With her quicker attacks and faster movement it’s easy to see her pointing the way forward for Alucard’s move set a few years later. Once you play as Maria it’s difficult to go back to clunky ol’ Richter, and I spent most of my time exploring the game and bumping that completion percentage up as her.
#CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PC ENGINE CD CRACKED#
I cracked up when she punctured Dracula’s self-important dying monologue by telling him “it’s your fault for being so mean to everyone” and cut down his half-baked moralizing with “I don’t understand what you’re saying! No matter how complicated you make things, a bad thing is a bad thing!” Hell yeah! Up yours, Spinoza! She has her own set of cutscenes – most of which feature the other characters bemused that a young girl is rampaging through the castle. She’s effectively the ‘easy mode’, though after completing the game as Richter letting loose with her is a tonne of fun.Įven better is the amount of effort that’s gone into a secondary character that a casual player might miss entirely.
She’s a goddamn powerhouse of destruction and trumps any Belmont with her agility and speed. Well, soon after picking her up for the first time you realise Drac doesn’t stand a chance. You might wonder exactly how wise it is for a 12-year-old girl in a pink princess dress to take on the combined forces of hell. The art may be reminiscent of MS Paint and the writing exceptionally cheesy, but if you have a fetish for reverb-heavy early 90s video-game voice acting you can’t do much better.īut, for all that loveliness, Rondo of Blood still felt like a refining of a concept rather than providing anything new.
The fully-voiced cutscenes are also very nice. My fave tune in these games is ‘Vampire Killer’ and this is the best rendition to date (I particularly love the creaky door sound effect at 01:02). I cranked up the bass and my toe was tapping from start to finish. This not only provides more room for animation detail, but you get a Red Book Audio soundtrack and voiced cutscenes. While not quite as divergent as Castlevania III each playthrough will be different, with a percentage counter on your save file helpfully showing how much you’ve seen.Īlso kicking things up a notch is that Rondo of Blood is the first Castlevania on CD-ROM. If you pay attention to the scenery and experiment a bit (the lack of a time limit helps) you’ll find most on your own, but some are devilishly tucked away. The stages are also brimming with secret areas, alternative routes and bosses. For example, the Behemoth that pursues you through Stage 2 is eventually revealed to be mortally wounded and lashing out, the werewolf screams as he reverts back into a man while dying, and the (justifiably) cocky Grim Reaper ends up decapitating himself with his own scythe.
#CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PC ENGINE CD SERIES#
Rondo of Blood boasts the most detailed graphics the series had seen to date, with impeccable sprite-art that makes me kiss my fingers in the manner of a cartoon chef.Įach enemy has a personality, there are amazing animation flourishes on their deaths, and you feel like you’re encountering bosses midway through their own stories rather than them simply being roadblocks. Meet new hero Richter, who walks with that purposeful Belmont shuffle and comes with the usual gaggle of sub-weapons (though the eight-way whipping technique of Castlevania IVhas sadly been lost to time).īut ‘more of the same’ isn’t so bad when it’s been polished this much. Initial reactions are that Castlevania: Rondo of Blood isn’t going to deliver that. By now it’s comfy and familiar, but maybe it’s time for something new. I’ve spent countless hours in the grubby boots of the Belmont clan as they painstakingly stomp their way through the Transylvanian countryside on the way to take out Dracula.
0 kommentar(er)
