Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (悪魔城ドラキュラＸ ～血の輪廻～) is a platform-adventure video game developed by Konami for the PC Engine's Super CD-ROM² System directed by Toru Hagihara. It is the 10th installment in the Castlevania series, where the protagonist Richter Belmont goes to save his lover Annette, who was abducted by Count Dracula. It was released in Japan on October 29, 1993.

A direct sequel to it, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was released in 1997. The game was remade for the Super Nintendo as Castlevania: Dracula X, and the PlayStation Portable as Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. In 2008, the original game was released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in Japan and for the North American and PAL regions in 2010.

Overview
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is the first CD game in the series, which allowed for more features to be included, such as CD quality soundtrack and visual cut-scenes. The opening, ending, and various cutscenes done in a hand-drawn visual style are included in the game. However, at the time this wasn't considered to be a very popular decision. Various details in the terrain are more polished than previous entries, and the behavior of the enemies is more elaborate. For example, the boss characters in the game will perform an unique final attack when their health meter is depleted. If the player didn't sustain any damage during the fight and manages to avoid this attack, a "Perfect Bonus" (1UP) is obtained.

The mechanic of picking upgrades in order to power up the whip, which until that time was a staple of the series, has been removed. A new feature is the Item Crash, a special sub-weapon attack during which the player becomes momentarily invincible and a powerful attack is performed, at the expense of a large amount of hearts. Similar to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, a branching path system has been implemented, but with some differences. Unlike the former, it's not possible to choose between two paths in between stages. Rather, there are two ways to proceed through a stage, one of the paths being hidden. Finding this path requires several tricks such as destroying a wall, deliberately falling down a pit, and so on. In addition, there are four characters who have been kidnapped by Dracula and require to be rescued. One of these characters, Maria, becomes playable after being rescued. She attacks with magical, whimsical skills, such as throwing doves at enemies, hiding in a turtle shell, and other animal based attacks. When playing as Maria, the cutscenes when rescuing the other characters, the conversation with Dracula, the ending, the player's defeat sequence, as well as the Game Over screen become more light-hearted in tone.

Once a stage is cleared, it can be selected from the "STAGE SELECT" in the file screen at the start of the game. Choosing "PLAYER SELECT" allows switching to Maria. Other things which are displayed are the completion percentage, the amount of continues left, "SOUND TEST", and "TECHNIQUE". The latter are videos which show the correct strategy to use against bosses. These videos can be unlocked by collecting certain amounts of money.

Dialogue
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Music
The music this time around goes for a bit of a pop style, but still contains that classic Castlevania progressive rock feel of the older games. Since Rondo of Blood is a CD based game, live guitars were brought in to back up the crisp sounding synth and drum beats. Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Beginning were all also rearranged for this game.

The soundtrack was released in a two disc set (the second disc containing the soundtrack to Castlevania: Bloodlines) in 1994 and has since been taken out of production, making it just as hard to find as the game is.

Composers

 * Akiropito
 * Overture / Divine Bloodlines
 * Former Room
 * Poison Mind
 * Sound effects
 * Player Out
 * Game Over
 * Stage Clear
 * All Clear
 * Jigokuguruma Nakamura
 * Cross a Fear
 * Cemetery
 * Slash
 * Ghost Ship Painting
 * Op.13
 * The Nest
 * March of the Righteous
 * Sanoppi
 * Requiem
 * Former Room (Compose)
 * Dark Desires
 * Dance of Illusions
 * Mary Samba
 * Tracks for demo scenes
 * Metal Yuhki
 * Vampire Killer
 * Bloody Tears
 * Beginning

Unused content

 * On March 2015, an unused boss sprite from Stage 1 was discovered. The boss resembles a green, four-legged creature, quite similar to Super Metroid's Crocomire.

Legacy
Rondo of Blood has had remarkable impact and is something of a turning point in the series. The following games would be influenced by it graphics wise, with many sprites almost directly taken from the game. It is also one of the last "old-school" Castlevania games, featuring more linear, stage based gameplay, as opposed to the "Metroidvania" style introduced in this game's extremely popular direct sequel, Symphony of The Night.

The game is highly sought after by many fans, but due to the lack of an international release, copies are rare. The game often sells for well over $100 on eBay. It has been upgraded to a 2.5D game in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP, which also contains the original version as well as its sequel, Symphony of the Night. A direct port of the original version can also be found on the Wii's Virtual Console and is considered an import title outside Japan. While there is no translation made outside of Japan, the English VC version is still altered in that it contains the PSP intro audio and the censored version of the werewolf.

Staff

 * Producer: Y. Yamada (Yoshiaki Yamada)
 * Director: T. Hagihara (Toru Hagihara)
 * Program: T. Hagihara, GAGENSAI, Shingo T. (Shingo Takatsuka)
 * Character Design: T. Furukawa (Toshiharu Furukawa), R. B. (Reika Bando), K. Yamada (Koji Yamada), KURO!
 * SOUND STAFF: Akiropito (Shoji Akira), Jigokuguruma Nakamura (Keizo Nakamura), Sanoppi (Tomoko Sano), Metal Yuhki (Saitō Mikio)
 * Guitar Solo: Motoaki Furukawa
 * Visual Staff: Akiropito, Sanoppi, Imohore Imai (Kazuhito Imai)
 * Package Design: Inumari, M.Yoshihashi (Masahiro Yoshihashi)
 * Voice Staff: Ryuichi, AKT, NOR, Saushirau, Babbitt・K, Sanoppi, OPA
 * OP Visual Narrator: Hans Ginita Klaud

Related products

 * Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo Official Guide — A Japanese guide book for this game.
 * Akumajo Dracula X — Contains the original soundtrack for this game.
 * Castlevania: Dracula X — A Super Nintendo reimagining of this game. Considered a non-canon semi-sequel in Japan, and branded as a substitute game for Rondo of Blood to international gaming markets. It is known as Dracula XX in Japan and Vampire's Kiss in Europe and Australia, where it is considered as a standard sequel to Super Castlevania IV, presentation-wise.
 * Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — The official direct sequel to this game.
 * Akumajyo Dracula Peke — A minigame included on the same disc as Rondo of Blood that was played if using an older kind of System Card on the PC Engine.
 * Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles — A 2.5D remake of Rondo of Blood that also includes new English localized versions of the original game and its sequel, Symphony of the Night.
 * Akumajō Dracula Best Music Collections BOX — Contains music from this game on Disc 4.