I bought the PS4 collection and was originally going to skip Rondo, because I was only interested in seeing what all the SotN hype was about. I ended up actually liking Rondo more
SYOTN is Amazing, the evolution of the classic CV game to a Metroid-Vania style was a breath of fresh air. And also the music is some of the best in video game history.
It always seemed really cool to me to have the UI and art design of the first level in the new game emulate it's direct prequel. SOTN and ROB are such a cool pair.
I'm pretty bad at old-school Castlevania, but this one and 1 are tied for my favorites in the classic style. Even though 4 gets a ton of praise, I kinda like the way Rondo handles its combat mechanics and exploration a lot better. It's so unfortunate that so many of the best PC Engine bangers like this one never left Japan. Not too surprising considering how much they botched the launch and subsequent marketing of the console over here, but it would have been amazing either way.
I started to appreciate more the linear approach of this kind of games because i feel a bit tired of the metroidvania game of remembering where i couldn't go hours ago and try to check those places to see if something i acquired works there (not always clear what a new power can open). Also the magic of acquiring something is nice for few games but then? I need to double jump, here we go after a set of stuff the double jump i need. What a coincidence. See that red door? Now i have this red attack that opens it. Maybe i played too much of these games or they don't put a bit more effort on the immersive side. A game can be linear but let you have choices to do, still explore to a degree, offer NG+ or other gameplay elements to ramp up difficulty like different characters, new enemies or enemy placement, new equipment or bosses, maybe even new hidden or not stages that push you to go even higher with the challenge. Nowadays the linear approach is often a short experience or is the rogue like approach with randomness doing the "fun" but i miss games that give some more confined logic to analyze, repeat and so on. In a way Souls-like games try to do that in a 3D way without being just platformers or action stuff but i miss a bit of that arcade, less RPG feeling. Lately i'm checking out old stuff like Capcom AD&D titles or Wild Guns Reloaded to explore that kind of approach to the design (multiple characters, routes, things to memorize, etc), maybe even a bit too hard for me but still kinda nice because i never was good at that kind of stuff and now maybe i can appreciate it more for what it tried to do at the time :)
Same. Linear games got a bad rap once COD became popular and open world with skill tree or stats became the norm. I spent so much money for a gaming rig but rarely play games that push the hardware- AAA games want you to give them their undevided attention to explain mechanics or play unskippable interactive cutscenes. They lose my interest so quickly. I respect FromSoft so much for focusing on actual gameplay and teaching through design. They're actual games. Other than their games I play a lot more 2D more linear games, not only cua I grew up with them but cus they're the only ones that focus on gameplay mechanics over ticking Ubisoft open world boxes.
@@TheT3rr0rMask The problem nowadays is that devs focus too much on the same game loops and try to refresh the experiences just with adding or removing this or that gameplay feature and by different art/new graphics tech. For how much good these are, if you have the samey openworld game framework, or that rogue-like (or lite) type of stuff, and so on i feel "exhausted". Unfortunately it's the main way for a company to survive (try new things too much and you can fail hard) but at the same time i feel something is nice if it feels unique, not repeated over and over (by a single company or in a genre). As i never understood how you can enjoy a COD every year (or around that ammount of time), even a Souls game can tire you out with things that never were "right" for you. For example having to walk every time to a boss if you die, or having to grind consumables if you fail too much, or weapons (or bosses) that have little personality (ex. same movesets or stats of "better" ones, or multiple humanoid enemies with more an more phases or number of people on the arena). Hard challenges or scarse resources don't justify wasting time (unless you are good from the start and it doesn't matter). With few games like that it doesn't matter but when you have several ones? From the original devs to "clones", multiple bosses with that kind of "tiring" approach, gear that you'd like to have a more unique touch in it, more than adding more and more stuff in the game. Some "less is more" applies even to our preferred titles.
Good review as always! For some reason the way you corrected yourself when you meant to say Castlevania 3 with the text gave me a chuckle. I do really love how its one of those games that stands on its own like you said, but if you played the previous Vania games you get a slightly different perspective on things. That's the best way to do references to stuff. One other thing I thought was interesting about Maria, while it is way easier as a whole you also have way less HP so mistakes are costly and you have to learn to make the most of her kit that has less commitment.
maria may be "easy mode" but damn is she fun to speedrun with, especially because you can zoom through the game very smoothly once you get the hang of timing her cartwheel thing without crashing into enemies and the input of the special attack
To me this is the last great if not the best Classicvania game! I was so surprised by how good it actually was. I'm not a skilled gamer by any means, but I really did appreciate the challenge that Rondo presented even when I had to restart a stage all over again after dying at the very end. As a 2D game, this holds up today by a long-shot!
The crazy part is that it's the original Japanese boxart. Also used for the PAL release, "Vampire's Kiss." America decided to use the Rondo artwork because well, Rondo hadn't come out here anyway. It might have played into confusion between releases for a few people, but I do not blame the American branch for picking a better piece of artwork.
Wonderful Review of a wonderful game bravo for knocking them out one after the other, have you Played Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP? Pretty sure that's where the localisations of Rondo and Symphony of the night that were used in Requiem come from. 3D remake of Rondo of Blood it's an interesting novelty, piece to look at and it's a decent approximation.
Kinda wish you’d make a video on why the PS4 version of Symphony of the Night is allegedly an inferior version. I’m genuinely curious. I only know that I much prefer the dialogue re-writes in the PS4 version (that come from the PSP, if I’m not mistaken.
There's a fan made, English translated PC port of Rondo of Blood. Good option if you don't want to mess with emulation. ua-cam.com/video/18_xA5V2ApA/v-deo.html
While I genuinely enjoyed my time with the Castlevania games as a newcomer, I admit I didn't like Rondo and Symphony of the Night as much as I thought I would. Rondo of Blood was a solid fun time, make no mistake, but I HATED dealing with the armors in this game, they were so finnicky and felt like they were on crack. That and some moments felt really damn cheap and irritating to go through. The secret hunting in this game was not fun for me, I personally don't like rubbing up every last inch of a building just to find a secret, even moreso if those secrets lead to the good ending and finding a new character. I suppose my own expectations for it were too high because of how much my friends and others had hyped it, and it ended up falling short of my expectations. It was a good time, but I found myself prefering Super Metroidvania 4.
Why...why...WHY is this game so hard to come by? I never had a WiiU until last year, I don't have any Sony consoles and the recent Advance collection offers the freaking Dracula X game still available on the WiiU VC. Oye...I so desperately want this game.
@@Aboveup Actually, it should because it got a lot of more content, especially for the collection. The Dracula X Chronicle got you more banger for your bucks because it includes both the classic RoB and the SOTN. The graphic is not up to par but I appreciate the extra bosses and saving the maiden has more significances. You can even arrange music to your liking including classic RoB OST and SOTN.
Anyone with a functioning brain knows Rondo and Drac X SNES are NOT the same game, too many people tend to think it is (it's an alternate retelling of the same story, much like CV 4 and the game on CV Chronicles PS1 is a retelling of the first game). Drac X is a good game in it's own right, and I believe a lot of the reason people shit on it is because it isn't Rondo. Some of the other reasons is because of the stage layout of the final battle, it requires patience, something a lot of old platformers back in the day required. I have a couple ways to play Rondo (PSP and Wii VC legit, a burned PCE CD copy as well), and I own Drac X SNES, and proud to play that one when I want to play a CV game with some teeth (besides CV 3 NES, or original mode on CV Chronicles PS1).
I bought the PS4 collection and was originally going to skip Rondo, because I was only interested in seeing what all the SotN hype was about. I ended up actually liking Rondo more
Saaaaaameeee
Rondo is the best castlevania game
SYOTN is Amazing, the evolution of the classic CV game to a Metroid-Vania style was a breath of fresh air. And also the music is some of the best in video game history.
Same exact thing happened to me. It's tough, but I love it
It always seemed really cool to me to have the UI and art design of the first level in the new game emulate it's direct prequel. SOTN and ROB are such a cool pair.
I just beat Rondo of Blood like a week or two ago. Loved it, probably my favorite Castlevania game! Glad to see you reviewing it!
I'm pretty bad at old-school Castlevania, but this one and 1 are tied for my favorites in the classic style. Even though 4 gets a ton of praise, I kinda like the way Rondo handles its combat mechanics and exploration a lot better. It's so unfortunate that so many of the best PC Engine bangers like this one never left Japan. Not too surprising considering how much they botched the launch and subsequent marketing of the console over here, but it would have been amazing either way.
It remains a bit of gothic style from classic Castlevania 8-16bit series.
Before It turns in animevania
Rondo is by far my favorite Castlevania! Though 3 and 1 come close.
And Dracula X, if you count that as it's own. Then Bloodlines and SOTN.
Wonderful Rondo of Blood! I do not remember how many times I completed it....
But the best One will always be Symphony of the Night.
I started to appreciate more the linear approach of this kind of games because i feel a bit tired of the metroidvania game of remembering where i couldn't go hours ago and try to check those places to see if something i acquired works there (not always clear what a new power can open). Also the magic of acquiring something is nice for few games but then? I need to double jump, here we go after a set of stuff the double jump i need. What a coincidence. See that red door? Now i have this red attack that opens it. Maybe i played too much of these games or they don't put a bit more effort on the immersive side.
A game can be linear but let you have choices to do, still explore to a degree, offer NG+ or other gameplay elements to ramp up difficulty like different characters, new enemies or enemy placement, new equipment or bosses, maybe even new hidden or not stages that push you to go even higher with the challenge. Nowadays the linear approach is often a short experience or is the rogue like approach with randomness doing the "fun" but i miss games that give some more confined logic to analyze, repeat and so on. In a way Souls-like games try to do that in a 3D way without being just platformers or action stuff but i miss a bit of that arcade, less RPG feeling. Lately i'm checking out old stuff like Capcom AD&D titles or Wild Guns Reloaded to explore that kind of approach to the design (multiple characters, routes, things to memorize, etc), maybe even a bit too hard for me but still kinda nice because i never was good at that kind of stuff and now maybe i can appreciate it more for what it tried to do at the time :)
Same. Linear games got a bad rap once COD became popular and open world with skill tree or stats became the norm. I spent so much money for a gaming rig but rarely play games that push the hardware- AAA games want you to give them their undevided attention to explain mechanics or play unskippable interactive cutscenes. They lose my interest so quickly.
I respect FromSoft so much for focusing on actual gameplay and teaching through design. They're actual games. Other than their games I play a lot more 2D more linear games, not only cua I grew up with them but cus they're the only ones that focus on gameplay mechanics over ticking Ubisoft open world boxes.
@@TheT3rr0rMask The problem nowadays is that devs focus too much on the same game loops and try to refresh the experiences just with adding or removing this or that gameplay feature and by different art/new graphics tech. For how much good these are, if you have the samey openworld game framework, or that rogue-like (or lite) type of stuff, and so on i feel "exhausted".
Unfortunately it's the main way for a company to survive (try new things too much and you can fail hard) but at the same time i feel something is nice if it feels unique, not repeated over and over (by a single company or in a genre). As i never understood how you can enjoy a COD every year (or around that ammount of time), even a Souls game can tire you out with things that never were "right" for you.
For example having to walk every time to a boss if you die, or having to grind consumables if you fail too much, or weapons (or bosses) that have little personality (ex. same movesets or stats of "better" ones, or multiple humanoid enemies with more an more phases or number of people on the arena). Hard challenges or scarse resources don't justify wasting time (unless you are good from the start and it doesn't matter).
With few games like that it doesn't matter but when you have several ones? From the original devs to "clones", multiple bosses with that kind of "tiring" approach, gear that you'd like to have a more unique touch in it, more than adding more and more stuff in the game. Some "less is more" applies even to our preferred titles.
Good review as always! For some reason the way you corrected yourself when you meant to say Castlevania 3 with the text gave me a chuckle. I do really love how its one of those games that stands on its own like you said, but if you played the previous Vania games you get a slightly different perspective on things. That's the best way to do references to stuff.
One other thing I thought was interesting about Maria, while it is way easier as a whole you also have way less HP so mistakes are costly and you have to learn to make the most of her kit that has less commitment.
I have played almost all of the Castlevania’s and this is still my favourite. Took forever to get a copy but when I did I played it non stop.
maria may be "easy mode" but damn is she fun to speedrun with, especially because you can zoom through the game very smoothly once you get the hang of timing her cartwheel thing without crashing into enemies and the input of the special attack
U need to blow up bro ur content is amazing. I love your videos so much keep the great content and sly sarcasm coming
Awesome video as usual!
What’s you favorite a Rondo of Blood track? Mine is Opus 13.
I really love Ghost Ship Painting. But Opus 13's close.
To me this is the last great if not the best Classicvania game! I was so surprised by how good it actually was. I'm not a skilled gamer by any means, but I really did appreciate the challenge that Rondo presented even when I had to restart a stage all over again after dying at the very end. As a 2D game, this holds up today by a long-shot!
That art for Super Nintendo Dracula X is cursed as fuck.
The crazy part is that it's the original Japanese boxart. Also used for the PAL release, "Vampire's Kiss." America decided to use the Rondo artwork because well, Rondo hadn't come out here anyway. It might have played into confusion between releases for a few people, but I do not blame the American branch for picking a better piece of artwork.
This is my favourite castlevania game hands down
Probably my favourite action platformer ever
Super Castlevania 4, Bloodlines and Rondo are the goats. I'd love to see the Requiem Collection end up on the Switch.
Wonderful Review of a wonderful game bravo for knocking them out one after the other, have you Played Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP? Pretty sure that's where the localisations of Rondo and Symphony of the night that were used in Requiem come from.
3D remake of Rondo of Blood it's an interesting novelty, piece to look at and it's a decent approximation.
Sweet review
The most anime Castlevania game is also the best one. Coincidence?
Also I would love to see you review Castlevania Bloodlines.
9:23
Damn good bit here
Kinda wish you’d make a video on why the PS4 version of Symphony of the Night is allegedly an inferior version. I’m genuinely curious. I only know that I much prefer the dialogue re-writes in the PS4 version (that come from the PSP, if I’m not mistaken.
Love this game!
I've beat the original Castlevania on NES and while it was definitely a very hard challenge, I find Rondo to be brutal compared to the original.
Young Maria is best Castlevania girl.
There's a fan made, English translated PC port of Rondo of Blood. Good option if you don't want to mess with emulation.
ua-cam.com/video/18_xA5V2ApA/v-deo.html
While I genuinely enjoyed my time with the Castlevania games as a newcomer, I admit I didn't like Rondo and Symphony of the Night as much as I thought I would. Rondo of Blood was a solid fun time, make no mistake, but I HATED dealing with the armors in this game, they were so finnicky and felt like they were on crack. That and some moments felt really damn cheap and irritating to go through. The secret hunting in this game was not fun for me, I personally don't like rubbing up every last inch of a building just to find a secret, even moreso if those secrets lead to the good ending and finding a new character. I suppose my own expectations for it were too high because of how much my friends and others had hyped it, and it ended up falling short of my expectations. It was a good time, but I found myself prefering Super Metroidvania 4.
I personally liked playing Richter more.
Why...why...WHY is this game so hard to come by? I never had a WiiU until last year, I don't have any Sony consoles and the recent Advance collection offers the freaking Dracula X game still available on the WiiU VC. Oye...I so desperately want this game.
It's on the Turbografx and PC Engine Mini consoles.
The only thing I hate about rondo is those damn frogs in the alternate stage 4, not even the flea men are that annoying
rondo of blood is always over looked and konami barely gives it attention yet its one of the best titles in the series
Is it a hard game for someone who never played castlevania?
Yes it really is. I don't think I've raged at a non multiplayer game like this ever before
Thoughts on the psp remake?
Not even worth acknowledging the existence of.
@@Aboveup Actually, it should because it got a lot of more content, especially for the collection. The Dracula X Chronicle got you more banger for your bucks because it includes both the classic RoB and the SOTN. The graphic is not up to par but I appreciate the extra bosses and saving the maiden has more significances. You can even arrange music to your liking including classic RoB OST and SOTN.
Anyone with a functioning brain knows Rondo and Drac X SNES are NOT the same game, too many people tend to think it is (it's an alternate retelling of the same story, much like CV 4 and the game on CV Chronicles PS1 is a retelling of the first game). Drac X is a good game in it's own right, and I believe a lot of the reason people shit on it is because it isn't Rondo. Some of the other reasons is because of the stage layout of the final battle, it requires patience, something a lot of old platformers back in the day required. I have a couple ways to play Rondo (PSP and Wii VC legit, a burned PCE CD copy as well), and I own Drac X SNES, and proud to play that one when I want to play a CV game with some teeth (besides CV 3 NES, or original mode on CV Chronicles PS1).
Only digital on ps4?
i will have to get requiem lol