Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PSP)

Will Richter be able to defeat Dracula and rescue his girlfriend in this new 3D adventure for PSP?

JP release: 8th November 2007
NA release: 23rd October 2007
EU release: 15th February 2008
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
IGN Review: 8/10
Platforms: PSP
Version Played: PSP

For the release of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, I’m going to be reviewing the main parts of it separately, as it contains a brand new version of Rondo of Blood alongside a new version of Symphony of the Night. For this review, I will be focusing on the main part of the package: a full on Rondo of Blood remake, recreating the game with 3D graphics made for the PlayStation Portable.

I was quite surprised as to how ugly the game is. The large amount of colour from the other game is gone, replaced by muted colours. It’s just not all that nice to look at, and spoils the mood of the original. Even the added cutscenes take away from the game: in the original, the bosses appeared during gameplay, while now they’re announced via cutscene.

The graphics have an impact on gameplay, as the game now feels slow and stiff. The speed is supposedly exactly the game, but it somehow feels much slower, like the game is running in slow motion. It’s possible due to how animation works differently in 3D compared to 2D, but it still manages to impact the gamefeel. Another problem I encountered is that it’s difficult to tell the edges of platforms (because they’re now at an angle), resulting in some deaths due to the new graphics.

The game does feature all the levels as the original game (rather than the simplified SNES version), and you can once again play as Maria, only she feels much weaker than in the original game, and with how the game feels sluggish, her jumping just isn’t satisfying. Considering how much I loved playing as Maria in the original, I just didn’t like it that much here.

At the end of the day, Rondo of Blood is still a fantastic game and, even while this is worse in almost every way (new dialogue for when people are talking to Maria is the only positive), it’s still a really good game.

Fun

To start, the game looks pretty good. Although the entire title revolves around 2D side-scrolling, the backgrounds and character models are actually in 3D, which gives Rondo of Blood an interesting aesthetic appeal. Just think of a much darker New Super Mario Bros., and you’ll have a good idea as to how this game is presented.
Ryan Clements, IGN

Remake or remaster?

It would be a nice bonus on a proper Rondo/Symphony collection.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get this version of Rondo of Blood.