I bought this entirely for Symphony of the Night. Before this, the only MetroidVania games I had played were Super Metroid and Hollow Knight; the latter of which is one of my favorite games ever. It's crazy to see how close to the golden standard they came from the very beginning. All I'd ever heard about SotN is that it invented a genre and it couldn't be more true. The template is all there in 1997 and I felt the exact same high from exploration-based reward that I did playing Hollow Knight a few years ago. Way ahead of its time. The animation is beautiful, some of the best pixels I've ever seen. When Alucard quickly crouches and you see his long white hair and the fabric of his cape gently follow him, just a second behind... that's some fine detail.

Played to achieve the "good" ending, involving the inverted castle, facing Shaft and Dracula at the end.

I tried Rondo of Blood. Made it to Stage 2. The wolfman boss at the end is an instant no for me. I think I attempted it 12 times and no amount of pattern recognition would have helped me, only luck. This is far back enough that the gameplay is punishing without being any bit fun. Dracula's Revenge is a lot like this in that way. I'll cut my losses and just say hey, I'm very happy to have played Symphony of the Night.

So this was a first playthrough for both games for me and boy were they both fantastic games but I will talk about both games very quickly.

SOTN - 9/10: So SOTN was honestly a long time in coming for me. I have started this game up COUNTLESS of times but each and every time I never finished it but I wanted to change that this time around. And boy am I glad because that was truly a masterfully crafted experience from start to end and it truly makes you understand WHY it is one of the greatest games created.

Rondo of blood - 8/10: This game was tough as hell but very fulfilling once you finish it. Don't have much to say on this game I just had a good time playing through it.

Overall a fantastic bundle of games.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
A tough as nails old school Castlevania that is regarded as one of the best that also was my first time playing a game in the series. Holy hell was this hard, 8 levels only but it really pushed my skills to get better. It was certainly a change from the type of games I normally play and I'm glad for that; I felt a little like Goku in Dragonball training to get better and better against each stronger opponent and thrilling at the opportunity to be better (although I did get annoyed at some cheap moments). Special shout out to Maria Renard who is an alt playable character to the main Richter and saved me for level 7. I might have gone insane trying to beat that as Richter. Very keen to take on the acclaimed sequel, Symphony of the Night, but...maybe after a break or three. Special thanks to John for asking me to have a crack at the game and for cheerleading.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Symphony of the is a great game. It's just as good as Rondo of Blood but in different ways. Rondo is much harder and beating it felt like much more of an achievement, but SoTN also was a lot more FUN. SoTN is where the vania part of Medroidvania comes from and I really had a blast exploring Dracula's castle and unlocking all the new weapons and rooms. The game looks and sounds beautiful (in particular I was a huge fan of the after-image that follows Alucard around). Though it can be easily broken (even by a novice like me) it's still enormous fun to play and search every nook and cranny; the PS4 achievements really help this! The story is also a good one as far as these types of games go and having played its immediate predecessor gave this game a lot more weight and heft which I appreciated. I may not return to this series for quite some time but I'm very glad I got to experience Symphony of the Night, a rightful classic. Definitely a crucial piece of gaming history and I can see how it's influence looms large even to this day.

As a collection, this doesn't really do much more than port a couple old games to a new console. And that's great and all - but the Requiem Collection does absolutely nothing to make the games more accessible to a modern audience the way the Castlevania Advance Collection does. There are no save states, no rewind, no special features, nothing, You just boot up the game to some pretty crummy UI and specify which game you want to play.

Check out my individual reviews here:
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

These are the PSP ports of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night that came bundled with Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on the PSP. Supposedly, they run on the PS4's own PSP emulator, which is why this collection never got ported anywhere else: because it isn't actually a port.

It's also why it's pretty barebones, with no extras, save states, rewinds... It doesn't even include Dracula X Chronicles itself. It at least has trophy support, and the trophy list for SotN showcases a lot of nifty stuff about the game. It also, surprisingly, has no input lag that I could notice: everything runs pretty smoothly and responsively.

Well, there is one huge issue, which is that moves that rely on d-pad button sequences, such as Alucard's spells and most of the special moves for characters in both games are incredibly hard to pull off in this version, apparently due to a change on how inputs are handled that requires extreme precision and timing. This changes how the games are played: spells are now an unreliable mechanic, moving around with the bat is sluggish, and Richter mode in SoTN is infuriating.

I'd say if you get it on a sale, and you're aware of the aforementioned issue, it's worth it for SotN alone. But I do think the collection could have been done better.

Overall, a fantastic package, with one of the games being among my top 5 favourite of all time.

Symphony Of The Night is a great here as the PSX version, with some changes here and there, most notably different voice acting - which while technically better in terms of delivery, lacks the charm of the original, cheesy one.

A big addition is the option to play as Maria once you finish the game once.

The fantastic OST, expansive castle and fluid gameplay still shine.

Full disclosure: I couldn't get far in Rondo of Blood. An attempt was made, but the game was far too frustrating. I may try again one day, but no promises.

On the other hand, I had a blast scouring Symphony of the Night for all it offered. It had its trickier moments without being unfair, plenty of secrets and upgrades to find, and quite possibly the world's greatest JoJo reference (and I'm not talking about the Stone Mask). And of course I can't go without mentioning the absolute banger of a soundtrack - fitting for a game with Symphony in the title.

Dos de los mejores (si no LOS mejores) juegos de Castlevania a este precio es verdaderamente una ganga. Tiene su platinum trophy que fue mi única queja de la Anniversary Collection. Sin embargo, los menús y la accesibilidad de esa me parecen mejores. Esta colección no ofrece save states y cambiar entre un juego y otro toma uno o dos pasos mas de lo que debería. Estas quejas menores no afecta la experiencia de jugar al juego como tal así que me parecen bastante menores comparado con el valor que hay aquí.