Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (1998)

[悪魔城ドラキュラＸ月下の夜想曲]

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya
Director: Hiroshi Miyata
Platform: Sega Saturn

Overview:
Dracula's castle returns mere years after his defeat at the hands of Richter Belmont and the Count's dhampir son Alucard reemerges to put his cursed bloodline to rest.

Gameplay:
This was the first title in the Castlevania series to adopt the Metroidvania style of gameplay that would be a hallmark of the series until director Koji Igarashi left Konami. As someone who was never that big on series' original style who considers Super Metroid to be one of the best games ever, I welcomed this change with open arms. In the main game, you have RPG-style character growth and equipment to build up Alucard in addition to the core side-scrolling action platforming. With six face buttons on the Saturn controller, you control your left and right hands separately with A and C with B for jump and X, Y and Z for your transformations. L is used for perishable items, but I would've much rather it had been a quick map function. You have to access the map from the menu, which takes several seconds of load time for each step and when you're frequently checking the map, it can be a real drag. In addition to basic attacks, you have more complex special attacks with inputs similar to a fighting game (that cost magic) and your sub-weapon, which takes hearts. I mentioned transformations before. Alucard eventually gains the ability to take three different forms: bat, mist and wolf. There are a number of different actions that get unlocked as you go, such as double-jump and so on. Also, there are familiars, little helper characters that perform various functions such as auto-deploy items or fight enemies.

One of the highlight features of this version is the ability to choose among Alucard, Richter and Maria at the start of the game. Richter was a hidden character in the Playstation version, while Maria is all-new. Choosing these characters allow for a more traditional Castlevania experience. The characters are rather strong at first, but they don't scale with the enemies and so your later success is more a matter of skill. Basically it inverts the difficulty curve from the Alucard campaign. I rather like Maria as a ranged attacker.

Story/Characters:
The main story isn't too complex, but really on the previous title Rondo of Blood really started to have the story unfold as you play, so by the standards of the series at the time, this represented significant narrative strides.

Graphics:
Yes, there are a lot of sprites recycled from Rondo of Blood (that would continue to be recycled up to Order of Ecclesia), but they're good sprites, so I'm not complaining. The graphics are good overall, but there are some problems with this version. The biggest fault is the lack of transparency. Instead we get this shimmering rainbow effect, which can be distracting at times. Also, the sprites for the new enemies don't quite match the style of the original ones. I'm not the best judge of this, but I've heard there's some stretching and distortion due to the graphics not being optimized for the Saturn. Make of that what you will.

Music/Sound:
The soundtrack by Michiru Yamane is amazing and we get a few new tracks in this version. The only fly in the ointment is that sometimes when you access the menu, the music will glitch out, which is unfortunate. Voiced lines sound a bit canned, but we can chalk that up to technical limitations. (You could have higher fidelity recording, but I'm sure their priority was to take up as little disc space as possible.) You have to love Norio Wakamoto voicing Dracula. Ryotaro Okiayu also delivers a solid performance as Alucard.

Conclusion:
The original game is a classic and one of my favorites. If I ever get around to replaying it for review purposes, I can guarantee you there's going to be a "Treasure It" rating. This version, however, due to its bugs and other complications, I can't recommend as highly even though I like some of the features like having three playable characters from the start. Still, it's not the optimal experience for such a great game. Its comparative rarity makes it fairly expensive to get, but fans will definitely appreciate the experience. If you had no other way to play the game, then, yes, I'd say it's worth having, but because the Playstation version and later ports are so widely available and so much easier and cheaper to play, that ought to be the way to go.

Rating:
Play It