Quote Titled Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, the package features a "2.5D" remake of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, which was originally released for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM (aka the Turbo CD) in Japan, as well as the original version, for those who want to relive it exactly how they remember it.
As if that wasn't sweet enough, Chronicles will also include a full port of the PS1 classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, complete will full screen graphics and an improved localization, says 1up.
This is huge; at least for hardcore Castlevania nuts.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: nitsu niflheim on February 01, 2007, 03:13:43 PM
looks like ass.
I may get it, just to check out Rondo of Blood, proper. I played the SNES Dracula X, even though it was a bastardization.
I guess this is what EGM was talking about in the latest issue, in that little blurb. I hope not because this really isn't all that big of news.
I want a new Castlevania, please. On Wii.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: denjet78 on February 01, 2007, 03:23:30 PM
A remake and a port...
Yeah, that's huge alright.
Especially considering how the real Castlevania lineage has passed from the GBA to the DS.
And for what's supposed to be such a superior handheld why does the game look so... bad?
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: capamerica on February 01, 2007, 03:39:02 PM
meh, not really that big of a deal, I much rather have new Castlevania games. I'm actually kind of surprised they didn't just put Castlevania: Symphony of the Night up on the PSOne store... Then again we don't know how much the game is going to cost, if the game is going to retail for the same price as a normal PSP game ($39.99) then if they didn't include SotN people would feel like they were ripped off, by including 2 games it will soften the blow. Something they should have done with the Megaman remakes.
SotN is going to be showing up soon on XboxLive Arcade, and I have a feeling that Rondo of Blood isn't to far behind. And I also have this gut feeling that we may see both games on a Nintendo system (be it the Virtual Console or the DS) in the very near future.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: TrueNerd on February 01, 2007, 05:40:49 PM
How can anyone say "meh" to this?! I am beyond thrilled about this news. I would've been pretty pleased with just a SotN port, a game I have played but don't own and need to, but also one of the most rare and supposedly awesome Castlevanias in original and remade forms? In one glorious package? Mark me down for EIGHT. I'll hang on to my $250 DustCollectorPortable for this and this alone.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: ShyGuy on February 01, 2007, 06:23:13 PM
JEALOUSY
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: darknight06 on February 01, 2007, 06:30:44 PM
They waited until NOW to do this? Rondo doesn't look nearly as good as the original, good thing they still have it in there but damn. If I didn't have the PS1 SoTN I would've considered this if I kept the PSP.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 01, 2007, 07:31:13 PM
I think I'll get SOTN on the 360 instead. If I ever get a 360, that is, but if it continues wrecking the PS3 like this it'll probably be a good idea sooner or later.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Infernal Monkey on February 02, 2007, 01:20:37 AM
The gra[phcis look like smeared poo
this will sell like 4 copies success!! konajkmi moves tro psp confiermed
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: JonLeung on February 02, 2007, 02:50:34 AM
Quote Originally posted by: nitsu niflheim I may get it, just to check out Rondo of Blood, proper.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 02, 2007, 03:14:24 AM
Careful, the above are maps, if you don't want to see spoilers, don't click those links!
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Ian Sane on February 02, 2007, 04:26:39 AM
Ironically if this was a straight port of Rondo of Blood it would be a big deal since to North Americans it's a new game that we've been waiting for for a long time. But as a remake it's nothing. It looks like crap and it's not the "true" Rondo of Blood experience we've wanted.
I want to see the original version. I hope we get it on the VC someday but I'm not holding my breath because so far no games have been released in a region they weren't originally released in.
I wasn't too keen on the first North American version of Final Fantasy III being a remake either but at least the resulting game looks good, plus Square had that excuse where the original version was coded really weird and the original programmer doesn't work for them anymore.
Man the PSP is unwanted 2.5D remake city.
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: hudsonhawk on February 02, 2007, 04:53:34 AM
Did you read the article? The original is included on the disc, as is SotN.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Ian Sane on February 02, 2007, 05:54:53 AM
"Did you read the article? The original is included on the disc, as is SotN."
You are right. I missed one sentence. Ooops. In that case this is cool.
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: darknight06 on February 02, 2007, 06:35:29 AM
Won't matter one iota because it's not gonna look even close to right no matter what they do with it. It's either gonna get stretched to hell or it'll be in a box so small you'll wonder where the game is. Original Rondo is a DARK game, that screen is not gonna handle it well. It's one of the reasons why I hated playing Gradius Collection on it.
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: JonLeung on February 02, 2007, 06:55:07 AM
Quote Originally posted by: Ian Sane Man the PSP is unwanted 2.5D remake city.
If I had to guess, Capcom and now Konami want to bring the ports to the PSP as opposed to the DS because if they bring it to the DS, they'll feel obligated to use the DS's features. Since these old games didn't originally require a microphone, touch screen, or second screen, it doesn't feel like a fit. (They could use the second screen for a map, especially in Symphony Of The Night's case, but I don't think the DS's resolution is high enough for a straight port of SotN.)
Still, putting on a map on a second screen seems like it would be less work than redesigning many elements into 3D (as they're doing to RoB). Who knows?
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Artimus on February 02, 2007, 06:58:25 AM
I think they put this on the PSP because they could put all three games on. Is there enough space on a DS cart to do that?
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: denjet78 on February 02, 2007, 08:58:30 AM
SotN could fit on a DS card. If they can get it on XBLA they can get it on a DS card. And I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to squeeze the original RoB on there as well. Thankfully... I mean, most likely they wouldn't be able to fit the graphical reinterpretation though.
I think the only reason the PSP is getting this and not the DS is that Konami is throwing the system a bone. The next real Castlevania with be on the DS and we all know that already.
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: JonLeung on February 02, 2007, 09:09:12 AM
Quote Originally posted by: denjet78 SotN could fit on a DS card. If they can get it on XBLA they can get it on a DS card. And I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to squeeze the original RoB on there as well. Thankfully... I mean, most likely they wouldn't be able to fit the graphical reinterpretation though.
RoB, with some compression, could easily fit on a DS card. The original ripped CD image is like a couple hundred megs but I don't see why it actually would take up all that space. SotN might also fit, I doubt it took up the whole CD-ROM in its Saturn or PSX forms.
Konami could actually make more money selling RoB, RoB remade, and SotN separately on the DS than all together on the less popular PSP. Unless it really costs a lot to figure out how to downscale SotN to fit on the DS's screen and to make use of the other features.
I tried to play a bit of RoB at about the same time as Portrait of Ruin. Boy, Konami's pretty bad about recycling sprites in CastleVania games, but those two were pretty similar! Both of them have that same undead bull thing chasing you near the beginning. o_0 The golem and wyvern were a couple big early baddies in RoB that were noticeable as being the same as in PoR, but I'm sure many smaller enemies were recycled too.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Luigi Dude on February 02, 2007, 10:58:24 AM
OK, has Konami even looked at the PSP sales charts. EVERY 2D game that has been released on the PSP has bombed badly. What makes them think this will do any better? The most this game will sell is 50,000, WORLDWIDE!!!
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Adrock on February 02, 2007, 02:41:50 PM
I love Castlevania and this is an amazing deal, but I wouldn't buy a PSP for it. And it looks like IGA's team still can't get 3D graphics right.... in the second dimension. At least Ayami Kojima is doing the character art. The DS games were sorely missing her artwork.
Also, what's up with slow Richter? They can't make him slow again after Portrait of Ruin.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 02, 2007, 06:58:19 PM
OK, has Konami even looked at the PSP sales charts. EVERY 2D game that has been released on the PSP has bombed badly. What makes them think this will do any better? The most this game will sell is 50,000, WORLDWIDE!!!
IGA is trying to prove that Nintendo handhelds are the wrong place for Cv and after his 3d home onsole games failed he's now trying to copy their success by going 2d and handheld while pulling out highly demanded games from the Cv series. I suppose he's desperate to prove that he can still handle Cv better than the team he handed the handheld games off to (AFAIK the GBA games were done without him, no idea about the DS). Must suck to be outdone by a bunch of stand-ins.
At least Ayami Kojima is doing the character art. The DS games were sorely missing her artwork.
I strongly disagree, the painterly portraits may look nice on a screenshot but they fail to communicate the character's emotions at all. In the GBA games each character had between one and three expressions and usually they were just "normal" and "gone insane". In Dawn of Sorrow the character portraits actually show the emotional state of the characters and feel much more dynamic. It was outright silly in AoS when Graham stabbed Yoko that her portrait was still the same exept all she could say was "........".
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Smash_Brother on February 02, 2007, 07:52:07 PM
I need to get off my ass and finish PoR...
Wouldn't buy a PSP for this, though.
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Adrock on February 02, 2007, 08:24:57 PM
Quote KDR_11k wrote: I strongly disagree, the painterly portraits may look nice on a screenshot but they fail to communicate the character's emotions at all. In the GBA games each character had between one and three expressions and usually they were just "normal" and "gone insane". In Dawn of Sorrow the character portraits actually show the emotional state of the characters and feel much more dynamic. It was outright silly in AoS when Graham stabbed Yoko that her portrait was still the same exept all she could say was "........".
Ayami Kojima only designs the characters. I think someone else draws the portraits in the game. Regardless, some artist at Konami could have used the source material and drawn a different facial experession for the game.
I had a hard time taking the generic anime facial expressions seriously in both Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. There's nothing unique about them. And if you want to talk about silly, look what they did to Dracula's design in Portrait of Ruin. What the hell happened there?
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 02, 2007, 08:42:29 PM
I have no idea what happened in Portrait of Ruin, that game's not released here.
I think those detailled portraits may take too long to draw to have five different ones for each dialog. With such a highly unique style it may not be possible to send another artist to draw these.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: nitsu niflheim on February 03, 2007, 01:26:04 AM
Ayami Kojima is overrated. The two DS Castlevania games proved that she isn't neccessary. I mean, she worked on both PS2 games and they both sucked in comparison, so...
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 03, 2007, 05:59:30 AM
Isn't it the same with Iga himself? He thought the handheld games aren't worth his attention, hands them off to a substitute team and suddently the games surpass his own?
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Adrock on February 03, 2007, 06:55:51 AM
Quote nitsu niflheim wroteAyami Kojima is overrated. The two DS Castlevania games proved that she isn't neccessary. I mean, she worked on both PS2 games and they both sucked in comparison, so...
How did they prove that she isn't necessary? Those games had boring anime art. And her designs have nothing to do with the gameplay. So.....
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on February 03, 2007, 07:00:06 AM
The Castlevania64 team pwns Iga.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on February 03, 2007, 07:04:18 AM
"And her designs have nothing to do with the gameplay. So....."
So she isn't necessary afterall.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: Adrock on February 03, 2007, 08:08:12 AM
Sigh.
There's no real connection between character art and gameplay. However, there's more to a game than gameplay.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: KDR_11k on February 03, 2007, 08:24:10 PM
I didn't see any problems with the character designs in DoS.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: nitsu niflheim on February 04, 2007, 02:03:54 AM
Iga has said that she was "the" Castlevania character desinger or whatever she is, and that without saying it, that because she was not involved in the DS castlevania games, they should be looked down upon because she was not involved. Well since the games without her involvment reviewed better, and I think also sold a lot better, that makes her "not important". =)
Title: RE:Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on November 12, 2007, 08:16:09 PM
I am giving this a much needed bump. Since I am a sad panda because I have no Mario Galaxy, I decided to actually play my copy of this. Got to say I suck horribly at it (I'm getting molested in stage three by the spear men), but the game is a lot of fun, and it is good that you have infinite continues and can save your progress. The visuals are top notch and above all else the game is responsive with some great boss fights.
Title: RE: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, Castlevania: SotN to PSP
Post by: couchmonkey on November 14, 2007, 02:34:35 AM
Getting molested by spear men? Did I just walk into 4chan?
How much time did you put into it, and how far do you think you've gotten? I'd really like to play this game. Not enough to buy a PSP - I just don't play handhelds that much - but still...
