A ‘new’ Castlevania game has been announced, just in time for Halloween! Castlevania Requiem collects Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. Its worth watching all 15 seconds of the reveal trailer yourself to celebrate the news. So far it appears like the game will be a digital only release, exclusive to the PS4 online store.
The biggest draw with Castlevania Requiem for most is going to be an easy and accessible way of playing Symphony of the Night. Symphony is one of the best regarded titles in the series, as well as amongst the ‘best’ titles for the original PS1 in general. As a sprawling action game packed with content – quite long in its own right before you factor in exploration and grinding – it’s perhaps not the best game to tackle on decaying PS1 hardware. Plus there’s the steep second hand price of Symphony second hand
Rondo of Blood is a decidedly old-school Castlevania title – before the days of leveling up and exploration. Being a PC Engine title, and originally only released in Japan, chances are its not a title you’ve played before. Rondo has been remade or ported several times since. Firstly as Castlevania: Dracula X for the Super Nintendo and on the PSP as part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. Despite seemingly receiving second-billing on Requiem (listed second in the reveal), Symphony of the Night was a direct sequel to Rondo, and introduced Richter Belmont (now of Super Smash Bros Ultimate fame).
This announcement of Castlevania Requiem is not without its downsides, however, and chief among them has to be its PS4 exclusivity. With so much nostalgic Castlevania content gracing the Switch it seems like a userbase that would been enthusiastic about a Symphony of the Night port. From the high-profile Smash Bros characters, Alucard’s assist trophy, themed-characters in Super Bomberman R and the prominence of Castlevania titles on Nintendo’s legacy mini consoles it seems as though it would be the perfect time for a Castlevania collection on a Nintendo console.
The other limitation of Requiem is that it only contains 2 games – a more comprehensive release would have been very welcome to the fans.With other collections such as the Mega Man Legacy Collection or Sega Mega Drive Classics containing more content it is hard to see why a bit more Castlevania couldn’t have been squeezed in. It is also worth considering whether Symphony going on sale digitally now might signal its absence from the recently announced Playstation Mini.
