YMMV / Castlevania: Dracula X

• Awesome Music: For a series known for its awesome music, this entry has one of, if not the best soundtracks in the whole series! The game may be on the cartridge, but it's perhaps the closest the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came to having a CD quality soundtrack.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: Regarded as one of the hardest games in the series and not to its benefit.
  • The game is rife with Fake Difficulty, nearly every level has a section with tight platforming where various kinds of small flying enemies are ready to knock you into a Bottomless Pit.
  • Most infamously getting the best ending is a trial and a half, you need to keep the key subweapon for an extended time (including fighting a boss) and without dying given you lose your subweapon upon death.
  • The Dracula fight is a nightmare; in the first phase Dracula seems more fond of avoiding you than actually attacking and the second phase has you deal with his towering demon form that is hard to avoid bumping into and has two difficult to avoid attacks. Add in the fight taking place on various narrow pillars over an instant death pit, and you got one of the most frustrating Dracula fights in the series.
• Memetic Mutation: This player killing Dracula with a key.
• Signature Scene: Though it's often forgotten that this is the origin, and both the character and locale were series staples from the beginning, this is the first time in the series that you battle Death in front of the face of the Clock Tower. And it would not happen again until eight years later in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, at which point the Clock Tower became known as his standard battleground—at least when there wasn't a Time Master there instead.
• That One Level:
  • For players attempting to get the best ending, Stage 3 is this. Most of the level is pretty straightforward, but the third to last screen involves platforming along a long hall of pillars where falling into the pits leads to the Alternate Stage 4 and locks the player into the worst ending with no second chances. And true to form, there's LOADS of enemies, from bats, skeletons, to bone pillars, all waiting to push you in. After that, the player has to acquire the Key subweapon and beat the boss AND the entirety of the next level while keeping it. Thankfully, Dullahan, the level's boss, isn't especially difficult if the player has enough health and is careful throughout the battle. Also, death will allow the player to pick up the key and try again so long as they have remaining lives.
  • Following on the heels of Stage 3 is Stage 4, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the aforementioned trying to keep the Key for the entire level, relying solely on Richter's whip and nothing else (though skilled players can use some of the Key's oddities as a "weapon" to help them out in certain situatons). Dying is an immediate failure as the Key subweapon is lost and never found again. The only way to try again is to use the end of level password from Stage 3 and restarting. The level is also pretty long, and there's plenty of dangers to face, so the player will have to conserve as much health as they can in order to make it to Maria's cell, since Richter is healed upon freeing her. After that, it shouldn't be too much harder to get to the door to Alternate Stage 5.
  • Outside of the whole Key sub-quest, Stage 6 is a pretty difficult and long level that has a lot of battles happening either while scaling the clock tower with enemies placed with advantage over you, or involving a lot of platforming with enemies placed properly to knock you into bottomless pits. At the end, you will face the Skull Sorceress if you failed to save Annette, or Death if you saved her. No matter which one you face, the boss is fought on a small ledge with plenty of projectiles that can easily knock you off the clock tower to your death while they tend to hover just out of reach.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This game remains unpopular with fans of the series, for reasons that largely boil down to it being a watered-down Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. While many still consider it pretty good on its own merits, it can't hold a candle to Rondo. The added Fake Difficulty doesn't help. Aside from the soundtrack and difficulty, what's perhaps most disappointing is cutting the intricate stage paths and alternate bosses, not to mention completely excising Ensemble Dark Horse Maria as a playable character.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Despite its many alterations, you gotta give the game points for its visuals. As a late Super Nintendo release published in 1995, it certainly looks the part with slightly brighter, cleaner character animations than the PC-Engine could handle under its 8-bit CPU.