Simply put, Rondo of Blood is the kind of game that remains as fresh as the day it was released, which is ironic considering all the rotting corpses about in the game itself. Unlike Bloodlines/New Generation, this is firmly rooted within the franchises canon. It’s really as you’d expect, however, which is good and/or bad depending on your personal fandom of the series. You’re a Belmont, Dracula’s still a douche, so you gotta go slayin’ some minions to save the folk you love. Some of the folk that the dastardly Dracula has abducted includes Richter’s girlfriend, a nun and a doctor’s daughter. No, that wasn’t leading into a joke. One of those captives however is Maria, a young girl you can play as once rescued, breathing fresh life into the situation, with here strange abilities to control animals and whatnot. She’s a witch! Burn her! Sorry, obviously been hanging around in Salem too long (get it? Lulz). Anyway, it’s mostly standard as all heck in terms of plotting (though surprises are definitely present), but that’s where the standardness ends. 

As presentation? That’s where it’s at. Fully utilising the system for which it was made, the game features really rather cool, semi-animated cut sequences to flesh the story further. Trouble for me is, I don’t speak German nor read Japanese, and so I’m pretty screwed there. But don’t let that put you off! As video games (as their format titling should suggest) are a visual medium and if you can’t get to grips with what’s going down, on at least a basic level, you should probably put the controller down. It aint for you, kid. The system itself allowed for use of Red Book audio, much like the Mega-CD and Konami were wise enough to combine it with the standard chip support, which elevates the sound design to a whole other level far beyond what many rivals could reach at the time. The general level design is rather linear, but everything feels perfectly placed. Even the menu’s cool, with the skulls replacing dots in the player name entry boxes. It really is the little touches that put this over the edge, but I should really come back to some of that later. Yet, just believe me. The presentation is immense

The best example I could possibly give of you immediately knowing you’re in good hands, is the way Richter Belmont is rockin’ the horse and cart, before ATTACK. Stupid Death, always getting in your way and shiz! The fact no music is playing, with the heightened sense of tension, coupled with the glorious graphical features of the sprites on screen, the flashes of lightening and the sound of the frantic hoofs of the horse. It’s seriously great. It took me a back. I truly wasn’t expecting this epic kind of opening, following a flashy cut sequence that intro’d the game. This is all before stage 1 actually begins!! Props, Konami. You’ve won me already.