I'd like to think I am not the only one who bought Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP last week for the sole purpose of having a portable copy of Symphony of the Night on hand at all times, only to find myself jumping through hoops to unlock my main reason for picking up the title in the first place. Well rather than have you go through the agonizing hours filled with senseless deaths that I went through, I figured I would just give you the skinny on unlocking the game up front. First off, you need to get to stage 2 in the main game. At one point a giant bull creature starts chasing Richter, and rather than jumping over the holes in the floor, you'll want to fall into the first one. Finish the level and you'll find yourself in an alternate stage 3.

Going upward at every opportunity you'll come across a plantlike cage hanging from the ceiling next to one of those bone-snakes that sprouts from the wall. Kill the snake before he kills you, and then use a special weapon on the cage. Antitype from GameFaqs suggests the axe, but I found the spinny bible works just as well. Destroying the cage creates a platform, which lets you hop across the top of the level to a tombstone. Break it, and a tiny-screen version of Symphony of the Night is yours to command!

There's more to unlock in the game, of course, but I doubt I'll be going back to Rondo any time soon. Even a non-fullscreen PSP version of SotN kicks it's 3D side-scrolling ass. Hit up the Gamefaqs page below if you find the will to do anything else once mini-Alucard is at your disposal.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Codes [GameFaqs]