Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is about a young girl named Maria Bernard on her quest to rescue her friends from Dracula's clutches and-wait what? It's about Richter Belmont rescuing his girlfriend and other maidens from Dracula's clutches? Ah well you see, there's one slight issue with that. Richter controls like garbage. Slow, clunky, attacks barely hit. Which is why you do the smart thing: rescue Maria and then play the rest of the game as her. Maria actually controls well, her attacks hit and she's got added mobility that make the game infinitely more fun. It's also just really funny seeing all these horrors from the dark being defeated by a little girl.

As far as the game's difficulty goes, it's bullshit when you're playing as Richter cause he sucks but it's actually fair and balanced when you're playing as Maria. The levels are nice and short so even though this game has cringe knockback damage and game-overs force you to do the level all over again, it's never really an issue since you can quickly get back to where you were.....provided you're playing as Maria. Feels like that girl was made for speedrunning tbh. Also i wanna give a quick shoutout to the music, it is very based.

I played this game through the Requiem port that i bought for $5. It's decent action platformer with.....as long as you're playing as Maria. Oh and maybe look up a guide if you want everything, some of it's rather cryptic.