The "Castlevania" series is one of the oldest and most successful series in the gothic genre. There's nearly at least one Castlevania game for each system on the market. The SNES game "Dracula X" was only released censored in the USA and Europe. The title of the Japanese version is "AkumaJou Dracula XX", the US version is called "Castlevania: Dracula X".

The SNES version is based on the PC engine version "DraculaX - Rondo of Blood" which was only released in Japan in 1993. The language of the game is Japanese, but the intro is in German. It's hard to get this version nowadays - a price of over 90€ isn't unusual.

The SNES version is just a downgraded version of the game. In the PC engine version you could only play as the little girl Maria who has just a minor part in the SNES version (you can liberate her from a dungeon to get to an alternative route, more information below in the cut report). You have real cutscenes including voice output in the PC engine version. Moreover some levels were completely redesigned.

Compared was the censored European version with the uncensored Japanese version. The censorships basically apply to the US version too except for the fact that the blood is red in the US version. The rest of the censorships exist in the US version too.

Big thanks to LordAnubis for additional screenshots and information (PC engine version, Grim Reaper censorship)!

Cover of the Japanese version:	Cover of the US version:
Cover of the European version:

Blood
The red blood in the original was colored white in the censored versions:

Uncensored version:	Censored version:

Christian Symbols
You can repeatedly find Christian symbols in the game. They were altered in the censored versions. In this example's depicted a cross which can be used as a weapon:

Uncensored version:	Censored version:

Death of the "Grim Reaper" Boss
If you've rescued both Maria and Annette in stage 4 and stage 5 you can play an alternative 6th level where the Grim Reaper is the final boss. If you've defeated him in his second manifestation, his head falls down and it dissolves. In the censored US and European versions the head doesn't fall down, but the Reaper starts burning instead.

Uncensored version	Censored version: