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From my opinion on classic Castlevania games, you will either love them or hate them. Don’t get me wrong, Castlevania games are great but the amount of “punishment” you need to endure is enough to make you throw your console out of the window. Okay I’m exaggerating about throwing the console but the fact remains that Castlevania games are hard, and this PSP release is no exception.

Dracula X Chronicles features the remake of Rondo of Blood, a classic Castlevania game that was never released outside Japan. A similar version came out for Super Nintendo in 1995 but due to too many changes, it was considered inferior to the original Rondo of Blood. Thankfully after more than a decade, owners of PSP now have the chance to play the real Rondo of Blood, in both remake and the original version.

The storyline is pretty straight forward. Shaft the Dark Priest has revived Count Dracula and its up to Richter Belmont to slay him and rescue his girlfriend. Richter’s main weapon is the Vampire Killer whip and along the way he can pick up sub weapons which includes knife, axe, cross, holy water etc.

As I have mention the game is indeed tough and it takes a bit of patience to get through this game. It’s common to retry the same level over and over again (I think I continued more than 5 times when fighting ‘Death’) but somehow, that game has some sort of attraction to make you keep trying until you succeed. Perhaps the feeling of completing a stage gives some form of satisfaction. Frustrating as it can be, I’m still hooked onto playing it.

Throughout the game, you can find secrets and hidden items which enables you to unlock sound tracks (You can set them onto any stage you like), the original PC-Engine Rondo of Blood and Playstation’s Symphony of the Night. I tried a bit of SotN and it plays pretty good. Smooth animation with great music. At the time of posting I have yet to unlock the original Rondo of Blood.

To sum things up, you get 3 games for the price of 1 and if that isn’t a good deal, I don’t know what is then. It’s hard, it’s stressful but the end result is great.