Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku

"I have running shoes *cough*~Alucard"

Alucard is a well recognized name in gaming. For those of you, who don’t see the obvious, spell it backwards and you get Dracula. The role of Dracula’s son must be hell of a job. This is one of the best games ever, and hard to find. They took the traditional side scrolling vampire game and mixed it with the RPG style of game. Having items and various weapons, it’s a more multifaceted version that it’s preceding games before it. You start out obviously in the castle of Dracula, trying to find your dad, and bring his rule to an end. Having a brain and two hands I propose that you go out and buy this game, it is one of the best ever. Don’t loan it out either, something bad happens to it good luck finding it again. As Alucard laughs at the Playstation because he has running shoes to get around faster you take on your adventure.

Graphics 9
The graphics are 2-d, which has been more flourishing than the 3-d Castlevanias that Konami has released. A good number of the swords will have their own special graphic what you will call it. While swinging a certain sword you will see the word “Verbatin” which is German for forbidden. The bosses have their own grossly details. The bosses are massive in size compared to being able to see the whole boss on the other Castlevanias before. You will run across several characters with their own sole graphic, such as Maria or Dracula. Enemies all have their own atmosphere that you can tell whether or not that if they are a ghastly creature. The backgrounds all were superb; they would have a greatly detailed gothic feature throughout the whole castle. It is just surprising how much detail you can have in a simple 2-d game. As you will see a lot of people will compare this game to the classical Metroid. Which I will agree that they do seem similar in graphics and game play, but even the graphics on this game exceed the graphics compared to the side scrolling Samus.

Story 7
One part in the game that I do have some grievance about would have to be the story. You are going to a castle and you are trying to get rid of your father like the other vampire killers out there. Seeing a new character named Maria you run into her a bit along with this games story. She has come to this castle to find a familiar face, could you ever guess whom…Richter, your favorite vampire killing machine. Starting out in this game you play as him from ending of another Castlevania, to which you could never guess, FIGHT DRACULA. Even while knowing you have to kill your dad it doesn’t seem to faze Alucard, for he has foreseen his father’s wickedness. And you cant forget about Alucard’s mom whom was killed by humans, even though that happen to her Alucard still has a human side in him to not turn into a bloodsucking vampire and raising havoc for the fun of it.

Sound 10
The soundtrack for this game is one of my favorites. It has the classical gothic tenor to the music to fit the theme of the game. The creatures of the game were fit with perfect noises for either when you see them, or obliterate them. Alucard has a specific noise he likes to make when something happens to him he doesn’t like, such as getting stuck in a hole in the wall or being turned to stone. He always loves to shout WHAT! While having a grave theme to this game Konami doesn’t fail to make it a bit humorous. The boss music definitely picks up pace when you start the battle, showing that these oversized bosses mean business. Within each stage of this game they have a variety of music so sometimes it is fun to just sit in an area and listen to the music, or you could go out and buy the soundtrack cause its that good. One bad thing about the noises in this game is when the characters talk. They seem to lag while they speak. For instance when Maria will talk to Alucard he will respond to her question and say part of it, then lag a moment and finish his sentence. That is my only grievance about the sound, everything else has been fitted perfect.

Game play 10
One of the best features in this game is the game play. You have the normal side scrolling action game, but in this escapade Konami decided to make it a bit more interesting with adding the RPG fun to it. For example unlike all the other Castlevanias you can have items in this game, and I don’t mean the throwing items either I mean items so that you can heal yourself, new weapons, armor all those goodies. Also you can change the color of your cloak whenever you get the one to give you that ability. Another good feature about the game play is you have spells. Spells in this game can help you out a lot, an example would be like if you are surrounding by a load of enemies, there is this one spell that takes the souls from the enemies and they come to you and it heals your for a bit of HP.

Graphics 9
Story 7
Sound 10
Game play 10

Overall Rating 9
This is definitely one of the best games out there. It is really hard to find, I've only seen it once on Ebay it was very expensive too. I was fortunate enough to borrow it from my friend, only for a short while to see the differences in this compared to the one for Playstation. I would lean towards telling you to get the game but good luck finding it; I think it’s even harder to find this than the one for the ps1. If you do somehow get this game you will like the fact that you can run faster with a little friend called running shoes, to make Alucard truck even faster.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/04