Absolutely phenomenal game, the only downsides to Rondo of Blood are the bizarre cutscenes and to some at least the lack of Castlevania IVs whip controls, which I think are nice but ultimately change the game feel a little too much. Everything else about this game is peak classic Castlevania. They removed the strange whip upgrading aspect from the previous game to make the pace quicker after dying, the level design is great, there's an additional playable character in Maria that makes Castlevania IIIs swap system seem mundane in contrast, and most importantly, it's the most fun game in this style. Just playing as Richter feels better than any of the other classic Belmonts, his whip range is huge, he's the perfect size for the screen unlike CIV's massive Simon, and he has a backflip that takes some getting used to but feels great to pull off. Even though it's very hard to get your hands on, being as you either have to track down the original console and a copy of the game from Japan (good luck), download the fan PC port, or find some way to emulate it, the effort is worth it. If you want to play this, I'd recommend using RetroArch, there are some guides that can show you how to set it up for this game. It gives you save states, which I'd recommend using as both the saves on the PC port and on RetroArch just didn't work for me (don't know why) but having them as a backup is nice, even for such a short game. There's also the remake but I didn't want to beat it to unlock the original. Whatever you choose, go play this. It's one of the best games of its era and something anyone can like. Also Maria.

Truly a great game. Fun, smooth innovative and has that special sausce that makes a great game. It never feels to tedious and I found myself replaying levels to 100% without any sense of time wasted. Music is great but not the best the series has to offer. The remixes are better than Super Castlevania IV. I got a little confused first when I didn't realize that in the main menu you could go back to levels to try different paths and I was woried of a repeat of Castlevania 3 and having to replay the whole game to get the full experience.
What I really liked:
The multiple endings and cut scenes were really nice.
What I wish was different:
A way to go to change levels and characters mid game without a system restart.
What I didn't like:
I didn't like the movement controls going backwards. No whip tricks, crawling.
I felt the backflip was cool but Maria proved they could have had a cool movement set for both characters.
Next review I am going to try a new format.

DE LONGE O MELHOR DE TODOS OS CASTLEVANIAS CLÁSSICOS!

Cara, sério, que obra-prima! E isso não apenas por ele ter fases, músicas e visuais fenomenais, mas também por ele ser uma grande homenagem a boa parte dos Castlevanias anteriormente lançados.

Pensem nele mais ou menos como um Sonic Mania dos Castlevanias. Em meio as fases, gráficos e músicas vão estar referências, trechos e adaptações de partes dos vários jogos anteriores da série. Por exemplo, o cenário das vilas de Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (esse logo na primeira fase), ou a fase do navio fantasma do Castlevania III, ou os vários bosses comuns e/ou específicos que já estiveram nos jogos ou, até mesmo (e isso me deixou MUITO impressionado de terem colocado), o trecho da ponte quebradiça e cheia de morcegos daquela merda de Haunted Castle - só que, óbvio, trabalhado de uma maneira que a parte não fosse uma desgraça odiável, e sim uma fase muito dahora de passar.

A gameplay do jogo é fluida, divertida, com uma dificuldade justa e, o melhor de tudo, TEM A MARIA RENARD PRA JOGAR! Cara, a Maria é o bicho MAIS ROUBADO QUE TEM!
E outro aspecto divertido desse Castlevania é que os personagens jogáveis tem habilidades passivas, como o pulo pra trás do Ritcher ou o pulo duplo da Maria - mas claro que as habilidades passivas da Maria também ajudam na gameplay roubadaça dele. CARA, ELA SOLTA UM CLONE QUE DÁ DANO MASSIVO EM ABSOLUTAMENTE TUDO - E É UMA PASSIVA QUE NÃO GASTA NADA!!! ESSA PIRRALHA É MUITO QUEBRADA, BICHO!

Na moral, JOGUEM RONDO OF BLOOD!!!
Eu recomendo fortemente jogar a versão de PC Engine - eu até achei uma versão funcional que dá pra baixar, caso alguém tenha interesse em jogar (se o jogo não iniciar falando que falhou em encontrar algum arquivo, liguem ele em modo Administrador, foi assim q funcionou pra mim). O bom dessa versão é que vem com Save State (F5) e Load State (F8) pra quem curte usar essas funções.

Rondo of Blood is classicvania perfected in all manners. The sprite work in this game is still so beautiful it was pretty much the gold standard for Castlevania Sprite Work for years to come.
And gosh, that SOUNDTRACK. My man is dancing his way to Dracula's Castle in most of these tracks.
The level design is insane here as well. Most stages are fairly linear, but every now and then you'll find a branching path that could be harder but more rewarding, or even better: Alternative Stages. All of them with their own optional bosses at that.
Richter and Maria are so much fun to play here, Item Crash is an insane feature in this, and I absolutely love it.
Dracula X/Rondo of Blood and Symphony Of The Night are two sides of a coin, both being the gold standard of each Castlevania style.

The game that made classic Castlevania finally click with me. The level design and enemy placement are near perfection that makes playing through a level and wanting to master it practically addictive. The pixel art and cutscenes are gorgeous, the voice acting is wonderfully cheesy and fun, and the enemy designs are so good I almost can’t blame Symphony of the Night for stealing them all. And then there’s the best bit, Maria.

I was hitting a brick wall with the penultimate boss, so I decided to replay one of the earlier levels, as I remembered finding a key that I didn’t know what to do with. So I went back, got the key, found a locked door, and unlocked a new playable character, Maria Renard. Maria is wonderful, and she completely changes the tone of the game in the best way. She is essentially an easy mode, not with boring stat increases, but because she has a bunch of unique moves that make her fun to play in her own way.

Unlocking Maria, using her to get past that brick wall, and then seeing her alternate ending was so much fun. Part of me thinks they deliberately made that boss so hard so that players would replay earlier levels and find her. Either way, a classic game.

For the first Castlevania game that I seriously played (I have to give it to
OperatorArmisael (Formerly ChaosInsurgent49), one of the developers of the Terraria Metroid Mod Discord for giving me inspiration to try out Castlevania to even help me 100% it), this has to be one of the greatest Castlevania games that I've played. The fact that this game is ALSO a precursor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night will FOREVER remind me of the transition from Metroid 2: Return of Samus/AM2R/Metroid: Samus Returns to Super Metroid, and I have enjoyed the heck out of the former. I don't have a lot to say about this entry, but this will be one that I might come back to give this game poper justice. (And for those that are in the Backloggd Discord that I was in seeing this, I left due to personal complications involving a series I and 2 other people tend to talk about a lot, and I don't expect for myself to come back I will be reviewing stuff though, which won't stop.

Back to Rondo of Blood. For my first entry to Castlevania, the controls are solid, the cutscenes are great, and the voice acting is sub-par in both regions (I played this as Rondo of Blood and not the original Japanese version, but I watched a TAS of the latter both as the goat named Ritcher Belmont and Maria Renard)