SoTN is the 2nd half of the metroidvania formula and while it's clear that it is built on the foundations of Super Metroid, it expands on that core recipe of game design and fuses it with a stylish blend of gothic and baroque that is truly befitting for the protagonist Alucard in all his vampiric glory.
The story is simple - Dracula was defeated 100 years ago by the hunter Richter who has since gone missing, but the reappearance of the vampire's cursed castle heralds the return of the dark lord. His half-human son Alucard enters to investigate and try to prevent the return of his evil father. SoTN's story is short and snappy, and delivers it sharply using only a handful of cut scenes and pieces of dialogue. It's amazing to me how potent the story telling is here when modern games spend so much more time and money to do so much less.
We are playing the son of Dracula so it makes sense that we storm into the castle at maximum power. While I normally hate games that start you strong and then strip you down here it is functionally diegetic, it tells us how strong Dracula and vampires in this world must be and we feel like a final boss from any other game which makes for an exciting power trip. When Death strips us down it effectively sets up the game itself as we scour the castle in search of the stolen powers and equipment, along with clues to Dracula's resurrection and the fate of Richter - all the core gameplay loops are cleverly established and tied directly into the story.
While Rondo of Blood had the 'classic' rigid combat design of Castlevania, SoTN builds on it by offering a variety of fighting styles including sword and shield, two handed, fists, or magic, each with complimentary equipment to discover, different attacks, and tactical pros and cons that give you real variety in gameplay. The rigidity is still there but now it feels tactical - the back-slide move gives Alucard a dexterity that's always been missing from the series while also making combat more reactive and faster paced. The huge roster of enemies make for fun fodder too as each require you to make full use of your movement and attacks so nothing feels wasted.
SoTN also makes the leap of fusing that gameplay with the power-up gated, open exploration structure of Super Metroid. This is done primarily through the transformations you acquire and while they each have uses beyond just letting you explore further, they can be a bit clunky and fragile so it's rarely worth using them for anything but. That said the game's liberal use of verticality, the huge map, and the way it expands suddenly at the half-way point really squeezes every drop out of it's physical space, cleverly set up so the second half of the game is more challenging to explore and gets more use out of the mechanics set up in the first half.
In essence Symphony is a very elegant game, from the stunningly detailed sprites, animations, backgrounds, and effects, to the incredible music, the sharp story telling, smooth combat, fun exploration, and a myriad of secrets to discover. Yes there are flaws like the CD buffer rooms, liberal backtracking, the lack of use for some transformations, bosses are a bit easy, and some weapons overpowered - but none of that diminishes the experience and often gives it a distinct flavour more than it spoils the taste. It's clear to see these bones being built on by modern metroidvanias and SoTN is such a solid milestone along the path from where the genre began to where it is that it's little wonder it is held to such a high degree. A very satisfying play from start to finish.
The story is simple - Dracula was defeated 100 years ago by the hunter Richter who has since gone missing, but the reappearance of the vampire's cursed castle heralds the return of the dark lord. His half-human son Alucard enters to investigate and try to prevent the return of his evil father. SoTN's story is short and snappy, and delivers it sharply using only a handful of cut scenes and pieces of dialogue. It's amazing to me how potent the story telling is here when modern games spend so much more time and money to do so much less.
We are playing the son of Dracula so it makes sense that we storm into the castle at maximum power. While I normally hate games that start you strong and then strip you down here it is functionally diegetic, it tells us how strong Dracula and vampires in this world must be and we feel like a final boss from any other game which makes for an exciting power trip. When Death strips us down it effectively sets up the game itself as we scour the castle in search of the stolen powers and equipment, along with clues to Dracula's resurrection and the fate of Richter - all the core gameplay loops are cleverly established and tied directly into the story.
While Rondo of Blood had the 'classic' rigid combat design of Castlevania, SoTN builds on it by offering a variety of fighting styles including sword and shield, two handed, fists, or magic, each with complimentary equipment to discover, different attacks, and tactical pros and cons that give you real variety in gameplay. The rigidity is still there but now it feels tactical - the back-slide move gives Alucard a dexterity that's always been missing from the series while also making combat more reactive and faster paced. The huge roster of enemies make for fun fodder too as each require you to make full use of your movement and attacks so nothing feels wasted.
SoTN also makes the leap of fusing that gameplay with the power-up gated, open exploration structure of Super Metroid. This is done primarily through the transformations you acquire and while they each have uses beyond just letting you explore further, they can be a bit clunky and fragile so it's rarely worth using them for anything but. That said the game's liberal use of verticality, the huge map, and the way it expands suddenly at the half-way point really squeezes every drop out of it's physical space, cleverly set up so the second half of the game is more challenging to explore and gets more use out of the mechanics set up in the first half.
In essence Symphony is a very elegant game, from the stunningly detailed sprites, animations, backgrounds, and effects, to the incredible music, the sharp story telling, smooth combat, fun exploration, and a myriad of secrets to discover. Yes there are flaws like the CD buffer rooms, liberal backtracking, the lack of use for some transformations, bosses are a bit easy, and some weapons overpowered - but none of that diminishes the experience and often gives it a distinct flavour more than it spoils the taste. It's clear to see these bones being built on by modern metroidvanias and SoTN is such a solid milestone along the path from where the genre began to where it is that it's little wonder it is held to such a high degree. A very satisfying play from start to finish.