Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is worthy value, but only for those who are skilled or patient.
Rondo of Blood is the Castlevania game that the USA never got to see. Released only in Japan, it's quite a surprise Konami would attempt to release it now to us. Fittingly, like Mega Man X was for Capcom, Konami went ahead and updated the game in full 3D.
Rondo of Blood bears much closer to the original Castlevania than to later incarnations in gameplay. Richter has his base whip and the occasional sub-weapon you can obtain through the levels. The only thing that really is different from the original Castlevania is the back flip jump that Richter can perform. You'll need to learn this move and learn it well. Rondo of Blood is punishingly hard. I often die fighting mundane enemies as they move much faster than Richter does and he doesn't have the ability to whip upwards like in the fourth Castlevania.
I will praise the overall design of the game, however. Not just visually, but for the options to deviate from the regular level design. You have the option, if you meet the requirements, to fight different bosses depending on what path you take. You also, once unlocked, have the ability to play as another character, Maria. However, Maria is much weaker, but faster and with a forward flip jump.
Moving between the levels as per usual, Rondo of Blood does offer you the option later to revisit any level you wish in order to unlock things or defeat the boss that you chose to avoid. It's a nice touch. The game saves your progress after each level, but you also have a quick save option. I really found this useless as the PSP or Vita's standby time is really quite good. Still, the option is there.
Rendering Rondo of Blood in 3D is quite nice to say the least. The dungeon crawls are interrupted by short cut scenes introducing bosses or even regular enemies in many cases. The sound design is also very respectable as well. The chilling music tracks that Castlevania is known for show through here nicely and Rondo of Blood has excellent vocal work, never sounding cheap or wooden.
Still, for all that it does right, it gets so much wrong. Rondo of Blood can be one of the hardest and most frustrating games I've ever played. Any Castlevania game is a challenge, but Rondo takes that to a whole new level. Richter's very limited move set and speed is the main issue. You'll often find yourself in a situation where two enemies are flying at you from different directions and you simply don't have the time to dodge them or attack. With only two to three lives per run, you're going to die very often just trying to gain the layout of the levels. That's nothing to say of the boss fights which they themselves will kill you if you're not absolutely on top of your game.
Worst still, Konami in all their infinite wisdom chose to lock out the other two games and Maria as a playable character. You have to find the icons in the Rondo of Blood game itself to unlock the other games. This really compounded the frustration for me because I was hoping to play Symphony of the Night. Then, like a slap in the face, I played and played until I finally managed to unlock Symphony of the Night only to find that the game doesn't even fill the screen. We're not talking some 4:3 setup you might see owing to the fact that the PSP/Vita has a widescreen display. No, we're talking borders large enough to make me believe I was now playing on a Game Boy Advance. My game window was seriously that small.
I really want to rate this game higher. It's a terrific value to be honest. Rondo of Blood in 3D is a great idea and getting to play Symphony of the Night with new vocal work is good too. However, the punishing difficulty, required unlocking of the other content, and tiny playing window for Symphony of the Night really turned me off. I haven't even bothered to finish Rondo of Blood due to the frustration I feel.
The Good: Three games in one, redone 3D visuals look great, excellent vocal work for both games.
The Bad: Rondo of Blood is extremely difficult, Symphony of the Night doesn't even fill the screen, forced to unlock the other two games and Maria for Rondo of Blood.