Topic: Opinions about Castlevania Chronicles/Akumajo Dracula X68000?

[Nagumo]

Maybe it's just me, but this game isn't talked about much here (though that might have been the case in the past, I'm not sure). Anyway, I've been replaying the original version. I'm at the 4th loop now. The game keeps getting more difficult until the 8th loop by changing the enemy AI (for example, during my current loop, the zombies in the first stage slow down and suddenly charge at you), which is really neat.

I also notice how each segment of every stage has at least one memorable segment visually or level design-wise. There's the creepy vampire painting, the green slime that you have to whip in the caves, the mysterious druid character who gives items, the giant snake monster that you have to jump over, the glass-knight, the crying goddess statue, etc, etc. It's pretty fascinating how diverse the game is.

The game can be a bit obtuse difficulty wise. Although I played through it several times, there are still certain sections I feel I haven't mastered yet. Good luck dodging the attack from the second stage's boss, or those rotating blades from the fourth stage. The rest of the game has fair difficulty, though.

All in all, it's not as innovative or distinguished as Rondo or SCIV, which makes the appear a bit "boring" in comparison, but it has a lot creativity and mostly great atmosphere. I should also mention this game has my favorite version of Vampire Killer (the original version, not the Arrange remix).

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I never did more than one loop (I usually play those games for only one loop runs... but I do recall that you can save your new loop in X68000).
I love the smoking Simon in the mirror reflection. xD

[BLOOD MONKEY]

My opinion?

Amazing. The only Simon game I ever liked.

[GuyStarwind]

I've only played once but I thought the music was really good. It has my favorite version of Simon's Theme. When it kicked in during the last stagish of the game I felt like a badass.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Yeah, it was a nice touch that they used it for the Final Stage.
Kinda like how in Super CV4 it's used at the very end of your journey.   You do feel badass!

[Inccubus]

Awesome game.
In many ways the game play can be considered a step back from SCV4, but in some ways it is superior by solving some of the issues brought about by it's predecessor's set up.
I love all of those small touches they added that Nagumo-chan mentioned.
All in all it's a good alternative to it's SNES counterpart.

[uzo]

I really liked it as well. A bit on the higher end of the difficulty spectrum for the series, but really nice none the less. It looks really dated though unfortunately, more than almost any title in the franchise. I think the handful of wonky animations lends to this, where other titles seemed more consistent.

Overall, I really agree with the way the whip was handled. It had the diagonal down, and down, but not the up, creating a great sense of balance than SCVIV, and kept the sub weapons more useful as a result. Also can't argue with the Chronicles edition upgrades either.

[Nagumo]

Something interesting I didn't realise until now is that this game introduced the iconic Peeping Eye enemy, despite it being more famous for appearing in the Dracula X games. Rondo was released only two months later. I was wonder if the two teams shared assets amongst each other?

[beingthehero]

Forget peeping eye, it gave us the Persephone enemy.

What I really enjoyed is that it was a sort of melding between the original tongue in cheek CV1 and the serious Super Castlevania IV. It sort of 'SCIV'd' some of CV1's stages while keeping the grimmer feeling from Super.

I guess there's not much more I can say about the original game that Uzo and the rest haven't already said. As for Castlevania Chronicles itself, you might be able to guess I really liked the Arrange mode. Even though it wasn't a total graphical overhaul like DXC, what little they did do helped to give arrange mode a totally different, post-SotN mood from the original game. I just like how they did both extreme changes, like giving stage 3 and completely new (and quite beautiful) background, to little stuff like just making the clouds in the final stage animated instead of being static.

Also it has my favorite designs of Simon and Dracula. Music was great too for the most part. First time I heard the Vampire Killer remix I was pretty 'ehhhhhhh' but it's grown on me. I like the ambient take on Thrashard in the Cave and the funky techno re-do of Wicked Child. The orchestral versions of Bloody Tears and Theme of Simon Belmont have always been tops. The latter juts oozes power, while the former makes scaling the stairs in the chapel all the more intimidating.

So yeah, great game. Of the older titles I like Super Castlevania IV a teensy bit more but Chronicles is right behind it.

[Mike Belmont]

I think that is a great game, full of little great details and great music.

My favorite part is the Tower of Dolls, because of the music and the doll`s voices.

It`s a challenging game at least for me, but is really fun, to be sure.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I don't understand why everybody says it's hard. It was fairly easy for me.

[Inccubus]

I wouldn't call it hard or easy. It was a good challenge without being aggravating.

[X]

I definitely liked the game. It was essentially the NES Castlevania: Special edition, while Super Castlevania IV was the original Castlevania but rebuilt from the ground-up. My only beef with it was Simon's redesign. He was way too androgynous for the character's own good. His outfit wasn't too bad as it harked back to his original barbarian look, but his face..? Just too out of place on a muscular body like his. The body and face clash whenever I see the image. There is just no uniformity to the look.

[Munchy]

I dig it. For some reason I'm much better at it than some of the easier games in the series like CV4.

There are some blemishes, such as the god awful song for the clock tower stage which sounds like the musician wanted to express a really bad hangover in music. And that game's version of Bloody Tears makes me extremely nervous, because if bad shit goes down in a playthrough, 9 times out of 10 it's during that stage. Fortunately watching Rugal's no-death run gave me some good hints for dealing with the annoying parts there.

Does anyone know if the PSX version's Original Mode keeps all the effects that happen on each consecutive loop?

[Claimh Solais]

I don't know what it is about X68000/Chronicles, but... for some reason... the game just feels RIGHT. Like, I didn't think about it back when I first played it, but now that I look back upon it, I realize it's probably one of the best ones in the series. The game's just super fun, and despite having a few problems, it's a joy to play.





I have the exact OPPOSITE opinion of LoS2...