Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

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Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles; Rondo of Blood remake & SOTN for PSP
Topic Started: Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 08:05 AM (386 Views)
Demaar	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 08:05 AM Post #1
Sometimes I think I was born backwards Posts: 9,694 Group: Moderators Member #195 Joined: August 24, 2005 XBL Gamer Tag EssThree	Posted Image Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles is a remake of both Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (Demon Castle Dracula Rondo of Blood) and Castlevania Symphony of the Night packaged together for the PSP. Symphony of the Night (originally for the Playstation and Saturn) is a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood (which in turn was originally for the PC Engine Super CD console), so for the first time ever English players will be experiencing the full story of Richter Belmont's battle against Dracula. 1up "Hear ye, hear ye!" they bellowed. "Dracula X is but a sham! A pitiful shadow of a first-rate classic called Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, to which your new darling Symphony of the Night is the true sequel!" And there was much amazement in those days, and much sadness, for Rondo's excellence was matched only by its rarity and inaccessibility. Having been released as a CD-based game for the PC Engine Duo, Japan's version of the Turbo CD, it was both difficult to come by and nigh-impossible to download back in the days of 56K modems. Thus were both pirates and legitimate customers stymied. But the virtuous are being rewarded for their patience, because at long last -- on the 10th anniversary of Symphony of the Night, in fact -- Rondo of Blood is finally making its way to America. And how it's coming over might come as a bit of a surprise: a 3D remake for PSP. The game features the same side scrolling Castlevania style in the two styles of gameplay fans of the series know and love. Old schoolers and newbs alike are going to love the hell out of how this thing plays. Also, if 3D remakes make you squeemish, Konami will be including a perfect port of the original game right on the same disc. 1up Purists might complain that a polygonal facelift will somehow spoil the feel or gameplay. But even ignoring the fact that the original version of the game will be included for good measure, what we've played of Rondo in 3D feels incredibly faithful, even in its clearly pre-beta condition. Koji Igarashi's team still has a long way to go before the remake is ready for release -- voice clips are missing, the music is still placeholder-only, secrets (including a playable Maria Renard) have yet to be added -- but even so, the addition of a third dimension does nothing to change the gameplay. Normally, 2.5D games feel slower and floatier than their flatter predecessors, but Rondo was a slow, precise game to begin with; the controls feel spot-on, even moreso than in the current gold standard, New Super Mario Bros. The best news of all, in my honest (and never humble) opinion is the return of Ayami Kojima as the character designer for the series. The original Rondo of Blood designs were, to be blunt, horrbly ugly and terribly cliché generic anime styled pap (much like Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin's designs). So it's a joy to hear that the characters will be receiving a face lift that, while taking elements of the original designs, will be revamped in the style that has come to define Castlevania games. Posted Image Posted Image Posted Image As for Symphony of the Night, it's a proper port that has been reworked for the PSP's widescreen dimensions (as in, no stretched visuals). But considering SOTN is the peak of the Castlevania series in many respects I think you'd have a hard time taking issue with that. You can read the full preview for the game by 1up here and check out their screenshots here. Looks like I'll be buying a PSP sooner than I thought... Official trailer First level Second level Second level Alternate path 1up Show preview Wikipedia page Wikipedia page for Rondo of Blood Wikipedia page for Symphony of the Night
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Deleted User	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 08:43 AM Post #2
Deleted User	Ah, very exciting news indeed, particularly for those with a PSP. Now who do I know with a PSP... ;) Actually it's nice that there are still games coming out for the PSP worth getting excited for... whatever Ninty fanboys might be saying about it, it ain't dead yet, not by a long shot :P Well the games might be remakes, but remakes done properly are nothing to sneer at. The fact that the gameplay sounds so spot on already indicates that there will probably be little to sneer about for this game. You've got my interest up for sure. I hear your criticism about the character design Demaar - that was one thing that did stand out a bit like a sore thumb in the DS games. Such generalised, contemporary and almost immature anime-style designs really didn't fit in with well the style and atmosphere of the games, possibly more so in PoR than DoS in my opinion. In some ways, it was like the character design was geared towards the lowest common demoniator that would appeal to the masses. I won't say that these character designs are worlds ahead of recent efforts, but there is more style and individuality to them (if that makes any sense). Nice copy and paste effort at Vooks, Demaar... makes me want to do the same with my comment :-P
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Demaar	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 05:07 PM Post #3
Sometimes I think I was born backwards Posts: 9,694 Group: Moderators Member #195 Joined: August 24, 2005 XBL Gamer Tag EssThree	Indeed. It is yet another remake, but so was Phoenix Wright. It's just that they're both remakes we've never seen before, so they might as well be new games. This'll likely help sales of the PSP in the US and Europe for sure, but I'm not so sure about Japan. We'll see. But yeah, I agree with you that the anime art styling hurt PoR than DoS. I mean, even if it was still all castles and dungeons, DoS was meant to be set in the future. Doesn't mean Kojima's art styling for those same characters wasn't superior in AoS on the GBA, though. As for the copy/pasta, yeah, lol. After I posted I thought "oh crap, what if they think I'm just spamming Sony love?" and decided to throw in a few posts in threads that caught my eye too. I have a knack for neglecting messageboards it seems...
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Deleted User	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 05:37 PM Post #4
Deleted User	Actually I was thinking before that a lot of the criticisms I was making about character designs for the DS games could actually apply overall to the games themselves to some degree - one criticism they have both copped (in particular PoR) in that they haven't offered anything particularly novel to the Castelvania series. I don't mean that they are precisely "generalised, contemporary and almost immature" but that a strong sense of individuality is almost lacking in the games. PoR especially has been described as a longer, improved Julian mode (as featured in DoS). Don't get me wrong, I do very much enjoy these games though. Hmm... Symphony of the Night is pretty much considered to be the definitive Castlevania game isn't it? Well, it's still a while before the game is released - you may even own a Wii before you need a PSP for this Demaar. :P
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Acerlyte	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 07:55 PM Post #5
It's SuperCalaFreakinAwesome! Posts: 1,266 Group: Members Member #177 Joined: August 16, 2005 PSN ID Acerlyte	Awesome! It's great to see a few more reasons for me to buy a PSP and remakes of possibly the best Castlevania games in the series is as good an incentive (for me anyway) as any. Sounds like they are going all out for Rondo of Blood which is fantastic and will be a worth purchase indeed. Any clue as to whether SOTN will be the Saturn version with it's goodies over the PS version? Really hope so :D
	Recently finished: Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank:TOD, Bionic Commando Rearmed Playing: LittleBigPlanet, Rockband!!!111 Yes. In under 3 months I went from being a 360 owner to a PS3 owner. Idiotic? Maybe. Financial Stupidity? Definately. Do I care? No bloody way!


Demaar	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 09:07 PM Post #6
Sometimes I think I was born backwards Posts: 9,694 Group: Moderators Member #195 Joined: August 24, 2005 XBL Gamer Tag EssThree	It'll be the Playstation version, but for good reason. See this Retronauts "review" (lol, more like throttling) of the Saturn version including a look in the extended areas and Maria mode.
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Acerlyte	Tuesday Feb 6 2007, 11:03 PM Post #7
It's SuperCalaFreakinAwesome! Posts: 1,266 Group: Members Member #177 Joined: August 16, 2005 PSN ID Acerlyte	Righty o then! Guess I won't be worrying about that then, sounds like crap anyway ^_^. Bring on PS version of SOTN :D
	Recently finished: Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank:TOD, Bionic Commando Rearmed Playing: LittleBigPlanet, Rockband!!!111 Yes. In under 3 months I went from being a 360 owner to a PS3 owner. Idiotic? Maybe. Financial Stupidity? Definately. Do I care? No bloody way!


Demaar	Wednesday Feb 7 2007, 08:42 PM Post #8
Sometimes I think I was born backwards Posts: 9,694 Group: Moderators Member #195 Joined: August 24, 2005 XBL Gamer Tag EssThree	US release date added to the first post, this year! Woo! Funnily enough, a lot of PSP titles have hit Europe before the US, so it may come out sooner than the end of this year, even.
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Demaar	Tuesday Jul 17 2007, 08:39 PM Post #9
Sometimes I think I was born backwards Posts: 9,694 Group: Moderators Member #195 Joined: August 24, 2005 XBL Gamer Tag EssThree	Here's the opening video courtesy of... um... google? [dohtml]<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6710027732329170140" height="408" width="500"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="movie" value="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6710027732329170140"><param name="quality" value="best"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="scale" value="noScale"><param name="wmode" value="window"></object>[/dohtml]
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Nefarious	Saturday Jul 21 2007, 03:56 PM Post #10
Posts: 84 Group: Members Member #740 Joined: June 24, 2006	I've watched the gameplay vid on youtube for this game, doesn't seem as good as the two Castlevania games on DS atm, movements looks slow.
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