encounters at the end of the level. Items such as money, hearts, and food can be found scattered throughout the areas. Rondo of Blood also features the Item Crash ability reused in subsequent Castlevania titles, which allows a sub-weapon to be used in a super attack. Its direct sequel, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, reuses many of the monsters. Plot Taking place in 1792, Rondo of Blood is set in the fictional universe of the Castlevania series. The story centers around the eternal conflict between the vampire hunters of the Belmont Clan and the immortal vampire Dracula, who has once again been resurrected. The protagonist is 19-year-old Richter Belmont (Jin Horikawa / David Vincent), heir to the whip "Vampire Killer" and Simon Belmont's direct descendant. He comes to the castle after his beloved Annette (Atsuko Honda / Jessica Straus) is kidnapped by Dracula's servant, Shaft, as bait for a trap. Richter makes his way through Dracula's castle, defeating his minions, including the spirit of Death, a headless knight, and a minotaur, all of whom attempt to stop Richter. Along the way, Richter can free various women kidnapped by Dracula's servants to feed him, including his distant relative Maria Renard (Yōko Teppōzuka / Michelle Ruff), an orphaned 12-year-old who insists on joining him; Terra (Hiromi Murata / Karen Strassman), a nun who mistakes him for a manifestation of God; Iris (Akie Yasuda / Karen Strassman), the daughter of the village doctor; and finally Annette. After vanquishing Shaft (or Annette, who has been turned into a vampire, if he fails to rescue her in time, though this is only in the PSP version, not the original release), Richter confronts Dracula (Hiroya Ishimaru / Patrick Seitz) and defeats him before exposing him to sunlight, causing him to vanish. Dracula's castle then collapses into the sea as Richter escapes on horseback. Development Rondo of Blood is the tenth installment of the Castlevania video game series (hence the Japanese title). Produced by Konami, Rondo of Blood originally saw only a Japanese release on the PC Engine on October 29, 1993. Later, a port was released on the Wii for the Japanese Virtual Console on April 22, 2008; as an import, it became available in North America on March 15, 2010 and in the PAL region (Europe and Australia) on March 19, 2010. Audio Rondo of Blood makes use of Red Book Audio along with the