Rondo of Blood - Annoying and Frustrating

[AJ_Radio]

The only Castlevania game I am truly familiar with is the game on the Super Nintendo. Regarded by many to be one of the best games in the franchise after Symphony of the Night. However that is part of the classic Castlevania compilation. Thankfully this collection (Rondo of Blood and SotN) has a platinum trophy to boot.

 

That being said, I only just started Rondo of Blood yesterday this weekend and I have already been pissed off with the amount of 'cheapness' there is.

 

I knew something was wrong when I died a handful of times on only the second level. This is one of the few games of it's time (1993) to have branching paths, which I appreciate but at the same time I have been rather confused with just exactly how to find the alternate routes. Since the end of the second level I have died constantly to just about every section of the game. The enemies move in a rather weird and sometimes unpredictable pattern, and this combined with high knockback have resulted in probably 100 deaths or more.

 

This game is very difficult to play through in it's entirety as Richter, so once I freed Maria I have stuck with her the rest of the way. Even playing as her, I am finding myself wanting to slam the controller against a wall because of how fucking frustrating it is to get by in certain areas.

 

Food is only found every now and then, as is tradition to Super Castlevania on the SNES you have to break certain walls to find it. Hearts are basically ammo for your special weapons, which can definitely help in a pinch. It just doesn't come around enough.

 

I spent 30 - 35 deaths trying to kill the fifth boss before I was finally able to down him. Even with double jump Maria has a difficult time dodging those spinning scythe blades. Then I just spent the better part of 40 minutes or so going through the boss rush level 6, having to kill five bosses in a row. Having to see the Game Over sequence constantly, continue 5 - 10 times, start from the beginning of the level to work myself back is getting tiresome.

 

I'm currently on level 7 and you basically have to run left as you try to dodge and attack giant bats while at the same time moving forward to get past a falling bridge. I already died 30+ times on this level and I've been at it for 30 minutes.

 

Either quick save is pretty useless or I'm not doing it right, because using it brings you to a checkpoint, rather than being an actual save state which I think would of helped tremendously for this game.

 

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. For all you platinum achievers out there was Rondo of Blood this frustrating for you? Am I overlooking something that can make this game a lot easier?

 

I understand this is an old game from 1993 and many games from it's time were built around being difficult to make up for the short length. But Jesus Christ Rondo of Blood is frustrating, and I guess I was fooled because all the trophies for it are uncommon, and I felt "Hey, this won't be that difficult". Guess I was wrong.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Spaz

[Elvick_]

Maria is easy mode. Are you using her punch move thing?

 

If you're replaying through entire levels you definitely aren't saving properly.

[AJ_Radio]

I have a few times. Takes a little practice to pull off properly.

 

I'm mostly playing it blind. I generally look up a trophy guide for missables but other than that I like to play through most games without a walkthrough unless I am stuck.

[dieselmanchild]

On 2019-05-26 at 7:17 PM, Elvick_ said:

If you're replaying through entire levels you definitely aren't saving properly.

Sorry to necro this thread, but can you explain what “proper” saving looks like in this game?
 

I just started Rondo and as far as I can tell, you have to replay entire levels after getting a game over screen? Quick save seems entirely useless unless you need to exit the game, and whatever save state it creates is overwritten when you load back in anyways. There doesn’t seem to be any way to avoid replaying entire stages.

 

Btw I completely agree with you @AJ_Radio about the difficulty. I am getting smacked around pretty good right now. ? I never played any of the Classicvanias, or many games from this era period, and suffice to say it’s a bit of a shock to the system at first! 
 

I’d also forgotten the ‘baptism by fire’ style of these old games - there is literally zero explanation for anything. It would be nice to at least have a list of controls and character moves or special items/attacks somewhere but as far as I can tell, you’re just dropped into the world and expected to figure that kind of stuff out on your own. Thank god for the internet or I would never have discovered some of these move combos.

[AJ_Radio]

I had no idea you were playing this. Great job on Red Dead Redemption, I know that takes a bit of work to finish. I’m just waiting for the price tag to drop on Red Dead Redemption 2. 
 

Rondo of Blood is certainly rough but so were a lot of games of its era. You just have to tough it out.

[dieselmanchild]

1 hour ago, AJ_Radio said:

I had no idea you were playing this. Great job on Red Dead Redemption, I know that takes a bit of work to finish. I’m just waiting for the price tag to drop on Red Dead Redemption 2. 
 

Rondo of Blood is certainly rough but so were a lot of games of its era. You just have to tough it out.

Yeah I just started it today. And thanks! I really enjoyed RDR so I didn’t actually find the grind to be too bad. I’m really looking forward to playing RDR2 now and will be keeping an eye out for the next time it’s on sale for a decent price.

 

Rondo of Blood isn’t too bad, but at the moment I wouldn’t exactly say it’s a good time either. I’m mainly just putting up with it so I can move on to Symphony of the Night as soon as possible. I’ve been wanting to check it out for a long time now and see if it lives up to all the hype. 

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

cancervania is an absolute borechore. i will never put myself through this shit again. rondo of blood is a prime example of why game devs need to be forced to take lessons, get a license. and have it revokved after making SHIT like this. or in this case adding this fucking shit to a game that didn't need it.

 

can't even get the fucking controls right. you jump forward over a gap and just STOP moving forward, plummeting. in a boss fight, go to turn round, duck and roll fuck all happens repeatedly.

[SnowxSakura]

5 minutes ago, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

cancervania is an absolute borechore. i will never put myself through this shit again. rondo of blood is a prime example of why game devs need to be forced to take lessons, get a license. and have it revokved after making SHIT like this. or in this case adding this fucking shit to a game that didn't need it.

 

can't even get the fucking controls right. you jump forward over a gap and just STOP moving forward, plummeting. in a boss fight, go to turn round, duck and roll fuck all happens repeatedly.

That was common at the time, rondo came out in 1993 after all

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

Just now, SnowxSakura said:

That was common at the time, rondo came out in 1993 after all

yeah but throughout both games, i never have any blood mp points because my character relentlessly spams sub weapons for no reason, even though i'm not pusshing up at all. it might be the dual sense idk.

[SnowxSakura]

22 minutes ago, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

yeah but throughout both games, i never have any blood mp points because my character relentlessly spams sub weapons for no reason, even though i'm not pusshing up at all. it might be the dual sense idk.

Are you using the d-pad or the analog stick?

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

3 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

Are you using the d-pad or the analog stick?

yes for symphony. i figured it'd be ok since ps1 had analogues. but i never had any subweapons at all. no character movement issues but i spammed subs all the time. however on rondo i've only used d-pad. and yet my character periodically stops moving. most of the time i do ok because i take my time, even in endlessly spawning kamikaze segments, and i do ok but if im in a situation where i gotta haul ass my character stops responding all the time. i'll try a ps4 controller or something.

[SnowxSakura]

15 minutes ago, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

yes for symphony. i figured it'd be ok since ps1 had analogues. but i never had any subweapons at all. no character movement issues but i spammed subs all the time. however on rondo i've only used d-pad. and yet my character periodically stops moving. most of the time i do ok because i take my time, even in endlessly spawning kamikaze segments, and i do ok but if im in a situation where i gotta haul ass my character stops responding all the time. i'll try a ps4 controller or something.

Yeah, I'd recommend trying a different controller. Haven't had any issues of random stopping or subweapons being thrown

[dieselmanchild]

On 2021-07-09 at 5:05 AM, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

can't even get the fucking controls right. you jump forward over a gap and just STOP moving forward, plummeting. in a boss fight, go to turn round, duck and roll fuck all happens repeatedly.

Now that I finished 100%ing Rondo of Blood, I feel I’ve earned the right to declare this game a POS. Even with Maria (who is basically easy mode), it was still a needlessly frustrating experience and just not fun at all. Most of the game felt like it was intentionally designed to be cheap and unfair. And despite how short it was, it was exceedingly difficult to find the motivation needed to even keep playing for more than 45 minutes at a time.

 

The controls were certainly a big part of it. Lots of instances where I would accidentally perform a different action than I intended, for example. Thankfully I discovered in the main menu that you could reassign the sub-weapon input, because having it tied to a directional input + square was just idiotic and was causing me to constantly use my sub weapons by accident just by trying to move and attack at the same time. I ended up assigning it to the unused circle button which worked fantastically, and wondered why this wasn’t the default setup in the first place.

 

And there were a lot of really tiny things, such as the lack of midair control after double jumping, that drove me crazy. All the other games I’ve played up to this point have programmed me to be accustomed to slightly adjusting the trajectory of my jumps in mid-air, and having to undo those instincts temporarily was harder than I thought. I lost count of the number of times I would forget this, and then would jump off ledges or right into enemy attacks because I’d realize mid-air that you’re unable to adjust your landing as you fall.
 

I’ve only just started Symphony of the Night now, but thankfully I’m finding it to be really awesome and infinitely more enjoyable than Rondo of Bullshit, which is a huge relief because SOTN is the entire reason I bought this game in the first place. 

[SnowxSakura]

7 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

Now that I finished 100%ing Rondo of Blood, I feel I’ve earned the right to declare this game a POS. Even with Maria (who is basically easy mode), it was still a needlessly frustrating experience and just not fun at all. Most of the game felt like it was intentionally designed to be cheap and unfair. And despite how short it was, it was exceedingly difficult to find the motivation needed to even keep playing for more than 45 minutes at a time.

 

The controls were certainly a big part of it. Lots of instances where I would accidentally perform a different action than I intended, for example. Thankfully I discovered in the main menu that you could reassign the sub-weapon input, because having it tied to a directional input + square was just idiotic and was causing me to constantly use my sub weapons by accident just by trying to move and attack at the same time. I ended up assigning it to the unused circle button which worked fantastically, and wondered why this wasn’t the default setup in the first place.

 

And there were a lot of really tiny things, such as the lack of midair control after double jumping, that drove me crazy. All the other games I’ve played up to this point have programmed me to be accustomed to slightly adjusting the trajectory of my jumps in mid-air, and having to undo those instincts temporarily was harder than I thought. I lost count of the number of times I would forget this, and then would jump off ledges or right into enemy attacks because I’d realize mid-air that you’re unable to adjust your landing as you fall.
 

I’ve only just started Symphony of the Night now, but thankfully I’m finding it to be really awesome and infinitely more enjoyable than Rondo of Bullshit, which is a huge relief because SOTN is the entire reason I bought this game in the first place. 

I think you have to grow up with the classic vania games to really appreciate and enjoy them. It's a shame you didn't like it, but congrats on finishing it

[dieselmanchild]

2 hours ago, SnowxSakura said:

I think you have to grow up with the classic vania games to really appreciate and enjoy them. It's a shame you didn't like it, but congrats on finishing it

Yeah absolutely. I am actually a child of the 90s believe it or not, but up until playing Lords of Shadow last year the only Castlevania game I had ever played before was the one on N64, which I believe was actually the first 3D game in the series.
 

I didn’t do a lot of gaming as a kid either. My parents didn’t really approve of games and refused to buy them for my brothers and I, so we were part of the last generation that basically grew up playing outside all day and finding ways to entertain ourselves that didn’t take place in front of screens. Imagine that! ?
 

I got to play games here & there of course but most of my gaming experience took place at other kid’s houses. I saved my own money for years and at some point in time I bought a GameBoy colour that my brothers and I shared for a few years. We also had a PC with a handful of old games on it. But it wasn’t until I was around 12 or 13 that I bought my first console - a pre-owned N64 which was at that point quite out of date lol.

 

Most of my gaming “career” has taken place in adulthood and within the last 4 years! And I’ve been gaming like a madman and trying to work my way through lots of the PlayStation classics and popular franchises I missed out on back in the day. Regarding Rondo, I think if you grew up with this games you’d be familiar with the style, as well as nostalgic about the experiences you had as a kid. But for someone like myself going from mostly modern games to something like Rondo of Blood, it just doesn’t translate well unfortunately.
 

Luckily, SOTN is much more to my taste. ? So far I’m really enjoying it. My first ever metroidvania was Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and I remember reading that it was considered to be a spiritual successor of Symphony of the Night. So I’ve been meaning to check this one out for awhile now. I’ve played a handful of metroidvanias since Bloodstained and it has since become one of my favourite genres.

[SnowxSakura]

17 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

Yeah absolutely. I am actually a child of the 90s believe it or not, but up until playing Lords of Shadow last year the only Castlevania game I had ever played before was the one on N64, which I believe was actually the first 3D game in the series.
 

I didn’t do a lot of gaming as a kid either. My parents didn’t really approve of games and refused to buy them for my brothers and I, so we were part of the last generation that basically grew up playing outside all day and finding ways to entertain ourselves that didn’t take place in front of screens. Imagine that!
 

I got to play games here & there of course but most of my gaming experience took place at other kid’s houses. I saved my own money for years and at some point in time I bought a GameBoy colour that my brothers and I shared for a few years. We also had a PC with a handful of old games on it. But it wasn’t until I was around 12 or 13 that I bought my first console - a pre-owned N64 which was at that point quite out of date lol.

 

Most of my gaming “career” has taken place in adulthood and within the last 4 years! And I’ve been gaming like a madman and trying to work my way through lots of the PlayStation classics and popular franchises I missed out on back in the day. Regarding Rondo, I think if you grew up with this games you’d be familiar with the style, as well as nostalgic about the experiences you had as a kid. But for someone like myself going from mostly modern games to something like Rondo of Blood, it just doesn’t translate well unfortunately.
 

Luckily, SOTN is much more to my taste. So far I’m really enjoying it. My first ever metroidvania was Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and I remember reading that it was considered to be a spiritual successor of Symphony of the Night. So I’ve been meaning to check this one out for awhile now. I’ve played a handful of metroidvanias since Bloodstained and it has since become one of my favourite genres.

Ouch, castlevania 64 as your first. SoTN is great, glad you're enjoying it! There are a bunch of those metroidvania games, hopefully more of them come to modern systems

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

i switched from dual sense to ps4 controller and there wasn't much of a difference, except that the d pad was smaller and slightly easier for me to use, the controls were still amazing sometimes for a game that old, and at the same time they could easily stop working.

 

one bit specifically made me rage, the scythe boss, but once i figured out you nail him hard and keep pushing him away from you, don't let him cross to the other side and you can wear his health down fast enough to force him to stop flying around. then he's easy...

 

i really appreciated this game, afterwards in spite of the controls and stuff. it was initially designed for keyboards I guess, so key presses would struggle to translate into analogue movement. the boss rush was amazing and fun though.

 

symphony of the night was amazing.. im glad i played them, and knew I had to after overcoming the challenges with bloodstained curse of the moon 2. there was a little hidden secret game in ritual of the night that bared a resemblance to one of the first castlevanias I guess i should be grateful i didn't have to finish that in it's entirety because that was roughneck.

 

hollow knight, apotheon and slain back from hell aswel as val faris to do soon.

Edited July 11, 2021 by MatThaRiPP3R84

[Sunny]

I played Rondo a lot using a keyboard and that was a true nightmare, the more you play the easier it gets and apart from the secret level everything else is pretty doable, Maria mode is easy mode she can double jump her way and skip chunks of a level and make sure to keep Suzaku (the bird) as his weapon break is the best and it destroy bosses, Byako is also good but I only use him against regular enemies.

 

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Sunnyburrito

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

2 minutes ago, Sunnyburrito said:

I played Rondo a lot using a keyboard and that was a true nightmare, the more you play the easier it gets and apart from the secret level everything else is pretty doable, Maria mode is easy mode she can double jump her way and skip chunks of a level and make sure to keep Suzaku (the bird) as his weapon break is the best and it destroy bosses, Byako is also good but I only use him against regular enemies.

 

 

i used the dragon allot and the 2 birds. overall it was amazing I'm just glad i didn't have to kill dracula as richter because those jump timings looked brutal

[Sunny]

11 minutes ago, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

i used the dragon allot and the 2 birds. overall it was amazing I'm just glad i didn't have to kill dracula as richter because those jump timings looked brutal

It's all about patterns he moves in the exact same way and all his attacks are avoidable plus farm hearts and hydro storm the living shit out of him (same for Death) about Maria Suzaku is my favorite since he convers Maria's blindspot, Seiryu is good but his attacks consume a alot of hearts so I never bothered with him, Genbu is...well Genbu, and Byakko is good only against normal enemies, the real pain was Dracula in the original Castlevania not only was the bitch hard with a gazillion forms but the game could crash, gg been there never again.

[SnowxSakura]

4 minutes ago, Sunnyburrito said:

It's all about patterns he moves in the exact same way and all his attacks are avoidable plus farm hearts and hydro storm the living shit out of him (same for Death) about Maria Suzaku is my favorite since he convers Maria's blindspot, Seiryu is good but his attacks consume a alot of hearts so I never bothered with him, Genbu is...well Genbu, and Byakko is good only against normal enemies, the real pain was Dracula in the original Castlevania not only was the bitch hard with a gazillion forms but the game could crash, gg been there never again.

Dracula in CV1 is the easiest of the final bosses in the classic vania titles, so long as you bring holy water. It will completely stun lock his 2nd form, same with death, you can stun lock him before he can ever attack

[Sunny]

19 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

Dracula in CV1 is the easiest of the final bosses in the classic vania titles, so long as you bring holy water. It will completely stun lock his 2nd form, same with death, you can stun lock him before he can ever attack

For real? I didn't know that, I played the original Castlevania few times and all of them I suffered against Dracula.

[RoastedPeanut]

Damn, I thought Rondo was really good. I should probably expect a few complaints from the friends I recommended this to recently, haha

[Doomed_Gary]

I'm not trying to big dick this at all, but I was pretty good at Rondo. I'm not saying I'm elite or anything (I suck at games) but, let's just say, I have a very particular set of skills... when it comes to this era of 2D platformer at least. Rondo is hard because it's not like current gen, then gen before current gen, the gen before those gens, or a lot of other gens  ad on ad infinitum... until the early 90s at least. 

 

Retro games, cheap knockoff indies, and revisiting similar games via emulator got me ready to 100% SOTN+Rondo with little or no trouble. It's a different way of attacking bosses, if you aren't used to it, those bosses are going to take your lunch money for awhile... UNTIL YOU GET USED TO IT SON :<  The game isn't going to play itself on your terms through, you gotta figure out what it takes to do things the game's way.

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

2 minutes ago, nyarLOLhotep said:

I'm not trying to big dick this at all, but I was pretty good at Rondo. I'm not saying I'm elite or anything (I suck at games) but, let's just say, I have a very particular set of skills... when it comes to this era of 2D platformer at least. Rondo is hard because it's not like current gen, then gen before current gen, the gen before those gens, or a lot of other gens  ad on ad infinitum... until the early 90s at least. 

 

Retro games, cheap knockoff indies, and revisiting similar games via emulator got me ready to 100% SOTN+Rondo with little or no trouble. It's a different way of attacking bosses, if you aren't used to it, those bosses are going to take your lunch money for awhile... UNTIL YOU GET USED TO IT SON :<  The game isn't going to play itself on your terms through, you gotta figure out what it takes to do things the game's way.

i did come to appreciate, but i got pretty pissed off wth how the controls were a bit awkward in places. i really liked the log ride down the waterfall lol. have you seen this ?

 

im gunna try it some time soon. looks amazing.