For those wondering what this is, this is basically a pared-down version of Rondo of Blood with fewer alternate levels, redesigned levels, a different art style and Richter Belmont being the only playable character.
For the longest time, this was the best the West had, since Rondo of Blood never showed up officially in the West until it received a Virtua Console release in the West in 2010.
This game is known as Akumajo Dracula XX in Japan and Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss in Europe. Interestingly, the European version has a very interesting logo.
The story takes place in 1792. Lord Dracula is back, and he has exacted revenge on 19-year-old Richter Belmont, the direct descendant of Simon Belmont, who destroyed him several centuries earlier. He kidnaps Richter's girlfriend Annette and her sister Maria while sending a legion of unholy beings out to attack the town. Richter leaves with the Vampire Killer in hand and heads to Dracula's castle to defeat the Lord of Darkness once and for all!
Stage 1
Gotta love the background where Mode 7 fire swirls around the town.
Just like in past Castlevania games, you can move left and right, jump, crouch, use sub-weapons and strike things with your whip. Also like in past Castlevania games, hitting candles will give you hearts to give you ammunition for said sub-weapons and also allow you to obtain said sub-weapons proper.
Unlike in Super Castlevania IV, however, the whip attack works more like it did in the games prior to that; you can only attack left and right instead of the eight directions that Super Castlevania IV allowed.
The heads up display shows your health in the red bar and the boss' health in the blue bar below it at the upper-left corner of the screen. To the left of the two bars is the current sub-weapon in your possession. In the upper-right corner of the screen, you can see how many hearts you have. Small hearts are worth one heart, while big ones are worth five.
The knife lets Richter Belmont throw two knives forward, and costs one heart to use.
Enemies here include slow moving, ape-like skeletons that are a breeze to destroy, bats that fly at you when you get close enough, quicker human skeletons, bone pillars that spit fireballs at you, and Medusa heads that fly around in a sine wave pattern, slow moving zombies. The bone pillars spit fireballs, but those fireballs can easily be destroyed with the whip.
Pressing Up and Down on the Control Pad near stairs allows you to move up and down stairs. You can land on stairs while in mid-air with Up and Left or Up and Right, but unlike Super Castlevania IV, you cannot moonwalk up or down stairs. You can also drop off stairs by holding Down and pressing B.
The ax is thrown upwards to take care of stuff above Richter, and costs one heart to use. To use a sub-weapon, hold Up on the Control Pad and press Y.
You can carry only one sub-weapon at a time, and unlike past games (including Super Castlevania IV), if you accidentally take another one, you have a short amount of time to pick the one you carried last back up. This would feature in future games.
In this game, you can backflip. Hold down on the Control Pad, then press B and Richter will perform a backflip. It goes pretty far, and it may prove useful.
Money bags give you points when collected.
In the third section, you'll see a slightly darker-colored platform that is short and different from the rest. When you leap on it, leap to the right immediately so you aren't dropped into the spikes, which are instant death if you touch them.
The fourth section has bottomless pits. Watch out.
At the beginning of the fifth section, you will be chased by a demonic ram-like beast. Keep heading to the right while fighting off the zombies. When you reach a pit, jump forward off the very edge or use the backflip to clear it. Watch out near the end; there are two platforms that will drop you right into the final pit if you don't jump forward immediately after sticking the landing. When you reach the end, the beast dies.
The boomerang is a cross-shaped boomerang that flies forward before returning to you, and cost one heart to use.
In the sixth section, the fire is blue and a little bit lower. Collect more hearts from the candles if you need them, and head to the right. Strike a part of the stone stairway before the wooden platforms to find a piece of wall meat (floor meat?) to refill your health if you need to. When you make it to the wooden platforms, you'll face Cerberus. Stay under it when it jumps around, and when it shoots a fireball, jump over the fire when it travels towards you on the floor. The cross is probably the best weapon to use, as you can get multiple hits in.
When you beat Cerberus, an orb will drop down. Grab it, and you'll clear the stage. As you see the number of bonus points you get based on how much health and how many hearts you have, you'll also get a password in the background. Hearts, axes and holy waters will make up the passwords, but each icon also comes with a different-colored flame - hearts have green, axes have blue, holy waters have pink and blank spots have red - so you can always tell what icon you're looking at. Nice one, Konami.
Points are useful, by the way; you'll get your first points-based extra life at 20,000 points.
Stage 2
In this stage, you are crossing a bridge leading to the castle.
You'll be jumping gaps, and as you do this, mermen will jump up from the pit at the bottom. To make things worse, some of the platforms are unstable and must be jumped off of immediately, and the thin gray bridge also starts falling apart as soon as you put your weight on it. Use the Cross to get the best results, as you will need it to get rid of all the mermen in your way at this point. You'll then reach the drawbridge. Into the castle!
Some of the ape-like skeletons will throw barrels at you when you get into the castle.
In the third section, you'll meet some new enemies: the Evil Eye, a small eyeball monster which flies around and hits you with its tail and an Ax Armor that hides behind a shield and throws axes at you. The Ax armor will throw axes upwards just like you. Hitting one with the whip a few times will knock away the shield, allowing you to hit the enemy with
In the fourth section, you'll meet a panther-like skeleton enemy as well as the Spear Knights. The Spear Knights are the worst, as they can spin their spears around for some quick damage and they can attack you from above or below in addition to in front of you. Thankfully, Frezno uses his Item Crash. Hold X to use the Item Crash, and if the number of hearts you have is flashing, you can use a couple of hearts to do a damaging attack. If you have the cross and you perform an Item Crash, you can destroy all on-screen enemies at the cost of fifteen hearts. (The Item Crash ability would also show up in Symphony of the Night, which is a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood.)
In the last section, there will be a type of skeleton that will throw bones at you and attack you by extending its neck out. The latter attack has a rather short difference, but the former can still only go so far.
At the stairs, beat up both Evil Eyes before destroying the bottom of the stairs for some wall/floor meat to refill your health with.
The boss here is a giant bat that splits into a bunch of smaller bats. Strike the bat when it is big, then get on the platform to the left and backflip to the right over all the bats when they are below you. When you strike from the right, get on the lower of the two platforms to strike the giant bat, then face right and backflip to the left immediately.
You can still attack the giant bats when they are split up into smaller bats, and the Item Crash with the cross can save you from unnecessary damage while also hitting the giant bat. After that, grab the orb. It's on to Stage 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment