Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2758 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2008-02-15
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Sony PSP

Customer Reviews

Incredibly Fun and Incredibly Challenging
Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles is a big collection of sorts. It contains the never before released: Rondo of Blood. A different version of this game came to the Super Nintendo in 1995 and was called Dracula X. However, this version was completely different from the original which appeared on the Turbo Grafx-16 in Japan. For more than a decade, American gamers have been wondering when they'll get the chance to play Rondo of Blood. Now is the time.

Rondo of Blood is more or less the prequel to the all time best: Symphony of the Night. You control Richter Belmont on a quest to defeat Dracula. Something the Belmont clan does each and every time Dracula is resurrected. There isn't much of a story here. There are some cutscenes but not much else. The original Rondo of Blood, however, was not huge on story either. It was, however, big on gameplay and that's exactly where Rondo of Blood hits a high and a low point at the same time.

If you can remember the Castlevania games before 1997's Symphony of the Night, you'll instantly be able to familiarize yourself with the gameplay. You play as Richter and you use the whip to smite your enemies. You also have your fair share of sub weapons like knives, axes and the cross. It's all simplistic stuff. You'll go traversing through the levels and fighting bosses at the end of each level. It takes no time flat to learn the game because it plays exactly like the old school Castlevania games of the NES and SNES days. However, it seems like too much comes from that era.

To say Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles is hard is an understatement. The game can be downright punishing. Especially for those who've never played a Castlevania game. It's great that it's a challenge, but it's only a challenge because they didn't work on mechanics that weren't so good in the early Castlevania games to begin with. Jumping for example is clunky. You have little control once you jump. In fact, the majority of your deaths will probably come from you falling into pits. Either because you land on an enemy and fly back or because you don't make the jump. And since you have little control when you jump, it actually gets annoying. It seems like a minor issue, but trying to survive this through several stages is annoying. They changed almost nothing about the game. The enemies (particularly bosses) do a good decent amount of damage as well. If you're looking for a challenge, you'll definitely find it here. The problem is that it sometimes borders on frustration rather than actual challenge. In other words, this game is old school right down to the core. With that in mind, it goes without saying that the game is fairly short.

For those interested you can also unlock the original Symphony of the Night. This will certainly please some of the more hardcore Castlevania fans who consider it to be the best in the series.

Rondo of Blood is a 2D side-scroller. It scrolls from one end of the level to the other, but the characters and enemies are all 3D. The game also has lots of 3D environments. It's actually pretty good looking and runs just fine. The music, of course, is fantastic. Casltevania is known for having some of the greatest music in gaming. Rondo of Blood certainly isn't the best soundtrack in the series, but it is definitely a good one. There is voice acting in the cutscenes, but it's not very good. You can, at least, change the voices to Japanese if you so choose.

The Dracula X Chronicles is a really good game. It's really fun and exciting, but in some merits it is just too old school for its own good. It's a great game, but not for anyone who began with games from the post Symphony of the Night era.

The Good:

+Release of a good game never before released in the United States
+Great graphics
+Fantastic soundtrack
+Fun gameplay and easy to pick up on
+Some really nice cutscenes to advance the story
+You can unlock Symphony of the Night

The Bad:

-Frustrating jumping mechanics
-Very difficult games

A little harsh
Castlevania: DXC is a game which hates its players with a passion. The difficulty curve could take down a 747, some of the monsters are just designed to screw you over with no mercy, you're sent way back to the start of the level if you run out of continues on any of the vast array of near-impossible bosses and to top it all off you have to UNLOCK Symphony of the Night. Advertising something on the back of the box and then secret having you unlock it via a secret level just isn't a good way to win your players over.

On the bright side, DXC doesn't suffer from the plague of re-used graphics which the DS games do, also the artwork doesn't look as if it was drawn by a 12-year old (more than you can say for Dawn of Sorrow).

A good buy, if only for the wonderful graphics and Symphony of the Night, which sadly ends up crapping all over itself on the 100%-200% secret ending.

psp must have
amazing game music spot on like most castlevania games, this game is worth twice the price for the fact you can unlock both original rondo of blood and symphony of night with re mastered voice actors must own for any psp owner