After taking a brief detour to review Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, I'm back to finish up my Castlevania write-ups. This isn't part of my bucket list, because for some reason I didn't think to add my most favorite Castlevania game and instead force myself to play shit like Wrath of the Black Manta and Ecco the Dolphin. Nobody can harm me the way I harm me.

Rondo of Blood is well known as the direct predecessor of perineal favorite Symphony of the Night. Indeed, the connection between the games is so direct that Richter's final fight against Mr. Dracula serves as Symphony's opening, with Richter himself becoming the primary antagonist for the first half of the game. Unfortunately, if you grew up in the states your lead-in was instead the abysmal Dracula X, with a localization of Rondo not happening until 2007. The TurgoGrafx-16 CD did not do well here. It didn't do well at all! And that's a real bummer, because Rondo of Blood in a lot of ways feels like a send-off to "Classicvania," something that is made more apparent with its direct ties to Symphony. It's both a triumphant final lap and a passing of the torch, and if you rolled into Symphony of the Night off of Dracula X then... well, damn. I'm sorry you got did like that.

All of Castlevania's well-established mechanics are here. Jumping is still stiff, though like other Vanias of this era, you have mid-air control over the direction of your jump, which allows for smoother platforming. There is no diagonal whipping, but it's unnecessary as keeping your whip purely horizontal breeds challenge without ever feeling like a handicap. Familiar enemies return (especially if you've played Symphony first, cause oh boy does that game use every part of the buffalo), including Medusa Heads, Fleamen, and Axe Knights; and though you no doubt know how to deal with them by now, they're not even the slightest bit less threatening. Fleamen are still bastards. They were always bastards, and I will send them to the grave as bastards. However, for as familiar as everything in Rondo is, it's all been refined to a needle-sharp point. In a lot of ways I'd compare Rondo to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's really hard to beat the level of quality here, and it is in fact so good that it's difficult to envision Konami being able to do anything else to push this specific style of gameplay forward.

Rondo also brings back Dracula Curse's alternate routes, and a variation on that game's partner rescuing mechanic. In Rondo, accessing alternate routes is a bit more involved than simply choosing which path to take at the end of a level. Rather, certain pits, doors, and switches can open up new pathways for Richter to take mid-level, which provides a strong incentive to explore (see: whip everything.) Thoroughl exploration is also nessecary for saving Rondo's four "maidens," including Richter's girlfriend Annette and fellow vampire hunter Maria Renard. Maria can be found the earliest and also becomes a playable character should you free her. Maria's familiars deal an insane amount of damage and she has different movement tech than Richter, and is overall a lot of fun to play as, though not as much as she is in Symphony. But that's for Saturn fans only...

I can't possibly wrap up my thoughts on Rondo without touching on its aesthetics. The game opens with a German narration as Dracula is resurrected, and after starting the game proper, you're treated to an Anime as Hell sequence of Richter gearing up and whipping some ghouls. There's a few cutscenes done in this style throughout the game, and I have a big soft spot for these kinds of quasi-FMVs. They remind me a lot of the cutscenes in Snatcher, and that's always a good thing. The soundtrack is another highlight and is mostly comprised of remixes of familiar Castlevania tunes. Multiple composers worked on the OST, and among them is Metal Yuhki (sick name) who is responsible for Rondo's versions of Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer. However, my favorite track not just in Rondo but across the entire series is Picture of a Ghost Ship, which just sounds so positively 90s in a way I can't quite pin down. I'm not normally one to link to remixes since they really don't have anything to do with critiques of a game's soundtrack, but I would be remiss in not sharing my favorite version of this song.

Every single part of Rondo comes together perfectly for me. The presentation, its sense of style, the tension, the atmosphere, and most of all the gameplay... Yeah I kinda suck at playing it because it's freaking hard, and I might get a bit frustrated at Level 4 - "The Inner Halls" due to its length and abundance of Fleamen, Axe Knights, and spike traps, but I also just can't bring myself to knock even a meager half star off my review. This one is an easy 5/5.