Castlevania is one of them action gaming franchises that's still got a large reputation among many gaming critics and fans. They are a challenging series of games from Konami which at the time were from a company that knows what they are doing and could do no wrong. The games were hugely successful on the NES and Super NES platforms as each of those games still hold up very well as gaming classics dispute the high difficulty that the games were known for.
Things took quite a change with the release of Castlevania Symphony Of The Night released for the original PlayStation in 1997 where Konami took the series in a all new direction. The game changed the traditional gameplay of the previous games and traded the traditional vampire killing whip for the sword as well as introducing many unique gameplay standouts where were incredible and were a welcome change for the series. These include non-linear level design which encourage exploration to reveal hidden areas, save points and lastly incorporating RPG elements to it making it into a Platforming Action RPG or what many fans refer to it as Metroidvania. It's a direct sequel to Castlevania Rondo Of Blood originally released on the PC-Engine in Japan and this game follows from where that game left off. It didn't get as much attention when it originally came out but later on it got high praise from critics and gained more popularity by word of mouth making it a sleeper hit, and eventually becoming one of best of gaming classics and one of the best games in the Castlevania series.
The storyline follows on from the events of Rondo Of Blood where Richter Belmont a warrior of the Belmont Clan succeeds in defeating Dracula in the final battle. This is where you are introduced to the game's cutscenes and the character dialogue all of which has voice acting given to by the power of the original PlayStation. Few of the lines come off as cheesy but however many of the dialogue from each of the characters are very memorable plus also the voice acting is also in line with the game's atmosphere as you'll notice the echoing as the characters are talking in some of the game's areas. This truly brings the character dialogue to life and each of them deliver very well which showed how voice acting can be done in video games back in the day. Getting back on track the game follows four years later where Richter Belmont mysteriously disappeared and the Castle of Dracula has mysteriously resurfaced. You play the game as Alucard who goes there to figure out how the castle came back and put a stop to the evil that has appeared. Alucard comes into contact with other characters including Richter and Maria from Rondo of Blood and their dialogue is really good. Alucard happens to be the son of Dracula and his name is simply Dracula spelled backwards. He does however oppose his father for his actions against humanity and wants to end his cursed bloodline siding with the Belmonts making him one of the best characters of the Castlevania franchise. His dialogue is really great and cleverly written and there plenty of moments where his dialogue makes a lot of sense to the game's context and they very good to listen to.
What cannot be denied about Symphony Of The Night on top of the voice acting is the game's presentation which even for a game that is over 20 years old it still looks really incredibly detailed for a 2D game that has some 3D rendered backgrounds as well. The game mainly uses 2D sprites but each of the sprite animations are fantastic and the details as well as the various effects and also the sprite scaling and lastly the backgrounds animations are truly gorgeous. The castle entrance for example has lightning in the background as well as the castle windows opening and closing as the room lights up is really impressive and it shows that 2D sprites still have a place in the eyes of gamers even when the gaming industry has moved onwards to the 3D era. Alucard is also one of the most designed 2D sprites in all of gaming. He has an amazing walk cycle animation which has him walking, turning and so on each with his hair and cape animating as well beautifully including the amazing trailing effects he has truly gives the character a ton of unique animations which is incredible a 2D game.
This game wouldn't be talked about without ever mentioning the soundtrack because once you start listening to the soundtrack you just don't want to stop listening to it because of how outstanding the soundtrack really is. Composed by Michiru Yamane each of every single track is a orchestral piece that's mixed with metal guitar really well and also using some other sound notes to spice it up brilliantly. A lot of the tracks have an atmospheric feel to them making them chilling at times while other times full of rock tunes that is extremely catchy and very memorable. Some of my all time favourite tracks include Lost Painting, Dracula's Castle, Prologue, The Tragic Prince and Wandering Ghosts. Basically every single track in the game incredible and it's impossible to say one thing bad about it even if someone put a gun to your head, it's that amazing and it's without a doubt one of the best soundtracks in all of gaming.
Now that I spent enough time talking about how amazing the game looks and sounds it's time to talk about the gameplay and this is where the game made the game changing turn for the Castlevania franchise. Like I said it's an Platforming Action RPG where the linear stage by stage side scrolling gameplay of the previous games is changed to give you a non-linear experience. It's still a 2-D side scrolling game where you move either left or right defeating enemies that get in your way but you have various secret areas that you can find throughout the game. The idea of the game is exploration, finding out where to go and then unlocking the next area. Parts of the areas start of inaccessible till you unlock an ability that will help you to reach it which I will explain more later.
This game uses an RPG levelling system which was also new and welcome for the series. This system affects what your character is at, what kind of stats he has or what type of equipment you are using. You level up by gaining EXP from defeating enemies and you when you get enough you increase your character's level which raises HP, Attack, Defence and so on. You can equip different weapons and armour like swords, shields, rods and maces as well as one use items like throwing spears, bombs and so on. Alucard does start the game with some pretty strong gear allowing you to get accustomed to the game's controls and gameplay style but however not long after setting foot in the castle you'll encounter Dracula's servant Death who takes all your best gear away you are left to find other pieces of gear to use whilst making do with a weak sword that does as much damage as a children's toy sword.
You'll also find sub-weapons scattered around the castle which are in candles which can be destroyed by a single swing of your weapon. Candles drop hearts which do not refill your health but instead are used for your sub-weapons. Sub-weapons include Axes, Daggers, Holy Water, Scrolls, Diamonds and also Time Stop. Each of them are very useful in certain situations as they deal a reasonable amount of damage to enemies and also can be used for some secrets.
Gameplay involves you defeating enemies, uncovering many of the secret areas that you can find if you look hard enough with common sense. Making use of save points to save your progress so that you can continue from where you left off as well as eventually taking on a boss battle. Defeating them will drop a Life Up item which permanently increases your HP and also give you a relic which will allow you access other parts of the castle. This is where the full exploration comes into play and also how Castlevania got it's full gameplay influences from the Metroid Series. It's all about exploring the whole parts of the area that you are in, finding secret areas along the way that you can find by destroying walls to reveal them, flying up to areas that you can't reach or by other different methods.
As you progress you'll get Relics which grant you abilities to use, these include Cube of Zoe which allows hearts and money to drop which can be used in shops to purchase stuff you need, Spirit Orb which shows how much damage you do to enemies, Leap Stone which allows you to do the Double Jump and also the Holy Symbol which helps you to explore underwater without taking damage because Alucard takes damage whenever he is underwater as well as summoning familiars like Sword, Demon, Faerie, Ghost and a Bat. The Familiars can be summoned one at a time by your choosing and each of them help you out in fights by attacking with different attacks they have or providing support with the healing items you have. These guys are very good at helping you out in fights especially with some of the later sequences.
The last Relics are the transformations which can transform Alucard into either a wolf, a bat, a mist as well as a poisoned mist which can not only allow you to fully explore each parts of the castle by reaching parts of the areas you would normally wouldn't be able to reach but also offer other abilities when you also find them to use in some situations.
Alucard can also use some magic spells which are purchased in stores next to equipment and one use items. Magic Spells are pretty good but you to have to perform a character motion on the D-Pad plus the attack button similar to performing special moves in fighting games like Street Fighter to activate them. But none of them are all that useless and they all do serve a purpose pretty well and if you have enough MP to use them they can be useful in low health situations if you can get them to come out. Some of the weapons in the game also have special attacks that can be useful as well which are done using the classic Hadoken motion to perform them and a lot of them are actually really cool to use.
The staple monsters of the Castlevania franchise are all here in the game like Zombies, Skeletons, Wolfs and Axe throwing Knights as well as some new monsters which are all huge and are all fantastically detailed as well. They also have a really good AI pattern which can make some of them challenging. It wouldn't be a Castlevania game without ever mentioning the Medusa Heads which are floating heads which move in a wiggly pattern which can easily knock players off the ledge and down to their doom and they appear in the tower areas making them the bane of all Castlevania games.
Symphony Of The Night also has some incredible level design as well, like I said there are many secret areas to find but each of the areas in the castle are all mixed up with different laboratories, galleries, towers, a colosseum, an underground water area and also the catacombs. Each are layered out really well with numerous platforms that you can land on and different traps to avoid.
One of the things that the Castlevania series gets noted for is the high difficulty. One thing that made the games challenging is that when ever you get hit you get knocked back and some of the time you ever get knocked back you would fall into a bottomless pit which results in a loss of a life which did frustrate gamers. Symphony Of The Night has that getting knocked back aspect and that can happen in some areas that have plenty of enemies that constantly knock you around but otherwise the controls do work fine. You can attack with weapons, use a shield to block some attacks and back dash to dodge attacks or to use it for going faster and the character is easy enough to control. Thankfully the game doesn't have bottomless pits to kill you with but leaving the area will make the enemies respawn.
Also because of the RPG elements Symphony Of The Night is a much easier game then any of the previous games in the series. The difficulty of the game is more affected to what equipment you are using rather then what level you are. Level ups starting out not offering much stats increase but however after playing more of the game the Level ups do get much better as supposed to how stats increases start out. As for equipment it's easy enough to equip weapons that does more damage as well as armour that provides the best defence stats but however there are pieces of equipment that offer resistances to certain spells or being turned to stone as well as accessories that offer stats boosts which are all helpful.
There are only few times where the game throws a hard sequence but one of those moments is the Clock Tower where you have Medusa Heads plus other enemies all attacking you at once plus also spikes and water to avoid which can be annoying to pass through. You do get into some tough fights with enemies but they can be defeated either with the right sub weapon, playing carefully with skill or you just need to gain levels or use the right type of equipment to beat it. Sometimes you can just run away or turn into a bat and fly away from fights if you are low on health or if you are finding the enemies tough wait till you are a bit stronger.
As for boss fights it requires you to watch the their attacks closely and attack when they are not attacking. You can get away with reckless tactics with a few bosses at the start but try that with some later bosses halfway through the game you'll end up being knocked all round the arena. As long as you are reasonably levelled and have the right gear on then you are good to progress through the areas decently and can defeat the bosses without that much problems.
The game has multiple endings depending on how you progressed through the game as well as a certain requirements which I won't spoil here which helps increase the replay value plus also once you complete everything in the castle you have to go through it again upside down. Some people would think that going through the whole castle again but in an upside down matter would be just be plain lazy then you are seriously wrong. The Inverted Castle offers up new possibilities, more areas to explore and also plenty of new enemies and bosses as well as many challenging hazards to avoid.
Once you finish the game you do have the option of playing the whole game as Richter Belmont. Richter has plenty of Item Crush moves as well as some cool special moves that you can do with him if you really take the time to master how he controls. You can also twirl around with the whip by holding down the attack button and moving the D-Pad around. Also about Richter Mode it lacks the RPG elements but however the Life Up Items increase your life which becomes important because it allows you to take more damage which means the more boss fights and secrets you ignore the harder it becomes for you. You will end up dying a fair bit because of this and whenever you die you are brought back to the title screen and have to reload from your last save. Thankfully the loading times are not that bad but in any case it's excusable for an old school game.
Also when you do finish the game you can play the game in Luck Mode which is activated with a secret code which makes you have high luck stats but however you start with low health and with really bad stats. It does allow you to do the trick where you can glitch the game to keep your starting gear to make going through it easier but more fun.
So I know what some people are going to say later on. “Okay so you really love the game so much so what don't you like about Symphony Of The Night?” To be honest there really isn't anything that's outright bad about the game cause it plays well, the combat is enjoyable and the game has plenty of replay value to it. You would have to be really nitpicky to find any problems in the game. The only issue that comes to mind is the way you use healing items in the game is just awkward. With the item system you can equip a weapon, a shield, a one use item or a healing item in either the left or right hand instead of having a separate item menu or something. Which means that if you want to heal yourself with items you need to swap either a weapon or shield for a potion on either left or right hand and then press either button that the healing item is set to use it. It can be tricky to use it when you are in the heat of the moment but it's more awkward to try and find the shield or weapon you had equipped before when your inventory could be full of items making it a pain to go through your items. Thankfully there is an ordering system where you can put all of your items in order otherwise going through your weapons to get the weapon and shield you need is a chore cause you could be spending more time in the menu searching the weapon or shield that you are looking for. I know people are going to say “why not just use Soul Steal which helps to restore your health?” well it's a great spell but like I said it takes considerable amounts of MP and it can be risky to use when you are low on health and you try to do it in front of a large group of enemies so I find it easier just to use potions instead.
I suppose I'll talk about the performance as well. Now for a PSOne game relaying mostly on the 2D art-style it runs pretty smoothly without any hiccups and can handle plenty of action on the screen. The frame rate does drop a fair bit only when a boss drops a special item or when more then plenty of enemies cloud up the screen. One boss battle in the Inverted Castle drops the frame rate insanely and it can make the boss fight a little tricky then it should be but however Castlevania Symphony Of The Night is both is one of the best looking 2D games on the PSOne plus it's gameplay is really incredible and manages to hold up reasonably well.
Now let's talk about the price for this game cause holy molly is the price for the game enough to break anyone's bank. Paying for a physical copy of the game for the original PSOne can cost over £100 to nearly £200 for just a standard copy but if you want the Limited Edition which comes with an Audio CD it could cost at most £300. I mean that's insanely high priced, now I understand that the game didn't sell very well and the copies of the game are rare making one of the most valuable collector's items but really for that price you would rather spend it on a new game console then spend it on an overly expensive game that you might not like or breeze through in a few hours. There is a difference between games that are worth the money and are entertaining to play through to a game that's more treated as a rare collectable item. Castlevania Symphony Of The Night is indeed one of those games that's old school and it is easy to see what has made the game well received all those years ago but would you really want to pay over £100 or £200 for a hard copy of it? If the answer is no then thankfully there are other methods of getting your hands on it.
The game was later ported onto the Sega Saturn a year later and the Saturn port has two new areas as well as new bosses and other things not seen in the original game and it also allows you to play through the whole game as Maria. The Saturn port is good but however it suffers from some awful frame rate problems and the graphics are really downgraded compared to the PSOne original. The loading times are worsened in every single way and the game you have to bring the menu up pause to view the map. It was a good thing that the Saturn port was only released in Japan although some people might like the new content included in that version.
The game was released on the XBox Live Arcade Store on the XBox 360 and it is also compatible on the XBox One. This version of the game runs really well and it has the options for stretching the screen as well as filtering the image which offers mixed results for some people. The game itself has the gameplay and content from the PSOne original but however the FMV cutscenes are missing and trying to play the game on an XBox 360 control pad is a nightmare because the D-Pad was never designed for these kinds of games. You end up crouching when you don't mean too and trying to pull off special moves on the D-Pad doesn't come out cause of the way the D-Pad on the XBox Controller doesn't recognise the inputs very well. Still for a cheap downloadable price even though it's lacking the FMV cutscenes it's a great version of the game for anyone who owns an XBox 360 or XBox One and it has some easy to unlock achievements to unlock for anyone wanting to boost their XBox Gamerscore.
Symphony Of The Night was later released on the PlayStation Portable as part of the Dracula X Chronicles compilation. It's a remake of Rondo Of Blood which has Rondo Of Blood and also Symphony Of The Night as unlockable games on it. The PSP port of Symphony Of The Night remains very faithful to the PSOne original in terms of gameplay and graphics however what may turn off some people from the port is the redubbed English voice acting. The new lines are aright and to be fair they did bring Michelle Ruff to do Maria Renard and her performance as her is good. However some of the new lines are a bit campy and not as impactful compared to the original lines, that means that you don't get the cheesy but memorable “What is a man?” quote. It does have the boss fight with Maria as well as also being able to play the game as Maria. She has different animals which she uses as sub weapons to use in battle but she lacks her powerful abilities from the Japan-Only Saturn port making her very weak compared to Richter and Alucard. She has less life and can die very easily unless you take your time to actually go through the game defeating the bosses and finding the secret areas for Life Ups items so that you stand a chance against the later portions of the game. You can tell that the game was made with the main game with Alucard with the whole RPG aspect in mind but not so much for the other two modes. Dispute the difficulty it can be done with skill and patience but you can't help but think that they could have kept the Maria mode from the Saturn version to make it more fun and complete. The Dracula X Chronicles game itself is actually much cheaper hard copy wise then the PSOne version as it is more common but not as common as other popular PSP games that you might find second hand however you can get a digital version of it for about £7.99 and it works perfectly with no issues on the PSVita and with PlayStation TV Support.
Even with some minor little things the PSP version is great and a nice addition to the Dracula X Chronicles remake and it's worth pointing out now that version of the game is now included in the Castlevania Requiem compilation on the PlayStation 4. It's a compilation that includes Symphony Of The Night as well as the original version of Rondo of Blood. You can kind of think of it as Dracula X Chronicles except without the Dracula X Chronicles remake itself. Some long time fans will question Konami why they went for the redubbed PSP port instead of the original version of the game and also complain about the visual options but I do have to say how come stretching the image doesn't cover both sides of the screen completely? Still it has all of the dialogue and gameplay content from the PSP version of the game and it also has Quick Save features if you want to leave the game quickly and then come back and resume where you Quick Saved later. It also has some Trophies for both Castlevania games so if you want to relive two games while getting the Trophies and can put aside the poor screen options then it's really worth getting at it's £15.99 price tag.
If playing any of the XBox Live Arcade, PSP or PS4 ports aren't your cups of tea and really want to experience the game the way as it was originally intended then thankfully the original version of Symphony Of The Night on the PSOne is available on the PlayStation Network Store. It's an emulation of the PSOne game and it runs really well and it can be played on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and lastly the PlayStation Vita and it's compatible with the PlayStation TV as well. It's everything that you came to expect from running the original game as it is and it has everything intact from the game's original release including the original dialogue and for a cheap price tag for £7.99 it's a steal plus you can upscale the game to full screen although with the black bars that PAL versions of games are known for having.
Regardless Castlevania Symphony Of The Night is still regarded as one of the best entries of the Castlevania franchise, one of gaming's cult classics and it has aged well with grace. It's still one of those games people look back on and discover what has made this game well so brilliant all those years ago. The game changing ideas were fantastic, the RPG element combined with amazing level design, incredible presentation, enjoyable cutscenes with voice acting, a soundtrack that's so memorable it's impossible to forget, dozens of secret areas to discover and dozens of different abilities, weapons and spells to find, unlock and try out. It's also one of those hardcore games where people attempt to fully complete the game by fully filling the map on both Castles as well as finding various exploits and glitches and it's also one of those games that's highly popular to speed runners and also people try to do more hardcore challenges with the game like try to go through the game without any armour and they pretty fun to do also. Of the available versions of the game I highly recommend getting any of the digital versions because like I said the Physical release on the PSOne just costs a ridiculous amount of money and the digital versions allow the game to run without issues on modern consoles. Regardless of what version of the game that you decide to play and also with the recent release of Castlevania Requiem on the PlayStation 4 which has this gem and also Rondo Of Blood now is a perfect time to sink your teeth into one of Konami's finest gaming masterpieces and also learn from what has made Konami one of the top game development companies before they lost their best talents and lost their way completely. Hopefully in the future someday we can only hope that Konami would get their act together, throw away the worst sides of the company and actually create a game that could bring their reputation back together or bring back the old glory days of the Castlevania franchise either ones like the old original entries or maybe a Metroidvania Action RPG one just like Symphony Of The Night. Konami did make other Action RPG Castlevania games on the handhelds that followed Symphony Of The Night's gameplay and they sure ain't a miserable pile of secrets but also fantastic gems worth checking out and I'll eventually get to those possibly in the future.
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Game Score: 9.5/10
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Game Title: Castlevania Symphony Of The Night
Platform: PSOne/Saturn/PSP/XBox Live Arcade/PS4
Developer: Konami
Genre: Platform/Action RPG
Age Rating: ELSPA 11+/PEGI: 12+
Release Date: November 1997 (Europe)
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The Good Points:
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1. Fantastic cutscenes, voice acting and the lines are cheesy but memorable
2. Brilliant level design and dozens of secrets to discover
3. Enjoyable RPG element that gives you different weapons, abilities to try out
4. One of the greatest video game soundtracks in of all time
5. Amazing presentation and the sprites look incredible
The Bad Points:
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1. Equipping and using Healing Items feels awkward to get used to when you have a ton of items
Awards
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Best Video Game Soundtrack
Best Game of 1997
Best PSOne Game
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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