I played through this one via the Castlevania Requiem collection on PS4, which includes this along with Symphony of the Night. A true double-whammy! And with each Castlevania title I pick up, I feel like I need to play more games in the franchise to get a better idea of how I feel they each measure up. Which I guess …
I played through this one via the Castlevania Requiem collection on PS4, which includes this along with Symphony of the Night. A true double-whammy! And with each Castlevania title I pick up, I feel like I need to play more games in the franchise to get a better idea of how I feel they each measure up. Which I guess is fine, because the batting average for the series' classic 2D entries seems about as high as it gets in retro gaming.
Rondo of Blood is an excellent title through and through. The sprite work is fantastic (many of the assets to be reused in SotN), and the music is amazing -- even by Castlevania standards. Richter isn't the easiest whip-wielder to whip-wield, but level design is built around his controls and movements. And since this is Castlevania, it's really difficult... at times brutally punishing. I get the impression this is one of the harder games... (And if it's not, please don't tell me lol.)
One of the coolest things about Rondo of Blood is that there are multiple paths you can take in some levels, should you explore well enough. This leads you to new hidden levels, which even have their own bosses. So in a way this game acts as the stepping stone between classicvania and metroidvania (Symphony of the Night onward). All in all this is a solid action-platformer well-worth experiencing both from a historical standpoint, and because it's a great game that stands the test of time.
At the moment I feel I'd put Bloodlines a little higher than this one, which I imagine is a lesser-held opinion. I still need to play IV, so maybe I can work out how the 16-bit entries all stack up better once I get around to that.
