At first glance, Rusty would appear to be a “sexy” knock-off of Castlevania. Looks can be deceiving, however, and Rusty is a hidden gem of Japanese retro-gaming that deserves to be rediscovered. A contemporary of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Rusty has been subject of speculation as to whether there was a direct connection between the C-Lab and Konami or if Rusty was simply a well-polished homage to the Castlevania franchise. Whichever the case, fans of the older Castelvania games would do well to check out Rusty.
Rusty is a horror-themed side-scrolling platformer that plays much like the classic Castlevania titles, the chief difference being its protagonist is a scantily clad vampire huntress whose whip lends a dominatrix theme to her look. The music is excellent and catchy (you'll find yourself humming many of the themes), and the art is decent. The gameplay itself is solid, and while the levels are challenging, they never feel unfairly difficult—practice and replay of levels is rewarded by a mastery of the game that isn't defiled by poor controls, poor level design, or the random bat waiting to knock you into a pit. Boss fights are generally easier than the journey to reach them; master the patterns, and you'll win.
Over the years, Rusty has developed a fan community. Recently a translation project completed work on a patch to translate the PC-98 version of Rusty into English. While an English translation grants an additional layer of depth to one's enjoyment of Rusty, it's not necessary to play the game. At this time, the group has no plans to create a patch for the DOS version.
Review By P. Alexander
Japanese 
English 
Comments and reviews
Check out the Basement Brothers youtube video on Rusty. The author of this game has expressed interest in perhaps releasing it on Steam. That was two years ago, give them some support! Support devs! :D
Hmm... I'm having trouble trying to run this game on retroarch pc-98 core. It simple get stuck on that 2.5mhz thing and even when i tweak its clock and memory multiplier, that issue still persists.
About @Sybnios question concerning the MS-DOS release, I recently saw a video on YouTube dedicated to the PC-98 version who briefly spoke of the other version. It was effectively sold on disquettes and was differentiated by the mention "V-DOS" on the box, (as opposed to the "PC-9800" mention of the PC-98 version) which was what IBM-PCs were known as in Japan back then. And to be honest, calling it an MS-DOS version now is still a misnomer, since more known version of Rusty require the PC-98 version of MS-DOS to run correctly.
Remarkable! Is there information about the physical release of the game in DOS?? Was it released with a box and diskettes? I can't find something related online only for the PC-98.
Surprise! Another PC98 game without porn! There is an English translation for the pc98 version.
Very nice classic style "Castlevania" game. Make sure to use the numpad for movement since up+forward/back at the same time makes you run but only worked with numpad for me and arrow keys felt stickier in general for some reason causing me to curse the controls before moving to the numpad and having a blast.
Nice! This is a very cool Castlevania-type game with a sexy hero and great music - both DOS version and PC-98 version.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.