HOORAY! LordKat's face has returned, and the stuff is back! And the sound is still fantastic. You make me a very, very happy, Kat. :)

I love the Castlevania series, and this was actually one of the few I never got to play. Kinda glad I didn't, though I may go looking for a ROM someday and see how it plays! I always wanted to try Rondo but was never lucky enough to get hold of a playable copy, and finally just gave up. :(

Looking forward to seeing your next 'hard RPG' Let's Play! .... wish I could place the damned theme music teaser.

Goddam Castlevania, now you and your amazing melody's will be stuck in my head for the next 3 weeks. Good game, terrible ending.

Jason,

I just finished watching this man. I heard that music at the end, heard that music, and my blood turned cold in my veins. Don't do it man! Drakken's unplayable! It's not worth it. That's the RPG that has random zodiac constellations come and attack your level 1 characters. Drakken has always been my example to people how old school RPGs are like an eternal game of roshambo where you never get at turn to kick.

Nice UWW as always. I played this game a long time after it was released and it almost beat me.
Exactly like You said I just wasn't used to the traditional Castlevania style anymore.

This mysterious theme seems so familiar but just like Kurasu I can't place it.
My first thought was Ys but I'm not sure.

edit: oh someone posted the game just as I was typing. thx now I' curious about this game.

Now this is one Castlevania game I've not gone back to attempt to beat in a long time. I usually got so dang frustrated halfway through that I gave up. Of course, Castlevania and Megaman will always have a happy home in my book! As for the RPG, the theme is familiar but I can't put my finger on it. Of course I just splurged on my Wii and bought Secret of Mana, and am CoOp-ing it with some pals. :D Fun!

I was expecting Death to be at the clock tower, or at least that's what I got when I played this game. And first boss is Cerberus, not Black Panther lol!

Drakkhen was one of the first SNES games I've played... AWESOME! I can't wait for the next UWW!

Tip: There's a room in the water castle that allows you to gain exp automatically. Back when I played Drakkhen, I literally used to leave my SNES on all night up to the next day with my characters steadily leveling up by themselves!

An RPG you say =)
How about Shining in the Darkness? it had pretty tough spots, especially if not having a map. Though there wasnt much story to it.
Landstalker was one of my favourites, though it wasnt actually hard, but the story was awesome, especially the fairy eventually falling in love with Nigel =)
A rather hard game with interesting story was Phantasy star 2 =) maybe you'll like that one?

Great review! I never got far in Dracula X even though I've beaten Rondo of Blood. Can't wait to see which RPG you play.

Great review, Jason.

I love how the clock tower is at 3:00 am. Very symbolic. I always love small things like that.

Oh man, Drakken! I remember renting that game torturing my childhood. I remember renting it while on vacation and playing it the entire weekend until I beat it. The desert still gives me nightmares T_T

Oh my god, seriously? Drakken? The Earth Land music was pretty chill though.

I remember for awhile I did nothing but die in that game, but it probably didn't help that I got it at a yard sale and so I didn't have the manual.

I remember I'd wander around, bump into some kind of stone in the middle of the road, and then some giant ass cat monster head would appear and shoot lighting at me and I would die.

I could never really tell what my guys were doing, they would just kinda go up to monsters and twitch around, then they'd just die all of a sudden.

Yeah.

Drakken.

:|

Two mistakes, Jason. The spearmen are not hat hard to beat plus there is a difference when you save Maria and her sister Anette, because the Boss of the clocktowe IS Anette if you don't save her. Death is the real boss of this stage and also responsible for Anette's transformation into the Skull Sorceress.

Next to this, the first boss is not a panther, but Ceberus. Serious, if you make a video about something, inform yourself, otherwise you will make the same mistakes like in Kid Icarus.

What Charly Dunst said, basically.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/screen-cvdx.htm

^ I've found this place to be a great guide for everything Castlevania. If you go there, there's detailed information about the split paths, the different bosses, and everything else.

Alundra, Alundra, oh please let the next week belong to Alundra.

Also: nothing better for challenging platform action than Castlevania. I like how Lordkat summed up the story.

Yes, let me say that playing Phantasy Star 2 would be something I'd love to see done.