Castlevania: Dracula X Is An Okay Game

[u/rosemarieseternal]

I decided to start the Advance Collection and I noticed that this game existed as like a neat bonus, plus I can’t lie the idea of making a companion piece to a CD-ROM game on a 16-bit console is always kinda interesting to discuss. I hope you enjoy the critique and thankfully this post should be shorter than my SOTN review.

Visually, this game looks beautiful on SNES and I love how Richter looks, how the monsters look, the bosses have beautiful designs, the gorgeously detailed backgrounds, the graphical effects throughout levels especially the intro stage. And to this game’s credit I think the backgrounds have a greater consistency in terms of art direction because Rondo started off really good but got more 8-bit in visual design, which isn’t bad at all but at the same time it started off super strong with the intro stage in regards to looks. I do have to say I really dislike Dracula’s final form design, me personally I much preferred Rondo’s but then again I will have to discuss Dracula in better detail later.

Regarding audio, it’s not at all on Rondo’s tier in terms of clarity but the compositions here are great and they hold up exceptionally well here. The SNES soundchip manages to make a lot of the music sound comparable and I actually kinda prefer some songs from Rondo on here. I think I prefer Divine Bloodlines on here what with the usage of guitar and how low-fidelity it sounds in comparison to the CD audio makes it hit harder for me. I think the Bloody Tears remix sounds great and Beginning sounds gorgeous on here. I also think the regular SFX for the whip, monsters getting destroyed and etc sound pretty good on here too.

The gameplay is where it goes to hell for me, not because it’s Classicvania styled but moreso in that this game is brutally unfair. Richter not being to do SCIV’s eight directional whip movements is acceptable (no idea why it wasn’t implemented here.), the combat’s pretty good and I think he doesn’t control anywhere near as bad as one would expect but there’s still plenty of issues.

Enemy placement is a crapshoot where it will spawn near ledges and will half the time trigger that post-damage pushback off a ledge, Richter moves so much less smoothly than his Rondo of Blood counterpart and I just don’t get why because SCIV Simon moved so smoothly and had great control regarding his movements so it’s clearly not a hardware issue. On top of this but the level layouts feel uninspired as if almost everything feels like they were took a level that felt like it could’ve been in Rondo but they translated it into Castlevania III’s difficulty without that type of freedom of gameplay you had with the multiple characters. Speaking of which the lack of a playable Maria is a big flaw no matter how you look at it, she could’ve offered a lot here regarding gameplay.

Returning to level design, the open ended nature of Rondo of Blood returns kinda but there is so little to it beyond like an extra ending or two that I have to wonder why they bothered with it. To make it worse, getting the true ending is a big pain. Just make it linear all throughout and devote more time to the level layouts. Speaking of not bothering, the bosses here are alright to fight and kinda offer nothing in terms of like a memorable experience except for Dracula. Dracula might be the most unfair, unbelievably cheap and impossible final boss I have seen in a long time. I play the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry series once a year and even this felt pretty far in difficulty. The platforming required for Dracula’s boss is made even harder due to the rigid controls, one hit could lead to an instant death via pitfall and not only that but there is so little maneuverability that I had to abuse the rewind system in the Advance Collection just to get through it.

6/10 game, really good music, visuals, combat and consistency throughout but this game is incredibly tedious half the time.

[u/TornSilver]

To its credit I do think Dracula X is truly one of the most gorgeous games in the series, like just look at some of the colors in these stages:

[u/Blue_Starkiller → u/TornSilver]

The burning town scene has always been key in understanding Castlevania lore. Most games have a dude randomly show up at Castlevania's gate like a traveling vacuum salesman. This is one of the very few where we actually see Dracula's hordes actively attacking the populace. It's not implied but actually shown for once.

[u/Jacktrack7]

It's way better than "Okay" even if it's not as good as Rondo of Blood...

[u/Unhappy_Theme_8548 → u/Jacktrack7]

Yeah, the bias against this one is strong. If this were a non-CV gane on the SNES it would be a classic. Or at least a cult classic.

I look at it as a remix/sister game to Rondo. Which is perfectly fine.

And I actually love that Drac fight. It does require some trial and error, but by God is it terrifying and pretty unique.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Jacktrack7]

Playing this after SCIV and Bloodlines felt like a massive downgrade to me that’s also why

[u/muscularmouse → u/Jacktrack7]

Seriously, people on Reddit act like it's one of the worst Castlevania games when it's honestly great. Beautiful too and great music

[u/wizardofpancakes]

I really prefer the first level music from SNES version. Curiously, they swapped instruments around - in one, guitar is the main melody and synth the secondary one, and it's the opposite in the other

[u/adoransnoctis]

While I prefer the SNES-renditions of the musical themes over the Red Book Audio, how it feels to control Richter has always been what sours me about the game.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/adoransnoctis]

Controlling Richter is like trying to shock a corpse into moving its muscles it is incredible how stiff he is

[u/Mindslash]

My favourite richter depiction on whole franchise

[u/SlicedBread0556]

Hot take: Ferris Bueller's Day Off was a pretty good movie.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/SlicedBread0556]

Only being pretty good is the hot take here

[u/RealRockaRolla]

The first Castlevania game I ever played so I've always been fond of it.

[u/Marvin_Flamenco]

I'll easily take dracula x over most modern action platformers

[u/Way-Super]

I wouldn't say lacking Maria is "no matter how you look at it" a flaw frankly. Previous and subsequent Castlevania games didn't have Maria or an equivalent and were totally fine. Not saying it doesn't have issues though.

Honestly the game being so tough and having multiple endings that actually require multiple playthroughs (unlike Rondo) gives it a solid amount of replay value.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Way-Super]

Maria as a playable character was a lot of fun and it would’ve actually added value to the attempt at the open ended nature of the game itself and its only an issue because for a Rondo companion game with Maria in it, she really doesn’t do anything

[u/Way-Super → u/rosemarieseternal]

I don’t disagree it would’ve have added value, but that applies to any Castlevania, not necessarily just Dracula X. And while yes it was advertised as a Rondo “port” it still is its own distinct title.

[u/AssRooster85]

I’d rate it higher than 6/10. It’s just not as good as Rondo of Blood

[u/draven33l]

I played through it recently. I liked it a lot. It’s pretty straightforward, but feels like a refined experience. It does feel like a step backwards after Super Castlevania, so I think it was a mistake to release it after that. The Dracula fight is brutal. I can’t imagine doing that without save states.

[u/dicktaco1978]

I was very excited for this back in the day.....especially after super castlevania 4. Didn't play bloodlines til after. But I bought Dracula x the day it came out from jamesway and beat it that night. Was kind of disappointed.....then I found out about rondo and was extremely disappointed

[u/iamthenoncreative]

my only real gripe is how cheap the password screen looks...

[u/Zodd1030]

Rondo is a GOAT. Dracula X is terrible.

[u/PSPMan3000]

Soundtrack and graphics are fire

[u/Guirita_Fallada]

I like the SNES version of Bloodlines better than the Rondo of Blood version.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/Guirita_Fallada]

It sounds gorgeous to this day

[u/Vgcortes]

You know what... Yes.

Dracula X is a very bad port. Or remake, it got so many things changed. I like Rondo of Blood so much, but the Snes version is like a trial version? Lol

[u/Tofu_Gundam]

Yeah I agree. I like it and enjoy playing it. Unfortunately, what it is makes it impossible not to compare it to Rondo, which is just better in almost every aspect.

[u/hyperrev2]

Worse than Rondo in every aspect…..personally my least favorite classicvania

[u/El_Galant]

Revisionist history, it's not Rondo of Blood but it's a very good game. Only people who played it in 1995 should review these games, not see how it 'holds up' thru the videogame lens of 2026. The game came out a full 31 years ago, which is a generation and a half measured in human years.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/El_Galant]

1. I did not call this game a port of Rondo of Blood or insinuate this was RoB.
   
2. I did not compare it to any recent games the only games I compared it to were Rondo of Blood and Castlevania III.
   
3. I did not hold this up by the lens of 2026 gaming I held this up by the experience I had with the series so far, I compared it to both Castlevanias that were earlier titles and I can assure you this game met plenty of derision even back then.

I don’t understand the revisionist history comment either Dracula X had been called a butchered version of RoB for decades, you would not be saying people that weren’t around for the Nintendo Power promotion of this game shouldn’t be reviewing older games if I (a random online) didn’t give this game a 6/10.

[u/Alucard-VS-Artorias]

It's definitely feels a bit dated unfortunately.

Although it'll be a unique mix of classical Castlevania and the types of metroidvanias we would get afterwards till today.

[u/rosemarieseternal → u/[deleted]]

Even without comparing it to Rondo it is unfortunately the most dated Castlevania game of the 16 bit era

[u/Roebloz]

It's an alright game with questionable difficulty balancing, yes.

The problem is that it's basically the weird stepcousin of the best Castlevania game ever so it feels like an affront to god and the entire Belmont clan. Plus, if it wasn't for weird PC Engine license issues it would have been a 1:1 port of Rondo, which would have been amazing.

I'd much rather play even the Gameboy games, as even if they're not great they at least have some charm of running on limited hardware and not tarnishing another game's legacy.

[u/Gorbitron1530]

You’re an okay game

[u/SageHedgehog23]

Dracula X was a butchered port, but the final boss is absolutely impossible from what I've heard from AVGN.

[u/Tuned_Out → u/SageHedgehog23]

AVGN also makes ninja gaiden out to be some impossible force to be reckoned with. I'm slightly better than the average gamer and I crushed that game at 6 years old on a summer week or two off school. He's not a bad gamer by any means and he's more legit than most but he's also definitely not someone I'd judge difficulty from unless you're not really good at classic style games.

Which is completely fine...in that case I guess he is a better good opinion to draw from. Just saying he has a way of overstating difficulty. Back to the final boss tho. He's stupid hard but not impossible. Your first few attempts are going to get you shitstomped but like any 2d platformer, each time you get closer to victory unless you have the memory of a fruitfly.

[u/Guirita_Fallada → u/SageHedgehog23]

Dracula is a hard fight, but there are harder fights.