Topic: So I finally played and beat Super Castlevania IV....

[RichterB]

Since I start playing Castlevania-Games in ´07 (or very late ´06, I can´t remember) I played and loved every Game (but yeah, look for the "Castlevania´s you´ve finished" Thread for that....). I had played Chronicles 2 years prior and liked it very much. Too bad it lacked the "Whip in all directions"-Ability.... saved me more than once =O I wonder why it was so stripped down in the PS1-Game?


Interesting to read something like this. Actually, my collection just lacks CV: Bloodlines, which, like you, I like to play on the Virtual Console.... too bad I haven´t heard anything about a port :-/
I had Bloodlines on an PC Emulator for about a day.. but the controls were just terrible....but the game itself was cool. It liked the travel-aspect. Right now, I´m thinking about buying a Genesis just for this game (oh well, and another few)

About Dracula XX... never played the game, just watched some screenshots and read about it on the Dungeons Main Page. Oh yeah, I remember the 03- Dracula X - Bloodlines]awesome remix of the first stage music[/url]

P.S.: Topic´s name changed to avoid further confusion ;P

Oh, yeah, the new/remixed music is also bumped up from Rondo of Blood, too. Dracula XX (Or Castlevania: Dracula X), is not simply a remake or port of Rondo of Blood, but rather a full reimagining. It has more of a pastel, painted art style and its new level design and controls are generally more deliberate than the meandering alternate paths and looser controls of Rondo of Blood. There are still alternate paths, but they're more strategic and tricky in how they play into the game. There's actually only one correct path that you have to figure out to rescue the two hostages, and depending on who you rescue, the game's bosses and endings change. And speaking of bosses, there are some new ones, and you cannot see them all in one playthrough.

The game is not as large as Rondo as a whole, but the individual length and variety of levels make up for that. As I said, Dracula XX is a reimagining, so there are gorgeous new levels like an Atlantis-themed one (http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Stages/DXX/5a-1.gif), and the old ones like the burning city are completely redesigned and feature new graphical effects (http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Stages/DXX/1-1.gif). There are some really cool backgrounds in this game (http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Screens/dxxh.png). It's a game that's divided fans of the series (particularly because of Rondo's popularity), but I find it one of the most memorable. (It doesn't feature the multi-directional whip, but it does have the backflip and a variety of new and old Item Crashes).

[thernz]

I'll agree that the backgrounds in DXX were much better than any of Rondo's tiled, saturated, tilesets, but I honestly preferred the level design of Rondo. It was looser, but it never felt meandering to me. I thought it was the perfect blend while I thought the level design in DXX was pretty haphazard along with some bad enemy placement, and not because it was linear. While being prettier, I just found the room layouts to be more boring on a whole. As for the controls, Richter in DXX was just sluggish rather than tighter imo. The enemies weren't really balanced against the new slower way Richter controlled so I thought it just felt cheaper than Rondo.