Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Genre: Action
Release: October 23, 2007
Platform: Playstation Portable
Reviewer: Eric
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is one of those
collections that took way too long to come out. Symphony of the
Night was the sequel to the Japan only Rondo of Blood, which was
the computer. Trying to import this game and running it on an
old computer would be a bit pricey. Sony and Konami must have
seen and read people beginning for Rondo of Blood to come out in
the United States. What do they do to make gamers happy? Release
a remake of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night for the PSP
with the original Rondo of Blood also.
The
remake of Rondo of Blood is worth the $30 price tag. This is the
first time we have gotten the chance to play Rondo of Blood; it
has the same old Castlevania feel we’ve grown and love for
years. Konami is going more towards an RPG feel with Castlevania
lately, like Symphony of the Night, so going back to the series
roots is enjoyable. Going from level to level is fun, Rondo of
Blood has plenty of levels too, but there is one thing that will
upset Castlevania fans. Rondo of Blood is extremely hard and
that is saying it in a nice way.
You will die a lot in this game. There is a good chance you
may die on level zero if you aren’t careful. Every step you take
in this game could cause you to loose some damage. When I was
playing this game I wanted to throw my PSP across the room, you
die sometimes in this game and you don’t know why. Some of the
monsters take more damage than other ones, why would a skeleton
take more damage away than fire?
Boss battles are another treat in the Rondo of Blood remake. If
you don’t have an extra life to spare you may be repeating the
level all over again, boss battles are hard. They’re not just
hard, some of them seem unbeatable. I had to replay the second
stage a lot because the wolf boss was giving me too many
problems. Of course when you beat all the bosses in this game
you will most likely never have the same problem again. Just
like old school video games all the bosses tend to have a
certain pattern. Even though they have these patterns sometimes
the creatures will break their pattern once in a blue moon. Just
be prepared, that’s all I am trying to say.
The graphics in the Rondo of Blood remake are in 2 ½-D. All the
colors are enhanced too so you can tell who or what everything
is. I was really impressed with the frame rate in this title
too, there isn’t too much of a slow down to crucify the game. It
was a little upsetting to see the cut scenes in the same
graphics as the game since most of the time we are treated to
3-D animations in every other game.
Rondo
of Blood is a great game, both the remake and the original, but
including Symphony of the Night as well is a dream. Symphony of
the Night is my favorite Castlevania game; it was the first game
since Castlevania 2 to add in RPG elements. The game was a
classic and the original copy of the game is still sought out
for a high price over the Internet. If you are thinking of
buying this game just for Symphony of the Night then don’t, this
is the worst version of the game to date.
Where can I start with Symphony of the Night? I really like the
game a lot and I bought it on Xbox Live when it came out.
Comparing the Xbox Live and PSP versions will make the one on
The Dracula X Chronicles look like its incomplete. The amount of
bugs and glitches in this game make it a real chore to play at
times. Putting this classic game on a PSP UMD is embarrassing, a
game shouldn’t have this many problems.
One nice thing about the PSP is when you turn it off it will
save that position for the next time you turn it on. In Symphony
of the Night’s case there is the chance the enemies will be
invisible, but they can still attack you. The only way to see
these monsters again is to exit that are and re-enter it. Some
times you will randomly get stuck when you’re buying items at
the shop. You are still doing motions, even the shop keeper, but
you can’t actually move. To make things worse the game takes a
few minutes to load up; I haven’t had a PSP game load this much
since WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2006.
Final Verdict
This is a great collection for the PSP. As of late the PSP
has really been releasing some great games and on top of that
list are all the remakes. Yes I think remakes are stupid, but
any more I think I’d rather buy the same game again than buy a
few original games that get old after a few days. Castlevania:
The Dracula X Chronicles has a lot to offer for its small price
tag though wanting to buy this for a portable version of
Symphony of the Night would be a mistake. This version of
Symphony of the Night is terrible, it can be playable at times,
but for the most part it is a headache. If you haven’t already
picked this game up then go buy it now, every Castlevania game
that hasn’t been released on a Nintendo console ends up being
hard to find within a year. Rondo of Blood’s remake may be hard,
but stick with it, mainly since if you want to play the two
other games on this UMD it requires you to search for them and
it is hard to find them.
Rating
8 out of 10
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Footage
