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Retro Game Club Discussion Thread - 05 - Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood [community]
 

The Castlevania franchise has a rich history and is dear to the heart of many gamers. For this retro game club, we chose to play Rondo of Blood, a game which had previously been denied to the North American audience and came out on the PC Engine (the Japanese equivalent of the unsuccessful Turbo Graphx CD). The game fetches over $100 on Ebay, but thanks to the Virtual Console we can all get it for $9 in all its untranslated, imported glory.

According to some, this game represents the pinnacle of the series. It does seem to take a few steps backward as it loses some moves from the SNES game that came before it, for instance the ability to swing the whip in other directions than right in front of you, but your character remains one of the more agile Belmonts, being able to jump on and off stairs and other feats like that.

The most striking improvement, however, is the game's non-linearity. You may fall into pits in this game, but rather than fall to your death, you will simply fall to a lower level, an alternate course, often with its own boss waiting for you at the end. Some paths are easier than others, so choose wisely.

You also have to, over the course of the game, save three damsels in distress, trapped inside Dracula's Castle. I have to assume this is in order to get a better ending, although... there might be more to it...

The game offers beautiful 16 bit graphics and a fantastic soundtrack. We are in for a treat as apparently, the VC version of the game is one of the best ways to experience it (though PSP owners can also follow along). According to 1up: "The emulation errors that plagued VC's earliest TurboGrafx-16 releases are gone, so this version of the game is colorful, crisp, pixel-perfect, and sounds great. The PSP port was frankly lousy, with muddy color and off-kilter sound. Even the original PC Engine version looks crummy on an HDTV. But here on Virtual Console, it looks and sounds and plays perfectly. This is the definitive edition of the game, or as close to one as we'll ever see."


Why not add Rondo of Blood to your collection, and indicate you are currently playing it? And don't forget to rate it when you're done!


List of Awesome
A list paying tribute to all the brave warriors who play the game to completion as Richter

@nate38
@sirmastersephiroth
@GameDadGrant
@TriforceBun
@Guillaume
@ploot
@roykoopa64
@ludist210
@Robknoxious1
@anon_mastermind
@CPA Wei

List of Awesomer
To get on this list, finish the game with a 100% save file!

@nate38
@sirmastersephiroth
@GameDadGrant
@TriforceBun
@Guillaume
@roykoopa64
@ludist210
@Robknoxious1

List of Awesomest
Attempt a high score and post it!

GameDadGrant - 113,220
Guillaume - 110,640
roykoopa64 - 104,000


Memorable quotes

By the way, you can dodge the stage 3 boss's final attack with a well-timed backflip. I did it earlier today, and it was super manly.
@TriforceBun

URL to share (right click and copy)
10/08/11, 09:48    Edited: 10/27/11, 05:06
 
   
 
GameDadGrant said:
@Guillaume

You stop being bad at games!

I tried that, once.



I don't have it in me anymore to suffer through terrible games just to say I did it.
06/09/16, 22:46   
@Guillaume

Hey, Adventure Island is sweet!
06/09/16, 23:18   
@Guillaume

I was going to have a snarky retort, but I can't compete with that photo.
06/09/16, 23:21   
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