Ironically, I find that Symphony of the Night has aged worse than the original Castlevania despite releasing a full 11 years later. Whereas the original is a tightly-focused, weighty platformer, this game is stuffed with several half-baked systems (familiars, clunky inventory management, fighting game inputs for spell-casting) in an experience that is far too easy and straightforward to warrant giving the player such a wide assortment of tools. Additionally, the infamous Reverse Castle, though initially captivating, pads the game out for longer than it should, requiring the player to effectively retrace their path through all of the (nearly 1000) rooms they've already explored. All that being said, Symphony of the Night is still quite a good game: the exploration in the normal castle is incredible, the music and pixel art are top-notch, and the hilariously stilted vocal performances are perhaps only matched in video games by the original Resident Evil. It's clear how and why this game continues to inspire so many others to this day, even though I think it does not completely nail down its own formula.