After doing the Castlevania Collection, I had thought there would be less aggravation to be found in the previous collection, featuring a mere two games. Those being Rondo of Blood, from the PC Engine, and Symphony of the Night, from the Playstation, though I think some of the Saturn content is included.
I was wrong. Never have I played a game more aggravating than Rondo of Blood. It is far more angering than even Castlevania 3, which I played four times, and Castlevania Bloodlines, which I played twice. Everywhere I turn in Rondo of Blood, there’s some new, aggravating garbage with enemies acting far differently than they should. An example being the Skeleton Archer. In most games, you can just pin them in a corner and go to town on them, but not in Rondo of Blood. They will vault over you, often landing on you. And when four hits is death, every cheap hit gets extremely aggravating. Especially when enemies start pulling out insta-kill attacks with no warning. Did Death hit you once with his scythe? You fall off the boat to instant death. Did the painting touch you? Instant death. Did you get to stage six? Congratulations, here’s a six boss rush you have to pass with bosses you haven’t seen yet, all with new attacks, where any four hits is death.
The game tries to excuse it’s difficulty by autosaving between stages, which refills your lives if you continue. But when you only get four attempts and every stage is a slog to get through, those four attempts rapidly are lost and you’re cursing up a storm every time some cheap trick comes along to steal lives from you, or your sub weapons. I seriously had my cat subweapon, as Maria, stolen from me by a literal in-game thief who just steals subweapons. Oh, and if you die, you lose all your hearts, your subweapon, and you start at the beginning of whatever section you’re in.
This isn’t a game that requires mastery. I can plow through Castlevania 1, 3, and 4 in very little time, after all. This is a game that’s so unrelenting in it’s cheap tricks that it requires you to bash your skull against it until it breaks down and lets you through to the next section just to be punished some more.
Oh, and did I mention the bosses? New to this game, bosses attempt to get that one final hit on you after you kill them. Some even attempt to get a hit in before the fight even starts, like the boss of stage six. Oh, and if this hit kills you? You fight the boss again. This entire game is built to be as anger-inducing as possible and I rarely rage as much as I do with this game. Even the menu screen is made to anger you. Richter is, simply put, a bad character. All he really has is a flip of some kind that can only be performed if you jump straight up. Meanwhile, the second playable character, Maria, has a slide, double jump, faster movement speed, and even a secret move that makes bosses pathetic, if it feels like working. I know the input, but I swear it never works when I’m in a pickle. When I need it, it refuses. The problem with this is anytime you’re forced back to the main menu, the game defaults to Richter rather than using the character you last used. So often, you start a stage, see Richter, and have to quit the stage just to get back to Maria.
But that’s the biggest issue. First, you have to find Maria. She’s not hard to get, just requiring a key in stage two, but that leads into the actual biggest issue. The key counts as a subweapon, so if you die, you lose it. So if you die in between the key and the door, you’re redoing the stage. And Maria isn’t the only person to save. In total, there’s four people to save, including Maria, though only Maria and Richter are playable. Thankfully, if you miss one of them, the game does have stage select open by default, so you can retry any stage you’ve unlocked. And if you’re having trouble with the bosses, you accumulate credits as you play, which can be redeemed in the main menu to buy boss demo videos, that show how to beat them.
The game is also one of the longest Castlevania games. Coming in at thirteen or so stages, it’s a real chore to get through. And while Castlevania Bloodlines had fun stages with aggravating bosses, Rondo of Blood goes for aggravating stages with rage-inducing bosses. And every time the game hits you with yet another instant death trap or attack or cheap trick, you will get frustrated. Then angry. And soon, you will be wondering why you wasted money on this.
Why did you waste money on this? The second game, Symphony of the Night (hereby shortened to SotN). SotN is the first of the “Metroidvania” series, as fans call it, which ditches the typical platforming and aggravating platforming for Metroid-esque exploration. Gone are the instant death pits and traps, traded for an exploratory approach that works splendidly. And just like Metroid, there’s plenty of secret rooms and items to collect.
This is because, in true Metroid fashion, where you can go is based on what you have available. Often, you’ll see areas you cannot get to, so you have to come back later with some new ability, like double jumping or flight. And there’s so much equipment to find as, rather than fighting with a whip or throwing birds at people, Alucard, the main character of SotN, has a large arsenal of weapons with various ranges, attack strength, elements, and so many more variables. And like his arsenal, the enemies have various weaknesses. Sure, you could run around with a sword all day, but many enemies are resistant to blades, so you have need to switch to a mace or the like to deal blunt damage instead to deal with armored foes. And sometimes, you need something fast to deal with the enemies with high speed.
Moreover, if you ever get stuck, you can always level up. Coming back from Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, the ability to level up has long been missing in these games. So rather than bashing your face against a problem until it goes away, SotN allows you to fight enemies, gaining experience until you gain a level for an increase in stats like strength, intelligence, and luck. Moreover, your maximum health and mana also go up, allowing you to take more damage before death or cast more spells than before. This is on top of trying a different weapon or changing your armor for something that might resist the boss’ main attack type or the like. Even better, these changes can be made on the fly, so if an enemy starts tossing lightning around, feel free to change to your lightning resistant armor.
SotN is the reason to buy this collection, not Rondo of Blood. If you want a good challenge, Rondo of Blood will do it. Moreover, for the trophy hunters out there, the trophies in both Rondo of Blood and SotN don’t take a lot of effort to get, if you don’t count Rondo’s ridiculous difficulty. SotN even comes with the Sega Saturn exclusive Maria mode, which I cannot wait to try out after I finish SotN’s main mode, followed by Richter mode. Yes, SotN has two additional modes and, unlike Rondo, promise to be quite fun, if only because Richter and Maria are much more versatile and powerful than their Rondo counterparts.
While I cannot recommend Rondo of Blood, as the difficulty is too much at times, I highly recommend SotN. While it isn’t my favorite of the “Metroidvania” games, which we’ll inevitably cover more of, especially with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on the way, it’s a very good title and well worth the entry fee tied to this collection.
Now, if only Konami would put out a “Metroidvania” collection…
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