Genre: RPG
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: Fall 2007

Perhaps motivated by being asked about Rondo of Blood and the localization thereof in, at a rough guess, every other interview he’s ever had, Koji Igarashi announced in San Francisco on February 1st that Dracula X: Chi no Rondo is finally being translated for the American market.

For those who do not know, Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (often simply called Rondo of Blood) occupies a bizarre niche as the Castlevania game that was inexplicably never brought to American markets, despite its status as perhaps the best 2D sidescrolling game in the series. Its direct sequel, Symphony of the Night, was brought over; a weird half-done version of it, Dracula X, was released on the SNES at one point; and the recent Portrait of Ruin features a bonus mode starring the protagonists of Chi no Rondo for, basically, no reason whatsoever. For a PC Engine game from the early nineties that has aged remarkably poorly – everything but its basic gameplay is hilariously dated at this point, from the anime-style cutscenes to the intensely bad voice acting – Chi no Rondo is kind of a big deal.

With The Dracula X Chronicles, we’re receiving two versions of Rondo of Blood. One is the original game, which is apparently being slightly tweaked for this version. Presumably, this means they’re adding an American voice track and cleaning up the sprites.

The other version is already causing a little bit of a fuss on the Internet. Dracula X Chronicles will ship with a completely remixed version of Rondo of Blood, featuring 3D polygonal graphics on a 2D plane, as well as new versions of the main characters as drawn by Ayami “omg bishounen squeeeeeee <3” Kojima. Richter now more resembles his Symphony self (complete with his slumming-Union-soldier look), while Maria Renard has been redesigned to look more like a young girl and less like a big-eyed freakish anime stereotype.

Konami had a demo set up at their show, so I’ve played through the first level of the newly-3D Rondo of Blood. I’ve also recently acquired a Turbo Duo and a copy of the original PC Engine Chi no Rondo, because the universe hates me, and comparing the two, it’s really much the same. The new 3D PSP game plays the same as the original did, right down to powerups being in the same places. Admittedly, the 3D version seems like it might be a little easier – for example, the Blaze Skeleton at the end of the town area doesn’t leap to the attack quite as readily – but it’s early code and it’s honestly hard to tell that kind of thing.

To round out the collection, Dracula X Chronicles will also ship with a copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the same disc. This is, of course, the PSOne game that introduced the phrase “Metroidvania” to the world. Set five years after the end of Rondo of Blood, it stars Alucard, the son of Dracula and one of the protagonists of Castlevania III, as he journeys into the castle to find out what’s happened to Richter. It’s one of the greatest PSOne games, and Igarashi hinted that he’ll be making “some additions” to Symphony for its rerelease. What this means – playable Maria? more areas in the castle? a remixed soundtrack? the legendary extra ending? – has yet to be seen, though.

This is probably going to move some PSPs. Rondo of Blood is the best Castlevania game that no one’s ever played; most Americans probably don’t even know that it exists. With its release for an American console, a long wait is finally over. It’ll be coming out in the fall of 2007, and I may buy three copies.