VinnyVania: Rondo of Blood - Part 01

Glad to see this feature back finally!

Dracula spelled backwards is Anime.

Thx for uploading so fast!

some of us will never sleep again

awww, was still holding out hope for Bloodlines. Whatever, LETS DO THIS. I believe in you @vinny

@sawtooth: Is that a Gorillaz Reference? Nice!

ITS BACK!

I'm ready for more Vinnyvania.

Glad you decided to play Rondo of Blood proper!

It's no Bordello of Blood but it'll do.

The right choice between the two choices. Because my god, compared to Super Castlevania this game just has so much energy.

But again, down the line, DON'T FORGET BLOODLINES!!

This game is doooooooooooooope

Rondo of Blood is pretty bitchin

Really glad they chose this one, especially since he asked on twitter the other day if they should do this one or Dracula X on the SNES. I think enough of us told him to do this one! I wouldn't mind seeing them check out Dracula X too, though. It's neat to see the differences.

It'd also be nice for them do to Bloodlines eventually.

Anyway, I was surprised that none of them had seen the game before. It makes the feature more interesting, though, and I'm glad to see they're really enjoying it. I hope they spent a little extra time exploring the levels and finding the alternate stages, because that's one of the coolest things about the game.

Oh snap, so glad they're going with Rondo of Blood!!

I'll always welcome more anime on this site.

That lil girl is really cute.

I'd never noticed that the intro to "Rondo of Blood" was in German before.

Rondo of Blood is the best choice and am super happy they went with this version.

They should have Austin looking at a guide though. Not for strategies, but in order to rescue Richter's Girl and Maria and get the good ending.

German speech, Japanese subtitles and English game text. Did they just want to make sure -nobody- knew what was going on?

Pump it straight into my Vania.

I am german, but hearing german in this video was still pretty weird

If you're interested, I looked up the English translation to the introduction:

'Long ago people lived in peace and harmony. No one noticed the looming shadow among them. Their senses clouded in darkness, evil ate away at their souls. In the late hour they congregate to call the powers of Satan with sinful blood to save them from their mortal existence. Evil has once again been made flesh. He can become a bat, fog, or wolves, and feats on human blood. Lord of darkness, master of Castlevania - Dracula walks among us!'

I do love this series. Keep it up, guys!

What's also interesting about this version of the game is that they actually edited it. The German narration at the beginning is different from the original Turbografx-16 CD version. The original guy's voice wasn't as deep. Same graphics, though.

And when the werewolf boss died, it was very clear he wasn't wearing underwear in that version. They censored it in the Wii VC version.

This series is the best.

This is how all games should be localized.

I've only played the PsP Remake of this game so I sorta wanted to see them tackle that version, after seeing this in action though I'm glad they didn't. This version definetly holds up. And while I somewhat miss the newer character designs and extra added story, the seamless boss intros and sharp looking sprites are a definite plus.

It was especially fun seeing the crew getting into and enjoying the game as much as they seemed to. While I have a stronger attachment for Castlevania 3, just seeing all the good design and crazy detail put into this game makes me question myself positioning it as only my second favorite traditional Castlevania.

I might need to play this one more.

What is a Rondo anyway?

My loins burn with righteous justice.

I've been waiting for this.

Oh cool I've never seen this version of this game. Or this game at all I think...

Something I noticed that I didn't in the earlier ones is that this game has those terrible "Castlevania Hallways" where it's just a long room with a bunch of repeated encounters of tall mostly static enemies. "Hey fight this big guy. You beat 'em? Well now fight 3 more of them." Such boring level design that's incredibly common to the series. It comes up almost as frequently than Dracula being the final boss.
Is this the first of time that appears?

Featured in this video: a giant bomb!

I played the remake on PSP. It's really good.

Good lord those drums are so good.

Also, You guys need to check out Maria. She's badass, can do a double jump, and throws various types of birds at people.

I'm still disappointed that they apparently skipped Bloodlines, mostly because even if they go back to it they'll likely be disappointing because Rondo of Blood IS better so it'll be like taking a step back. Bloodlines IS an amazing game though with great music...

Dracula needs a woman in his life to ground those interior decorating ambitions.

Does anyone know the song they were playing before the stream went live? It went something like, "there's a monster in my closet! I've got the heebie jeebies!"

I've always wondered what set up the GBEast crew has going where their HD footage is almost unsettling-ly smooth.

Not sure, but they played it as the warm-up before the last two VinnyVania series (CV3 and 4) too. It's probably just called "Monster in My Closet" and it from some royalty-free music service.

Man, this game is cool! And it looks so good too. I was sorta bummed out when they did Super Castlevania IV and I thought it was ugly. Wondered if I had been wrong the whole time and 8-bit was actually prettier. Then this game comes along and it's sooo pretty.

The hottest version of Barkerville right there.

Awww yeah! Dracula might still be a threat, but he better watch the fuck out! Cause the Beast Crew is all up in this!

Wow - this is by far the best one of these they have played. Awesome!

Wow so it has a good and a bad ending ... this really is an anime game isn't it COOOOOL!

They had a sharpness to them, IV had those bland, washed-out SNES colors. Also thought Belmont looked dumb, and the music was suck-ass. The whole presentation just doesn't hold up for me at all.

I was around for the NES but didn't play those games til around 2000. And going back now, the original 3 games are just way more aesthetically pleasing to me than IV. Technically superior? Absolutely not, and I'll give them credit for trying some new things on the SNES.

But I just pulled up some gameplay of IV, and compared to Rondo (and Bloodlines) it's just balls. That cave level has parallax scrolling, sure, but it looks like you're walking through a poo mountain. And just compare the fire-breathing skeleton heads from that game to this one, they went more realistic but lost the style. Even the whip looks thin and weak. Yeah, I agree with @redhotchilimist, IV was an ugly-ass game in a lot of ways.

Alright ... as a german the beginning was hilarious.

Man, this game seems super ill. Awesome music, too!

Und keine Eier