You see, Castlevania used to be a side-scrolling adventure game, pretty straight-forward. Symphony, however, changed up the game by using the exploration gameplay found in the beloved Metroid series, thus creating a new style of games dubbed, Metroidvania. It's a timeless game and in my opinion, it takes what Metroid does and does it even better. Here's the review for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Gameplay
+ Simple, yet intricate - There's a jump button, a right and left attack button, and a back-dash button. That's it. and the game merely requires the use of only those four buttons. You can always go head-first at an enemy and succeed. It may be a little harder than observing all of your abilities at hand but you certainly don't need them which gives it appeal to those who aren't good with complicated controls. But there's another layer to it.
Depending on the weapon you're using to attack, there's a certain amount of recovery before you can attack again. You're also stuck to the ground during that recovery. If you can be ingenious enough, there's a way around the recovery. If you attack while jumping, the recovery of the attack is reset when you hit the ground allowing you to jump and attack again or immediately attack when you hit the ground for a quick two hit combo. Eventually a flow is gained (YES!! FLOW!!!) and you'll find yourself hopping forward, slashing monsters out of the way as you speed on through. Even battles with tougher enemies become fast paced as you time your jumps and attacks to dodge their attacks and counter them quickly.
There are a lot more examples I could go through but figuring it all out is part of the fun and strategy of Castlevania. That tip up there is a key one to learn that's applicable to the rest of the Castlevania series.
+ How did I do that!? - One thing about certain games that I'm in love with is when they keep certain aspects a secret from you. You got frustrated with the game or got bored and just started mashing buttons and you accidentally did something you didn't know was even possible! There's a plethora of different commands you can perform with different weapons for secret attacks, secret magic spells you can perform, there are even different ways of getting around the environment if you can figure it all out.
+ Left or right? - Alright, I love Metroid. It's fun, addictive, different. The only thing I don't like about it is that I never felt as compelled to explore the world as I would like to be. Symphony of the Night delivers on exploration and rewards curiosity in spades. It is rare to play a game that is so unbelievably rewarding and wrapped up in secrets. Break holes in walls to find secret weapons and rooms, find special switches that only appear to do nothing unless you have the spark of curiosity to investigate them, the surprises are never-ending. I mean, as scary as Dracula's castle is, it's so imaginative and exciting that you can't help but feel like you wish you could be there. It's hard to stop until you've uncovered every unexplored area in the game.
+ A pinch of RPG - Alucard (who you play as) is built up of various stats. These aren't stats you choose or influence the rise of but they are made up of numerical values and they affect certain aspects of the game. You can use items and equipment to raise specific stats for the duration of their use allowing you to work with stats that you personally find important. You also gain better stats as you level up from killing monsters. It's not a huge element to the game but it has just enough to make a difference in the way you go through the game.
+ How would you like to play? - There's a weapon for just about everyone's preference when it comes to dispatching the monstrosities within the castle, and being able to have a weapon assigned to one of two different attack buttons, you're free to customize the way you want to play. If you want to go through weak hordes at a fast pace, there are gauntlets. If you'd rather stay away from enemies, there's a spear. There are tonfas, wands, flails, maces, broadswords, ninja stars, it's all up to you! They all have different properties and work in different ways with their own secret attacks and everything! You'd be hard pressed to not find a weapon you can be happy with.
+ There's so much! - When you begin playing, you're gonna be sad when you realize you're close to the end. Luckily, the game has a few ways to extend the life of it's duration. When you've gone through the entire castle and you get to the first ending, I don't think you'll be satisfied with the results, and you shouldn't be. To get the real ending, you need to go through the inverted castle!!!! Not only is it just flipped upside down but there are new enemies, bosses, items, weapons, abilities, it's like a whole new game! And after that, you can go through the whole game as Richter Belmont, an older protagonist of the series, who utilizes the trusty Belmont whip and a completely new move-set. Believe me when I say playing with Richter is so different, it's like playing a new game. There's some amazing content and replayability here!
= Medusa Heads - I personally don't think it's a negative against the game but I gotta call out the Medusa Heads for being so irritating in the Clock Tower. They're such bitches that I guarantee everyone will have their own anger-filled rage-story the first time you run into them at a low level and get ripped apart by harpies. I'm not gonna be specific about why they're so irritating, I'm going to let you have the fun of finding out why. Enjoy!
Story and Presentation
+ Alucard will Kill. Dracula. - Dunno if that pun really worked out or not. Anyway, the story isn't exactly at Mass Effect's level but it is indeed a step up from Mario and Kirby games. Normally you play through the Castlevania games as the Belmonts, a family tasked through the generations with the slaying of the ever-immortal, Dracula. Symphony of the Night changes this up a bit by placing you in the shoes of Alucard, son of a human mother and Dracula, and Alucard is out for blood; His father's blood!
The game utilizes unique devices to propel the story forward that are always intriguing and unpredictable making a supremely simple story into an addictive fare.
+ "What is a human?" - The voice-acting is so cheesy you just can't help but love it! Sometimes it gets so ridiculous that you can't help but have a giggle. This is nowhere near being taken seriously but it is absolutely meant to be enjoyed.
+ Welcome to my castle... - This is Dracula's castle and you know it. The environment combined with the monsters and the soundtrack, they mix together to make the Reese's of gaming. The choice of exploration adds a lot to this title as well because the game didn't show you this and that, you discovered them. They didn't exist until you found them! From hideous creations, to rooms filled with eerie sequences making you wonder if you really saw what you just observed, they bring Dracula's castle to the forefront of your imagination. There's nothing like it out there. It's addictive, beautiful, harrowing, and creepy all at once and you can't stop wanting more!
+ Is there no end to them all!? - I could go on for days about all the great things of this game but I did want a shorter review and that's not what I'm getting at all! Just to touch upon a couple things very quickly: The bosses are crazy awesome! Some of them are straight-up cool and some, like Beelzebub and Granfalloon, are so repulsively sickening that they will never fade from a gamer's mind. EVER.
The diversity in enemies and their appearances are astounding. There's always a new monster to dispatch and a new strategy to formulate. You will always be on your toes and you will love every second of it.
Finally, the art direction. Whoever came up with the concepts of all these monsters, locations and such, who I believe is Ayami Kojima, is an imaginative genius. Everything is so beautiful to look at and so detailed too! And that's saying something for a game with 13-year-old graphics!
Sound
+ GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!! - That's you after playing this game. It's everyone after playing this game. The music is fantastic!!!! Symphony of the Night has some of the most treasured music in the history of games. So much atmosphere is added to the entire game through the soundtrack, every song becomes memorable. You'll be addicted and at times, you won't even want to leave the section of the castle you're in because it would mean the end of the song. Unfortunately, they stay with you which may cause you to lose sleep since the only way to get them out of your head is to keep playing the game.
= It's nice - The game's from 1997, what do you expect? The sound effects are what they need to be and that's that. It's not like they're blasphemous in quality.
Graphics
+ Like a fine wine... - It's a 2D game made up of pixel art. It's not really flexing much muscle but it more than makes up for it in subtle and detailed animations and it's diverse palette of colors. Every time I look at the game, I instantly gain a feel for it's moody architecture and atmosphere. I had no problem looking at this splattered across my HDTV. In fact, I think I'd feel maybe even a bit upset if the graphics were drastically updated from the original game. It's hard not to appreciate the visual detailing, the time and care that went into the way the game looks. It's a very beautiful game by my standards.
Should you buy it?
Ok, I would say anything if it meant you purchasing and buying this game. This is a timeless masterpiece. It is by definition timeless! Really! It's on almost every top-games-of-all-time list out there and it won game-of-the-year from several different critics. I can't even think of one negative for the game. I played it back in 2007, beat it twice. I just went through it again and it is still just as good. 13 YEARS OLD AND IT IS STILL KICKING THE BUTTS OF THIS GENERATION'S GAMES!!!!
I've recommended this game to so many people and they always blew it off because of several factors: They don't like scary-looking games, horror isn't their preferred genre, they don't like Dracula, they think it's just a dated game surrounded by false memories of nostalgia, I don't care what your reasoning is because it doesn't apply to Symphony of the Night. Any one of those people that finally caved and played it raved to me about how amazing it was. You will too but you just have to buy it first.
One thing I do need to say though is that if you have a choice, get it for the system with the d-pad you like. If you can't, it won't make the game worse but it helps ease a little frustration that can come up from that. So buy it. NOW! BUY IT NOW! NOOWWW!!!!!1!1111!!!1!1!!!!1!
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was developed and published by Konami. It is available for download on the PlayStation Network Store and the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace for $10 (It's a steal!). Played for 13+ hours or so, got the true ending with 200.6% of the map complete and finished an entire run with Richter.
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