Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku

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Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya
Original system(s): Sony PlayStation
Developer(s) of original games: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Sound driver: SCSP (1 track)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1998-06-25 ¥3,8003,800 T-9527G
Non-Sega versions PlayStation

Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (悪魔城ドラキュラＸ ～月下の夜想曲～) is a Sega Saturn action platform role-playing game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya and published by Konami. An expanded port of the 1997 Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it was released exclusively in Japan in June 1998, and is notable for suffering from extensive slowdown, improperly-scaled graphics, and increased load times.

The direct sequel to Konami's 1993 NEC PC Engine Super CD-ROM² title Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, it is the second and final Akumajou Dracula game to be released on a Sega system, following Castlevania: Bloodlines.

Gameplay

Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku in an action RPG, on which you choose one of three characters: Alucard, the main character, Richter Belmont, previously unlockable in the PlayStation game, and Maria Renard, an exclusive playable character.

Upon choosing Alucard, the game starts at the final battle of the previous game of the series, with improved graphics and a cutscene. In this battle you control Richter Belmont rather than Alucard and if you are about to die, Maria Renard appears to save you. The other characters start straight to the main storyline.

All characters can pause the game ( START ), access a castle map ( START  then ), jump (), use at least one button to attack (), back dash () — Richter doesn't have a second attack button, nor can back dash — and use the special weapons found in candles (+). Richter and Maria don't feature an options menu brought up by hitting  START  like Alucard, and thus cannot equip or use items other than the special weapons (enemies don't even drop anything but hearts and gold for them).

Holding when choosing Richter Belmont gives him different clothing. Idling for a few minutes at the title screen makes Shiina Hekiru (the voice actress who interprets Maria Renard and the fairy familiars) inform the current time of the Saturn's clock.

Playable characters

	Alucard (アルカード)
	Alucard, real name Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes (アドリアン ファーレンハイツ ツェペシュ), is the 400 years old son of Dracula with an human woman named Lisa (リサ). He is the only character that receives experience and use all items. and are used to attack/defend, , and are used to Transform Into Mist (霧に変身), Transform Into Bat (コウモリに変身) and Transform Into Wolf (狼に変身), respectively; uses consumable items. His spells are: Move list Name Command Description Dark Metamorphosis (ダーク メタモルフォーゼ) / Recovers HP when hitting, with physical attacks, enemies which shed blood Hellfire (ヘルファイア) / Shoots three fireballs; holding upon casting shoots meteors Summon Spirit (サモン スピリット) / Summons a spirit that chases and hit enemies Tetra Spirit (テトラ スピリット) hold 3sec, then / Soul Steal (ソウル スチール) / Hits everything on screen, recovering HP at the same time
	Richter Belmont (リヒター ベルモンド)
	Richter's secret outfit. Richter is a 24 years old member of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters. He attacks with his family's legendary whip — the Vampire Killer, which can be fully extended or flailed in multiple directions (hold and use the D-pad). His only functional buttons are: for attacking, for Item Crash (using it with no special weapon endows his whip with fire) and to jump. His moves set includes: Move list Name Command Description Backflip (バック宙返り) Sliding (スライディング) + Drop Kick (ドロップキック) + Uppercut Tackle (タックル)
	Maria Renard (マリア ラーネッド)
	Maria is 17 years old and the younger sister of Richter's deceased girlfriend. Rather than wield a weapon she fires a magical shot ( — can be charged up), kicks () and invokes the "Four Symbols" (Chinese mythological creatures). Her moves and summoning spell are: Move list Name Command Description Guardians' Knuckle (ガーディアン ズナックル) Sliding (スライディング) + 3-steps Jump (3段ジャンプ) Jump Kick (ジャンプキック) , hold //, High Jump Drop Kick (ドロップキック) Move list Name Command Description Recall Suzaku (朱雀 召還) hold 2sec, / Owl familiar Recall Genbu (玄武 召還) / Recovers about 1/6 of life Recall Byakko (白虎 召還) / Powerful flamethrower Recall Seiryuu (青龍 召還) / Dragon controllable with the D-pad, plus invulnerability for its duration Shiseijuu Shoukan (四聖獣 召還) , hold 3sec, +/ Invincibility for 40sec, also causing damage if touched

Versions

The Saturn version of this game contains various exclusive features including a new playable character (Maria Renard), new items, new enemies (sixteen lesser, a boss, plus Maria Renard if playing as Alucard), two new areas (Cursed Prison and Underground Garden) and a secret outfit for Richter Belmont. A third equippable hand is available to Alucard for equipping usable items such as healing items. A relic known as "God Speed boots" become available to Alucard halfway through the game and allow the player to move faster. Classic Castlevania music is remixed and a couple new tracks have also been recorded.

Porting issues

Unfortunately, the game was badly ported to the system. The PlayStation does not have a 2D graphics mode, instead relying on programmers to turn the 3D mode into a 2D one through the use of polygons and textures. The Saturn contains both 2D and 3D graphics modes, which can be used in conjunction with each other, however the developers of this game did not take advantage of it, forcing the Saturn to render it in the same method as the PlayStation.

The results of the bad port include, among other things, stretched graphics (The PS1 runs the game with a 256x224 screen resolution, while the Saturn goes for 352x240) and other distortions. There are longer loading times, and transparency effects in the Saturn version are also altered as the Saturn cannot handle alpha transparency while dealing with 3D polygons. It is believed that many of these issues could be fixed had the game been altered to play to the Saturn's strengths.

Production credits

Dracula X Nocturne in the Moonlight

• Cast: Ryoutaroh Okiayu, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Chisa Yokoyama, Norio Wakamoto, Rica Fukami, Masaharu Satoh, Hekiru Shiina, Jyouji Yanami
• Staff
  • Program: Nobushige Takaki, Yasuhiro Masuoka, Akihiro Shimiz, Hideto Imai
  • Support Program: Hiroaki Atsumi, Yoichi Hayama, Kazuo Taniguchi, Norihide Sugimoto
  • Design: Yoshichika Suzuki, Naoya Tanabe, Yasuko Muraoka, Hiroshi Miyata, Yuki Miyagi
• Sound Staff
  • (Sound Direction): H.Suzuki
  • (Program): Y.Iwata
  • (Music): T.Ohsono
  • (Music/Sound Effect): J.Karashima
  • (Music): K.Okada
• Product Design: Tsukasa Hiyoshi
• Special Thanks: Masaki Tanaka, Atsushi Mishima, Nazha Kondo, Satoko Hayashi, Takahiro Nakayama, Toyohiro Yamada, Noriko Uchida, Sachiko Hara
• Character Design & Illustration: Ayami Kojima
• Ending Theme: "I Am The Wind"
  • Staff
    • Produced by: Rika Muranaka
    • Music written by: Rika Muranaka, Tony Haynes, Jeff Lorber
    • Arranged by: Rika Muranaka, Jeff Lorber
    • Recorded by: Jeff Lorber, Robert Chinelli, Eric Greedy At Jhl Studio, Larry Mah At Mad Hatter Recording Studio
    • Mixed by: Al Schmitt At Capitol Recording Studio
  • Musicians
    • (Lead Vocal/Back Chorus): Cynthia Harrell
    • (Keyboards): Jeff Lorber
    • (Keyboards): Rika Muranaka
    • (Bass): Nate Phillips
    • (Drums): John Robinson
    • (Guitar): Michael Tompson
    • (Sax): Gerald Albright
    • (Percussion): Louis Conte
• Original Staff: Toru Hagihara, Kouji Iga, Gagensai.F, Kousuke Iwakura, Reika Bando, Toshiharu Furukawa, Kimihiro Morishita, Hiroto Yamaguchi, Nobuya Nakazato, Shinichiro Shimamura, Noriyoshi Sato, Kenichiro Imaizumi, Michiru Yamane, O.Kasai, Imohore Imai, Takayuki Fujii, Nishimura Oh.Ya.Zi., Kahori Yamane, Shogo Kumasaka, Yumiko Nozawa, Aoni Production, Arts Vision, 81 Produce, Sigma Seven, Dojinsha, Central Studio, Studio24
• Producer: Hiroyuki Fukui
• Director: Hiroshi Miyata

© 1997 1998 Konami All Rights Reserved.

• Developed by: KCE Nagoya

Source:

In-game credits

Staff

• キャラクターデザイン＆イラストレーション: 小島 文美
• エンディングテーマ プロデュース: 村中 りか
• エンディングテーマ ボーカル: シンシア＝ハレル

Cast

• アルカード: 置鮎 龍太郎
• リヒター: 梁田 清之
• マリア: 横山 智佐
• 深見 梨加, 佐藤 正治, 椎名 へきる, 八奈見 乗児
• ドラキュラ: 若本 規夫

Source:

JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1997-10: "1997-10 (1997-04-04)" (1997-03-21)

Artwork

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Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Ação Games (BR) 95 Consoles News (FR) NTSC-J 85 Consoles + (FR) NTSC-J 92 Edge (UK) NTSC-J 70 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 80 Gamers' Republic (US) NTSC-J 83 Joypad (FR) NTSC-J 80 MAN!AC (DE) NTSC-J 88 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-J 79 neXt Level (DE) NTSC-J 80 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 77 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 81 Sega Magazin (DE) NTSC-J 83 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) NTSC-J 94 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 73 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 86

	83
Based on 16 reviews

Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual Inlay

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	484,589,616	1998-04-27	CD-ROM (JP)	T-9527G V1.400

Track list

1. Data track

2. CD Warning message (special) (0:14)
警告メッセージ
Vocals: Ryoutaroh Okiayu

► Running time: 0:14

Extra content

This game has extra content which can be viewed when accessing the disc on a PC.

Saturn (JP) Extra files

Folder / File	Type	Size	description
\OMAKE\24	Folder	20,939,592	It contains 15 extra images of truecolor.
\OMAKE\8	Folder	6,995,784	It contains 15 extra images of 256 colors.
\OMAKE\KAIHATSU.DOC	TXT	11,310	Messages from the developers.
ABS.TXT	TXT (Abstract)	31	About this game.
BIB.TXT	TXT (Bibliographiced)	21	About original game
CPY.TXT	TXT (Copyright)	56	Copyright

References

Castlevania games for Sega systems
	Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994) | Super Castlevania IV‎ (unreleased)
	Castlevania: The Bloodletting (unreleased)
	Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (1998) | Castlevania: The Bloodletting (unreleased)
	Castlevania Resurrection (unreleased)