There I was, utterly and completely defeated after finishing Rondo of Blood. I had honestly believed that maybe I should quit playing video games because I had reached my limits with my lack of satisfaction with that game. I thought that I would never feel rewarded for playing a game after how miserable I was.
Upon booting up Symphony of the Night however, I instantly clicked with it and what followed was a magical experience that reaffirmed my love for the medium and what can be done with it.
My firm belief is that Symphony of the Night takes concepts that Rondo introduced and brings them to their logical endpoint through the shift in genre from Platformer to Metroidvania (I'm not calling them Search Action Games, it's such a boring and dull way to describe a genre built on discovery that I'd literally prefer calling them "Pretzel Games" over that.)
Rondo introduced new movement options and Item Crashes into the formula. Symphony expands upon this by giving Alucard a wealth of movement from his backdash (which can be chainspammed with Shields for quick horizontal movement), to his various transformations like the Wolf and Bat, alongside a variety of spells like using Dracula's own Hellfire move or Soul Steal allowing you to regenerate your health by consuming the life of the enemies around you. The spells themselves require good input (that or the capacity to spam the fuck out of the d-pad like me) like in a fighting game.
Rondo also introduced the Alternate Stages and finding different routes to progress, which Symphony takes to the next level through the Metroidvania style. Having different areas connect in various ways be it unlocking magic doors, or shafts or accessing them via your transformations.
Just via these alone I see Symphony as an evolution of these concepts rather than just a wholesale deviation from Classicvania entirely. It retains the best elements and integrates them in new and exciting ways.
Graphically the game is gorgeous. Out of the Castlevania games I've experienced so far Symphony is the most breathtaking with its incredibly detailed sprites and level backgrounds. Every enemy pops out in just the right ways giving them all sorts of life and energy that I don't think the series had captured quite as well before.
The backgrounds having parallax views of the sky, and at points having 3D renders of parts of the castle like a tower that rotates as you move along the screen just fits with the peak 90s aesthetic.
The soundtrack is damn near perfection, blending haunting orchestral tracks with hard guitar riffs, it's like Rondo's soundtrack on Steroids. The Tragic Prince is my personal favorite track of the game, encapsulating so much of the vibe that Symphony carries throughout. Though the Prologue and Dracula's Castle tracks are both close contenders as well. The game varies from both these hardcore tracks to more atmospheric pieces dependent on the location.
Honestly the only part of the soundtrack I could consider not great is Finale Toccata, but that's only because it gets overused in the Inverted Castle to such an extent that it becomes borderline tiresome to listen to. Not an awful track, there just needed to be more variety for the Inverted Castle.
Back onto the gameplay I will say that if there is one complaint I can understand directed towards this game it is that it is really easy. Symphony of the Night is an incredibly easy game to break over your knee if you have the right equipment, be it rare drops like the Crissaegrim or fixed drops like the Shield Rod and the Alucard Shield.
With such equipment, regular enemies and bosses basically become jokes as they are wiped out within seconds requiring little to no effort or strategy. The final boss can be evaporated within about 3 seconds using either of the weapons I just listed.
For some people that could be a very understandable turnoff but to me I find it fits with the general vibe the game goes for.
Symphony of the Night is a power fantasy game starring an attractive dhampyr prince getting progressively more and more powerful as he explores the expanses of Castlevania and the Inverted Castle until he eventually becomes an untouchable god that all monsters fear. It's just innately satisfying seeing Alucard return to that level of strength after it's been taken away from him.
I guess another thing I can bring up is the Inverted Castle itself. I know that it is a somewhat common complaint from people that the Inverted Castle feels tacked on, and I can understand it. However, upon experiencing it for myself... I can't dislike it to be quite honest.
By the time you reach the Inverted Castle you have unlocked all of the movement abilities required to go wherever you please in whatever order, and any secret rooms you discovered in the Normal Castle will be in their designated reverse locations in the Inverted one, giving you the edge in progression through said knowledge.
If anything the Inverted Castle is probably the purest Metroidvania experience, though I think part of the reason a lot of people dislike it is because Finale Toccata is playing 60% of the time and that can get draining.
However it was in the Inverted Castle that I learned to appreciate my movement abilities specifically the Gravity Jump and the Bat Transformation, as you need them in order to progress through the more unnatural platforming sections.
It's just more Symphony and in my eyes, that can't be a bad thing.
It's really unsurprising that this game along with Super Metroid inspired an entire genre of games to follow, there is just something inherently fun about exploring the unknown and getting stronger as you do it, and with Symphony's build variety and learnable techniques I think it's a game that will provide a different experience every time you play...
And that's not even bringing up Richter mode.
Symphony renewed my faith in video games as a medium, and if there was any Castlevania I'd tell you to pick up no questions asked, it would be this. A damn near perfect game.
=================================================
Demon, death is too good for you!
Upon booting up Symphony of the Night however, I instantly clicked with it and what followed was a magical experience that reaffirmed my love for the medium and what can be done with it.
My firm belief is that Symphony of the Night takes concepts that Rondo introduced and brings them to their logical endpoint through the shift in genre from Platformer to Metroidvania (I'm not calling them Search Action Games, it's such a boring and dull way to describe a genre built on discovery that I'd literally prefer calling them "Pretzel Games" over that.)
Rondo introduced new movement options and Item Crashes into the formula. Symphony expands upon this by giving Alucard a wealth of movement from his backdash (which can be chainspammed with Shields for quick horizontal movement), to his various transformations like the Wolf and Bat, alongside a variety of spells like using Dracula's own Hellfire move or Soul Steal allowing you to regenerate your health by consuming the life of the enemies around you. The spells themselves require good input (that or the capacity to spam the fuck out of the d-pad like me) like in a fighting game.
Rondo also introduced the Alternate Stages and finding different routes to progress, which Symphony takes to the next level through the Metroidvania style. Having different areas connect in various ways be it unlocking magic doors, or shafts or accessing them via your transformations.
Just via these alone I see Symphony as an evolution of these concepts rather than just a wholesale deviation from Classicvania entirely. It retains the best elements and integrates them in new and exciting ways.
Graphically the game is gorgeous. Out of the Castlevania games I've experienced so far Symphony is the most breathtaking with its incredibly detailed sprites and level backgrounds. Every enemy pops out in just the right ways giving them all sorts of life and energy that I don't think the series had captured quite as well before.
The backgrounds having parallax views of the sky, and at points having 3D renders of parts of the castle like a tower that rotates as you move along the screen just fits with the peak 90s aesthetic.
The soundtrack is damn near perfection, blending haunting orchestral tracks with hard guitar riffs, it's like Rondo's soundtrack on Steroids. The Tragic Prince is my personal favorite track of the game, encapsulating so much of the vibe that Symphony carries throughout. Though the Prologue and Dracula's Castle tracks are both close contenders as well. The game varies from both these hardcore tracks to more atmospheric pieces dependent on the location.
Honestly the only part of the soundtrack I could consider not great is Finale Toccata, but that's only because it gets overused in the Inverted Castle to such an extent that it becomes borderline tiresome to listen to. Not an awful track, there just needed to be more variety for the Inverted Castle.
Back onto the gameplay I will say that if there is one complaint I can understand directed towards this game it is that it is really easy. Symphony of the Night is an incredibly easy game to break over your knee if you have the right equipment, be it rare drops like the Crissaegrim or fixed drops like the Shield Rod and the Alucard Shield.
With such equipment, regular enemies and bosses basically become jokes as they are wiped out within seconds requiring little to no effort or strategy. The final boss can be evaporated within about 3 seconds using either of the weapons I just listed.
For some people that could be a very understandable turnoff but to me I find it fits with the general vibe the game goes for.
Symphony of the Night is a power fantasy game starring an attractive dhampyr prince getting progressively more and more powerful as he explores the expanses of Castlevania and the Inverted Castle until he eventually becomes an untouchable god that all monsters fear. It's just innately satisfying seeing Alucard return to that level of strength after it's been taken away from him.
I guess another thing I can bring up is the Inverted Castle itself. I know that it is a somewhat common complaint from people that the Inverted Castle feels tacked on, and I can understand it. However, upon experiencing it for myself... I can't dislike it to be quite honest.
By the time you reach the Inverted Castle you have unlocked all of the movement abilities required to go wherever you please in whatever order, and any secret rooms you discovered in the Normal Castle will be in their designated reverse locations in the Inverted one, giving you the edge in progression through said knowledge.
If anything the Inverted Castle is probably the purest Metroidvania experience, though I think part of the reason a lot of people dislike it is because Finale Toccata is playing 60% of the time and that can get draining.
However it was in the Inverted Castle that I learned to appreciate my movement abilities specifically the Gravity Jump and the Bat Transformation, as you need them in order to progress through the more unnatural platforming sections.
It's just more Symphony and in my eyes, that can't be a bad thing.
It's really unsurprising that this game along with Super Metroid inspired an entire genre of games to follow, there is just something inherently fun about exploring the unknown and getting stronger as you do it, and with Symphony's build variety and learnable techniques I think it's a game that will provide a different experience every time you play...
And that's not even bringing up Richter mode.
Symphony renewed my faith in video games as a medium, and if there was any Castlevania I'd tell you to pick up no questions asked, it would be this. A damn near perfect game.
=================================================
Demon, death is too good for you!
Plasmatize
1 year ago
I loved the inverted castle inclusion! Beyond just the cool dramatic spectacle factor, I liked the ways it shook up the game's exploration and reward structure. If you'd paid attention to the normal castle's layout during all that time exploring it, not only were you rewarded with free secrets, but you also knew upfront where many of the warp points, save rooms and boss rooms were going to be located, so you could plan your exploration of the known-unknown around it, and know where to try to flee in a pinch. Or just be traversing somewhere and think "oh yeah, wasn't there a save room over here?" And if a path was blocked or seemed too dangerous, you already knew what your alternate options were likely to be. It was a really interesting twist on the experience, and a good confidence booster to fit the general "power fantasy" vibe at that stage in the game.