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/vr/ - Retro Games

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5534272 No.5534272 [Reply] [Original]

Did NEC have some kind of exclusivity deal for Rondo and that's why it was never ported to other consoles? That would explain why the SFC version is a totally reworked game.

Porting Rondo to the PlayStation/Saturn would have seemed totally obvious. It could have been marketed as "come play the prequel to Symphony of the Night".

When Castlevania Chronicles was announced, everyone thought it was gonna be a port of Rondo, not the more obscure Sharp x6800 game.

>> No.5534617

>>5534272
I can't say really speculate much as to why it didn't get ported to the Playstation or Saturn but the SFC version was obviously due to hardware differences. Rondo took advantage of the CD format heavily with it's audio and the animated cutscenes which would have been impossible to translate as they were to SFC hardware. It was probably easier to just make a brand new game then strip out everything that relied on CD's storage capacity. Although that does go back to your original question as to why it wasn't just a straight port with reworked music and static still images for cutscenes instead of animation. Going to once again say that it was probably a storage space issue.

>> No.5534631

>>5534617
>the SFC version was obviously due to hardware differences.
Eh, they could still have made the same level layouts. They decided to go for a completely different design for another reason.
Rondo's graphics aren't that demanding, in fact, XX has more detailed backgrounds (Rondo even has some completely black backgrounds ala NES). Most of the space on the CD was for CD audio (not only the music but the cutscene voices as well). But still that has nothing to do with the actual level design.

>> No.5534678

SNES Dracula X also has about 1/4 as many total enemies and many missing frames for the enemy's animations. A SNES cart simply couldn't hold all that data. Sure, the SNES can do better background effects, but it's not like Rondo's aesthetics aren't great, especially considering it's running on 1987 hardware.

>> No.5534679

>>5534617
I've always thought that the music in Dracula X sounded REALLY close to Rondo's CD soundtrack, so that's practically a non-issue.

The biggest obstacle in porting the game to SNES was probably just the storage capacity, Rondo had so many cutscenes as well as butt loads of level tiles and enemy sprites. Can't really fit all that on a SNES cart.

>> No.5534681

>>5534678
>SNES Dracula X also has about 1/4 as many total enemies
Most of the enemies that were taken out are mostly just guys that barely appear in Rondo, right?
Even having that and the frame cut into account, they still could have made the same level layouts if they really wanted to make a port, just change the missing enemies for common skeletons or whatever. I think the idea was to make a completely different game from start, using some of Rondo's assets (and also including new ones, XX has at least half of the bosses completely new, not to mention the final boss)

>> No.5534689

>>5534678
I really doubt the less enemies is because "SNES cart couldn't hold all that data". Look at games like Goemon 3 or 4, also by Konami and also late era SFC titles, they probably have more assets and different/bigger sprites than anything on Rondo.

>> No.5534973

>>5534272
By the time they had the hardware to port it (cd players for the audio and the FMV's), people were not interested on 2d plataformers anymore.

>> No.5534989

>>5534678
>SNES Dracula X also has about 1/4 as many total enemies and many missing frames for the enemy's animations.
That sounds like a gross exaggeration. It definitely has less enemies but if you compare the animations of the werewolf boss for instance they're pretty damn close.