[PSP] Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for PSP

Last night in Konami Gamer's Day, it was announced that Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, one of the most popular entries in the Castlevania series (and the only one to not come to NA) would receive a 2.5D remake for the PSP.

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3156904

The remake will feature completely redone graphics, an updated soundtrack, CG cutscenes, artwork by Ayami Kojima, and even possibly some alterations to the story (Maria's "Dark History"?).

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/8896

Don't fret if you don't like the updated look for your favorite classic; the original is also included, as well as the Saturn port of Symphony of the Night. Those two games will also feature a new localization ("Have at you!").

Another cool addition is the ability to "collect" music from all three games, and then use those songs to customize whatever BGM you want to use on the Rondo of Blood remake. This sounds extremely cool in concept.

RoB was one of my top picks of games that I always wanted to play, but couldn't. I finally managed to give the original a try thanks to a burned ROM and instructions from GFF (never got to finish it though, as I lost the disc as well as the page with the instructions). The game still holds up extremely well today, and has laid the groundwork for a large amount of SOTN's content. This game needs your money.

Discuss. And also, do you prefer the oldschool anime style

or the new gothic style?

I like my Maria sugary sweet and cute, but this new sadder version could be interesting if the story demands for a more tragic story.

Well as a True Rondo of Blood fan, who cannot be impressed to see a remake of this? Honestly..I wanted to see Ricther in his white headband look but oh well. The CG looks nice for a psp game. Definately something to look forward to.

Impressions - Everything
Dissapointment - US release later than fall 2k7 >=/.

Where does it say anything about the NA date? Haven't the recent Castlevanias all arrived around the same time here as in Japan? Didn't NA received a couple even before Japan did?

Well I guess it's not right to say that it won't come out fall 2k7 for us. Maybe it will come out for us this fall as well. Probably cause of the Logo. I thought it was originally Akumajo-something and not Castlevania.

They decided to keep the Castlevania name for all future iterations in Japan after Lament of Innocence.

Maria better be playable as she was in the origianal Rondo of Blood. She was way fun to play..

I'd say with a 1000% certainty that she will be (one of the videos even shows that you acquire her the same way as in the original). The question is will her cutesy spells will be given a darker new look as well.

I also wonder what her relationship with Annete will be now. Originally, they weren't actually sisters (hence the blue hair on Annete), Maria only addressed her as "sister" (just as she calls Richter "brother"). But since Dracula X (snes) and onward, they've been sisters officially (thus Annete having blonde hair).

The thing is, it has also been said that Maria is a distant cousin of Richter, so since Richter marries Annete before SOTN, isn't he marrying his cousin? :/

Originally Posted by chato

I thought it was originally Akumajo-something and not Castlevania.

As I recall, the franchise always used to be referred to as Akumajo Dracula: <subtitle> (Demon Castle Dracula) in Japan, which was translated to Castlevania for the American and European market. Then starting with Chi no Rondo (Rondo of Blood) the new games were called Akumajo Dracula X: <subtitle>. As Soldier pointed out though, they dropped that naming convention in favour of the Castlevania name in use in the rest of the world for Lament of Innocence on PS2. I'm assuming this was around the time that IGA became the series producer. I'm not sure which titles exactly have been called Castlevania in Japan, and I've also heard that after a while, they switched back to using the more familiar "Akumajo Dracula" naming scheme.

There are many exceptions to the standard naming conventions anyway. Castlevania II on the nes was just called Dracula II, the Gameboy titles used the name Dracula Densetsu (The Legend of Dracula) while Castlevania III on the NES was called Akumajo Densetsu (Legend of the Demon Castle) so the names have hardly ever been consistent.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

I'd say with a 1000% certainty that she will be (one of the videos even shows that you acquire her the same way as in the original). The question is will her cutesy spells will be given a darker new look as well.

I also wonder what her relationship with Annete will be now. Originally, they weren't actually sisters (hence the blue hair on Annete), Maria only addressed her as "sister" (just as she calls Richter "brother"). But since Dracula X (snes) and onward, they've been sisters officially (thus Annete having blonde hair).

The thing is, it has also been said that Maria is a distant cousin of Richter, so since Richter marries Annete before SOTN, isn't he marrying his cousin? :/

Speaking of SOTN, it's the Saturn version correct?

That's what one site said, while another said it was the PS1 version with the Saturn extras. Should be win-win, either way.

Quote:

I'm not sure which titles exactly have been called Castlevania in Japan, and I've also heard that after a while, they switched back to using the more familiar "Akumajo Dracula" naming scheme.

I've read that the reason for changing it was to drop the "Dracula" name, since he would eventually no longer be the main villain, as of Aria of Sorrow.

Impressive. Will look forward to this title since I even haven't played the original - which I heard was amazing.

Another game for my PSP.

Originally Posted by kainlightwind

Speaking of SOTN, it's the Saturn version correct?

Some sites do say so. If it is true, presumably since they will have to re-write it extensively to work on the PSP, it will finally be running at full speed, without all the slowdown that plagued the original Saturn version. That would be pretty sweet.

Gawd, Saturn SOTN....proof positive that not even the sega saturn, the king of 2D games in that generation, could save poor coding.

Oh man I can't wait for this, just to play Rondo of Blood. I already have the PSX version of SotN on my PSP thanks to Popstation, but it'll be nice to have the Saturn extras too I guess.

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

Gawd, Saturn SOTN....proof positive that not even the sega saturn, the king of 2D games in that generation, could save poor coding.

The Saturn's status as the king of 2D games actually was detrimental to the port in question. The PS1 doesn't do 2D. At all. It does pseudo-2D which is actually quite bizarre. I understand that what it boils down to is 2D graphics rendered onto a 3D surface.

Naturally the Saturn wasn't able to handle this kind of thing. If they'd actually created a proper 2d graphisc engine from the ground up for the Saturn port, it would a have been nothing short of magnificent.

Huh, then woun't it make more sence to port the PSX version and code in the extras to the PSX version? Cuz as far as localisation is concerend, the main issue was the crap acting, rather than the dialoge.

I just heard about this today, very good news. I'll make sure to pick it up when it comes out since I haven't played any of the games in the package.

If we want to see some REAL new Castlevanias on the PSP in the future (and we do, don't we?), we'd better all get our fat asses out there and BUY this game. Konami needs to know what we want (an original 2D Castlevania on the PSP) since they don't seem to be able to figure it out by themselves. Fuck DS, the PSP could do so much better... (as could non-handhelds, but I've already given up on seeing a new 2D Castlevania on any stationary platform).

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

Huh, then woun't it make more sence to port the PSX version and code in the extras to the PSX version? Cuz as far as localisation is concerend, the main issue was the crap acting, rather than the dialoge.

I imagine that they learned their lesson, and will code the game from scratch, according to the original design document. The PSP is more powerful than the Saturn, though, so it might be a moot point.

With regards to the localisation, I'd argue that lines such as "Die monster! You don't belong in this world!" are pretty terrible even in text, and I'd not be sorry to see them go.