Review: Castlevania - The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)...

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (C:DXC; Konami; 2007) is a two-and-a-half game compilation including the never-before-released in America Rondo of Blood (Konami; 1993), a fully 3D remake of Rondo, and the excellent Symphony of the Night. All three of these games are pretty great, and were it not for a few issues, C:DXC quite possibly could have been the greatest side-scrolling action game release on a portable.

Let's get the issues out of the way. Most importantly, this game isn't really 'portable' at all. The graphics on all three games, while pretty, are far too dark. Trying to play most of the levels without adequate non-natural lighting will result in your death due to enemies being invisible under the poor contrast - unacceptable in a portable title. The other major issue - and one that could only have come from the mind of Japanese developers - is that you actually have to unlock both the original Rondo as well as Symphony by playing the 3D remake. While it's rather easily done if you have a FAQ available, this doesn't help the game in any way, nor does it add 'replay value'. It's quite possible that people would buy this game solely for Symphony of the Night, and it should've been made available to them from the get go - they paid for it after all.

The graphics on the 3D remake are actually quite nice, but they're way too dark! Scenes like the one pictured above are unplayable on a bus, or waiting at a transit-stop. Image cred here.

With these issues out of the way, we can get into the meat of the games. Rondo of Blood is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the classic Castlevania series, because, while it employs the standard level-by-level design of the original, it also includes both free-form adventure elements and many, many secret areas that would became hallmarks of later games. I'd agree with this assessment - Rondo is on par with the very highly regarded Super Castlevania IV, or Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.

Essentially, the game consists of side-scrolling levels in which the protagonists collect hearts and special weapons that allows them to use various powers to defeat the game's many enemies and bosses. While simplistic on the surface, there's something appealing about these classic-style side-scrollers that makes for a good time. Your characters may not have a ton of abilities or control options, but there's a large variety of different level-types and enemies, and the bosses are pretty universally well designed and interesting to battle.

C:DXC is an excellent example of the way to make classic games available to a new generation. They obviously put a lot of effort into making a great package. Image cred here.

However, like all classic action games, Rondo of Blood is rather brutally difficult. The 3D remake gives you a bit more control than the original game but, compared to modern titles (or Super Castlevania IV, actually), it still feels incredibly stiff and limited. I'm pretty used to these types of games, but I could see a new player being turned off by the constant challenge. There's a lot of memorization of enemy patterns, as well as anticipation of developer trickery that goes into playing each stage. Regardless, I did finish it, so it's not an impossible proposition.

A neat aspect to the overall package, as mentioned above, is that Rondo features a significant amount of secret bonus content. There's a second playable character to unlock, which not only makes the game easier, but also leads to new, unique story sequences. There are also several secretly accessible levels, that feature new and interesting bosses and/or story elements. Finally, you can also find hidden records that unlock the level themes from any of the three game's phenomenal soundtracks in order to listen to them from the title screen, or alternatively assign any track to any stage manually - a neat feature if you plan to play stages over looking for secrets.

C:DXC is the perfect way of making classic games available to a new generation. Much as was the case with Bionic Commando: Rearmed (Capcom; 2008), the designers took the elements of classic games that were fun, and updated them with modern graphical sensibilities. While I think that they could've gone a bit further and updated the controls as well, C:DXC remains an excellent value given the amount of content that you're getting.


P.S. - I've already talked about Symphony of the Night a lot on this blog so take my word for it: it's awesome and would be more than worth the $20 I spent on this game by itself.