Akumajou Dracula

DISCLAIMER: The following is a copy-pasted review from my Backloggd account, transferred as-is so that this blog has some entries available

When playing the series in release order, you’ll be able to notice how Super Castlevania IV served as the basis for the entries that followed, this one being the most blatant. While not as fluid, Simon’s air traction is nonetheless smoother than the titles from before, and you’re still able to whip downard in diagonal or vertical (you can’t do upward swings, however), though thankfully enemy placement this time around does lend itself to more creative use of these greases, and subweapon utility is as important as it was in the NES days. Actually, while I’m at it, it feels like this is a remix of all preceding Castlevania titles, not just the first game or even SCIV. Throughout my trek, I was reminded of various elements from various games, from Simon’s Quest’s ghastly presence of death and gloom as you progress further in, to the Game Boy Adventures, to Dracula’s Curse’s painted glass aesthetics being incorporated into the newly mixed Cathedral (which is now Stage 4), heck even Haunted Castle gets its flowers here with the whole mirror hallway motif, surprisingly enough. The remix aspect of the x68K is the most well known thing about it, and for good reason - barrelling through each crook and cranny as I recall what’s familiar and what’s changed has been a ton of fun, and for a fair bit of its runtime, it feels so expertly crafted in how it throws itself back to the past while maintaining its own standing within the series.

I’ve seen some talk about this being one of the more difficult titles, so I’m here to make a PSA: Castlevania Chronicles’s Original Mode inflates the damage received compared to the initial x68000 release, and on the x68k’s first run, your health pool is always 16 that trickles down by one from each hit. I hypothesize that, due to this questionable intent, nearly every section I had little to no issues with, someone had a rough time if they were trying the Chronicles port due to convenience. Although, even then, I can’t help but question just how true that actually is. That Fleaman trap in the Clock Tower? Cleared no problem, even ignoring the Cross. The Giant Bat Brigade during the bridge run at the end? Well, jumps are slightly tighter this time, but you can still weave out their way and ignore them. That Axe Armor & Medusa Hallway? Made even easier! Make no mistake, I’m not saying this doesn’t have some tricks in its sleeves or anything like that, but I was rather surprised how cushy the adventure ended up being, thanks to positions being spaced out just enough to get an oncoming bead available and/or elevation differences being done in a way that ideal subweapon drops are always within your reach. Plus, all the secret block breaks or invisible item triggers feel a lot more susceptible to some cunning sleuthing than they’ve ever been too despite some trickery for the vets, so there’s plenty of room to recuperate and push onward. If you’re curious about the nuanced distinctions between the two versions yourself, check out the XM6-Pro emulator and have at it - oh, and be sure to enable the Roland MIDIs support through Tools -> Options -> (RS-)MIDI. You’ll then have a grand total of three different melodies to listen to, each with their own strengths and all thankfully being available on the Chronicles soundtrack’s second disc (the game, itself, also having it by holding L1+R1 while selecting either Original or Arrange Mode). In particular, the Roland-SC55 version of Bloody Tears and Simon’s Theme end up becoming my preferred arrangements of each track, and the LOAD BGM on the x68k sound hardware is an amazing bop in its own right.

Unfortunately for me, however, this leads into my major, utterly dooming strike - the level design, when taken altogether, doesn’t feel as polished as it should’ve been once you pass the Cathedral. Clock Tower’s pretty decent, albeit with surprise potshots here and there, and the Floating Corridor’s use of spectacular setpieces and flying minions littered about is a great boost to the adrenaline, but Torture Chamber/Lab contrains a ho-hum first half with a somewhat meek second half, and even Dracula’s Tower doesn’t remotely capture the “final clash” vibe that the original and even SCIV were able to provide so easily. Hell, on that note, the whole boss roster is an incredibly mixed bag: Giant Bat is Giant Bat, Skull Dragon is pathetically and insultingly a joke, Wizard’s pretty cool with how it incorporates pillar platforming to dodge and hit him (serving as a precursor to two of Bloodlines’ major adversaries, even!), Medusa can be squashed with brute force and meek jumps due to how non-threatening her attacks are, the Werewolf and Doppelganger are enjoyable yet rather frantic fights that are far and away the highlights purely because I had to like, actually think and react quickly. This, of course, means I didn’t like going against Dracula this time around, due to his latest incarnation being quite possibly the lamest of all the Classic titles, maybe even the whole series. Jumping to deck his face is so generously timed, you can easily abuse it to avoid incoming projectile, with the second phase not being any better due to an egregious hitstop application from each attack dealt, and his arsenal of blows are also easy to either dodge or tank. Sure, I had the Triple Shot Cross and (during recurring tests) the Holy Water, but I didn’t have to use them because of how bafflingly lax his duel was - shit, at least SCIV, Bloodlines, and Rondo Of Blood actually asked the player to pay attention despite those also being on the painless side. I read during setup that repeat Quests sprinkles more and more modifications sprinkled into the mix, ranging from increased enemy count, how fast and/or how many projectiles someone throws out, and of course increased damage, but I dunno… I feel like some of those should’ve just been done by default? Either as like, toggle options or full-on mode selections? I’m all for having ways to incentivize replayability and, in turn, higher levels of play, but I’m also getting real sick of the philosophy of “playing an entire game once = harder mode unlocks” that ends up accentuating the problem instead of addressing it.

While I did end up preferring this over SCIV’s to point of legitimate fondness (though, given my staunch and unpopular opinion against that entry, I don’t think this matters much), this ended up reaching the same conclusion: for all the good available, there’s just not enough to justify why I should play this over the original on the NES. It’s certainly better paced than some of the other entries - 8 stages in total, all feeling exactly where the climax and endpoints are - but even then, it’s not as captivating as, say, Bloodlines’ two character routing options, or RoB’s intricate and exciting forays within the new land, or Dracula Curse’s multiple character pickup and utility changes. In fact, to be honest? I kind of prefer Dracula X in a way. While it inevitably fumbles out once you reach the end, as well as sharing the same pitfall of “long hallway with TWO elevations to go through” constructions, it at least goes all-in on establishing just how different from RoB it truly was, instead of settling on a “jack of trades, master of none” approach that struggles to hold together by the halfway point. Gonna hope that Chronicles’ Arrange Mode gives it some pep in its step, and hell maybe Original Mode’s stark changes could end up having me prefer it.