Maria's main attacks were animals, with doves as her primary attack and other spirit animals are her secondary sub-weapons and item crashes. Here, Maria featured abilities and powers than made the game easier (in comparison to Richter and his abilities), and Maria proved to be just as capable as the Belmont (if not more so). Previously, the only time another hero could join the adventure was in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and they certainly were supplemental to Trevor Belmont. Maria, 12-year-old vampire hunter, was a huge innovation for the series. During his adventure through Castle Dracula, Richter could find various other characters, one of whom would join up as a second playable character, Maria Renard. Hero Richter Belmont came to the party with the family's whip, the Vampire Killer, and a whole assortment of sub-weapons which he could release in over-powered attacks called 'Item Crashes'. Rondo of Blood was, in just about every way, an improvement for the series. Instead, most American fans didn't even realize they were missing out on one of the great Castlevania games of the era, at least not until the Internet came along and documented this 'lost' title. wouldn't have been economically feasible due to the low install base of the TurboGraphix, this could have been a killer app for the title that might just have driven sales.

While, admittedly, porting the game to the U.S. This reportedly led to protracted disputes between NEC of America, NEC of Japan, and Konami, all before the port of the game was eventually scrapped altogether. Released only across the pond, the original version of Rondo of Blood never had a 'proper' release in the West overseas the console was released as the TurboGraphix 16 and that box had trouble catching on in the U.S., in no small part because NEC's American offices didn't seem to want to publish any of the quirkier games from the PC Engine's library, Castlevania Dracula X included. Containing a mix of branching paths, different playable characters, improved artwork and music, and a whole lot of replayability (fans looking to 'one hundred percent' the game had to do a lot of exploring into every nook and cranny of the title), Rondo of Blood had everything a Castlevania fan could hope for. Released in 1993, Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (which is the name fans have given to the game released in Japan as Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo which translates literally as 'Demon Castle Dracula X: Reincarnation of Blood') was hailed as one of the greatest of the Castlevania series.

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