What is a Metroidvania? A badass little pile of secrets!
Games with a mountain of hype behind them scare me. Heaps of 10/10s and 5 star ratings form a vast shadow of adoration, and it can be difficult to tell how much of it is genuine evaluation, and how much of it is baseless nostalgic ramblings. But I'm playing every Castlevania, so I couldn't exactly skip Symphony of the Night, now could I?
....yeah, damn, I guess y'all were right.
Symphony of the Night was apparently inspired by titles such as Zelda, with absolutely no inspiration from Metroid whatsoever. I can't help but call bullshit, because the gameplay format is borderline identical. Fully explorable map, differing biomes, hidden upgrades, save rooms, blue-grid map screen, all adapted into a gothic horror setting. Simply trade Samus' trusty arm cannon for a myriad of magic and melee weapons, and that's SotN. And while I do enjoy a good Classicvania, this was such a breath of fresh air that remained somewhat familiar, yet far more lively.
There's a lot more story than normal to go around, though not enough that anything drags. Opening on an incredible, playable recreation of the final part of Rondo of Blood, the main game follows on some time afterwards. Seems as if Dracula is being resurrected a little earlier than usual, and his son Alucard isn't too big on that. As such, he seeks to storm the castle and slay whoever he needs to, even his own father if need be. It's a decent follow-up to Rondo, and while not to get into deep spoilers; the bad ending to this game presents a rather interesting narrative idea that would've been nice to see in more detail.
As with other Castlevanias, the gameplay and platforming is slow, but deliberate. Alucard struts forward at a fairly slow pace, but has a lot more freedom of movement than past protagonists. Between this and the horde of enemies to fight between each room, moving around takes quite a while to become exhausting. Discovering shortcuts, secrets and curious little secrets always keeps things exciting, and you're never far away from adding to Alucard's limitless pockets. That being said, while exploring, I found myself somehow missing the all-important save rooms almost every single time. Technically my bad, but I kind of wish they were telegraphed just a little more.
In spite of breaking with many Castlevania traditions, sub-weapons return. As always, they're powered by hearts, which still drop from candles and certain enemies. Even better, like Rondo, picking up a new sub-weapon drops the old one on the ground, just in case you want it back. Even if you mess up on that front, sub-weapons always spawn in the same place, so if you remember where to check, getting it back isn't too hard. Unlike most of the classic games, I felt comfortable to use up hearts on enemies here, rather than saving for the bosses every time.
Speaking of bosses, god damn, they feel like they're everywhere. You'll be walking down a corridor, then bam - a tell-tale stutter for a second or two that indicates that a boss room is loading in. Usually, if you recognise that, you can just turn around and leave to get in a better state, but yeah - so many bosses. I'm a little bit mixed on the bosses overall - there are good ones and bad ones. Mostly they feel like a DPS check for the area, but some do at least move and attack like a traditional 'vania boss, rewarding you for weaving between their attacks.
Graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Spritework, taken to incredible heights with minimal use of 3D to enhance the world around the characters. I enjoy early 3D polygons a lot more than I used to, but this still stands above it in my mind. Everything looks fantastic, enemies are distinctly designed and are easily recognised. Some even exist just for fun, like poor Yorick, a skeleton who kicks his head around like an idiot. If anything, perhaps the castle could've used a little more variety in appearances, but what it has is perfectly adequate. And that music? Sublime. While it's worlds apart from the sort of tracks that made the older 'vania soundtracks so memorable, what's here takes it in a direction that's just as enjoyable, if slightly less memorable.
As far as flaws go, I do have several criticisms to raise. Chief among them is the inventory; you pick up so much stuff over the course of the game. Tons of weapons, single-use spells, and every damn type of food ever served. Seriously, forget wall meat (which is still in this game!), there's so many different types of food that there's an entire item dedicated to giving you a random one. Annoyingly, though, to use food, you have to equip it in either hand, like you would a weapon. Then, you throw the food down, then walk over it to eat it. I assume this was done so as to make health restoring riskier during a battle, but scrolling through all your items to find the food you want to eat is tedious and awkward. And by the time you're in the endgame, you have so much shit in your inventory, and most of it is probably useless by then. Despite the presence of a shop, as far as I can tell you can only sell rare gems, not outdated gear. I might be missing something, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.
Difficulty is also a bit of a weird one. Arguably, it's fairly easy, especially coming off the back of the other Castlevanias. It's pretty hard at first, and there's also a sharp difficulty spike when you start the second half of the game. But between those points, you'll just walk through a lot of enemies - literally so if you get the Medusa Shield to drop. Half the joy of a Metroidvania is the power trip feeling in the endgame, being a nigh-invincible killing machine, but you'll be one-shotting things well before that point. Bosses are usually harder, but like I said before, a lot of them are DPS checks anyway. The RPG mechanics also mean that you can always grind to get through easier, though I doubt you'll ever have to.
Getting the good ending is also kinda cryptic. You're probably not going to get it without reading a guide, or going out of your way to explore every nook and cranny possible. I explored everything I could the first time around, but still managed to miss both key items. Annoying, but ultimately understandable - definitely not even close to the level of cryptic in older games like Simon's Quest and Ys.
Altogether, this is absolutely one of the greatest PS1 games, and is worth a try by all means. If anything, though, I feel almost disappointed that almost the entire rest of the series was nothing but attempts to recapture this game's magic. If only there had remained a consistent balance of linear and exploration-based games, rather than just SotN clones. Still, I hope that I can find them somewhat enjoyable. Or, if all else fails, I could just replay this - I don't normally replay games, but perhaps this could be an exception.
Games with a mountain of hype behind them scare me. Heaps of 10/10s and 5 star ratings form a vast shadow of adoration, and it can be difficult to tell how much of it is genuine evaluation, and how much of it is baseless nostalgic ramblings. But I'm playing every Castlevania, so I couldn't exactly skip Symphony of the Night, now could I?
....yeah, damn, I guess y'all were right.
Symphony of the Night was apparently inspired by titles such as Zelda, with absolutely no inspiration from Metroid whatsoever. I can't help but call bullshit, because the gameplay format is borderline identical. Fully explorable map, differing biomes, hidden upgrades, save rooms, blue-grid map screen, all adapted into a gothic horror setting. Simply trade Samus' trusty arm cannon for a myriad of magic and melee weapons, and that's SotN. And while I do enjoy a good Classicvania, this was such a breath of fresh air that remained somewhat familiar, yet far more lively.
There's a lot more story than normal to go around, though not enough that anything drags. Opening on an incredible, playable recreation of the final part of Rondo of Blood, the main game follows on some time afterwards. Seems as if Dracula is being resurrected a little earlier than usual, and his son Alucard isn't too big on that. As such, he seeks to storm the castle and slay whoever he needs to, even his own father if need be. It's a decent follow-up to Rondo, and while not to get into deep spoilers; the bad ending to this game presents a rather interesting narrative idea that would've been nice to see in more detail.
As with other Castlevanias, the gameplay and platforming is slow, but deliberate. Alucard struts forward at a fairly slow pace, but has a lot more freedom of movement than past protagonists. Between this and the horde of enemies to fight between each room, moving around takes quite a while to become exhausting. Discovering shortcuts, secrets and curious little secrets always keeps things exciting, and you're never far away from adding to Alucard's limitless pockets. That being said, while exploring, I found myself somehow missing the all-important save rooms almost every single time. Technically my bad, but I kind of wish they were telegraphed just a little more.
In spite of breaking with many Castlevania traditions, sub-weapons return. As always, they're powered by hearts, which still drop from candles and certain enemies. Even better, like Rondo, picking up a new sub-weapon drops the old one on the ground, just in case you want it back. Even if you mess up on that front, sub-weapons always spawn in the same place, so if you remember where to check, getting it back isn't too hard. Unlike most of the classic games, I felt comfortable to use up hearts on enemies here, rather than saving for the bosses every time.
Speaking of bosses, god damn, they feel like they're everywhere. You'll be walking down a corridor, then bam - a tell-tale stutter for a second or two that indicates that a boss room is loading in. Usually, if you recognise that, you can just turn around and leave to get in a better state, but yeah - so many bosses. I'm a little bit mixed on the bosses overall - there are good ones and bad ones. Mostly they feel like a DPS check for the area, but some do at least move and attack like a traditional 'vania boss, rewarding you for weaving between their attacks.
Graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Spritework, taken to incredible heights with minimal use of 3D to enhance the world around the characters. I enjoy early 3D polygons a lot more than I used to, but this still stands above it in my mind. Everything looks fantastic, enemies are distinctly designed and are easily recognised. Some even exist just for fun, like poor Yorick, a skeleton who kicks his head around like an idiot. If anything, perhaps the castle could've used a little more variety in appearances, but what it has is perfectly adequate. And that music? Sublime. While it's worlds apart from the sort of tracks that made the older 'vania soundtracks so memorable, what's here takes it in a direction that's just as enjoyable, if slightly less memorable.
As far as flaws go, I do have several criticisms to raise. Chief among them is the inventory; you pick up so much stuff over the course of the game. Tons of weapons, single-use spells, and every damn type of food ever served. Seriously, forget wall meat (which is still in this game!), there's so many different types of food that there's an entire item dedicated to giving you a random one. Annoyingly, though, to use food, you have to equip it in either hand, like you would a weapon. Then, you throw the food down, then walk over it to eat it. I assume this was done so as to make health restoring riskier during a battle, but scrolling through all your items to find the food you want to eat is tedious and awkward. And by the time you're in the endgame, you have so much shit in your inventory, and most of it is probably useless by then. Despite the presence of a shop, as far as I can tell you can only sell rare gems, not outdated gear. I might be missing something, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.
Difficulty is also a bit of a weird one. Arguably, it's fairly easy, especially coming off the back of the other Castlevanias. It's pretty hard at first, and there's also a sharp difficulty spike when you start the second half of the game. But between those points, you'll just walk through a lot of enemies - literally so if you get the Medusa Shield to drop. Half the joy of a Metroidvania is the power trip feeling in the endgame, being a nigh-invincible killing machine, but you'll be one-shotting things well before that point. Bosses are usually harder, but like I said before, a lot of them are DPS checks anyway. The RPG mechanics also mean that you can always grind to get through easier, though I doubt you'll ever have to.
Getting the good ending is also kinda cryptic. You're probably not going to get it without reading a guide, or going out of your way to explore every nook and cranny possible. I explored everything I could the first time around, but still managed to miss both key items. Annoying, but ultimately understandable - definitely not even close to the level of cryptic in older games like Simon's Quest and Ys.
Altogether, this is absolutely one of the greatest PS1 games, and is worth a try by all means. If anything, though, I feel almost disappointed that almost the entire rest of the series was nothing but attempts to recapture this game's magic. If only there had remained a consistent balance of linear and exploration-based games, rather than just SotN clones. Still, I hope that I can find them somewhat enjoyable. Or, if all else fails, I could just replay this - I don't normally replay games, but perhaps this could be an exception.
LoreW001
1 year ago