Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (Wii)

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Description

Count Dracula, the evil Transylvanian vampire lord, is resurrected in the year 1792, a century after the brave vampire hunter Simon Belmont vanquished him. His demonic servant Shaft is sent to nearby village to kill men, abduct women, and set the village on fire. Richter Belmont, Simon's descendant, swears to free the women, among which is his fiancee Annette. He takes the Vampire Killer, a powerful whip he inherited from his ancestor, and enters the castle, hoping to put an end to the Dark Lord's reign.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is, like its predecessors in the series, an action platformer. Richter is trying to reach the end of each stage, defeating evil creatures on the way with his whip and traditional sub-weapons (throwing axes, daggers, holy crosses, etc.). He can also perform powerful "item crash" attacks with his sub-weapons. In comparison with the previous entry in the series, Super Castlevania IV, the game lacks the eight-directional whipping. As with most Castlevania games the levels consist of platforming challenges which require good timing and reactions. At the end of each stage Richter will face a powerful boss.

The kidnapped women are hidden in the castle and to find them Richter needs to uncover hidden exits which may lead to alternative levels and bosses. One of such hidden areas unlocks a second player character: Maria Renard, Annette's sister. She is weaker than Richter but has a greater agility and her own abilities such as sliding and double jumping, which allow her to find even more alternative paths. She also has her own special attacks with unique sub-weapons.

Screenshots

There are no Wii screenshots for this game.

There are 33 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "悪魔城ドラキュラＸ・血の輪廻" -- Japanese spelling
• "Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo" -- Japanese title

Part of the Following Groups

• Castlevania / Akumajō Dracula series
• Fictional character: Count Dracula
• Theme: Vampires

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Wii release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

Thunderbolt Games	Jul 16, 2010	10 out of 10	100
Mag'64	Aug 25, 2010	9.5 out of 10	95
IGN UK	Mar 26, 2010	9 out of 10	90
Nintendo Life	Mar 16, 2010		90
Jeuxvideo.com	Nov 19, 2010	16 out of 20	80

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Hello?	1	Perfil Falso (3331) Dec 28, 2011

Trivia

Audio track message

Additionally, there is a little message from Richter and Maria if you try to play the CD in an audio CD player (on the first track, anyway - the rest of the tracks are data and music.) You see, almost all PC Engine games contained a message stating that you shouldn't put this CD in a regular CD-player, because the data tracks could blow out your speakers (on really old CD players, data tracks sound like loud static.) These were normally read in a rather mundane and polite manner, so some games had fun with them. In this little bit, Maria warns Richter about this particular danger. When Richter questions how she knows this, he discovers that she was just reading off a piece of paper or something to that extent. As a quick note, Oniichan (what Maria calls Richter in the message) means "big brother" in Japanese, and is a pretty common term. It doesn't quite come out right in English.

Japanese intro translation

The PC Engine Super CD-ROM version, only released in Japan, had a spoken intro in German. Here is its original text and a translation to English:

German:

In der guten alten Zeit lebten die Menschen noch ruhig und in Frieden.

Niemand glaubte, dass es in Zukunft zu einer Bedrohung kommen würde.

Auf der Schattenseite des Friedens und des Wachstums gab und gibt es aber auch immer das Böse.

Die Menschen beginnen, das Wachstum abzulehnen und bezeichnen den Frieden als Degeneration.

Wir haben uns hier versammelt, um die Mächte der Finsternis mit unserem verfluchten Blut zu rufen.

Wir wollen, dass sie die Welt regieren.

Wir erwarten lächelnd den Niedergang der Welt.

Nach einhundert Jahren ist der Böse wieder auferstanden.

Er kann sich in eine Fledermaus, einen Wolf und Nebel verwandeln.

Er liebt die Nacht.

Er schlürft das Blut von jungen Frauen und lebt ewig.

Der Burgherr des Teufelsschlosses. Der Herr des Bösen.

Graf Drakula ist auferstanden.

Translation:

During the good old times, men still lived in tranquillity and peace.

No one believed there would be a threat in the future.

On the dark side of peace and growth, however, there was and will always be evil.

Men begin to reject growth and call peace degeneration.

We are gathered here to call upon the forces of darkness through our cursed blood.

We wish for them to rule the world.

With a smile we await the downfall of the world.

After a hundred years the Evil One has risen again.

He can turn into a bat, a wolf and mist.

He loves the night.

He sips the blood of young women and lives eternally.

Lord of the devil's castle. Lord of evil.

Count Dracula has risen again.

Mini game

If you didn't insert a System Card before start playing, a little mini-game can be played.

References

Look closely at the beginning of Stage 4'. Way in the background, you'll see in a tiny figure with a billowing cape.

Secrets

Get a key and use the item crash. Richter will jump up and yell like he normally does, but will then fall to the ground with a question mark over his head, not knowing what the hell to do.

Title

The Rondo part of the title is written with Chinese characters (kanji) "輪廻" in the Japanese version. These are usually pronounced rinne; this word is a transliteration of the Chinese lunhui, which, in turn, is a translation of samsara, a Sanskrit word referring to the circle of reincarnations in Buddhism, as opposed to nirvana. A rondo, however, is a musical form in which the main theme repeats itself several times during the course of a movement. It can be therefore seen as the musical equivalent of the philosophical term.

Additional information contributed by CaptainCanuck and Little Yoda