The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) has come and gone, and while we received a lot of updates for upcoming games, as well as announcements for some new ones, there was one in particular that fans were hoping for. Well, two actually: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood. It was reported last week that both games were rated by the Games Rating and Administration Committee of Korea, going by the name Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood, as collection. This appeared to make a reveal at the 2018 TGS inevitable, but the event came and went with no official announcement. Regardless, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has just updated their website to now include the game for the PlayStaton 4 with a Teen rating.
The rating itself isn’t necessarily important. What’s noteworthy about this is that the ESRB only rates video games that are intending to release to the general public, therefore all but confirming that Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood will be coming at some point. For those who are unfamiliar with these titles, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood was first released for the PC Engine back in 1993, and would later be ported to the Super Nintendo. You play as Richter Belmont who traverses Dracula’s Castle in search of his love, Annette. The game was well received at the time, noting its improved visuals over Super Castlevnia IV as well as the many different pathways the player can take throughout the castle.
While fans were more or less content with the state of the series at this point, no one could have predicted what was going to happen next. In 1997, the next game in the series, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was launched on the PlayStation, and would go onto be universally acclaimed by the gaming community world wide. A direct sequel to Rondo of Blood, you play as Alucard, Dracula’s son, who is trying to figure out why his fathers castle has risen up again after Richter’s disappearance. Filled to the brim with amazing 2D visuals, an outstanding musical score, a gargantuan map, and an insane amount of secret rooms and bosses, the game was one of the reasons to own a PlayStation. It is now considered to be the best game in the franchise, as well as one of the greatest video games of all time.
Both games have already been bundled before for the PlayStation Portable as Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles in 2007, where they were slightly updated with some new features and sound effects. Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood will more than likely have the same tweaks, so don’t go into this expecting the 1993 and 1997 release version of these games. We’ll just have to wait for an official announcement from Konami, hopefully sooner than later.