Castlevania: The Complete History | RETRO GAMING DOCUMENTARY

It’s a dark dark DARK world… a spooky world that nobody wants to be a part of. A world where one the greatest and legendary video game companies of all time, take one of the greatest and legendary video game franchises… of all time. Sticks it's teeth in and sucks the life right from it! We live in a world where the latest games related to the genre defying castlevania include Light gun arcade games, Reboots and Pachinko Machines. THIS is what Castlevania has become. Thankfully with the release o

f endless amounts of classic collections for pretty much every system imaginable along with some rather legendary cameos… The spirit and most importantly the memory of castlevania lives on! And Today. I plan to look into everything… and yes I do mean EVERYTHING… Castlevania is not only the biggest Complete History I have ever tackled so far. It’s also one of the most loved. Pumping out more games, reboots, spinoffs, remakes, remasters and compilations than anyone could possibly imagine with the

help of Asobi Quang DX’s biggest Castlevania collection on the planet! I DJ Slope plan to close the curtains, open the coffin and shove a big ol stake through the entire history of Castlevania So, join me as we take a look at who made it in the first place, what ever happened to them, how it got changed significantly from system to system, how and why it changed it's own gameplay style several times over, how it ended up becoming one of the most expensive and sought after collections in gaming p

eriod and of course looking at what has become in more recent years. This is the complete history of Castlevania… Welcome to slopes game room Aaaaaaand before going ahead, I just want to thank Asobi Quang DX once again for lending me this entire collection for this review. This video is not sponsored in any way. However if you do want to show support to Quang the link to his latest GameBoy color game called Super JetPak DX can be found in the description. And errrr for those wondering what this

collection is actually worth… hahaha well, you will just have to wait until the end of the video to find out hahaha *intro* March of 1987 was the year that The Goonies 2 was released in Japan for Nintendo’s Famicom system. It has become a bit of a confusing cult classic among retro gamers that gave it the time of day and although we never actually got to see a sequel to Steven Spielberg's classic, we did at least get this! It was of course created by the legendary Konami. The company had made a

name for themselves not only in the home, on Nintendo's little grey breeze block looking system but in the arcades too… Jackal, Salamanda, Double Dribble and my personal favourite Mikie, were reasons enough to keep an eye out on what this company was releasing. But The Goonies 2… Well, that one was extra special from a historic point of view because only 1 month after it's release in April of 1987, the short lived Japanese Konami published Magazine called “Monthly Nanda” printed an extremely rar

e look into the creation of one of it’s games. In this article you can see meetings being had by the team, you can see crew members working on the music for the game, you can see artists working on the front cover designs and most interesting of all you can see and briefly hear from Mr. Hitoshi Akamatsu. One of the literal godfathers of the video game industry and a gentleman that has never been interviewed again, before, or after this 1 publication. Why is that exactly, well, even though he gav

e the world of gaming one of its most important video game franchises, he didn’t last all that long and several years later he vanished never to be heard from again. But, I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves… so, let’s go back to the beginning… Which, actually was... only 1 year prior in 1986, September 26th 1986 to be exact. The game created before Goonies 2’s 6 ½ month production was the game that’s gonna kick off this episode. After that iconic opening that would quickly become a

staple for the series the game starts off with the iconic 1st level music, with you, Simon Belmont.. Or Simon Belmondo as the ending would have you believe, needing to work your way through this colorful yet obviously gothic rip off of the classic Universal monster movies of old. Now, please do not take what I just said as a bad thing… this game is often looked at as one of the greatest and most important games of all time.. And I agree with that statement because taking inspiration from classi

c monster movies of old was exactly what Hitoshi Akamatsu was going for. As already stated, practically nothing has ever surfaced regarding anything that Akamatsu-san had worked on before or after The Goonies 2. Thankfully, however, a developer who was mentored by him did often quiz the gaming genius about this and it's 2 big follow ups whilst working with him and as recently as 2019 tweeted his conversations which indeed does give us the only real insight into the creation of the original trilo

gy. Akamatsu really loved film. And when it came to his own creations, he had a film director’s eye. He talked about that “film” feeling a lot. He’d say stuff like “Respect the visual frame”, and so forth. When I told Akamatsu how great I thought the music for Castlevania was, his reply was: “That’s because both the visuals and the music were made by people who consciously wanted to do something cinematic.” And for his part, he tried to add interesting gameplay. Sonnyayummi - Twitter The game at

first glance is pretty average, you're a guy with a whip and ya gotta get to the end… However, when you go back and play this alongside other titles that may seem very similar within the same genre there is no denying that it is indeed head and shoulders above the rest. The incredible whip attack (which was taken due to his love of Raiders of the Lost Ark by the way) is the perfect length attack for behind and in front of you, if you're good enough you can defeat every boss by just using it. Ho

wever the game gives you the option to use several other weapons to flip between on the fly. Oh and by the way, during development not only did our hero (who went under the name Peter Dante) have the iconic whip but it was originally planned for the grandson of Christopher Dante to have some garlic, a wooden stake and the ability to transform into a werewolf. Obviously this never happened though. Every projectile that comes your way is different enough, simple enough, and fun enough to be used a

longside your whip and the experimentation of using them against different enemies and in different locations is no longer something you do because you simply have to, you do it because you want to… The original Castlevania did something truly special here that few other action platformers did. Yes it soaked you into it's world with it's excellent and easily distinguished enemies and did so whilst pumping incredibly memorable chiptunes into your earlobes. But it did it with precision and it did

it with grace. Akamatsu-san wanted the controls to feel like an extension of the players own limbs, he wanted you to be able to complete it, sure he wanted it to be hard, but he wanted it to be fair and enjoyable. It’s a tough mix that very few games were able to achieve. But Castlevania definitely did achieve it… Now, I'm not saying the game’s not HARD, because... it is. Some may even say that it’s NINTENDO HARD but thankfully those tight controls, and enemy patterns are all put in a way that m

akes you quickly realise on every single failure… that you are the one to blame. It’s tough but you will thoroughly enjoy mastering everything this title has to offer because it does everything so well. Originally the game was developed as a cartridge but would change mid development and be released under the name Akumajō Dracula in Japan on the Famicom disk system. This was before it was ported to... the MSX2 home computer in Japan… and Europe under the name Vampire Killer…. before the original

was finally released in cartridge form back in Japan again (this time with an easy mode)... and of course for the rest of the world too where it got its name Castlevania for the most part this difference between the name changes would stay true on the vast majority of ports of this game even to this day And the reason fo this was because president of Konami, or to be more specific one Emil Heidkamp’s distaste for the original name which loosely translated to Dracula Satanic Castle or Devil’s Ca

stle Dracula depending on who you speak to.... Fair Play Now obviously there are plenty of differences between these games especially between the MSX2 and the original, and I'm not gonna get too deep with them otherwise we will be here all day The big differences between these 2 releases is that the MSX2 release is a lot less linier, and to many this is the first true Castlevania or dare i say it Metroid-vania styled title… more exploration is required, more puzzles need to be cracked. Vampire K

iller, to many is actually believed by many to be the 1st proper sequel to the original rather than a simple port. But is it.. Is it actually a port or a sequel… Well considering Vampire Killer came out literally only 1 month after the original it's obvious that both were in development at the same time by 2 different groups of individuals that worked at Konami. Some people believe that it was actually this game that came first with a more typical action orientated game being developed for the N

ES afterwards… but considering we don't actually have any proof of that, We are just gonna have to stick with Vampire Killer being the 1st sequel and not the other way around. The North American release of Castlevania was kind of a big deal, and that’s putting it lightly. The game got ported numerous times and became an instant classic for the system. If you had an NES back in the day… which most people did back then, it's likely that at the very least you knew what Castlevania was. Heck even co

mputer users couldnt get away from it, as these big and beautiful boxed versions of the game (that just so happen to be some of the most expensive to get hold of in this entire set) got their own port… but honestly. Besides having the sexy exterior… they don't have much else going for them! Nice to have, rubbish to play These all have redrawn sprites and slight tweaks to each gameplay variant. Only really worth playing if you are a hardcore vampire killing Castlevania obsesive that wants to play

several inferior releases. Vs Castlevania hit the arcades and was actually even more difficult with a tighter time limit, more hit points from enemies, fewer bonus points being given… ya know all that usual arcade stuff… and if you can't find this game or the bootleg for it…. Which really is such an awesome bootleg to own especially if you get the one covered in dip switches... You can always trust the good old PlayChoice-10 unit. Although word of warning this board is pretty hard to find too!

And although we are gonna jump ahead a little here, I think now is the perfect time to talk about the sharp x68000 remake released in 1993 and it's port onto the playstation known as Castlevania Chronicles. This title was completely redesigned, several stages and elements are of course lifted directly from the Famicom disk system title but as you are about to see, as this was released after several other more refined Castlevania titles the SharpX68000 and even more so on the Playstation, plenty

of elements that work better in newer games are also added in this one. Hideo Ueda, who was the lead on the game, had this to say… our basic idea for Akumajou Dracula x68000 was an updated, more beautiful version of the original Famicom game, and contending with that was where most of our struggles lied. We didn’t want people to see the finished game and say “what the hell? this is supposed to be an x68000 game?” Preventing that was something we worked on at every stage, from early planning to t

he fine-tuning. Hideo Ueda - Shmuplations translated interview It's fair to say that with the remixed stages, the added elements from future games, mixed up graphics and the ability to choose different soundtrack variations makes this title more of a remixed entry in the franchise. Taking what Super mario all stars did and cranking the dial up, just 1 more notch. Anyway back to 1987 with the release of the NES castlevania sequel Simon’s Quest Seven years has passed since the last game and in thi

s one released for both the original NES... and of course the much desired Famicom Disk System. Simon Belmont or Belmondo if you prefer, needs to make his way through the game in order to collect all of the scattered pieces of Dracula’s body needed to burn them and by doing so remove a dreadful curse. Unlike the original that required you to simply go from left to right fighting a boss man at the end of different stages, in this one. Which was inspired by the MSX title “The Maze of Galious: Knig

htmare II” you gotta choose your own path. This may seem pretty standard now as 2 out of 3 new indie games follow this formula. But for the time it was a risky move by Konami. They had a sure fire hit on their hand with the original all they needed to do now was boot up the game engine, swap a few sprites and voila… game #2. However, this new approach of exploring the world as you saw fit, buying upgrades, chatting to locals. Was indeed a huge step towards a castlevania style that we all know an

d love Sure it hasn't exactly aged all that well and in most people’s eyes it's nothing compared to the original. But it was still an important step into the right direction And of course it got probably the most important port of this entire franchise… THE TIGER LCD Game… which came in quite a few variants… not 1, not 2 buuuuuuuuuuuuuut 3 ROCK ON yeah, it’s as good as you are expecting! But regarding the original… did it carry on with this path for Castlevania 3… well you will have to wait and

see because before that, Konami once again went to the arcades for the 1st true Castlevania Arcade title called, Haunted Castle Eyep Haunted Castle, who’s up for more of the ORIGINAL Castlevania “the ultimate version of the game that appeared on the Famicom and MSX” as it was promoted on the arcade flyer, because of this the game is often referred to as a remake of the original… But it’s not Actually the game started it's life as a completely different game but 6 months in due to short staffing

the game was in terrible shape which is when the head at Konami stepped in and forced a sprite swap of the game to fit in with the Castlevania series. He bought in people who were working on the game HotChase and after only 1 or 2 more months the game was finished. If you have heard of the game before then it's unlikely that it was spoke about in a positive light The music is awesome, the art style is mmmmmm... it's ok, everything is there, it just, it just doesn't fit the castlevania style if y

ou ask me. It’s not a terrible game, it’s a hard game, a hard game that unlike the others in the series feels unfair. A game I hardly ever play and when I do I remember why that is… with that said it does have an absolutely stunning playstation 2 collectors set complete with walkthrough dvds, music cds and so much more… it's an expensive one and besides the new switch collection this is still in my opinion the version to own Haunted Castle is a slog and really only worth the time and effort if y

ou are yet again a hardcore fan Just like CastleVania The Adventure on the GAme Boy don’t worry we are almost at #3 as this game boy game came out literally weeks before the 3rd game in the original NES trilogy This game takes us back a whole century before the original where you play as Christopher Belmont, an ancestor to the legendary Simon Belmont who is about ½ as slow and really doesn't have a whole lot to do… My god is this game long. It's incredibly boring compared to what came after. The

game was being produced at the same time as the 3rd entry and although we do not know who worked on the game, what we do know is that whatever 3rd party company did tackle this 1st true handheld castlevania release didn't really know what they were doing. The game simply just does not have any real charm that makes the original so great, it's long, it's tedious, the controls are very very stiff and it’s just a real slog. Thankfully for Konami they released it at the right time because having th

at castlevania name (and of course the Dracula Name in Japan) on the front cover helped it sell really really well… in fact according to Konami themselves the game sold close to 2.5 million copies… which resulted in a game boy color re-release, several ports, a sequel which we will get to in a bit and the WiiWare exclusive remake which was part of the rebirth series Now, if we are gonna jump ahead AGAIN… Not only does the WiiWare title look beautiful in comparison… Obviously, I mean it was relea

sed 20 odd years later for a console and not a handheld but calling this a remake… well, it technically isn’t! Sure the story and the title is for the most part the same but the gameplay, the level design heck even the music is different It has similarities but really it feels like it's its own game and that’s nothing but a good thing. Just like all the other rebirth games this one got great reviews and GameZone even ranked it as the 10th best Castlevania ever! And as we get further along in thi

s video you will soon see why that is a big deal! It’s a tough one to play nowadays being that it was a download only game for the Wii which is obviously no longer available but if you do... somehow… manage… to… play… this…. Somehow…. I can't possibly imagine how you would ever do th… Then I highly suggest you do. One of the best unknown games that we will be covering today. Right let’s move on shall we from all these digital only releases that ruin this incredible collection and get back to the

3rd game in the original trilogy! Cleverly titled Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. And regarding the games plot… this is the end of me trying to explain it… perhaps we will do that in a completely different video. Because even though this number 3 titled game which was the 6th game released in the series it actually is yet again… another prequel to the original but it doesn't go back as far as the adventure (and eventually future titles too) making this whole timeline incredibly messy So, let’s

dust off the old famicom and boot up this bad boy shall we! For fans of the original styled Castlevanias, I personally think that this is the game to play, it ditches the rpg like elements of the 2nd game and takes it back to its roots with plenty of noteworthy upgrades making it my favourite of the era. It’s still castlevania through and through, the difficulty is here, the learning of the enemy patterns, fantastic music but in this one you have extra characters… yep this game gives you the abi

lity to play as different people on the fly which actually changes up the game play a significant amount and yes this was the 1st game were we got to play as alucard As stated each character plays differently and you will need to learn when the best time is to use each character and what items you want to collect along the way for when you want to use them… So, is that it, is it just a whole lot of refinements that made Castlevania 3 the best of the bunch… yes and no, obviously they had their pr

evious entries to work on, but just like the original that took inspiration from all the best universal monster flicks… this game actually took inspiration from something completely different *play turtles theme* Well, kind of, Yes it was 1989 and my god 1992 by the time it was released in Europe that the Konami produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was by far the most successful game that Konami ever pumped out for the NES. Because of this the team that made this game was the standard to beat b

y all other in house Konami teams and Hitoshi Akamatsu and his crew were absolutely no exception Castlevania 3 is so good because it learned from its mistakes and it did whatever it could, taking inspiration from The Turtles NES game with the desire to absolutely smash it from existence… did it succeed… mmmm not in my opinion… but it made it a far better game regardless That said, Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse is seriously hard, they seem to have ramped up the difficulty to the extreme degree a

nd using the help me cheat is pretty much a necessity. That is unless you pick up the Japanese release which is by far the better game It’s apparent almost instantly just how much this game was doctored for the western release the enemies no longer take more damage depending on how far you are in the game, when you die you go back a reasonable amount aaaand of course the music is way way better The reason for this was because the japanese release included the new VRCVI sound chip that added 2 ex

tra square wave sound patterns to the designers and the difference definitely shows. This final release on the N E S takes Castlevania and goes out with a bang. Sure these games are hard… probably too hard for newcomers that want to casually check therm out but by this point they had set the groundwork for what is without a doubt some of the most important steps of the 8 bit era… and I think it’s fair to say that if it wasn’t for these original titles we simply would not have the games that came

after it! And come on who doesnt wanna win a trip to Dracula's Home HomeTown Now when looking back through that original NES trilogy it's easy to see it as nothing but a sure fire hit. Sure it had it's hardcore fans that bought ever single entry but… “SURE FIRE HIT” not in the eyes of Konami because, back in the day, did that original trilogy sell well, well, yeah, they sold ok, but not to the level of Leonardo and his crew! Each entry after the original ended up doing worse than the game that

came before it. Even Jarin-Ko Chie, another game created by Akamatsu-san that did well in it's reviews, ended up being underwhelming in regards to its sales according to Konami. And because of this after the release of that now legendary 3rd game that many believe is arguably the best of the original trilogy, being released countless amounts times because it sold worse than even the Game Boy travisty… Konami was done with the man that started the Castlevania franchise. This was sadly common pla

ce back then, many of Konami’s early developers would find that their sequels didn't exactly make the money the originals did (for obvious reasons) and even though these were the games that the management forced them to make, they were obviously not very happy with the results and 1 by 1 these absolute legends of video gaming history would get demoted and Akamatsu-san was no exception. He (and his team) were responsible for starting one of the most legendary game franchises of all time and only

a few years later he got put into a random Konami run Arcade… and he eventually quit! A lot of other developers in the same boat would end up working at Square Enix, but Akamatsu-san didnt. Rival companies wouldn’t ever know who created these legendary titles as Konami never allowed to have their developers names be in the credits in fear of those rival companies swooping in and taking them away And although we don't know exactly what happened to Hitoshi Akamatsu, Many believe that he was no lon

ger a part of the video game industry due to his name never popping up again! *fade out* * 2 years later* thunder* After a 2 year break The Legend of Dracula 2 as it was known in Japan... and Castlevania 2 Belmont's revenge for the rest of the world found its way onto the Game Boy. This one is not associated with or to be mistaken for Castlevania 2 on the NES but instead this one is actually a follow up to the rather mediocre original GameBoy game Thankfully this title does everything better and

I do mean everything, even though the original did have a kick ass soundtrack this one is again even better. AND IT DOESN'T STOP THEIR!!! The game has better level layouts, tighter controls, better graphi… on the graphics are mostly the same, but were it may look similar to what came before it on the gameboy, it's actually feels far closer to the original NES trilogy. A worthy addition to the franchise that you most definitely do wanna pick up Although, keep in mind that the game does play slig

htly differently depending on what version you grab. Obviously nintendo's stiffy for censorship was raging during this games western release as it changes the characters 2ndry weapon (another improvement over the original) from a cross to an axe… annoyingly this actually changes up the pattern of the weapon too compared to the original japanese release but thankfully the Konami GB Collection Volume 4 fixes this and also bumps the game up with color… And btw just to make it even more confusing ev

en though Volume 1 which has the color version of The Adventure is the same in both regions... Volume 4 in Europe which has the color version of Belmont’s Revenge is Volume 3 in Japan…. Moving on… Moving on indeed… because it’s time to stop jumping from game to game to game to game to game to game…. Because even though we are not finished with the awesome Game Boy. we are in fact finished with the NES… the 16bits have arrived and you know what that means… it means it’s time for us to chat about

one of the greatest video games not only on… the super nintendo or super famicom if you prefer.. It’s time to talk about Super Castlevania 4 And nope… it isnt the 4th game in the series or even a continuation of the story of number 3 *which again (if you remember) was actually a prequel* it’s yet again another remake or re-imagining if you will of the original Castlevania… seriously… AGAIN!!!! It was during the creation of both the Game Boy game and the 3rd Castlevania for the NES that this game

started it's development. The theme you can hear here in the background is taken from the hit japanese TV drama called Kita No Kuni Kara and one of the main fictional characters in the show is Jun Furano… which just so happens to be the name of the main programmer for this 16 bit wonder… scratch… ooooor was it just an alias due to Konami’s persistence of not letting the developers use their real names in the game…. Mmmmmm you decide … To give this legend his real name. Had already proven himsel

f to be quite the reliable employee at Konami, working on such classic as Track & Field 2 and converting Metal Gear from the MSX to the NES in no more than 3 months… and errr, yeah, that series turned out alright didn't it As it is now the dawn of the 16 bits this was not only Castlevania’s 1st entry in the series for the new generation it was also Ueno-sans first ever 16 bit title He was a huge fan of the original, as were most people and got to work as early as 1989. Obviously the super famico

m wasn't released by this point and the team didn't even have a development unit to work with… all they had was the specs of what would be in it… and they used this to work out the new limits of what they could do with the upcoming hardware. Maps were drawn out over and over and when they did eventually get the dev kits they had double, triple and quadruple checked this so much that they not only did it rather quickly, but they were already finding ways to improve the level design on the fly. An

d the main way they achieved this was with… say it with me… MODE 7! The new features that the 8th Super Nintendo Mode known as Mode 7 allowed for really did help make this new game feel like a next gen experience. Sure the graphics and insane amount of polish definitely helped showcase this gothic masterpiece but those mode 7 graphics… wow! You always hear Nintendo fanboys going on and on about them… and after you play a game like this… it's obvious why In a closed space inside the rotating cyli

nder. Parts of the walls suddenly collapse and animals pop up from the debris. These never-seen-before graphics and this innovative way to make enemies appear using this new 3D effect are the selling points of the game. Original Design document Ahhhhh dontcha just love design documents Sure this is yet ANOTHER remake,,, whether you like to admit that or not! In fact here is a quote from Masahiro Ueno himself from retro gamer confirming that “I consider Castlevania IV as a remake of the original

Castlevania to some extent.” Masahiro Ueno - Retro Gamer See, I told you Thankfully the mixture of tried or tested gameplay mechanics mixed with new gameplay and visual styles, sometimes on the fly ideas from both the creative artists and the programmers own experiments created something that actually feels more like it's own thing. The way you can whip diagonally and wiggle it about, was something they wanted to do originally, and finally got it implemented here. The way the 4th boss actually c

hanges in size depending on how much you attack him is something that may look a little standard today, but at the time it was impressive, super impressive in fact And finally the ability to be able to jump onto stairs is something fans have been crying about since the early days. And for good reason No longer do stages feel crazy long, it chucks so many incredible ideas your way that it's never a slog, 1 minute you will be fascinated by the spinning room and the next you will be working out way

s to dodge whatever clever obstacle the team had sent your way Super Castlevania IV is often thought to be the best of the entire series and I can understand why, it is so perfectly refined, it's stunning even 29 years later. The music takes what the originals did and makes perfect use of the super nintendo’s excellent sound chip, it really is the whole package a game that's full of gimmicks that you welcome with open arms and… yes, it sold rather well… still that didn't stop several members lea

ving the company along with the close working Castlevania 3 team to form Treasure did it…… nope It’s fair to say that Castlevania was becoming more and more of a household name and with Konami’s seemingly endless amount of teams waiting for what to do next. The order was sent down from the money hungry men up top to MAKE MORE CASTLEVANIA games goddammit… and that's exactly what they did We already mentioned the Sharp x68000 release but Konami didn't stop there with their system jumping antics as

they had already seen success with their PC engine and Pc engine cd games. Releasing such classics as gradius 1 and 2, salamander and snatcher and now it's time for Rondo of blood This really is the renaissance period for the series isn't it! For those that dont know Rondo of blood is often thought to be one of the best if not the best castlevania ever released, up there with such titles as symphony of the night, the original and of course Super Castlevania CastleVania 4. Why is it so good? Wel

l, for starters it is often looked at as being one of the final classic styled Castlevania games before the whole metroidvania styled gameplay took over. And as it was one of the last, it means that by this point the team had completely refined The Castlevania style Gone was the wiggly whip that Castlevania was known for (sadly) but in its place came branching paths. This was obviously first implemented in Dracula's Curse for the original NES but obviously it was perfected here. The game was bei

ng worked on at the same time as the upcoming Mega Drive / Genesis release and that Sharp X68000 game and as it was one of the first games in the series to be created on CD the team wanted to make sure to implement not only a kick ass soundtrack but also animated cutscenes and graphic elements that would make use of this new technology The game features 2 playable characters although 4 was originally planned and these were added as a way to offer a hard and easy mode without actually giving the

player that option. For newcomers Maria is the way to go but for hardcore Castlevania veterans… Richter is the obvious choice The game is simply stunning with it's smooth character movements and overall anime aesthetic… it was so good in fact that the majority of noteworthy 2d castlevanias after it took mheavy inspiration from this games look and style for their future releases too it's one of the 1st castlevanias that made me want to go through and play again to discover all of those branching

paths taking the total number of levels from 8 to 13. Unfortunately, playing the game wasn’t all that easy for us westerners as a disagreement between NEC’s US distribution and Turbo Technologies halted the release of this game outside of Japan, making this one of the most expensive entries to get hold off. The game wouldn't see the light of day officially in fact until the 2007 PSP remake was put out called Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles which was a 2.5D remake of the Rondo of Blood game

… that also featured the original… at long last and some other random PS1 game called errrr symphony of the night. Huh whatever that is!! Now, getting far along enough to actually unlock these things is a bit of a pain but as 2.5 remakes go. This was actually a pretty good one. I'm sure we can all agree that the pixelated 2D style of the original probably looks better, but it's still a fantastic game and a must own for the PSP (if you can find it). And not to keep going on and on about it… but…

the soundtrack is freaking awesome… something I am going to continue harping on about for the rest of the video… when it comes to castlevania… that’s pretty much a STANDARD. If you are sitting there watching a film or a YouTuber whilst playing the vast majority of these games then you are taking away so much of the experience! DON’T DO IT!!!! Unless it’s my channel To get fully absorbed into the game you need to slap on a pair of charged up bass heavy headphones and sink into everything castleva

nia! To be fair, that's something that’s important to remember for all entries but damn… hahaha i’m even boring myself by this point… but the music in Rondo Of Blood is sooooooooo good! The game was put out by Koji Igarashi after his game symphony of the night was released and fans outside of japan were desperate to find out why your character starts his journey at the beginning of the stairway to dracula, *spoiler alert* symphony is a follow on from Rondo Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles w

as Iga’s way to finally tell that story Right! We jumped about a bit too much their didn't we and I wasn’t entirely honest when i said that 1993s Rondo of blood never made it to western shores because we got Dracula X in the states, Vampire’s Kiss in the UK and Akumajō Dracula XX (or Double X) if you prefer in Japan in 1995…. Let me explain NECs North American Staff struggled HARD with the TurboGrafx 16 in the states (the western revision of Japan’s more popular PC Engine) Sure you had the might

y Nintendo that they needed to go up against… but that didn’t stop SEGA! The PC engine was popular in Japan not only because it’s small sleaque design… but more importantly because of it's games… Ask any hardcore collector of the system now and you will be surprised at just how many awesome games this little… or big depending on your region…. System had But, in the west no matter how much NEC who were responsible for getting it into the hands of american gamers pushed the japanese bosses to loca

lise games in the west… it almost never happened. In the eyes of Japan us westerners liked 2 types of games… shooters and RPGs… Rondo of Blood was just not one these types of games… and no matter how much Jonathan Brandstetter would plead with the bigwigs giving them lists of games (10-15 long in some cases) that he had researched would do brilliantly in the states… he would normally get about 1… possibly 2! This over the top handholding made it so that the system had more top quality games than

average or below average games… but at the same time it missed out on some of the best games ever and in an interview with Gamasutra he had this to say regarding Rondo of Blood specifically "Have you ever played that game? That would have made a huge difference. It sold like crazy over here in the gray market," "It's almost like you can sit there watching paint dry. It's like, you're telling them what will make money and they just don't. And it's proven. 'Look, here's Sega, they're doing things

. Here's Nintendo, they're doing things. See what they're doing? If we just do what they're doing, we'll make money.' And that doesn't make sense to them," Jonathan Brandstetter - Gamasutra Interview And ya know what he wasn’t wrong, whilst hardcore gamers that new a guy that knew a guy that could pirate what many believed to be the greatest castlevania ever… The super nintendo technically got a port And I say that in the loosest sense, pushingall of this onto one of those cartridge things, is a

… well, it’s an impossible task so what got this instead. Not really a sequel, not really a remake, this game is a toned down version of what it was copying with obviously lower quality music, fewer branching paths, practically none actually, no longer being able to play as Maria, slightly wonkier and slower controls and mostly redesigned levels that were perfect to begin with and sadly for the most part rather annoying now. The game isn't bad… it's average, it just loses a few extra points beca

use the original is so sooooo much better! And even though the game is pretty much universally panned, because it is a Castlevania game it now garners a pretty astronomical price And yes, because of the name change, the remake ended up being called Dracula X chronicles but we already covered that one…. Keeping up It ended up coming out right near the end of the Super Nintendo’s life and because of that had a low print run and yes, it’s now stupidly expensive as is The New Generation in the UK, B

loodlines in the US of A and Vampire Killer in the land of the rising Sun Nintendo had most gaming companies by the balls, if you had been releasing games for Nintendo systems before the boom that was the Genesis in the states then you would have already signed a contract that stated that you simply could not port those games onto SEGA’s 16 bit wonder! Whilst many companies were stuck with this caged contract. Konami had a back up plan, they had the ability to port their already created arcade t

itles such as Sunset Riders with ease! And thank god they did, Konami did well on the mega drive and rightfully so! But porting… that wasn’t an option Factor 5 even bought a rather impressive demo of the super nintendo title running on SEGA hardware to the Konami offices in the hope of porting it over… but was rejected not only because of this iron clad deal. But also because Konami had more teams under their belt that were pretty desperate to get involved One of those teams had just finished up

Batman Returns on the NES and up next they had their eyes set on everything SEGA! Vampire Killer as it was known in Japan, takes even more heavy inspiration from not only Bram Stoker's Dracula novel but also another early 1900s novel that featured a female vampire! As this game didn’t bear the Akumajō Dracula name the team were able to go just a tad further with it’s gothic tone promoting it originally as it’s own game entirely. In fact one of the first times it was promoted was in the back of

the rondo of blood strategy guide where it was referred to as Castlevania Gaiden This is the game guys that you need for your console wars fight offs… yes it, beter than Vampire’s Kiss but to many it even gives Super CastleVania 4 a run for it's money And even though i am a hardcore fan of everything SEGA. I do not put myself into this group… I still prefer the super nintendo game (mainly due to the controls) but you can see where people are coming from. This proved that Konami during the 90’s c

ould easily take on any system they desired. Both castlevania bloodlines and IV included gimmicky designs that did more than just being a gimmick. The teams at konami pushed the systems to their limits and this 16 bit wonder was no exception. It's yet again hard, but as the games get closer and closer to that 32bit era they started