if multiple ideas were thrown in, but there weren't kind of adapted to be the part of the same picture. The game feels like a puzzle picture created form different pieces. The kind of fit each other enough to not feel too alien, but at the same time they doesn't fit each other for 100%. It's like a playing different games in one. Though, when I was playing as Maria I didn't had a feeling that I was playing in Castlevania game at all. It was like as if I was playing some random Konami game that didn't have to do practically anything with Castlevania. Too modern soundtrack didn't help to create "Castlevaniaish" atmosphere. Maybe this game fell victim of the Castlevania 3 syndrome, being to big and all over the place to concentrate approriately on the atmosphere? But no. While Rondo is a big game, it is certainly much smaller than CV3. It's simply feels like it was being created from different parts. I am not sure what causes this. Maybe game feels to modern? Well, I don't have answer to this. One thing that I can say, while I don't hate this game, but I don't like this game either, it didn't left any lasting impressions on me.