Daily Dracula X - Stage 6: A Nightmare Reborn

Facing off with the dark priest Shaft, resurrector of Dracula. But to get to him, you’ll have to go through a gauntlet of classic horror monsters. Shaft is a genre fan, you see.

This stage is what we retro game aficionados like to call a “boss rush”. It was common for old action games to make players face off against all the bosses they’d fought before, one after the other, before the final conflict. In some games this was a final test of mastery before the last boss; in others it was a time-waster.

But God’s in the details, and Rondo of Blood is a cut above. Rather than recycling old bosses for the boss rush, the game puts us through five brand new bosses in a row, one after the other. There’s no break and little in the way of extra health with which to survive the marathon battle.

Not only will you have to memorize the bosses’ patterns and dodge and attack accordingly, you’re going to need to be close to perfect to survive this fight. The only bit of mercy is that if you beat the first four bosses and then die on the last, you’ll get to start from that boss.

But remember that in Rondo of Blood, you only get three lives, and once you lose them all you’re sent back to the beginning of the stage. If you’re playing as the game was originally designed (without save states), this can become a pretty painful process of trial and error as you learn each boss’ patterns.

This time you’re once again going to need the axe. Make sure you stock up on all of the hearts in the prep room, as you are going to need them this time.

Boss: Giant Bat

The giant bat is a light warm-up: the kind of boss whos main threat is his size. Just keep a distance, whip from a good range, and of course use the axes to hit him from safety. Especially take care that you don’t push yourself into the upper corners of the screen while you’re fighting him.

The bat will flap his wings fast when he’s ready to attack. He will either produce a fireball that you need to destroy (else it will stick around forever) or turn into a bat-drill and slam into the ground. The drill looks pretty easy to dodge, but keep a distance while you’re attacking it, because it can very easily hit you as the bat flies back up into the air.

The giant bat will turn into many little bats when defeated, which explode into hearts. You have a lot of ammo for this battle, but due to its marathon nature, you’ll still need to use the whip extensively.

Boss: Medusa

While you wait for Medusa to materialize in the middle of the screen, you might as well get close to where she’s about to drop. Attack a few times as soon as she drops; there’s no danger.

Medusa has three basic attacks. First she’ll hop back and shoot a beam from her eyes, which will of course turn you to stone if it hits. Crouch as soon as it starts.

Second, she’ll freeze as her tail pulls back. Start moving away as soon as you see this. Next she’ll jump in the air and whip you with her tail. If you’re out of her range when she jumps, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

Third, and most annoying, Medusa sends out a ring of snake projectiles that you need to destroy by attacking. Like the giant bat’s fireballs, they’ll stick around and target you if you don’t destroy them, so you really must forget about the boss for the moment and deal with them immediately.

From this point on, Medusa will attack with one of these moves at random. Remain cautious and react to her tells as you see them. In my experience she uses the stalling ring projectiles the most, so be patient.

Boss: Mummy

The mummy boss has an even more specific pattern than Medusa. Approach, crouch, and start attacking as soon as he lands. After some time, the mummy will summon blocks to fly at you and try and push you into the wall, which will damage you. You need to climb over these blocks as fast as possible to escape them.

Once you’re out of that, the mummy will summon strands of its wrapping to float in a random pattern. Rather than trying to weave through this, use the axe’s Item Crash to destroy all the wrapping and attack the mummy.

The mummy will repeat this pattern until death. As a mercy, you get a partial health refill after this fight.

Boss: Frankenstein’s Monster

Yeah, this is just straight up Universal’s Frankenstein’s Monster, the classic.

The key to beating this boss is a sound effect: the “uhhhUH” groan it makes when it’s about to attack. As soon as you hear this, retreat or it might be too late. I often use the backflip here.

The monster’s first attack is to simply grab you. This is a fast move, which is why you need to move as soon as you hear the groan.

When the monster crouches and groans, he’s going to jump in the air and cause debris to fall from the sky. You can whip him during this attack, but be careful that you don’t get distracted and hit by the debris.

When the monster holds his hands out, he’s getting ready to fire electricity. Back away, wait a moment, and then as soon as you see him fire his electric shot, jump forward over it.

The monster uses these attacks at random, so you have to stay alert and react appropriately to each.

Boss: Shaft (not that one)

Finally, we get to fight the dark priest Shaft himself.

Shaft attacks with two energy orbs that use different elemental attacks. When they turn to fire, run away for as long as you can: the fireballs are too huge to consistently dodge, so you need to escape until the attack ends. When they start shooting lightning, just make sure you’re never underneath one of them. When they attack directly, turn in the opposite direction and backflip over them.

Shaft is not so tough as the monsters he had fighting for him, but this gauntlet certainly did wear us down. If you die here, you can fight Shaft again with a fresh life bar.

If you’re playing along and you beat this stage, do yourself a favor. Pause the game and congratulate yourself. Relax. Sit back. Do something else for a minute. You just got through one of the most grueling moments in Rondo of Blood, and you really deserve the break.

And next time we’re going to be taking on the clock tower where Annette is locked up, our final obstacle-course challenge before we fight Dracula himself. See you up there, vampire killers!