Modern Games Struggle to Surpass Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

[TechnologicalMF]

Around two years ago, for the first time I played and beat Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. The game has been stuck in my head ever since and for the longest time I've had just these small realizations over my playthroughs about what makes the game so good.
Often times you will read on forums about how good it is, but you don't really see a lot of elaboration on the more nuanced game design choices that make it so good.

I had to pour it all out into a video to show why I believe this game is a masterpiece to this day, I hope fellow retro game enjoyers like it!

 

[mortuz]

Without Rondo of Blood, we wouldn't had Symphony of the Night.
It deserves the respect.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

Without Rondo of Blood, we wouldn't had Symphony of the Night.
It deserves the respect.

Exactly, big reason why I made this video. It is a little saddening how you have all these countless deep dives and other videos about it, but Rondo has barely anything. Its a big reason why I didn't really mention the other series, I wanted this to be completely about making this game shine.

 

[qw90700]

For me why this game is awesome is because of it's a very improved classical Castlevania. I mean it has great graphics, great animation quality, change in gameplay as in how your character can move and all without really ruining the identity of the series, I like its level designs and all. In a way this and Super Castlevania 4 are "how a Castlevania game should be" examples to build new games upon these ideas to improve the series.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

For me why this game is awesome is because of it's a very improved classical Castlevania. I mean it has great graphics, great animation quality, change in gameplay as in how your character can move and all without really ruining the identity of the series, I like its level designs and all. In a way this and Super Castlevania 4 are "how a Castlevania game should be" examples to build new games upon these ideas to improve the series.

Haha yeah. You might be saddened to hear that I do talk a little poorly in the vid about Super Castlevania IV.
It is my least favorite but I get why it has a lot of fans, its just that I feel Rondo fine tuned and evolved a lot of the more classicvania concepts better.

 

[qw90700]

Haha yeah. You might be saddened to hear that I do talk a little poorly in the vid about Super Castlevania IV.
It is my least favorite but I get why it has a lot of fans, its just that I feel Rondo fine tuned and evolved a lot of the more classicvania concepts better.

Well while the Rondo appeals the fans in general why Super Castlevania 4 like is naturally its decent combat due to the 8-directional attacking feature and even hanging with your whip to jump farther to progress which it adds taste to platforming. Other than this even without these whip features it would be liked for its soundtrack and cool levels. But I guess at first glance its graphics and overall level designs seem dull to people. So when the game is like this it's no rocket science lots of people would prefer the Rondo instead. In end every game in this series has their own way to make me like them.

 

[CaptainMuskrat]

Rondo is one of the most overrated retro games I've played, It's abrasively difficult and obnoxious. It saddens me that we never got a true sequel to Castlevania IV to this day.

 

[DieselBrand]

The game is great and also the pioneer of other Castlevania games.

 

[bjork]

Rondo is great, and I think we've all got that one old game that we feel this way about. Imagine if you'd played Rondo when it was brand new and had to feel this way for decades, heh.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

Rondo's so good dude. Probably my favourite game of all time and a big reason I decided to dive into the PC Engine library.

Rondo is one of the most overrated retro games I've played, It's abrasively difficult and obnoxious. It saddens me that we never got a true sequel to Castlevania IV to this day.

"game is bad because too hard" always gets a chuckle out of me.
Also SCV4 is easily my least favourite out of the Classicvanias.

 

[Eridler]

Without Rondo of Blood, we wouldn't had Symphony of the Night.
It deserves the respect.

Rondo and Symphony were essentially made by the same person—and it wasn’t Iga.
Maybe this is a bit of a hot take, but I think the Igavanias are a little overrated. Aria is ok, but everything after that… let’s just say they don’t have the same atmosphere, and in some places they feel downright odd. The awful art style (dos, por) doesn’t help either.

I’d say the best classic Castlevania is Rondo, and the best Metroidvania is Symphony.

Oh, and I never liked Castlevania IV. It’s probably my least favorite game in the series. If you want a great remake of the first game, check out Castlevania Chronicles. It’s miles better—and also one of the toughest in the franchise.