I also imported this when it originally released. Opening cinematic was mind blowing. Honestly, I really cannot remember another game at the time which had me as floored as this one when it came out. There simply was nothing like it, especially music wise. It is a crime against humanity that this was never released outside of Japan back in the 90s as it would have been a system seller for sure. As always, great video!
@@VideoGameEsoterica In the same month or two I played Aria of Sorrow on a gba 101, PSX version of SotN via MiSTer on a jvc dtv, and Super Castlevania IV via MiSTer on the plasma. In order, with best first: Rondo, then Aria, then SotN, then with a distance Super Castlevania iv.
Dracula X is a victim of circumstance I feel. Consider that in addition to being a stripped down version of Rondo, Super Castlevania had also already come out. Hell, X doesn't even have as much going for it as 3 did, and that was on the NES. I think if, in some alternate universe where X came first and Rondo was an expanded version of it, X would be remembered fondly as a solid first effort and a "back to basics" for the 16-bit generation, rather than a huge step back like it is now.
I actually like that the Dracula battle was so easy in Rondo of Blood. It feels like a reward for your effort after how grueling and difficult the preceding stages were. I remember the first time I played Rondo, it took me over 900 deaths before I finally made it to Dracula.
Amazing sprites in this game. The bosses especially look incredible. With the amount of work they put into this game it's a shame it wasn't ported to other consoles sooner.
My favorite Castlevania purely from a music perspective. I never was a huge fan of classicvania gameplay, but even I think this game is almost perfect. Just a lot of fun. I beat it again recently on my Mister on a CRT and the sprite work is incredible.
It's hands down the best Castlevania IMO. I'd say that 3 comes close but Rondo does everything better and is just easier to pick up and play and actually stick with. The save system, Richter/Maria combo, alternate routes, music, level design. It's a flawless game as far as I'm concerned.
I was always surprised at how long it took Konami to port Rondo to another console, you would think it would've been ported over to PlayStation or even Saturn to accompany the release of SotN, but we had to wait over a decade for the PSP remake to finally see an official release on the west.
The desperation attacks seem to be there to set you up for the Dark Wizard's desperation attack which actually can kill you. One of my favorite things about the game is the powered up weapon attacks. Once you collect enough hearts the heart counter will begin to flash and you can unleash a powerful attack based on your special weapon (such as holy rain from the holy water). Smash Bros players will recognize the powered up move for the boomerang as Simon and Richter's Final Smash attack.
Rondo of Blood can definitely be argued for being the best in the series. It's an *incredible* game. I personally still prefer Super Castlevania IV just a bit. But I wouldn't argue with anyone claiming Rondo as best in the series.
@@VideoGameEsoterica Mostly personal preference stuff. I love the control you have in Super Castlevania IV, the whip swinging sections, the music, and that the visuals feel more like a 16bit evolution of the NES games' style. It breaks some of the conventions of the series with how OP the whip is, but it still manages to maintain a solid challenge. I actually really loved it when Lords of Shadow brought back the whip swinging mechanics, specifically because it felt like a call back to SCIV!
loaded up TurboGrafx CD and played Rondo for first time bc of your video. Sweet game! Gotta love when you use a new core and forget to setup Autosave and save settings 😂. now I get to start from scratch and I'm not mad about it
“Loaded up TurboGrafx CD and played Rondo for the first time” made me wonder why you had a TurboGrafx CD and the super-rare Super System Card if you had never played it. ;) Any way you play, I’m glad you did. :)
@@VideoGameEsoterica on MiSTer.. I should have specified but I thought "Autosave" and "save settings" and "new core" sort of implied it to anyone who has MiSTer, but confusing to those who don't
Also my favourite Castlevania. I wish you could have mentioned how Maria's special combo attack absolutely obliterates almost anything, including bosses, in just a few hits... Definitely the very easy mode.
I love that Maria makes the game pretty easy but you can still die easily if you start playing sloppy. Mastering her move set was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had. Richter is great too, trying to get his backflip down.
Konami really pulled all stops with Rondo of Blood. They knew transitioning to CD games was important and this game FEELS it. You can tell their developers were excited for the new platform. They had all this extra storage space, which must have felt limitless at the time, and went HARD. Picked up a PCEDuo a few years back and was just amazed when I booted this up. Instantly a top tier game for me.
I don't care what anyone says. The Werewolf boss in this game is absolutely one of the best 2D action game bosses I've ever experienced in my life. When you throw that holy water at just the right moment so that he lands on it when he jumps off the wall; only to then backflip over him to dodge his 'final blow' special move... Shivers everytime I beat that boss. The introduction to the battle, the music, the incredible sprite and background art and the perfect balance of difficulty. Just goddamn. What. A. Fucking. Game.
@@VideoGameEsoterica Non-Metroidvania? Probably Castlevania Rebirth if not purely for the music. Oh my god, just talking about Castlevania Rebirths music is making me want to listen to it right this second. I fucking adore how they clearly preferred the Yamaha soundchip over the SNES one. As someone who doesn't really like Castlevania IV all that much (I know, I know. I just find it easy, ugly and boring. Whilst I find Dracula X to be way too fucking hard. But it sounds and looks amazing for a SNES game). If the OST to Castlevania Bloodlines was better I'd probably say that's my 2nd favorite. I think I'm partial to Rebirth because it feels very underrated and I fucking hate delisted games. It's such a shame that most people will never play Rebirth and discover its phenomenal OST.
@@VideoGameEsoterica I think all the music is great but I especially love Rebirth because I'm very much a MegaDrive guy and Rebirth sounds like it was made by Aki Hata. For reference, Aki Hata did music for Rocket Knight Adventures, Light Crusader and the anime Azumanga Daioh. (If you have watched any episode of Game Center CX then you have heard her music) So yeah, any music that tries to emulate the MD sound font just has a big place in my heart.
I'm late to to the party on this one. This really should be on more platforms. PC Engine/Mini, PSP, PS4/5 At least give switch some of that love. Probably the most balanced Vania there's been. Not too hard, not too easy, Great music, pushed the PC Engine. Intro in German for some reason....
Absolutely not only my favorite Castlevania game but one of my favorite games period and while I love Symphony of the Night and similar style games I'm more of a of the traditional style of game play, I still own an original copy and while I don't have my TurboDuo I use it with the Magic Engine emulator on my windows 98 machine, Castlevania Dracula X chronicles is only reason I still have my old PSP, the remake is OK but you can unlock the original version of Rondo and Symphony in that game, This game is also the main reason I bought the TurboGrafx mini and one thing I Love about that mini (and the Genesis mini) is you can connect it to a CRT monitor and if you "stretch" the image if fills out the 4:3 aspect ratio and looks perfect (I connect the system to and HDMI audio extractor for sound and from there I use a HDMI to VGA adapter), I can go on all day talking about this game myself
@@VideoGameEsoterica While like most the "minis" the game selection is hit or miss, a lot of good games and as stated this game is the reason I bought it in the first place while I'm a huge fan of the TurboGrafx I don't think the resale price is at all reasonable and I can only recommend it if you find it at a decent and not inflated price, a lot of good shooters but if that your thing but I do have some gripes with it like it includes games like Snatcher they didn't bother to translate the game so IMOP it defeats the purpose a bit
@@VideoGameEsoterica Honestly you're not missing much, nothing really anything you can't do better with a MiSTER ,Raspberry PI or even a decent PC, for me it's more of a nostalgia thing as I had to sell my collection years ago due to let's just say unexpected life complications and collecting now is just to expensive to unreasonable to get back into it's just nice to have something from the past to share with my children now
Top video as always Couple things I'd like to point out and correct Late in the video you say it's not a castlevania game without the dark priest Shaft. Shaft only makes 2 appearances in the franchise not including remakes canonically, and that's rondo and symphony. He's not seen elsewhere. Perhaps you meant Death? Also the 100yr statement was incorrectly translated back in the early days. The Japanese state that Dracula rises when mankinds hearts are at their darkest, which is around the 100yr mark, but can be more or less. This allows some resurrections to be much less than 100 and some right on 100 and have more entries in the timeline. Looking forward to Dracula x. I'm one of those guys who loves the snes version, even though rondo is the pinnacle of stage by stage classicvanias
@@VideoGameEsoterica Simon's Quest. I never made any real progress nor do I think its it's the best but playing it(instead of only watching my parents do so) was my first "overcoming a fear" scenario as a small child.
have you ever found the invisible staircase on the final stage? I just found it by accident and it just has like 10 bags of money. it's my first playthrough so I have missed a ton, but I did find this!
I will not. It’s never been dumped. Only way to even try would be to buy an original board. Those aren’t easy to find (as in I’ve never seen one to buy)
@@VideoGameEsoterica is it like the Symphony of the Night thing you mention in the second half of the video? I dunno about that one not interested in playing as a white haired lady
I recently 100%'d this game. So besides unlocking doors to save the maidens, and the item crash, what is the other use of the key sub item you alluded to in the video? Also I still like Dracula X68000 more, haha.
This one is my favorite. I love SOTN but it's rpg elements are a bit unbalanced, one second the enemies are overpowering me but as soon as I level up a tiny bit I'm mowing them down. Would have loved metroidvania exploration with a more fixed difficulty. Rondo has the perfect balance for me.
I kinda enjoy that balance myself but I could see how it might feel off. Rondo is pure challenge from start to finish. But whats your second fav Vania?
@@VideoGameEsoterica So hard to choose but Drac's Curse or Bloodlines are maybe tied. I know CVIII isn't your favorite with valid criticisms but I just find myself going back to it over and over. Bloodlines, I just love the aesthetic and OST so much. Agh, they are all so good until the 64 era.
One gripe I have with Rando is that Maria sorta breaks the game. I get that it is supposed to be easy mode but I wish they gave Richter a slide or let you aim the whip like in Super Castlevania.
@@VideoGameEsoterica But yeah, this is one of my favorite Castlevania installments. And I’m glad the upcoming Castlevania: Nocturne will be based on this particular title, though set in the French Revolution.
Was there an English version of this game on the PC Engine? I found a copy on my old hard drive that says "(USA)" but the audio is... in German? and the text is Japanese. Just curious. I'll probably look for an English translation and give this a go tonight! Thank you for the recommendation!
Super janky😁 great game from top to bottom, wish I had played this back in the 90s and I really want the lrg rerelease when ever they finally get around to it
Symphony hands down the one I've played the most with a real soft spot for cv2 due to playing it so much as a kid. I've played all of them except for portrait and order for some reason
@@VideoGameEsoterica fair, I have always gravitated towards more arcadey experiences. Street Fighter II is my fav game of all time so I'm not surprised my fav Castlevania is number 1. :)
Awesome game but I wouldn’t put it in my top 5 castlevania games. I just think playing as richter sucks, he’s slow and his double jump is too wonky, Maria is probably the easy mode of the game but she honestly feels like the only way to play the game to me. I personally prefer super castlevania 4 and to a lesser extent castlevania bloodlines over it. Plus Symphony of the night, Aria and dawn of sorrow are just better games to me so rondo would ranked 6th in castlevania games to me behind Symphony of the night, Aria of sorrow, Dawn of sorrow, Super castlevania 4 and bloodlines
@@VideoGameEsoterica it’s still a really good game but richter just doesn’t do it for me, I mean what if you replaced richter with super castlevania 4s Simon with his multi directional whip or castlevania bloodlines Eric with his crazy technically multi directional spear that can also boost charge you up, I believe it will make the game infinite times better lol
The key doesn’t do anything different the second time. You can literally go right back in most of the key doors and get the same surprise. The only one I recall being locked when you leave is the one with Annette in the final stage. It’s really 24 bits less than the PlayStation. ;) That’s right: PC Engine was an 8bit 6502 processor despite having 16bit memory addressing for the graphics chip (mostly for more colors). The desperation attack is even more devious: It’s meant to rob you of your “Perfect” win/bonus that automatically gives you an extra life. In that one boss fight I’d say that “Laura” drops the ruse of being one of the captured girls you have to save after you defeat Carmilla. She throws off her disguise and attacks.
@@darrendavenport3094 It definitely had the grunt to compete with SNES but only the SuperGrafx had two graphics processors (VDPs). The other graphics chip in all the other PC Engine hardware is just the VCE, which is a glorified DAC. On many systems the DAC would be integrated into the main graphics chip but PCE needed to be able to combine the digital output from two VDPs before the DAC for multi-chip expansions like the SuperGrafx had. Of course, this also requires yet another chip to mux the output from two VDPs before the VCE.
@@emmettturner9452 The only thing the SuperGrafx offered over the PCE was parallax scrolling, thats it... That is why it was soon abandoned only after a few months... I've been a TG16 owner since day one and know all about it
@@darrendavenport3094 Like you, I know exactly what the SuperGrafx has so hopefully you aren’t trying to argue. The additional VDP allows additional background layers and more sprites per line (reduced flicker) as well as more video memory. The base hardware was already relatively powerful when it came to sprite handling which is why the additional background layer is the enhancement that stands out more. My only point was that the base hardware that powers all other NEC PCE/TG16 consoles did not have two 16 bit graphics processors. Only the SuperGrafx did and it hardly did much as you rightly point out. The base hardware was already very capable. All hardware had a 16 bit color encoder (DAC) because the output from the video processor was 16 bit. The color encoder wasn’t an additional video processor for improving graphics. On standard hardware (anything other than the SuperGrafx) the graphics were already finalized when they left the singular VDP. This is why you can make an FPGA DVI/HDMI digital to digital video adapter that bypasses the VCE entirely. There’s even a video out there where I demonstrated my UGX-02 with a SuperGrafx to show the missing graphics you get by tapping the digital video before it is muxed with the output from the second VDP. The only reason Super HD System³ Pro doesn’t have this problem is because it uses the FPGA to replicate the second VDP and runs the clone in parallel, muxing the results in the adapter itself. It kinda works but has glitches. I grew up playing my friend’s TG16 that he traded a Genesis for around 1991. Meanwhile, I got a Turbo Express and, eventually, a proper console with CD hardware… even the American version of the Super System Card. These days I have more Duos and PC Engines than I can count since I started repairing them professionally. The boxed SuperGrafx was just a really good deal from several years ago. Not bragging, just expressing my long-term familiarity with the hardware like you did. Very cool that you got one on launch day! I was stuck with my NES, TI-99/4A, and Atari 2600 until February 1994… which is why I had to get my Devil’s Crush fix at my friend’s place. ;)
I think it's worth mentioning somewhere that this game is not really available for the PC Engine but for the Super CD addon/Turbo Duo.
True. I guess in my head the umbrella term is just "PC Engine" but it is for the "Super CD Rom"
WOW!! I had no idea that secret area in the ship existed! And I've been playing this game for over 20 years.
Nothing in the game indicates it’s back there honestly
I also imported this when it originally released. Opening cinematic was mind blowing. Honestly, I really cannot remember another game at the time which had me as floored as this one when it came out. There simply was nothing like it, especially music wise. It is a crime against humanity that this was never released outside of Japan back in the 90s as it would have been a system seller for sure. As always, great video!
Glad you enjoyed it and yes def should have come west way earlier than it did
This game feels like an adventure with so many outdoor and in door stages unlike SoTN that seems to be mostly in door stages.
It does have a very "progressing to the castle" vibe because we all know Dracula is gonna have some sentry baddies outside after all
Played this game earlier in the year for the first time. The whole time playing I just kept saying to myself "this is amazing".
For the first time? Welcome to the party. Curious what hardware you played it on?
@@VideoGameEsoterica A Mister output to a pioneer plasma with a good sound system.
@@VideoGameEsoterica In the same month or two I played Aria of Sorrow on a gba 101, PSX version of SotN via MiSTer on a jvc dtv, and Super Castlevania IV via MiSTer on the plasma. In order, with best first: Rondo, then Aria, then SotN, then with a distance Super Castlevania iv.
Ooh plasma. Bummer that tech never continued on
IV is fun but it’s aged the most of that gem
Dracula X is a victim of circumstance I feel.
Consider that in addition to being a stripped down version of Rondo, Super Castlevania had also already come out. Hell, X doesn't even have as much going for it as 3 did, and that was on the NES. I think if, in some alternate universe where X came first and Rondo was an expanded version of it, X would be remembered fondly as a solid first effort and a "back to basics" for the 16-bit generation, rather than a huge step back like it is now.
It’s stripped down but I’m into what’s left
This and Super Castlevania 4 are peak Classicvania.
Absolutely
@@VideoGameEsoterica I feel a little bit of shame right now though, because I forgot to include Bloodlines. Honestly the 16bit era is king.
Haha that’s ok. I won’t judge
I actually like that the Dracula battle was so easy in Rondo of Blood. It feels like a reward for your effort after how grueling and difficult the preceding stages were. I remember the first time I played Rondo, it took me over 900 deaths before I finally made it to Dracula.
Death is the true boss of Rondo. Dracula is a formality
@@VideoGameEsoterica amen to that
Haha
Amazing sprites in this game. The bosses especially look incredible. With the amount of work they put into this game it's a shame it wasn't ported to other consoles sooner.
Yes it was really kept from everyone outside of Japan for an absurdly long time
Well they did port it somewhat as Dracula X
Yes but different enough to not be the same game. X will be showing up soon :)
My favorite Castlevania purely from a music perspective. I never was a huge fan of classicvania gameplay, but even I think this game is almost perfect. Just a lot of fun. I beat it again recently on my Mister on a CRT and the sprite work is incredible.
The music is legit. So that being said...what is your fav then?
It's hands down the best Castlevania IMO. I'd say that 3 comes close but Rondo does everything better and is just easier to pick up and play and actually stick with. The save system, Richter/Maria combo, alternate routes, music, level design. It's a flawless game as far as I'm concerned.
3 does come close
I was always surprised at how long it took Konami to port Rondo to another console, you would think it would've been ported over to PlayStation or even Saturn to accompany the release of SotN, but we had to wait over a decade for the PSP remake to finally see an official release on the west.
I wonder if there was some exclusivity deal in place with NEC / Hudson Soft for awhile considering they made Dracula X vs porting it
I think the most badass thing about this game is the intro, as it was made in a way to tell us they are very serious with this Castlevania.
Yes you can tell the game is going to go hard right from the start
The desperation attacks seem to be there to set you up for the Dark Wizard's desperation attack which actually can kill you.
One of my favorite things about the game is the powered up weapon attacks. Once you collect enough hearts the heart counter will begin to flash and you can unleash a powerful attack based on your special weapon (such as holy rain from the holy water). Smash Bros players will recognize the powered up move for the boomerang as Simon and Richter's Final Smash attack.
Oh I didn't know that ended up in Smash? Fun little detail
This and SoTN are the best. And them being very different from each other is a good thing.
Yes...they can both be best as the genre is different enough to allow for two number 1s
Rondo of Blood can definitely be argued for being the best in the series. It's an *incredible* game. I personally still prefer Super Castlevania IV just a bit. But I wouldn't argue with anyone claiming Rondo as best in the series.
Curious as to why you prefer IV more? Totally fair opinion but I’d love to know
@@VideoGameEsoterica Mostly personal preference stuff. I love the control you have in Super Castlevania IV, the whip swinging sections, the music, and that the visuals feel more like a 16bit evolution of the NES games' style. It breaks some of the conventions of the series with how OP the whip is, but it still manages to maintain a solid challenge.
I actually really loved it when Lords of Shadow brought back the whip swinging mechanics, specifically because it felt like a call back to SCIV!
That tracks. Solid opinion :)
I have Dracula X which I love. But I agree this looks much better.
Dracula X is very “love or hate” but I enjoy it
loaded up TurboGrafx CD and played Rondo for first time bc of your video. Sweet game! Gotta love when you use a new core and forget to setup Autosave and save settings 😂. now I get to start from scratch and I'm not mad about it
“Loaded up TurboGrafx CD and played Rondo for the first time” made me wonder why you had a TurboGrafx CD and the super-rare Super System Card if you had never played it. ;) Any way you play, I’m glad you did. :)
For the first time? Hope you enjoyed!
Haha I was wondering the same thing
@@emmettturner9452 oops, should have specified that it was on MiSTer fpga
@@VideoGameEsoterica on MiSTer.. I should have specified but I thought "Autosave" and "save settings" and "new core" sort of implied it to anyone who has MiSTer, but confusing to those who don't
Thumbs up just from the first second of that intro.
Haha appreciate it
That falling bridge with the bats holding swords was such a pain! Specially being right before the clock tower
It’s a real heart breaker area
Agreed!
This and Super Castlevania IV are the best classic & non-metroidvania games in the series. (In my opinion)
It’s a classic for sure
I love the x68k castlevania the best. With fm sounds its so fun.
It’s a legit amazing game for sure
Rondo of Blood is peak Castlevania
It’s the height of non-Metroidvania
PSP remake is so good, the 3D graphics have a charm all of thier own.
they do have a certain charm
7:00 You can actually go forward with richter, you have to jump down from the top of the level to reach the bone golem.
I will have to try it :)
Also my favourite Castlevania. I wish you could have mentioned how Maria's special combo attack absolutely obliterates almost anything, including bosses, in just a few hits... Definitely the very easy mode.
I had footage of that. Just didn’t make the cut
I love that Maria makes the game pretty easy but you can still die easily if you start playing sloppy. Mastering her move set was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had. Richter is great too, trying to get his backflip down.
Yes Maria still requires smart gameplay
Konami really pulled all stops with Rondo of Blood. They knew transitioning to CD games was important and this game FEELS it. You can tell their developers were excited for the new platform. They had all this extra storage space, which must have felt limitless at the time, and went HARD.
Picked up a PCEDuo a few years back and was just amazed when I booted this up. Instantly a top tier game for me.
Yes with new hardware comes new excitement to make it bigger and better
I don't care what anyone says. The Werewolf boss in this game is absolutely one of the best 2D action game bosses I've ever experienced in my life.
When you throw that holy water at just the right moment so that he lands on it when he jumps off the wall; only to then backflip over him to dodge his 'final blow' special move...
Shivers everytime I beat that boss. The introduction to the battle, the music, the incredible sprite and background art and the perfect balance of difficulty.
Just goddamn.
What. A. Fucking. Game.
It really just delivers constantly on all fronts. But real talk...second fav Vania game?
@@VideoGameEsoterica Non-Metroidvania? Probably Castlevania Rebirth if not purely for the music. Oh my god, just talking about Castlevania Rebirths music is making me want to listen to it right this second. I fucking adore how they clearly preferred the Yamaha soundchip over the SNES one. As someone who doesn't really like Castlevania IV all that much (I know, I know. I just find it easy, ugly and boring. Whilst I find Dracula X to be way too fucking hard. But it sounds and looks amazing for a SNES game).
If the OST to Castlevania Bloodlines was better I'd probably say that's my 2nd favorite.
I think I'm partial to Rebirth because it feels very underrated and I fucking hate delisted games. It's such a shame that most people will never play Rebirth and discover its phenomenal OST.
rebirth is definitely a fun time. All the Castlevania music is great...even the N64 stuff
@@VideoGameEsoterica I think all the music is great but I especially love Rebirth because I'm very much a MegaDrive guy and Rebirth sounds like it was made by Aki Hata.
For reference, Aki Hata did music for Rocket Knight Adventures, Light Crusader and the anime Azumanga Daioh.
(If you have watched any episode of Game Center CX then you have heard her music)
So yeah, any music that tries to emulate the MD sound font just has a big place in my heart.
Ive watched a LOT of Game Center CX. The translated episodes and even some on auto translate. Such a fun show
Rondo & SotN are top teir. I am replaying rondo again on PSP. Maria is so op
Maria is def easy mode
Just beat it on the RG35XX handheld and it looks amazing in there. Only 60% completion, so much more to do...
Gotta get that 100%
I'm late to to the party on this one.
This really should be on more platforms. PC Engine/Mini, PSP, PS4/5
At least give switch some of that love.
Probably the most balanced Vania there's been. Not too hard, not too easy, Great music, pushed the PC Engine. Intro in German for some reason....
The intro in German is a fun touch. Makes no sense outside German sounding maybe “scary”…but hey, it works!
They say that Dark Priest Shaft is a Bad Mother....
Shut your mouth!
But I'm talking about the Dark Priest Shaft
I can dig it
Absolutely not only my favorite Castlevania game but one of my favorite games period and while I love Symphony of the Night and similar style games I'm more of a of the traditional style of game play,
I still own an original copy and while I don't have my TurboDuo I use it with the Magic Engine emulator on my windows 98 machine,
Castlevania Dracula X chronicles is only reason I still have my old PSP, the remake is OK but you can unlock the original version of Rondo and Symphony in that game,
This game is also the main reason I bought the TurboGrafx mini and one thing I Love about that mini (and the Genesis mini) is you can connect it to a CRT monitor and if you "stretch" the image if fills out the 4:3 aspect ratio and looks perfect (I connect the system to and HDMI audio extractor for sound and from there I use a HDMI to VGA adapter), I can go on all day talking about this game myself
I never got the chance to check out the TurboGrafx mini
@@VideoGameEsoterica While like most the "minis" the game selection is hit or miss, a lot of good games and as stated this game is the reason I bought it in the first place while I'm a huge fan of the TurboGrafx I don't think the resale price is at all reasonable and I can only recommend it if you find it at a decent and not inflated price, a lot of good shooters but if that your thing but I do have some gripes with it like it includes games like Snatcher they didn't bother to translate the game so IMOP it defeats the purpose a bit
Truth be told I haven’t tried any of the mini consoles haha
@@VideoGameEsoterica Honestly you're not missing much, nothing really anything you can't do better with a MiSTER ,Raspberry PI or even a decent PC, for me it's more of a nostalgia thing as I had to sell my collection years ago due to let's just say unexpected life complications and collecting now is just to expensive to unreasonable to get back into it's just nice to have something from the past to share with my children now
I do like the mini form factor though
I haven't played that one but it looks great, guess I'll have to go check it out
Haven’t played!? You gotta do it
First time I got to play Rondo was on my Wii.... Best purchase on the Wii I ever made
I feel like that was a LOT of people's first time with Rondo
This game is soooooo good. Thanks for the reminder that is time for a replay!
Its always time for a replay. What replay number will this be for you?
@@VideoGameEsoterica It will be my 3rd
Rookie numbers lol. Gotta get to double digits (just playing)
@@VideoGameEsoterica Ha ha - no doubt. TBF, I've picked it up countless times to just play for a bit.
I can’t remember how many times I’ve finished Rondo and SotN. Too many. But it never gets old. Once a year for both
I still remember the first time I played this game on a iffy emulator. Loved every minute of it
Magic Engine? thats how I did it
@@VideoGameEsoterica YES! How did you know. It made you pay weirdly. I had never seen that before
@@VideoGameEsoterica YES! How did you know. It made you pay weirdly. I had never seen that before
DOUBLE POST lol
Yeah that was very lame back in the day
Top video as always
Couple things I'd like to point out and correct
Late in the video you say it's not a castlevania game without the dark priest Shaft. Shaft only makes 2 appearances in the franchise not including remakes canonically, and that's rondo and symphony. He's not seen elsewhere. Perhaps you meant Death?
Also the 100yr statement was incorrectly translated back in the early days. The Japanese state that Dracula rises when mankinds hearts are at their darkest, which is around the 100yr mark, but can be more or less. This allows some resurrections to be much less than 100 and some right on 100 and have more entries in the timeline.
Looking forward to Dracula x. I'm one of those guys who loves the snes version, even though rondo is the pinnacle of stage by stage classicvanias
No I just meant personally (as in my love for…damn it I’ve painted myself into a corner here)
Think part 4 was my favorite SNES. It's hard thou. This one is great.
Def not easy
I played this on PSP before I knew what a PC Engine even was.
I think a LOT of people first experienced it on PSP
I love Rondo but I love Symphony more just because of the Metroidvania aspect
That's fair. I expected that. SotN is the best in its own right
@@VideoGameEsoterica you can’t have two bests 😂
WATCH ME
@@VideoGameEsoterica haha no that’s fair
They stand side by side IMO
Great series, thanks!
So happy you like it. So what’s your fav Castlevania?
@@VideoGameEsoterica Simon's Quest. I never made any real progress nor do I think its it's the best but playing it(instead of only watching my parents do so) was my first "overcoming a fear" scenario as a small child.
I get that. We all have those memories of games
Those Maria Dragons…kinda like large Yoshi’s
hahaha yes
@@VideoGameEsoterica see! Yoshi is everywhere
In your world...he is
@@VideoGameEsoterica all just my plot to get a Yoshi video out of you
Soon!
LOL @ the boss that is a rocky mountain oyster with an eyeball. Completely agree - very testicular
Oh yeah he’s just a straight up nut. No question
have you ever found the invisible staircase on the final stage? I just found it by accident and it just has like 10 bags of money. it's my first playthrough so I have missed a ton, but I did find this!
I have. That’s a bit of a thing in multiple Castlevania’s
i've got one copy at home. I agree. It's the best version, second for me, the one on Super Nintendo
IV or X?
@@VideoGameEsoterica oh yes.. the IV!
Fun times!
But will you be covering the castelvania 'lightgun' game i wonder.
I will not. It’s never been dumped. Only way to even try would be to buy an original board. Those aren’t easy to find (as in I’ve never seen one to buy)
@@VideoGameEsoterica got it.. That is tragic to hear..
It is definitely on its way to being a “lost game” but if I can find one to acquire I’ll remedy that. Just gotta find it (the hard part)
@@VideoGameEsoterica next time galloping ghost goes live on twitch ill ask about it. Maybe they have some leads.
Apparently they do own and operate one so maybe they know where another one is
Did you ever figure out what that glowing door was? Looks like a mirror to me, maybe they cut it because they couldn't get the effect right
Nope. Still just a total mystery why it’s back there
Love this game.
How could you not? but real talk...whats your fav Vania?
At 7 minutes, you can go past that point as Richter, you just need to go a level up and fall to it.
Noted!
Hold up what’s this Sotun game you’re mentioning it sounds cool
🤣 it’s too cool for you. Sorry
you wouldn't get it
@@VideoGameEsoterica is it like the Symphony of the Night thing you mention in the second half of the video? I dunno about that one not interested in playing as a white haired lady
Alucard ate beans and went to bed. There is your night symphony
@@VideoGameEsoterica :Citizen Kane Clapping:
I recently 100%'d this game. So besides unlocking doors to save the maidens, and the item crash, what is the other use of the key sub item you alluded to in the video? Also I still like Dracula X68000 more, haha.
It’s just to save the maidens. Since I didn’t show it I didn’t want to spoil it
How do we get this working on analogue pocket tho?
Unsure. My Pocket hasn’t arrived and I’m not even sure if this code is on it yet. Haven’t checked
It doesn’t appear that the core supports the CDs yet but does for the carts. I was just wondering if anyone was able to get it running.
This one is my favorite. I love SOTN but it's rpg elements are a bit unbalanced, one second the enemies are overpowering me but as soon as I level up a tiny bit I'm mowing them down. Would have loved metroidvania exploration with a more fixed difficulty. Rondo has the perfect balance for me.
I kinda enjoy that balance myself but I could see how it might feel off. Rondo is pure challenge from start to finish. But whats your second fav Vania?
@@VideoGameEsoterica So hard to choose but Drac's Curse or Bloodlines are maybe tied. I know CVIII isn't your favorite with valid criticisms but I just find myself going back to it over and over. Bloodlines, I just love the aesthetic and OST so much. Agh, they are all so good until the 64 era.
Bloodlines is legit. That is coming up next week. I kinda even like the 64 era...guessing you are not a fan?
@@VideoGameEsoterica No I like them but that's when they just stop being masterpieces and moreso guilty pleasures.
I hear that. I have a soft spot for 64
One gripe I have with Rando is that Maria sorta breaks the game. I get that it is supposed to be easy mode but I wish they gave Richter a slide or let you aim the whip like in Super Castlevania.
Yes she is basically easy mode
The best castlevania ever made.
It’s either this or SotN but considering they are technically different genres I think they can both count as the best
One of the best. And one of the few times the toxic fandom actually tolerated the anime artwork.
haha this is very true. It was a zag stylistically for sure
@@VideoGameEsoterica But yeah, this is one of my favorite Castlevania installments. And I’m glad the upcoming Castlevania: Nocturne will be based on this particular title, though set in the French Revolution.
That does look particularly interesting
@@VideoGameEsoterica Indeed it does.
Fingers crossed it’s good
Frankenstein beat you? That looked like Frankenstein's Monster...?
Same difference lol. I forget he’s technically not Frankenstein
Classic 👍🏻
Really is
Was there an English version of this game on the PC Engine? I found a copy on my old hard drive that says "(USA)" but the audio is... in German? and the text is Japanese. Just curious. I'll probably look for an English translation and give this a go tonight! Thank you for the recommendation!
Yeah no English version. Must be mismarked
Not official. I think he was asking about back in the day
@@VideoGameEsoterica correct. Found a translated copy and have been loving it! How have I never played this?!
I dunno? Glad you are playing it now though!
Super janky😁 great game from top to bottom, wish I had played this back in the 90s and I really want the lrg rerelease when ever they finally get around to it
Janky? are you calling Rondo janky? haha
Lmao should have put /s
hahaha thats better. So whats your fav Vania anyway?
Symphony hands down the one I've played the most with a real soft spot for cv2 due to playing it so much as a kid. I've played all of them except for portrait and order for some reason
Symphony is the other BEST game lol. Video on that in 3 weeks!
Rondo is so good, I never played this or SOTN until they released that double pack on PS4. Can't believe I waited so long.
That was a long time to wait...but you got there! Which did you like better though?
@@VideoGameEsoterica 100% Rondo, I did enjoy SOTN but it's a slower burn and I am less interested in item mgmt in my Castlevanias.
I do love Metroidvania myself
@@VideoGameEsoterica fair, I have always gravitated towards more arcadey experiences. Street Fighter II is my fav game of all time so I'm not surprised my fav Castlevania is number 1. :)
Totally makes sense. I basically enjoy almost every genre lol
Awesome game but I wouldn’t put it in my top 5 castlevania games. I just think playing as richter sucks, he’s slow and his double jump is too wonky, Maria is probably the easy mode of the game but she honestly feels like the only way to play the game to me. I personally prefer super castlevania 4 and to a lesser extent castlevania bloodlines over it. Plus Symphony of the night, Aria and dawn of sorrow are just better games to me so rondo would ranked 6th in castlevania games to me behind Symphony of the night, Aria of sorrow, Dawn of sorrow, Super castlevania 4 and bloodlines
It’s cool you have that opinion…but that’s just wild to me :) but no judgements…everyone gets their own say
@@VideoGameEsoterica it’s still a really good game but richter just doesn’t do it for me, I mean what if you replaced richter with super castlevania 4s Simon with his multi directional whip or castlevania bloodlines Eric with his crazy technically multi directional spear that can also boost charge you up, I believe it will make the game infinite times better lol
The key doesn’t do anything different the second time. You can literally go right back in most of the key doors and get the same surprise. The only one I recall being locked when you leave is the one with Annette in the final stage.
It’s really 24 bits less than the PlayStation. ;) That’s right: PC Engine was an 8bit 6502 processor despite having 16bit memory addressing for the graphics chip (mostly for more colors).
The desperation attack is even more devious: It’s meant to rob you of your “Perfect” win/bonus that automatically gives you an extra life.
In that one boss fight I’d say that “Laura” drops the ruse of being one of the captured girls you have to save after you defeat Carmilla. She throws off her disguise and attacks.
Yes it’s wild to think PC Engine was originally designed to compete with the NES
It had 2 16-Bit graphic processors and the cpu ran at twice the speed of the snes.... TG16 was no slouch
@@darrendavenport3094 It definitely had the grunt to compete with SNES but only the SuperGrafx had two graphics processors (VDPs). The other graphics chip in all the other PC Engine hardware is just the VCE, which is a glorified DAC. On many systems the DAC would be integrated into the main graphics chip but PCE needed to be able to combine the digital output from two VDPs before the DAC for multi-chip expansions like the SuperGrafx had. Of course, this also requires yet another chip to mux the output from two VDPs before the VCE.
@@emmettturner9452 The only thing the SuperGrafx offered over the PCE was parallax scrolling, thats it... That is why it was soon abandoned only after a few months... I've been a TG16 owner since day one and know all about it
@@darrendavenport3094 Like you, I know exactly what the SuperGrafx has so hopefully you aren’t trying to argue. The additional VDP allows additional background layers and more sprites per line (reduced flicker) as well as more video memory. The base hardware was already relatively powerful when it came to sprite handling which is why the additional background layer is the enhancement that stands out more.
My only point was that the base hardware that powers all other NEC PCE/TG16 consoles did not have two 16 bit graphics processors. Only the SuperGrafx did and it hardly did much as you rightly point out. The base hardware was already very capable.
All hardware had a 16 bit color encoder (DAC) because the output from the video processor was 16 bit. The color encoder wasn’t an additional video processor for improving graphics. On standard hardware (anything other than the SuperGrafx) the graphics were already finalized when they left the singular VDP. This is why you can make an FPGA DVI/HDMI digital to digital video adapter that bypasses the VCE entirely. There’s even a video out there where I demonstrated my UGX-02 with a SuperGrafx to show the missing graphics you get by tapping the digital video before it is muxed with the output from the second VDP. The only reason Super HD System³ Pro doesn’t have this problem is because it uses the FPGA to replicate the second VDP and runs the clone in parallel, muxing the results in the adapter itself. It kinda works but has glitches.
I grew up playing my friend’s TG16 that he traded a Genesis for around 1991. Meanwhile, I got a Turbo Express and, eventually, a proper console with CD hardware… even the American version of the Super System Card. These days I have more Duos and PC Engines than I can count since I started repairing them professionally. The boxed SuperGrafx was just a really good deal from several years ago. Not bragging, just expressing my long-term familiarity with the hardware like you did. Very cool that you got one on launch day! I was stuck with my NES, TI-99/4A, and Atari 2600 until February 1994… which is why I had to get my Devil’s Crush fix at my friend’s place. ;)
This game is a crap! Graphically awful and the difficulty is insance!
I don’t think anyone is going to agree with that lol
@@VideoGameEsoterica The idiots that think for others, I don't care of them! Close your channel, you don't know anything about video games!
@@VideoGameEsoterica Avoid to think, you are not smart enough for it!