I finally got to borrow a version of Dracula X, so I rushed home to try
the game out for the first time. This e-mail is really for all of you out
there that haven't played the game, not necessarily for those of you that
have...
Really what surprised me at first about Dracula X was it's similarity
with Symphony of the Night in the beginning and largely throughout. Now I'm
not referring to the opening cinema, but for example the background music is
a similar classic/gothic ocapella. I was also surprised to see that it ranks
just how much of the game that you've opened up on one of three saved
accounts. With the money that you get, you can buy new options and items it
would appear.
As for the opening cinema, it was pretty much the classic slide show of
old Turbo games. It was nice to see much of the cinematic done in some full
screen. What did surprise me about the game was that the opening narrator
speaks in German with Japanese subtitles, which was especially cool for me
since I understand that language.
What surprises I found in just the opening of the game were nothing
compared to what lay ahead when I actually popped the game in. First and
foremost, this game isn't even CLOSE to the SNES version. Having owned that
version and beaten much of it, I was shocked at the differences in the
versions. For example, the SNES version has you starting out in a burning
town where you basically jump from one ledge to another and run away from
some boss that eventually falls in a pit you hopefully make it over. The
Turbo version doesn't even start there. No, first you're on a coach attached
to two well animated horses. You hear the rain beating down, you hear the
horse as they run at full steam to your destination... Suddenly an eerie
image of some ghoul appears far in the background out pacing you.
Death appears before you and challenges you while you are riding on the
coach at full speed. Then you get into the village, but the village is
really nothing like the SNES version. If anything, the game looks extremely
similar to CastleVania 2: Simon's Quest where the town is largely vertical.
Skeletons burst out of the windows in the background, courtyards in the city
look extremely deep with what appears to be multiple layers of parallax. And
then the boss and mid-bosses... The people that made the SNES version of
Dracula X must have hung their heads in shame to see how poorly their version
stacked up!
Later you begin battling through the outer wall of Dracula's castle and
enter the main hall way, very similar to SotN again (and somewhat like the
SNES version). You don't have time to look around for too long as soon a
huge impenetrable boss begins charging you ala the SNES version. It's almost
as if the SNES developers knew they could only fit in a small segment of the
game, so they compressed it as best they could. From there... Well, this
e-mail is already getting too long. =)
Other observations? Well, the music is not SotN caliber, but I can see
why for the time it was regarded as one of the finest out there. A lot of
the music you find in this game were improved upon in SotN, so that
contributes a lot of course to SotN's outstanding score. I was also
surprised by the multiple paths in the game. Then the game's difficulty
level... Remember how I said I beat the SNES version? This game has got to
be at least twice as hard.
Finally, I've knocked on the SNES version a bit here, but to it's defense
the graphics in that version can be better than this game. Now let me
explain before I get a bunch of rebuttals from some of you that played this
game and are reading this long e-mail. There are things in the SNES version
like Mode 7 fire effects that are not in the Turbo version. To the
developers credit, they did make a few graphical enhancements that
accommodate the SNES hardware. Secondly, the SNES actually seems to have
more vibrant colors in parts... I don't believe I've ever said that about any
port from a Turbo. Now the game does not have the parallax and the number of
animations found in the Turbo, but some of what the SNES version does is
quite good.
So is the game worth $175 on Ebay? No, I'm not that much of a game freak
to shell out that kind of money for a game, but I doubt most people that pay
that kind of money for the game are looking to play it rather than just
collect it. Gamers should, however, try to play this game if they have the
chance. It still stacks up quite well against the 3D games of today... It is
a classic, it is timeless.
Hopefully gamers will get one more chance to play this game when Konami
eventually releases a CastleVania collection... Well, here's hoping they
release one of those at least. ;)
Later.