Yeah, it’s true — I went completely insane and bought a copy of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood while I was at PAX. And a PC Engine Duo on which to play it. It was absolutely a mistake, since it was a purchase made on a total whim, I paid far too much for both, and I suffered a terrible lapse of memory regarding the system’s regional compatibility before sealing the transaction — the American Turbo Duo can play games from all regions, but the Japan PCE Duo can only play Japanese games. Not the other way around as my Internet-deprived brain insisted. I guess I’m out of luck with all those awesome US-only TG16 games, like… uh… hm. Never mind.
I was seduced, you see, by the camera’s soulless eye. They’ve talked me out of my reluctance to be on the 1UP Show and now, apparently, I do moronic things to play to the camera. Like spend too much money on things I don’t really need in order to add some variety to the PAX segment. Great.
No regrets, though. Dracula X! Woo. I’m playing one stage per day to prolong the experience for as long as possible. You don’t get to play a rare, expensive, highly-regarded chapter of one of your favorite franchises very often, so it’s an experience best savored.
It’s a really classy system, too. Its design is sleek and holds up really well to current standards, unlike just about other system of the era — Genesis was a tacky blob, NES was boring, Famicom was toylike, and the Super NES was completely horrible; plus the machine has a good solid feel to it. I think I ended up with a screwy controller, though, since it takes a few minutes after booting for it to properly register button presses. Fortunately, it’s not quite as broken as I initially had thought… I didn’t realize the controller buttons had independent turbo settings and was mystified at Richter Belmont’s initial refusal to perform any sort of jump besides a backflip.
Yeah, that’s right, I’m a TG16 novice. It’s not my fault that I could only afford one 16-bit system (well, close enough) as a lad and that my finances tightened up right as I started shopping around for one a few years back. I’m shoring up my weaknesses now, though. If inexperience with a moderately obscure console could be considered a weakness. I’m not really sure how it could be exploited for massive damage, but better safe than sorry.
And, uh, I’ll be running some more eBay auctions soon, I guess. You know, to pay for the thing.
But hey! Dracula X. Yeah. It starts off with a fight against Death on a horse-drawn carriage. That’s pretty boss.
And fighting through a burning town from Simon’s Quest, that’s pretty boss, too. You’d think the architecture might have changed maybe a little over the course of a century or two, though.
It’s a little odd to see familiar bits of the Super NES game in their original contexts. It’s also a bit alarming how many enemies I thought were unique to Symphony of the Night keep popping up. If this keeps going, Symphony might feel a little less special, and I will be forced to accept that everything I know is wrong. That’s a lame reward for dropping a ton of cash on an old game system, believe it.
You should also believe I’ll be milking this puppy for everything it’s worth. Retronauts ahoy!
Edit: Here’s some of the crap I want to sell. Pick it over if you’d like.
83 thoughts on “Sanguine rondure”
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Yeah, Symphony ripped off Rondo like everything else ripped off Symphony. Wait until you get to the clock tower, it’s pretty rad.
Jeremy, I don’t want to prolong your buyer’s remorse or anything but how much did the PC Engine Duo and Dracula X actually cost? What kind of goodies do you plan to sell on eBay?
I’ve never seen someone express regret from their *not* owning a TG-16. The standard controllers are terrible. If you come across one, pick up an arcade stick. (or a turbo-stick or whatever the hell it’s called)
I mean, if you ever decide to play it ever again.
That was the only reason I went to the trouble of trying to emulate the PC Engine at one point, but it was the best 3 days of Castlevania ever. If only I hadn’t already spent $145.00 on Radiant Silvergun I might consider purchasing a legit copy of the game.
I think you may be confused: Both systems can play CD games from all regions. Both systems can only play HuCard games from their respective region. The PCE Duo is by far the superior choice here. I did a write up on the benefits here: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/07/column_parallax_memories_turbo_1.php
“Symphony might feel a little less special, and I will be forced to accept that everything I know is wrong.”
Yeah, it’s true. Everything you know is wrong! Anyways, I ended up enjoying it much more than Symphony. It was the reason that I caved and bought a Duo as well, and it was worth every penny. I got quite a bit more than a weeks worth of enjoyment out of the game too. Not only are there multiple paths, but nice little hidden things. Aim for the no continue complete, it is very possible taking the right route.
Also, the German intro and birds-for-weapons make for a pretty bad-ass game.
Wait, huh, what? You hadn’t played Rondo before? Wow, you’re kind of lucky to just experience it now. I have a “copy” of the game that I’ve had for years (I bought it online a long time back and had to send $5 cash through the mail) that works great, but I’d like to own a legit copy at some point.
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There’s a cool Easter Egg if you play on a Turbo-CD with the standard system card versus the Super System card.
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I wonder if this game will eventually end up on Virtual Console or XBox Live Arcade. It’s got to surface SOMETIME.
Oh right — I was just talking about the HuCard incompatibilities.
By the way, when are you going to join the club and get a Neo*Geo? I was just enjoying a little Last Blade action the other day. Talk about Retronauts fuel…
So are you implying that the “copy” will actually run on the PC Engine system Mr. Raroo?
“I was just enjoying a little Last Blade action the other day. Talk about Retronauts fuel…
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If someone’s dyin’ for some Last Blade action, wouldn’t it be more sensible to pick up the second one for the Dreamcast? I mean, I hear it’s not as good as the original version, particularly the soundtrack, but for the most part I’ve heard SNK did a decent job on it’s DC ports.
Hey, at least your system is working perfectly well. The PC-Engine+CD suitcase combo I got a while ago had controller input reception issues, so I sold it off to a guy with system modding and fixing experience. (He even does S-Video mods on Turbo/PCE systems, oh yes!)
And yeah, you know where I stand on Drac X: Rondo of Blood: bee’s knees. Super Metroid, Tetris and Super Mario 3 are the only three games that top it in my book.
TheSL: I have a Turbografx-16 with CD system and the Super System card and it runs flawlessly.
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Torgo: Totally worth getting, in my opinion. I have both the AES cartridge and the Dreamcast version (US version). There are some issues in the Dreamcast port that are quite minor in my opinion, namely the “white” blood in the US version and the slightly delayed sound effects, but the game feels the same to me on Dreamcast and Neo Geo. That said, I’m not uber-hardcore, so some purists will probably argue otherwise. Price-wise, you can’t go wrong on getting the Dreamcast port, in my opinion, especially considering the alternative (unless you count emulators and ROMs or whatever, which I’m not really into).
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I’ve read that the Dreamcast Last Blade II is better than the PS2 port, too (though that one has both Last Blade games on it, so it’s a good deal).
Man, you could give me a car made of hundred-dollar bills and I wouldn’t have enough money to collect Neo*Geo. Nor would I be interested; I lost interest in fighting games ages ago.
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P.S. Raroo — congrats! I’ll send along some Nintendo games in my package so you’ll have something appropriately “kiddie” in the house.
Oh, there’s quite the subculture of Neo-Geo cart collectors out there. I know one of them too. He even has the elusive NG version of Super Dodge Ball. He certainly has his ways of finding great deals/trades. Guess it’s necessary when you balance all of that with other systems such as the PCE and Saturn.
Man, I’ve wanted that game for, like, ever.
Jeremy–Thanks for the congrats and the Nintendo games. :-)
I say – if it was caught on camera, then it’s a valid business expense. Chaaaarge it!
But… it’s not Metroidvania! I don’t even know if Richter can bend his jumps!
SOTN couldn’t have ripped off Rondo of Blood that badly. At least, the shock can’t be much compared to watching a speedrun of Rockman and Forte (Super Famicom version PLEASE) after having played through Megaman 8 at least once.
SOTN couldn’t have ripped off Rondo of Blood that badly.
You obviously never played Rondo, because, yes, yes it did. I think pretty much every enemy in Rondo shows up in SotN (excluding some bosses and maybe three or four regular enemies) and some levels are basically updated Rondo levels. SotN was very much a sequel to Rondo of Blood and it shows.
I don’t get it. If it’s likely to be available for download on the Wii, why pay high E-bay prices for Dracula X?
Wow. And here I always thought jparish played PCECD Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. But then I did wonder why he never pointed out that the game was complete old-school castlevania experience with the brilliant addition of level splitting and the secret areas ending with a completely different stage boss and stuff like that. Because as far as innovation goes, Rondo of Blood has it in spades. And like some sort of top-secret weapon, the new stage design concept was assassinated and a dummy SNES ‘rondo of crud’ was produced and distributed in the US so everyone not in the know who heard the title ‘Dracula X’ would immediately mistake it as a crappy SNES game and think of you as a total retard for thinking it was ever good. EVER.
What makes you think Rondo will be available on Wii? Oh, right… because you’re you.
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I had played about five minutes of Rondo via PSP emulation, but it wasn’t a very satisfying experience so I never played any further than the first golem thing.
jparish: Considering all the Castlevania games they’ve been financing lately, you think Nintendo would cut a deal with Hudson just for Bonk’s Adventure?
As far as splitting paths go, not to mention alternate characters, it was Dracula’s Curse that got the ball rolling. DC also has an advantage as far as branching level paths go. Still, Drac X: Rondo of Blood makes up for it with everything else it has going for it. Still the best in the series in my book.
Eh, never played Dracula’s Curse. That explains my ignorance ;)
But Dracula X, man! Totally blew my mind when I first dug into it!
Huh? Nintendo financing Castlevania?
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There was a Bonk’s remake on Gamecube (and PS2) in Japan that was pretty decent. Well, at least I enjoyed it, even if I would’ve preferred Bonk’s Revenge.
Mister: Well I mean tby financing is that Nintendo obviously pays for the rights for the exclusive games we’ve seen on GBA and DS.
yeah, the turbo duo i saw in akiba was stupidly expensive, and bulky enough to make me just kinda put it back. i figured that you’d find one yourself soon enough.
btw, i’m coming by with three things for you either tomorrow or thurs.
“Man, you could give me a car made of hundred-dollar bills and I wouldn’t have enough money to collect Neo*Geo. Nor would I be interested; I lost interest in fighting games ages ago.”
I’ve always wondered why Neo-Geo never made a system with a six button controller…
Nintendo will have TurboGrafx games on Wii, yes. But Turbo Duo games? Not so likely. That’s a big-ass download and the system only has 512 MB of storage space built-in while a CD-ROM tops out at 600.
Actually, it’s already been confirmed that in Japan at least, CD-Rom games will be available. And that’s more than possible, given that most of the data on each TGCD was in the form of redbook audio tracks, which could easily be compressed. Let’s not forget the expandability via SD cards and (reportedly) USB hard drives.
Now that you have RoB, you can experience the original Behemoth chase in preparation for its glorious reprisal in Portrait of Ruin.
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One of my favorite aspects of this game is that there are numerous segments that build suspense and convey drama without need for a cut scene. They don’t always mesh perfectly with gameplay the way classical Metroid storytelling does, but they’re highly entertaining nonetheless. My favorite example is the theatrical performance Death puts on, both in the prologue and during the showdown much later in the game. But since you’re playing through for the first time, I’ll hold off on the details.
Are Duo games really confirmed? All I’ve seen so far is speculation and rumor.
De(a)mentia (deamentia.1up.com), one of Hudson USA’s employees, told me that they are confirmed for VC in Japan. They’re still working it out over here I believe.
You’re selling R.A.D.? :-(
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There are a couple there I might be interested in. I just e-mailed you.
I’m going to go ahead and ask a very stupid question: Any chance Suikoden I and II for the PSP has an english text option?
Oh man, a Mini-Pato game? Pity I don’t have a PSP, or I’d probably succumb to the temptation. Having just picked up a DS, though, I don’t think there’s much chance of one appearing in my future.
I’d be interested in Radiata stories and/or Romancing SaGa for the right price.
Jeremy, my comments keep registering as spam. Is this a personal thing or something? I can not comment on your blogs anymore if, um, you really don’t want me to.
GATSU–I’m going to do what few seem willing to do anymore (but I’m going to guess Aaron was attempting) and talk directly to you.
No, Nintendo does not pay Konami money to make Castlevania games on the DS. That is not how the industry works, and if you think it does, then you are confused. Iga likes 2D, and 2D is only happening on the DS, pardner.
As for this Bonk’s Adventure, do you mean the Bonk’s Adventure that was SHOWN AT E3 and later CONFIRMED BY HUDSON AS A VC LAUNCH TITLE? Because if that’s the game you meant, you might want to throw down some preorder cash on a Wii. Pronto.
Nope. Brand spanking new Bonk I believe.
man, playing sonic and bonk on the wii at e3 felt almost blasphemous. but man, i fucking loved it. i even attracted a crowd as i spun through the green hills.
Tomm: If that’s not how the industry works, then why is there an upgrade of SOTN for the 360?
GATSU: You should probably stop confronting people who actually work in the industry and understand its workings about things you clearly know nothing about. Unless you want to sound like an idiot. That’s fine.
Of COURSE Nintendo gives 3rd party publishers tons of cash to keep their games exclusive! How else do you think Tomm was able to buy that new Ferrari or pay for all those “fast women” he’s famous for? “Keep Trauma Center on DS and hold back a PSP in exchange for this million dollar check? No problem!” That’s totally how the industry works!
Does it work that way with actual consoles, too? “Here’s fifty bucks. Don’t put a touch screen on the PSP.”
jparish: So you’re saying publishers actually WANT to lose money on consoles? That certainly explains the continued “support” for UMD…
Raroo: I think it’s more like, “We need to beat the PSP, so give us something gimmicky, but edgy, so we don’t continue to lose the 18-25 demo!”
“people who actually work in the industry”
You mean, when I write my silly jokes in here, they’re being read by celebrities? OMG!*blush*
Parish–I apologize for having you remove your filter just for this.
Dude, seriously, Gatsu, if that’s how the industry works maybe you could explain to my why Sony has to approve every title on its consoles and rejects plenty of titles that gamers reading this blog would enjoy. Because I, for one, would like an explanation. (PROTIP: Nintendo does not require concept approval–you can publish whatever you want there).
If Nintendo wants a certain type of game on a console, they make it themself. Not recruit 3rd parties to do it. Though I’d love all that money.
SotN is on XBox cause Konami likes the idea of making money for as little effort as possible–just like all corporations and human beings in general. Is that a difficult concept to understand? OMG GLOBAL CONSPIRACY MICROSOFT BOUGHT KONAMI!
No wonder MGS4 is 360 exclusive.
OMG! I think GATSU is Sushi X!
Just a thought:
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Does anyone else remember EGM having a “rumor” that the PSP would have a port of SotN? I wonder if this XBox port is the result of that. Perhaps Konami updated it with a higher resolution, sat on it, then said “Hmmm… XBox Live sure is profitable!” and voila! HD SotN.
Tomm: “Dude, seriously, Gatsu, if that’s how the industry works maybe you could explain to my why Sony has to approve every title on its consoles and rejects plenty of titles that gamers reading this blog would enjoy.”
I’m guessing it’s because what works in Japan doesn’t necessarily work here. (See Mr. Mosquito.)
“Nintendo does not require concept approval–you can publish whatever you want there”
You couldn’t publish whatever you wanted on an NES system 20 years ago…
“If Nintendo wants a certain type of game on a console, they make it themself. Not recruit 3rd parties to do it. ”
So RE4 is a Nintendo game?
“SotN is on XBox cause Konami likes the idea of making money for as little effort as possible–”
But Konami wouldn’t make much money, so what’s the point?
Technically, all they need to do is have their virtual console able to use compressed audio in place of Redbook and set aside just a little bit of “swap memory” on the 512MB flash so that they can use compressed images of these CD games.
The Wii has around 96MB total RAM. Let’s consider Sonic CD, which is ~120MB uncompressed of game data (excluding audio). We compress the Redbook tracks down to like 40MB, and the game data down to 40MB — so that’s 80MB total (about the size of five bigger N64 games). The game data could decompress most of itself to RAM, with the remainder landing in swap space. The audio would simply stream from the flash storage during game play.
I seriously doubt Rondo of Blood would require much more space than Sonic CD. Yeah, it’d be easier to have a library of TG16 games than TurboDuo games on your Virtual Console, but it can be done. Whether it *will* be done though is another story.
I can’t wait for the upcoming GATSU, Toastyfrog, Tomm podcast!
I bought the PC Engine Duo/ Rondo set-up about 2 years ago as well Jeremy- just glad for your sake you are taking the game one level at a time…I had finsihed the entire thing within 7 hours of receiving it in the post :
Yep its fantastic and yeah I am glad to own an official copy…
but man, that sure was a lot of money to fuel my castlevania lust :
“You couldn’t publish whatever you wanted on an NES system 20 years ago…”
Why are we having this argument then? Sony doesn’t even publish video games!
As for the Wii. The VC isn’t a series of emulators so much as it’s old games playing on the Wii. Anything the Wii can run is technically a VC candidate.
Tomm: “Why are we having this argument then? Sony doesn’t even publish video games!”
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/13124.html
I thought developers resented the license system from the NES era. I naturally assumed Nintendo stopped using it somewhere in the recent past.
Tengen got away with publishing whatever they wanted… “got away with” being a relative term, of course…
“http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/13124.html”
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The first thing on that list is from 1994, which is 8 years in the future.
GATSU, are you… are you inbred?
jparish: No, just recovering from bronchitis at 26, without ever having smoked in my life. What’s your excuse for your paper-thin magazine no one reads anymore, except people who don’t have internet access to The Magic Box?
http://www.the-magicbox.com/ is actually a cool site.
Paper-thin…? Huh? What are you even talking about?
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For the record, bronchitis does not affect the brain and is therefore no excuse for being stupid.
jparish: “Paper-thin…? Huh? What are you even talking about?”
EGM?
“For the record, bronchitis does not affect the brain and is therefore no excuse for being stupid.”
I dunno. Defending a guy who says Sony doesn’t publish games as someone who knows more than me sounds pretty stupid in retrospect, doesn’t it? Particularly since, as you claim, he’s supposed to be an “industry” person, and should at least get that right.
“Defending a guy who says Sony doesn’t publish games as someone who knows more than me sounds pretty stupid in retrospect, doesn’t it?”
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That’s in the magical world of twenty years ago, which was brought up by, um… you, I believe?
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Yeah, I know you’re not supposed to feed the trolls. Sorry about that.
DerHasser: I was referring to Nintendo 20 years ago, not Sony.
Look, the whole interchange went like this:
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Tomm: “PROTIP: Nintendo does not require concept approval–you can publish whatever you want there”
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GATSU: “You couldn’t publish whatever you wanted on an NES system 20 years ago…”
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Tomm: “Why are we having this argument then? Sony doesn’t even publish video games!”
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GATSU: “Defending a guy who says Sony doesn’t publish games as someone who knows more than me sounds pretty stupid in retrospect, doesn’t it?”
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Are you really unable to see why you’re coming off as a bit stupid, or are you just up to your old trolling ways?
I sense anger. This is ToastyFrog.com, our source of sardonically presented game news!
Wow, I take 1/2 day off of looking at Toastyfrog’s site and it turns into “GATSU vs THE WORLD.”
Hey man, enjoy the DUO! It’s a shame it won’t play Tailspin, but I’m guessing you’ll get over it.
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Getting a consolized MVS is the way to go Neo-Geo IMO. You pay more up front but the carts are much cheaper. That of course doesn’t change the percentage of fighting games on the system. Still, Nightmare in the Dark, Magical Drop III, Neo Turf Masters, Blazing Star and the Metal Slug series are pretty sweet…
The Magical Drop girls are hawt.
It’s more like “GATSU vs. the human brain.” But maybe one day he’ll join us, here in the land of… Not Retarded.
Finally! I have my idea for a video game:
Adventures in the Land of Not Retarded: So You Want to be a Thinker?
Wait… Jeremy doesn’t have any kind of Neo either? Well, if you ever get an MVS I can send you a small box of games to work through. Also, not all of them are fighters, there are many hidden gems in there.
Tailspin and Darkwing Duck were the last TG-16 games I wanted before I just gave up on the system and got a Genesis. I never got to play either, but at least I still have the memories of Bravoman to keep me warm at night.
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There is a spot in my living room that is calling out for an MVS cabinet, and i’m not sure how much longer I can hold out…
I would conceded to GATSU’s demand and host an argument of Nintendo 20 years ago vs. the Sony of today–but they’re the same company! Neither wins!
I held on with my Turbografx through a big part of the Genesis vs. SNES era and eventually got a Super System card + Gates of Thunder. At the time, I was completely amazed and I still regularly play it to this day. When I went to Software Etc. (or whatever it was called back in those days) to buy Lords of Thunder the clerk told me I was the only person who had purchased a Turbo game there in months.
“Adventures in the Land of Not Retarded: So You Want to be a Thinker?”
I would be disappointed if the floating disembodied head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima were somehow not incorporated into this theoretical game.
Though I’m still holding out hope that he will be the final boss equivalent of Master Hand in the next Smash Bros. title.
“I would be disappointed if the floating disembodied head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima were somehow not incorporated into this theoretical game.”
Of course, Dr Kawashima must be present – but the difficulty is deciding between his presence as your evil arch nemesis (after all, he IS a disembodied head), or your sage cohort who pops out of your pocket to tell you what to do next…
Or you can always go the Zombie Nation route and play as the floating head.