Don't even get me started on the difference between Dracula X vs Rondo, where the actual first real localization of Rondo was part of Dracula X chronicles, which makes it sound like the fucked up SNES version, but actually the original Japanese release was called Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, so it's just canonizing the name, but the name it's emphasizing is the version used for the fucked up version ..... it's a good example of how splitting a title into two can be bad even if I get what they were going for
Well this has to do with two other whole messes: what Dracula X Chronicles actually is, and the horrible nature of Castlevania titles in general.
A lot of people have probably read that it's called Akumajou Dracula in Japan at some point or another, but the reality is Castlevania titles are so incredibly fucked that there is actually no region where every entry so much as uses the same name for the series. And not even in like a "it used to be Dragon Warrior here for legal reasons but then they changed it" sense, there was just zero consistency. Early entries are a mess with no coherent naming scheme, and we got the Harmony of Dissonance/Despair confusion and had to nickname it Castlevania 64, but America actually got off the easiest here. At least we have a distinct way to refer to each game, and a mostly consistent way of referring to the series as a whole!
Akumajou Dracula is the name of the original NES Castlevania, and also like four or five other games, which do
not necessarily correlate with the ones also known as simply "Castlevania" in various regions. Also btw a bunch of them have different PAL names too, but that's not important right now. In Japan, it's not simply "Akumajou Dracula: Opera of Sinister Intent" or what have you. A lot of titles are at least partly tied to that original name, like Akumajou Densetsu (Castlevania III) or Dracula Densetsu (The Adventure), but you really cannot assume what they're going to be called or in what way if any two entries with a similar title will be related. Even later in the series, after the English naming scheme stabilized, you had fuckery like the period where they tried and failed to change the name of the series to Castlevania in Japan for a while. So you get Castlevania: Minuet of Dawn for the GBA and its DS sequel, Akumajou Dracula: Cross of the Blue Moon. Just an unbelievable mess.
The reason it's called The Dracula X Chronicles is because it's a collection of the Akumajou Dracula X games. That name is always used for the Richter-era Castlevania entries in Japan (up to and including the TV series, I believe), which is refreshingly straightforward. ...Except the name Dracula X Chronicles makes no sense here because:
a) This is primarily an original remake of Rondo with altered versions of some (but not all!) related games also included as a sort of high effort bonus, it's a weird release in general in terms of just what it's supposed to be. Much like the previous Castlevania Chronicles actually, which is also sort of presented like a collection but is just a romhack of one old game basically.
b) Dracula X was a name only used in English for the SNES kaizo hack Lost Levels version of Rondo of Blood, and only in America. That game isn't even included here, so nobody knows what the fuck this Dracula X Chronicles is supposed to be chronicling, the reasoning behind the name is completely lost, and if you do think you know what Dracula X is you're actually wrong.
A name like "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood Chronicles", while a bit stilted, would still have made a lot more sense for the English release. Or maybe Chronicles of the Night, banking off recognition of Symphony since it
is included here and telling people "hey, here are these other games associated with it"?
