Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk. Have at you!" — Count Dracula
Protagonist(s): Alucard
Genre(s): Action
Platformer
Platform(s): PlayStation
Sega Saturn
PlayStation Portable
Xbox 360
PlayStation 4
PlayStation Vita
iOS
Android
Release Date: March 20, 1997
Developer(s): Konami
Publisher(s): Konami
Series: Castlevania
Predecessor: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Successor: Castlevania Legends

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action-adventure platform game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1997.

Plot

The game follows the exploits of the half-vampire Alucard, Dracula's son (yes, his name is intentionally Dracula spelled backwards) as his father rises once more to do evil and Alucard sets out to stop him.

Why It's Not a Miserable Little Pile of Secrets

  1. Phenomenal graphics and sprite design, especially for it's time since not only it is extremely detailled but also it is colorful, fluid and even look better than some of the games that are released today, it even on par with the most beautiful looking Indie games such as Terraria and Hollow Night.
  2. Amazing animation; in fact, Alucard's animation is one of the most well done animated sprites in gaming history.
  3. Large stages to explore and hundreds of items to collect, making this game very easy to replay because of the large explorations and the fact that this game is simply very fun to play.
  4. Multiple endings depending how much explored the castle, a first for the series, as while Rondo of Blood had two unique endings for Richter and Maria, it doesn't had any bad/good endings system.
  5. Tons of replay value; once you beat the game, you can go back and play as Maria or Richter Belmont.
  6. Extremely tight and responsive controls, as Alucard is always responsive and playing as him is very satistying, because of how fluid he control, not to mention that it is a massive improvement over the previous games and now you can control your jump, and that is much better executed than in Castlevania Legends.
  7. Insane enemies and EPIC' boss battles, especially the bosses themself, which are some of the best from the series, they are also challenging and their paths are very well done, like in the previous games.
  8. This game is Castlevania on ultra superhuman steroids. It includes the 6 classic boss fights from the very first game and spiced them up: the giant bat, mummy, Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster, Death, and Dracula.
  9. Bravely went for a 2D look on a 3D-focused system. Back in the mid-late 90s, while everyone was moving to 3D/64-bit graphics, this game stayed with 32-bit sprites and the 64-bit graphics took a backseat to the background.
  10. Instead of just using a whip you have access to more variety of weapons.
  11. The game is difficult, but not frustrating.
  12. Easy to learn, hard to master.
  13. The soundtrack is amazing, as usual with this franchise, as the musics are very epic and fit the theme of the game, in fact they actually released a separate music CD with the games soundtrack on it. If you're too cheap to buy it you can download the songs here.
  14. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4 (Castlevania Requiem) versions are just like the old port in a good way, and is 100% faithful to the original game.
  15. Alternative modes of gameplay can be unlocked after the completion of the game. By inputting Richter Belmont's name as the user name, the player can choose to play as Richter, who uses a whip as his main weapon and various sub-weapons.
  16. The “You’re only halfway done” twist is awesome.

Bad Qualities

  1. Absolutely terrible, cringe-worthy, and awkward english voice acting. For example, Maria Renard sounds like a perfume commercial narrator and Dracula's voice sounds a bit too high-pitched.
  2. The Xbox 360 version lacks the FMV cutscenes.
  3. If you die, you get sent to the main menu instead of a continue screen. In a nutshell, players of this game get only one life and no continues.
  4. Alucard's powers are limited. You have to collect specific icons in order to be able to do more of his moves. In the early parts of the game he is already very powerful but due to Death taking away his equipment and powers he has to get them back.
  5. The Sega Saturn version suffers from longer load times and stretched graphics. But it includes Richter and Maria as playable characters right off the bat without having to beat the game first.
  6. Castlevania Requiem changed the “What Is a Man?” scene's dialogue entirely.
  7. Both Shaft's and Death's battles are anticlimatic and very easy, good thing Dracula makes up for it.
  8. Richter can only be played as after you beat the game, and he still can't whip in all eight directions. But he has some new moves that weren't in Rondo of Blood.
  9. Sometimes the character sprites are inconsistent with the portraits. Cases in point: Richter and Death.

Trivia

  • There are no bottomless pits in this Castlevania installment, which explains the reason for players getting only one life and no continues.
  • Role-playing mechanics were added because Igarashi felt the classic Castlevania games were too challenging for average players.
  • To change that, the team implemented a leveling-up system with experience points, which rewarded players with better attack and defense statistics as they beat enemies. This system, combined with a variety of items, armors, weapons and spells, allowed the exploration to become less difficult for unskilled players.
  • This game is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, as in the prologue of Symphony of the Night, you play as Richter fighting Dracula.
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was artist Ayami Kojima's first appearance in the video game industry. She worked on the game as a character designer, conceptualizing the game's main and supporting cast. Her designs for the game are heavily influenced by bishōnen-style art.
  • In September 2nd, 2021, Pigsy had begun uploading development diaries of an (currently in-progress) unofficial SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive port using SGDK (SEGA Genesis Development Kit) along with a remake of The GG Shinobi.

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