Glitches and Fun Facts

 

Richter the Tease: As opposed to other, more-easily-defined consoles of the time, the Turbo-Grafx and its PC-Engine counterpart were a mess of upgrades and add-ons. Convincing consumers to continue investing in such expansion required tantalizing software like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, which was one of the titles that utilized the Super System Card 3.0. Konami threw a bone to System Card 2.0 users by allowing them to boot up the game and play a short demo stage as featuring cartoon versions of Rondo's main hero and its environment; clearing the stage earns the player a warning urging he or she to buy the 3.0 card upgrade or graduate to the Turbo-Duo, which has the card built in. In short: Boot up the game CD using System Card 2.0 to experience a short but distinct flavor of Rondo. Note that booting the game when the game's memory is full will earn a separate warning (as seen the last picture). (Images provided by Akumajou Otaku and ReyVGM.)

          

          

          

Liberal Media: Rondo's more-popular sequel had an Easter egg found by inserting the game's CD into your PC-ROM, following which you could play a certain media file to hear a warning from Alucard (the voice actor who played the role, mainly). You can do the same with the Rondo of Blood; place the game in your CD-ROM, open a media player, and select the lone music file from the CD. The very first track played is actually "cut-scene" dialouge--a conversation between characters Maria and Dracula especially made to "scare" people who are attempting to listen to Rondo's music using a PC. (The audio file below was contributed by Akumajou Otaku.)

Unhappy Valentine: This is perhaps an unintended programming event. First, head to Stage 3, the Chapel, and deplete all of your hearts until you're down to "15" (or build up toward this total), the number required for Richter to execute his flame-whip attack. Now make your way to the third level, to the area where featured are giant candles. Find the Giant Fleaman and allow it to grab onto Richter, at which point it will steal not a sub-weapon but an actual big heart! (Contributed by Belmontvlad.)

Key to My Heart: The process of procuring and maintaining possession of a key is supposed to be a predicament--perhaps a prolonged period with absence of sub-weapon and the constant fear of losing the key once past the point of no return. Don't tell this to our famed duo, Richter and Maria, who in true ninja style suppress such a fear and use all available resources as means of offense. That is, either hero can strike an enemy with the key to dole out damage equivalent to four whip-strokes, an assault mightier than the flame-whip attack, which is equal to only three whip-strokes. Take down the Behemoth, for example, with four key-strikes rather than eighteen whip-strokes. (Contributed by Akumajou Otaku.)

Found in Translation: Any linguist could tell you that there exists precedence of different (but somewhat related) languages sharing certain lexicon (Italian and Spanish, for instance). As it currently stands, the game's Japanese title, Chi no Rondo, translates to "Circle of Blood," which is to suggest an eternal struggle between two conflicted bloodlines. Reader CVFan25 digs deeper to find that we can use two other languages to find perhaps the game's true translation: "In Chinese, 'Chi' refers to your life force, and 'Rondo' is Latin for 'circle.' So possible translations include 'Circle of Life' or 'Circle of Blood.' " If we accept that "blood" is in fact a life force, we could see how Chi no Rondo could mean "Circle of Blood," which would also suggest that our struggle is reoccurring but do so using a musical theme. This makes perfect sense if our sequel is 'Symphony' of the Night--itself featuring an aural theme. Too, the "Final Stage" of Symphony, which revisits Rondo's final Battle, is subtitled "Bloodlines."

Balls to the Wall: More a strange glitch is Richter's propensity to become stuck in the floor in Stage 4, the Dungeon. If inescapable doom is your thing, you can try it out: On the stage's third floor is a series of spiked balls swinging from chains. If when Richter is near death he is struck by the final one in sequence, this by jumping into it from the left, he'll start his next life entrenched in the ground right at the check point found two floors higher. (Contributed by Belmontvlad.)

          

Showstopping Number: Watching one of these new-age divas bolt out a tune and then celebrate by tossing herself into a fiery pit? It's not just what one would call society's "wishful thinking" - it's the means for this glitch, as discovered by Amar Youkai. Here's how it's done: Select to play as Maria on the game's seventh stage, the Clock Tower, and find yourself a music-book sub-weapon. Usher Maria into a near-death scenario (short on energy and within one hit of being killed), pull off an item-crash, and then proceed to incur death upon our hero with a sure kill (jumping into a spike trap, for example). Upon resuming action, any striking of an enemy will cause the game's music to cease; to restore things to normal, pull off the very same item-crash.

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