Editorials
‘Castlevania: Rondo of Blood’ Remains an Inspiration, 30 Years After Its Release
With Netflix’s Castlevania: Nocturne looking like it will continue the success of the previous animated series, it’s probably not a coincidence that its inspiration, 1993’s Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Long considered one of the best, if not the best, entry in the series, Rondo of Blood paved the way for greater things for the series after its release. Even today, the game still remains an enjoyable romp, and is far more accessible now than it was back when it was released.
Set in 1792, Dracula has once again been resurrected. With the help of the dark priest Shaft, Dracula kidnaps four women on behalf of Dracula. One of those women is Annette, the beloved of 19-year-old Richter Belmont, a descendent of Simon Belmont. Richter sets out with his family’s Vampire Killer whip to rescue the four women, but also to destroy Dracula once again.
Released for the PC Engine CD in Japan, Rondo of Blood marked as a transitional entry between the classic Castlevania games, and what was eventually to come. For one, Rondo‘s art shifted from the series’ Gothic roots to a distinctly anime-influenced style. Fans were also treated to an increase in cutscenes, this time fully voiced (albeit initially in Japanese). The prologue showing Dracula’s resurrection, and the intro cutscene of Richter suiting up were perfect examples of Konami showing off the new style. That shift in style also brought with it increased detail in the graphics and animation. So much so, that many of the Rondo sprites were recycled for Symphony of the Night.
The expanded space provided by the CD format also allows for a greater variety of enemies and bosses in Rondo. We have the series standard in Skeletons, Bats, Mermen, Medusa heads, Flea Men and so on, but they now include several variants. On top of that, Richter has to contend with larger foes such as the Golems, Maneating Plant, Great Armors, Harpies and more. Likewise, the bosses battles also change it up from the usual fare that players had experienced up to that point. And for you classic fans, there’s a return of the first Castlevania bosses in a boss rush late in the game.
As an added twist, the bosses will unleash a unique final attack before dying. It won’t actually kill you, but it’s that desperation that adds a nice bit of flavour to the fight. Plus, if you’re looking to get the bonus 1up if you beat the stage with no damage, this will definitely mess with you.
The increase in graphical fidelity didn’t just end at the sprites, as the entire game was (and still is) a glorious thing to behold. Before the game even begins proper, we’re treated to Stage 0, where Richter is racing in the rain towards the town of Aljiba that’s been besieged by Dracula’s forces. Combined with the several layers of foreground and background scrolling, the sounds of the horses and the wind, it’s an incredible way to kick the game off. And of course, the sequence was tweaked and reused for Alucard’s entrance into the castle in the following entry.
From there, we arrive at the town (which is the same town from Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest), which has already been burning. Along with the burned-out houses, you can see the heat waves in the background from the fire that’s still burning, along with the embers rising in the air. It was absolutely amazing to see this sort of detail back then, and it’s still impressive even today. The quality only continues from there, with the subsequent stages having either small touches (like the moths that hover around the lanterns in Stage 3), to others being huge (like the Behemoth that crashes through the castle wall to pursue you in Stage 2). All of this detail just makes Rondo a joy to experience and play, just to see what cool stuff the artists snuck into the game.
Rondo also continues the alternate paths mechanic that we first saw in Castlevania III, but expands it further by giving you alternate routes within the stages themselves. For example, if you break a certain wall in Stage 1, and you’re able to travel from the burning village to an underground water area to battle the Water Dragon as the end boss instead of the Drake. From there, you move on to Stage 2′, which puts you on top of an Aqueduct. If you stayed on the original path and beat the Drake, you’d move on to Stage 2 in the Cemetery. Either path results in you having to go through seven unique stages that eventually end up in a fight with Dracula, but to truly experience the entire game, you need to take both paths. Luckily, Rondo allows you to save your progress once you’ve beaten a stage, allowing you to travel back to a stage you’ve beaten to try and find the alternate route.
Those alternate routes are necessary, since in order to beat Rondo of Blood in its entirety, you’ll have to rescue the four maidens who have been hidden in the stages, and can only be accessed by grabbing the key from one of the candles. One of the maidens is Maria Renard, a distant relative of the Belmont clan. Rescuing her will allow you to play as Maria, who has wildly different play mechanics from Richter.
For his part, Richter maintains the mechanics from the first three Castlevania games. He has same windup delay with his whip, and can’t control his jump in midair. Richter can control his momentum slightly with his jump, but also has a new backflip that can be used to avoid enemy attacks. Rondo also marks the first time that you can use an Item Crash in a Castlevania game, giving your subweapons a more powerful attack at the cost of more hearts. There are also no more Multiplier blocks, so you’re allowed to throw as many items onscreen as you have reserved hearts. You also now drop your current subweapon if you pick up another, allowing you time to decide if you want to keep your current weapon, or stick with the new one.
As mentioned, Maria plays very differently from Richter. Her main dove attack is quicker and attacks twice, and she’s able to double jump and slide. Unlike Richter’s subweapons, she uses animals (turtle, cat, cardinal and dragon), which correspond to the four mythological creatures appearing in the Chinese constellations. Maria also has a hidden Guardian Knuckle special attack, which precedes Alucard’s spells in Symphony. As a trade-off, Maria is weaker than Richter, and will take more damage from foes. Still, her faster movement speed and attacks make the game much easier to play.
And obviously once again, you can’t talk about Castlevania without mentioning its music. Thanks to the CD format, Rondo of Blood gave fans a Red Book Audio soundtrack for the first time, and giving the series one of its finest soundtracks ever. Composed by Akira Souji, Keizo Nakamura, Tomoko Sano and Mikio Saito, much like other aspects of Rondo, there’s once again a shift when it comes to the music. Rondo’s soundtrack largely moves away from the orchestral aspects of previous soundtracks in the series, giving several of the series’ favourite songs were given new arrangements. The soundtrack also gave fans more memorable songs such as “Cross a Fear”, “Slash”, “Den” and “Bloodlines”. Used during the final fight with Dracula, “Dance of Illusions” would go on to be reused in Symphony, as well as future entries.
The only real downside back when Rondo was released was its exclusivity. The game was available only in Japan, requiring fans to have to shell out from the back for gaming magazines for imports. Not only that, but it was released for a system that was being crushed in North America by Sega and Nintendo, keeping it in fewer hands. It wasn’t until Konami remade the game in 3D as Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the Sony PSP in 2007 that a greater number of fans got to see just how good it was. This version of Rondo was slightly altered from the original, adding in new dialogue scenes, as well as a requirement for you to find and save Annette earlier in the game, or else you would face her as a boss later on. The original version of Rondo of Blood, complete with translation and English dialogue, was hidden on the disc as an unlockable extra. Of course, you can now play this original version of Rondo, alongside the Dracula X Chronicles‘ version of Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation 4 as Castlevania Requiem.
Saying that Rondo of Blood was a game-changer for the Castlevania series is cliché, but it’s also true. It’s a masterpiece in design, with that pull that keeps players coming back for more to explore and discover something new each time you play. Rondo helped to move the series into its Metroidvania phase, which love it or hate it, reinvented the series and kept it going. And obviously, it gave us even more decades later with Castlevania: Nocturne. Even if you’re not a fan of Castlevania, Rondo of Blood deserves to be played at least once to see one of the very best action sidescrollers ever made.
With there being an overlap between wrestling fans and horror fans, it only made sense for WWE Studios to produce See No Evil. And much like The Rock’s Walking Tall and John Cena’s The Marine, this 2006 slasher was designed to jumpstart a popular wrestler’s crossover career; superstar Glenn “Kane” Jacobs stepped out of the ring and into a run-down hotel packed with easy prey. Director Gregory Dark and writer Dan Madigan delivered what the WWE had hoped to be the beginning of “a villain franchise in the vein of Jason, Freddy and Pinhead.” In hindsight, See No Evil and its unpunctual sequel failed to live up to expectations. Regardless of Jacob Goodnight’s inability to reach the heights of horror’s greatest icons, his films are not without their simple slasher pleasures.
See No Evil (previously titled Goodnight and Eye Scream Man) was a last gasp for a dying trend. After all, the Hollywood resurgence of big-screen slashers was on the decline by the mid-2000s. Even so, that first Jacob Goodnight offering is well aware of its genre surroundings: the squalid setting channels the many torturous playgrounds found in the Saw series and other adjacent splatter pics. Also, Gregory Dark’s first major feature — after mainly delivering erotic thrillers and music videos — borrows the mustardy, filthy and sweaty appearance of Platinum Dunes’ then-current horror output. So, visually speaking, See No Evil fits in quite well with its contemporaries.
Despite its mere setup — young offenders are picked off one by one as they clean up an old hotel — See No Evil is more ambitious than anticipated. Jacob Goodnight is, more or less, another unstoppable killing machine whose traumatic childhood drives him to torment and murder, but there is a process to his mayhem. In a sense, a purpose. Every new number in Goodnight’s body count is part of a survival ritual with no end in sight. A prior and poorly mended cranial injury, courtesy of Steven Vidler’s character, also influences the antagonist’s brutal streak. As with a lot of other films where a killer’s crimes are religious in nature, Goodnight is viscerally concerned with the act of sin and its meaning. And that signature of plucking out victims’ eyes is his way of protecting his soul.
Image: The cast of See No Evil enters the Blackwell Hotel.
Survival is on the mind of just about every character in See No Evil, even before they are thrown into a life-or-death situation. Goodnight is processing his inhumane upbringing in the only way he can, whereas many of his latest victims have committed various crimes in order to get by in life. The details of these offenses, ranging from petty to severe, can be found in the film’s novelization. This more thorough media tie-in, also penned by Madigan, clarified the rap sheets of Christine (Christina Vidal), Kira (Samantha Noble), Michael (Luke Pegler) and their fellow delinquents. Readers are presented a grim history for most everyone, including Vidler’s character, Officer Frank Williams, who lost both an arm and a partner during his first encounter with the God’s Hand Killer all those years ago. The younger cast is most concerned with their immediate wellbeing, but Williams struggles to make peace with past regrets and mistakes.
While the first See No Evil film makes a beeline for its ending, the literary counterpart takes time to flesh out the main characters and expound on scenes (crucial or otherwise). The task requires nearly a third of the book before the inmates and their supervisors even reach the Blackwell Hotel. Yet once they are inside the death trap, the author continues to profile the fodder. Foremost is Christine and Kira’s lock-up romance born out of loyalty and a mutual desire for security against their enemies behind bars. And unlike in the film, their sapphic relationship is confirmed. Meanwhile, Michael’s misogyny and bigotry are unmistakable in the novelization; his racial tension with the story’s one Black character, Tye (Michael J. Pagan), was omitted from the film along with the repeated sexual exploitation of Kira. These written depictions make their on-screen parallels appear relatively upright. That being said, by making certain characters so prickly and repulsive in the novelization, their rare heroic moments have more of an impact.
Madigan’s book offers greater insight into Goodnight’s disturbed mind and harrowing early years. As a boy, his mother regularly doled out barbaric punishments, including pouring boiling water onto his “dangling bits” if he ever “sinned.” The routine maltreatment in which Goodnight endured makes him somewhat sympathetic in the novelization. Also missing from the film is an entire character: a back-alley doctor named Miles Bennell. It was he who patched up Goodnight after Williams’ desperate but well-aimed bullet made contact in the story’s introduction. Over time, this drunkard’s sloppy surgery led to the purulent, maggot-infested head wound that, undoubtedly, impaired the hulking villain’s cognitive functions and fueled his violent delusions.
Image: Dan Madigan’s novelization for See No Evil.
An additional and underlying evil in the novelization, the Blackwell’s original owner, is revealed through random flashbacks. The author described the hotel’s namesake, Langley Blackwell, as a deviant who took sick pleasure in defiling others (personally or vicariously). His vile deeds left a dark stain on the Blackwell, which makes it a perfect home for someone like Jacob Goodnight. This notion is not so apparent in the film, and the tie-in adaptation says it in a roundabout way, but the building is haunted by its past. While literal ghosts do not roam these corridors, Blackwell’s lingering depravity courses through every square inch of this ill-reputed establishment and influences those who stay too long.
The selling point of See No Evil back then was undeniably Kane. However, fans might have been disappointed to see the wrestler in a lurking and taciturn role. The focus on unpleasant, paper-thin “teenagers” probably did not help opinions, either. Nevertheless, the first film is a watchable and, at times, well-made straggler found in the first slasher revival’s death throes. A modest budget made the decent production values possible, and the director’s history with music videos allowed the film a shred of style. For meatier characterization and a harder demonstration of the story’s dog-eat-dog theme, though, the novelization is worth seeking out.
Jen and Sylvia Soska, collectively The Soska Sisters, were put in charge of 2014’s See No Evil 2. This direct continuation arrived just in time for Halloween, which is fitting considering its obvious inspiration. In place of the nearly deserted hospital in Halloween II is an unlucky morgue receiving all the bodies from the Blackwell massacre. Familiar face Danielle Harris played the ostensible final girl, a coroner whose surprise birthday party is crashed by the resurrected God’s Hand Killer. In an effort to deliver uncomplicated thrills, the Soskas toned down the previous film’s heavy mythos and religious trauma, as well as threw in characters worth rooting for. This sequel, while more straightforward than innovative, pulls no punches and even goes out on a dark note.
The chances of seeing another See No Evil with Kane attached are low, especially now with Glenn Jacobs focusing on a political career. Yet there is no telling if Jacob Goodnight is actually gone, or if he is just playing dead.
Image: Katharine Isabelle and Lee Majdouba’s characters don’t notice Kane’s Jacob Goodnight character is behind them in See No Evil 2.
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