Rusty (1993)

Rusty is an action video game developed and published by C-Lab in Japan in July 1993 for PC-98, Epson PC, and MS-DOS, with direction, writing and programming by Naoto Niida, production by Masayoshi Koyama, and music by Masahiro Kajihara, Kenichi Arakawa, and Ryu Takami. The player plays as the vampire huntress Rusty who investigates the disappearance of a number of women, and travels through ten stages, fighting skeletons, monsters and boss characters with her whip and items. Critics and journalists frequently compared the game to the Castlevania series, some calling it a "clone", but still reviewed it favourably; one called it a gem that everyone should play, and one called it among the best game of all Castlevania clones. Although it was not published in English, it was unofficially translated by a ROM hacking group in 2017.