It's not rare anymore! No Better Time To Play Castlevania: Rondo of Blood!

Hey guys! I know not many of you know me. I hardly ever post, but I've been haunting this place for years. As much as I love all of Talking Time, nothing pumps my nads quite like all the fantastic Let's Plays that you fine people have been authoring and compiling the last couple of years. Now, I'm not the greatest writer of all time, but I'd love to give it a shot, so I've decided to throw my hat into the ring with:




Originally Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo was released in October of 1993 for the PC-Engine Super CD2 (or something, there are too many variations of the PC-Engine to keep them all straight in my head), known locally as the TurboGrafx-CD. For various reasons it was never released or ported outside of Japan until very recently. This, combined with outstanding impressions from anyone who actually got their hands on it had made it sort of an oft described "Holy Grail" amongst Castlevania fans prior to it's port (and remake) to the PSP in October of 2007 (exactly 6 days before it's 14th anniversary) and later it's WiiWare port in March of 2010.

As for my history with the game, well, Castlevania has been my favorite game series (along with Mega Man) since I was 4 years old, when I got my shiny new NES and a copy of the original CV. Fastforward 7 years to 1996, I'm 11 and I get the internet. In between hunting for pictures of boobs and va-jays I mostly learn whatever I can about my favorite video games. Somewhere along the line I learn about the Dracula X (which until then I always thought was a Just-Okay-For-Castlevania SNES game, but we'll go more into that in a future post) and after years of drooling and wishing and imagining I was finally able save up enough to buy my own copy (even though it would be another little while until I would find the means to play it)! I wont disclose exactly how much I paid, but it was well over a hundred bucks. Well, I was hooked. Without gushing anymore I'll just say it's my favorite game in my favorite series and I've played it inside and out, and now I'm super excited to do my best to show it off to you fine folks.

Some notes on the LP:

• My legit copy of Rondo is packed away somewhere in Sacramento with my sister, while I'm up north in Humboldt County, so needless to say I'll be using a non-legit copy. The opening subtitles are translated into English, but other then that, it all seems the same.
  
• I'll be using a paid-for version of MagicEngine and it's default screencap features. The screens end up a bit smaller then I'd like, but unless anyone has any suggestions on something better, it'll have to do.
  
• There will be some limited audience participation. Rondo has 4 stages that have alternate '-versions (or "dash-versions" as Street Fighter has taught me). I'm going to do them all, but I'm gonna let you decide whether I go 2-3-4-5, 2'-3'-4' (5' isn't an option until later as I'll explain), or 2-2'-3-3'-4-4'-5 (this is possible because Rondo kindly lets you quit and access a stage select whenever you'd like). Input is welcome now, but when I officially ask for the the vote (after stage 1) the first three posts will decide.
  
• There will be a point when I can change characters. I'll definitely at least show this second character off, but you all should know that this character is kind of an easy mode of sorts. And in some ways they break the game wide open. Once again, what I do will come down to you. When the time comes, first three posts will decide whether I stick to Richter (and tradition) or get wild and crazy with the new challenger (yes, I am also a huge Street Fighter fan as well).
  
• I know a lot about this game. But I won't pretend to know everything so if I get any information horribly wrong or miss something super important, please let me know.

Last but not least, I'd like to dedicate this LP (has this ever been done before on Talking Time? I can't rightly remember...) to Mr. Kurt Kalata and his Castlevania Dungeon. A site I've probably logged 150 hours on reading and re-reading. In my younger days, I used to print out pages from the site (in a crude black-and-white stripped down format) and compile them into little books that I would keep with all my other video game books. I love the dungeon, and while it may not be the most comprehensive site on the internet for Castlevania information (that honor probably belongs to MrP'S Castlevania Realm, another great site), it's my favorite. And probably the first website I ever loved. Kurt and his site have done a ton to help nurture my love and knowledge for Castlevania in a way that's second only to the games themselves. So thanks Kurt! I know you pop up from time to time around here, so I hope you don't mind me singling you out like this.

Next Time: Let's Meet Our Hero!

Uh-oh. Looks like I'll have to hurry up and finish this game before the LP can catch up to me! And the secret character may be "easy mode" but I still can't beat Death with her. Or Richter either, sadly.

I can already tell I'm going to like this LP.

I guess I should get this on VC and finally try it out before you get too far.

This is fine, because it's fun to skip entire parts of a stage with a single double-jump or slide unimpeded across the entire collapsing bridge at the beginning of Stage 7.

Said character also makes all the wall meat turn into things like cake, ice cream, parfaits, burgers, sushi, and ramen, and is completely adorable.

This might be kinda hard to do considering how the game handles saves (probably will need two files or savestates for it), but is there any way you could show the maiden rescue scenes for both Richter and Maria? That's another thing different depending on who you use.

Yes, this can, and will, be done... using savestates. As far as I know that would be the only way other then playing the game through twice. Actually I thank you for bringing it up because it reminds me of something I meant to bring up in my intro, but completely forgot about.

I will be utilizing both savestates and a slowdown feature, but only to help get interesting screnshots of hard to capture moments in an otherwise fairly brisk moving action game. I will not be using it to fly through the game with no challenge, and you all will still experience every death Richter (and co.) suffer throughout our adventures in the Transelvanian countryside.

Yeah, I have to say that at least 70% of the time I play this game, I play as Maria because it's just so damn breezy. It makes running through Castlevania almost relaxing.

Okay peeps, let's get started.

I don't know exactly how to rip video from MagicEngine (and I don't really want to learn), and you really should see the first 2 videos in all their animated glory, so I'm stealing someone elses hard work to benifit myself! Ha ha ha ha!

...

Enjoy the first intro.

Side-note: I never understood why the intro was in German. I mean, it seems Romanian would have made more sense. Anyone have any answers?


As we do as we're told and push run we hear a nice creaking door sound that I've always felt was suitably creepy.


Here's our file select menu. From here we can do all of our standard file select activities. Yes sir, from copying to deleting, the Rondo of Blood file select menu meets all of our file selecting needs. As you can see I have a game left over from a recent playthrough that has reached it's MAXIMUM POTENTIAL (100%) named SIMON. I have a history of always naming my file SIMON, dating back to Dracula's Curse (CVIII, the first game to let you enter in your name at the beginning). FYI, if I'm on a second playthrough I usually go with Trevor. Creative, I know, but it's tradition at this point. Anyway, it's "Name Entry" time...


The trend seems to be that in most LPs when it comes time to name a character, or boat, or dog, or anything, it's left up to you, the viewers, but the cold hard fact is that in this game it really doesn't matter, so I'm going to spit in all of your faces and do it myself dag-nabit.


Ahhhh yes. El-Pea. Which of course is Spanish for "The Pea". Culture. You know I love it. So what's next?


Let's see, a couple options now, we have a nice little half clam shell to our right, we have a continue counter on our... bottom...ish (This counts, you guessed it, how many times you continue, I won't cheat, but it's my goal to have this stay at ZERO), we can TEST our SOUND, START our GAME, or... TECHNIC... okay, so I gotta know what the hell TECHNIC is...


OHHHHHH.... TECHNIC probably means TECHNIQUE. Anyone familiar with Symphony of the Night knows what this is. It's a place we can spend our hard earned Dracubucks on demonstrations on how to beat the various bosses we encounter! Just like in SotN, some of them are ridiculously helpful! Others... not so. For now all we have is DEATH, whom we have a brief encounter with during the prologue. I was gonna leave that as a surprise, but the stupid TECHNIC menu is a loud-mouthed asshole. So let's all ignore it and call it names behind it's back.


Blah blah blah, soundtest, yada yada 13 of the best songs in videogamedom, belch belch belch listen to them, you know the drill. Okay! Let's get on with it!

Stolen Intro Number the Second!


It's a stormy night and through the trees rides Richtor Belmont. He's our standard Belmont, I don't know if it's ever been officially stated where exactly he fits into the Belmont bloodline, but based on the timeline, he's probably Solieyu Belmont's (son of Christopher, and the chump we have to save in Adventure II: Electri... errr, Belmont's Revenge) grandson. What's he doing riding his buggy through the woods at night? Well, the Dark Lord Dracula's been resurrected by some dick called Shaft, and has decided to kidnap four woman from a local Romanian village, including Rick's lady Annette and her little sister Maria. Well, or hero, being all hero-y, takes it upon himself to save the day! As the rain kicks in we're treated to our first title card.



Lightning flashes and we begin to see something creeping across the night sky. What could it be?


Oh yeah, that's right, the stupid TECKNIC menu already ruined it for us. It's the Belmont's second most consistent nemesis, Death! Actually, now that I think about it... I'm fairly sure that Death has been a proper boss in more Castlevania games then Dracula himself. Hmmmm... never thought about it. BUT he's only been a final boss twice. And one of those times was actually a tag team with Dracula... so... anyway, we remove our cape and prepare for battle.

Death's only attack (at first) is to throw his scythe like a boomerang. If it hits you, it does next to no damage, and it's easily ducked. I got nicked by one while trying to get a screenshot, but after two hot blasts to the face with whippie justice, Death pulls out of the fight.



Or does he? After wagging is finger at me like a mom with too much "I said so" on the brain, he begins to charge up for something...


OH GOD IT'S HUGE!



Death sends out a giant skull which Rick proceeds to bat out of the sky like so many Romanian mosquitoes. He then gives us a nice salute and turns tail and runs. Even if he would have hit me with this green death skull, it would have done hardy any damage, and even if he hit me with this green death skull (deja-vu) he would have left after one shot anyway. But as any Castlevania fan knows, this isn't "goodbye" for Death. It's merely... "smell you later".

Each level in Rondo has a different name depending on who you play it with. The Prologue can only be played as Richter and is called I'm A Big Dummy And Kishi Put Me In My Place, I mean, Prologue From now on, I'll be noting these.




This is the town of Aljiba from CVII: Simon's Quest. Only it's ON FIRE. I've always really loved how in the opening screen you can just see the front of Rick's horses. Moving on.


Ahhhh. Our first chump. The Ape Skeleton shuffles slowly forward and occasionally punches at me at the speed of smell. Sometimes he'll come equipped with a flaming barrel that he'll huck uselessly in my general direction. Basic whip fodder. When killed he'll stop whatever he's doing and burst uselessly into flames. Useless.


Hey look, I found a knife shoved haphazardly into this average streetlamp. Let's throw it at stuff.


As you can see, this version of the classic Belmont throwing knife looks impressive, throwing three knives instead of one should give it the edge over it's other incarnations, but the truth is it's still pretty useless. It takes two hucks for six knives total to take down this lowly Skeleton Ape. The whip takes one hit, and is an overall much faster and efficient choice. Basically, I usually ignore the throwing knife.


However soon we come across another streetlamp with another deadly weapon bound to it's innards. A Throwing Axe. Who the hell goes around this town hiding various blades in easy to reach locations? That can't be safe for the childrens. Anyway let's go throw our shiny new axe at stuff.


As you can see, like always, the axe flies in a very distinctive arc, dealing fairly heavy damage to anything it slices effortlessly through. As you can't see (but I assure you it happened) it slices through these Skeleton Apes in ONE hit. It's great for enemy's that are above and slightly in front of you, or any swooping baddie, and all around a way better choice then the knife. I'll briefly explain all the sub-weapons as we come across them, and eventually I'll post a mini-update detailing them all along with their Item Crash techniques. However, once I procure the Holy Cross you're not gonna see me with much else. I love the cross. A lot.


Moving on we find our first barrel wielding Skeleton Ape and, hey, I wonder what that sign says?


Man, I really wonder what that sign says. I'm sure I knew at one point, and if I was really curious I'd dig out my copy of Dracula X Chronicles and see what the old localized version has to say on the subject, but my PSP is all the way on the other side of the room... so... do any of our readers what to enlighten us?


You didn't see it, but I had to bust down a brick wall using only a whip in order to earn this money.


HOLY CRAP SOMETHING JUST JUMPED OUT OF THAT BURNING BUILDING! Oh, it's just a harmless Skeleton Ape. Whip to the face and crisis averted.


AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!


Standing in front of this church, Richter can't help thinking about the old story his grandmama used to tell him about his Heroic decedent Simon, and how in this very town, he traded his family's beloved White Crystal for a mystical BLUE Crystal. Brings a tear to the eye.


OHMYGODWHATTHEHELL!! This Blade Skeleton (or later on known as a Blade Dancer), while very good at giving me a fright, isn't much to worry about. Sure, he'll jump around and try to slide at you, but he goes down in one hit. In fact, if you just keep walking when he pops out you can hit him as he lands before he has a chance to do anything. When killed he becomes decapitated and lets out a womanly scream. Let's head down some stairs.


Hmmmmm. What could be hidden on that suspicious looking ledge. Probably nothing, but just in case lets hop on over there.

Hey look! It's the Belmont's favorite treat! Wall-Meat! Rivaled only by the famed Metro City Barrel, or Street-Meat, Transylvania's famous slow brick-and-mortar roasted meat will cure all that ails ya. Now with 60% less parasitic worms! You know the drill. Food heals you, I haven't been touched by all these useless Skeleton Apes yet however, so for me this particular piece of wall meat is just glutinous, with no beneficial effects whatsoever, outside of a possible score boost...


I could head through this door, but that wall looks a little suspicious. And hitting a wall with my whip has brought me nothing but fortune thus far so...


Ahhh! I've uncovered a Big Heart! I guess I should quickly explain hearts. I'm sure most of you are aware, but for the sake of being as thorough as possible, in Castlevania there are subweapons which are capable of making certain enemies and bosses much easier is applied correctly. But convenience is never free, and in Castlevania, more often then not, these subweapons are powered by hearts. Small hearts are worth one. Big hearts are worth... 5 I think. I stopped paying attention years ago. Some sub weapons cost more hearts then others. Item Crashes cost tons of heart. We'll detail it all later. Now that this piece of wall is carved out, I bet I can jump over to the left and search for more goodies.

Nothin' yet. When all else fails, hit shit with your whip!


Hmmmmmmm. Curious. Let's try some more of that.


Bingo!



Here's where you guys come in. Should I:

a) Continue to the right, fight a boring boss, continue to the front of the castle along path prime and unlock my second character?

b)Head into the mysterious secret passage and fight a much more interesting boss and explore path dash but ultimately have to wait until later to get my second character?

c)Go and explore the mysterious passage, beat the ' boss, quit the game, stage select back to the first level and continue on path prime.

Option a can get a little boring, but gives us access to our second character quick, option b is a little more interesting, as (in my opinion) the dash path is a little more varied. option c is the most complete option, allowing you guys to see everything as it comes up, but it kinda breaks the momentum of the game. If you guys are okay with losing momentum then it's porbably the best option. I'll leave it totally up to you. I'm okay with any of the choices.

First three votes decides... unless that ends in a tie, then first to break the tie wins.

VOTING STARTS NOW!!

The visual continuity between Stage 1's hidden exit and Stage 2' itself means I'm against beating the hidden boss and then exiting. I vote to head on to Stage 2 for now, as this game needs more pink.


"Prologue" is the title of Stage 0, as you can see in the screenshot. "Path Through the Woods" is just Kurt's description of the location, like "Village Ruins" for Stage 1.


Orujiba no Machi: "Town of Aljiba." Even though the town's structure is actually an exact match for Alba, the first town in Simon's Quest, and not Aljiba.

Kishi only feels alive when he's correcting an LPer.

Thank you Kishi. You endless well of knowledge never ceases to amaze me.


Ahhh yes. I actually intended to point this out, but just plum forgot.

Now! Make me feel it!

Okay guys, it's been over 24 hours, and I'd like to keep this thing rolling along so if I don't get any more input before tomorrow evening I'm gonna go ahead and do things Kishi's way.

Hidden boss is the best boss.

Go for the '

My vote's for Stage 2. The apostrophe Stage 2 can wait for now.

Already seem to have 3 votes, so... I'll just complain about the fact that you didn't start the game with the wrong video card or w/e for the bonus mode. That little detail is one of my favorite touches to this game.

I'll do something on this later on. I'll save it for an update where I have less time.

Was... was this a reference to the Dolph Lundgren workout video?

This is one of the few Holy Grail games that, when I finally got a chance to play it, totally lived up to the hype. I'm not sure any game is actually worth $200, but this one definitely comes close.

Please don't tell me this LP is dying before it really began! I've been replaying the game just out of anticipation for this.

The alternate Stage 1 boss is cooler than the normal one, but the normal one's intro and the backdrop of the fight is pretty stylish.

Stage 2 probably has my favorite rendition of Vampire Killer in the series, and the path to its alternate boss trips me up more than any other segment in the game. Stage 2' has some spiffy music of its own and is, as far as I know, the only stage in a non-Metroidvania to take place (mostly) in daylight (even among Metroidvanias, it's a rare sight, Simon's Quest aside).

Yes I'm hoping to experience Rondo through you seeing as a I refuse to play through the original having had enough through the PSP version.

EDIT: Oh and do whatever Kishi says! I'm not going to disagree with him and have him come after me...

I want to see everything.

LP it twice.

I got the PSP version for free, but found the original game mode on it rather frustrating. When it came out for VC, I used the $0 price tag of my PSP version as justification for buying it again (which I usually avoid), and discovered that the tiny screen caused approximately 100 percent of my problems with the game! Nigh-invisible bats and crows, as well as the warped perspective of using half a PSP screen really did the game a disservice. Now, it's probably right alongside SOTN as my second-favorite CV game behind Super (though sometimes 3 and Aria creep into the mix).

So I guess what I'm saying is don't feel bad about getting sick of the PSP version. Unless you're talking about the remake vs. the original. In which case, the remake definitely does a solid job, and you probably don't NEED to play the original if you've played it thoroughly. I just have a lot of admiration for the quality of the spritework and all the little touches of the original, so it's hard for the remake to compete with.

Okay guys, sorry for the lateness. Just dealing with moving, which always sucks, and there's also been a flood of new awesome games. But I've played through and screen cap'd the next big chunk of the game and I'll be posting tomorrow night after work. Once again, sorry, and I assure you this LP is not dying.

Regarding the Belmont line, I think it goes:

Leon => => Trevor => Christopher => Soleiyu => Simon => Juste => Richter => => the Morrises => Julius Belmont

Not a precise lineage, as many are separated by decades, if not centuries. Wikipedia says Juste was about 50 years before Richter, which I suppose makes him Richter's grandfather, and Simon his great-great grandfather. Plus the Morrises are more of a side branch of the Belmonts.

But... what about Victor Belmont of 1666?

And shouldn't it be Leon => => Sonia => Trevor?