Title: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Original Release: March 20, 1997 (PS1)
Finished Release: North American PS1 Release (1997)
*General spoiler warning for the Castlevania series*
I've always been what you might call a "distant fan" of the Castlevania series. That is to say, I've always really liked the series, its characters, its setting, ongoing storyline, etc., but I never got hugely into it, at least not directly. I had played a majority of the games here and there, I had a working knowledge of the series' timeline, and I cried foul when Castlevania: Lords of Shadow came out and rebooted the whole thing. But, for the most part, the series has always been on my periphery, and I had only ever finished two games in the series: Lament of Innocence on PS2 and Portrait of Ruin on DS.
Flash forward to earlier this year, when I was going through my at-least-twice-a-year tradition of getting really really into Gothic horror. This time around it manifested itself as a sudden-but-extreme interest in the fantastic Ravenloft setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Seriously, I don't know if I'll ever run a roleplaying campaign, but Ravenloft is one of the two campaigns styles I would most love to play. The other, for those interested, is a BPRD campaign.
Anywho, I was reading anything Ravenloft-related that I could get my hands on. But sometimes one medium just isn't enough, y'know? So I began casting about for video games I could play that would give me that Ravenloft feel. I would find out later that there is an actual Ravenloft PC game that I was completely unaware of. Not knowing that, I went to the next best thing: Castlevania. It helped that this was right around the time the Castlevania Netflix series came out (which maybe I'll review one day), but before long I was knee-deep in the series.
I dabbled here and there in various side games (including loading up my original save in Portrait of Ruin), played a fair bit of Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow. My wife was right along for the ride, playing Lament of Innocence, at my suggestion, for the first time. She would finish it before too long, but one game kept calling out to me: the shining jewel in the series' crown. A game that served as a sea change in the direction the series would take from then on. The official first "Metroidvania" in the series: Symphony of the Night.
Now, first of all, let me just say that I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about this game. Which is interesting, because there tends to be a pretty big camp divide between people who prefer the classic games that came before SotN and those who prefer the games that came after it, emulating its style. But both camps can agree on one thing: what Symphony does, it does very, very well.
We'll start, as we usually do, with the story. We begin with the ending of the previous game in the series, Rondo of Blood (well, kind of). We momentarily play Richter Belmont (my personal favorite Belmont, thank you very much) as he makes the final approach to Dracula's chamber, eventually coming face to face with the Dark Lord himself. The two exchange some wooden dialogue before engaging in some epic whipicuffs.
Richter ultimately comes out on top in the confrontation, because he's Richter Belmont and that's just how he do. Ironically it's the last fight he'll win in this game, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Dracula explodes in glorious flames 'n' stuff, and the game is over. Well, that game is, anyway, we still have a long way to go.
A few years later, Richter disappears because no Belmont can have a happy life. In this case, he reappears a further year later, summoning Dracula's castle and attempting to resurrect Dracula himself. Why Richter, why?!
The why will have to wait, however, as the reappearance of the evil castle has awoken Dracula's half-blood son Alucard, who's been asleep for a few hundred years by this point (since the end of Castlevania III, roughly). Alucard is not his dad's biggest fan, and he has no patience for all these goings-on. So, since he's (apparently) the only one capable of doing so, Alucard takes up his sword for a one-dhampir assault on Castlevania, to bring this renegade Belmont to heel and put a halt to his father's resurrection.
So that's the setup, and, no, it's not overly complicated. But it doesn't need to be. There are twists and turns along the way, but for the most part things go the way you'd expect them to. Again, this isn't a bad time, since the story is told well (aside from the questionable voice acting), and it's really not any more complicated than it needs to be.
Alucard is a pretty cool character, although a lot of that comes from the fact that he's specifically designed to be cool, which can actually take away from it a bit. Maybe that sounds silly, of course you want your characters to be cool, but Alucard is one of those characters where it feels like the creators went down a checklist of "cool things" and just checked them all off. Again, this isn't a bad thing, he's just not the most interesting character in the world as far as I'm concerned.
One thing I will outright complain about regarding Alucard isn't really his fault. See, I like the so-called Metroidvania-style games. It's actually just a style I'm a big fan of in general. Hell, I'm playing two games in this style (Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge). So I don't really have a problem with the fact that later games usually followed in Symphony's footsteps in that regard. What I do have a problem with is how every main character after this was basically just Alucard again.
We skipped it with Nathan in Circle of the Moon (which isn't even canon, apparently), but we then had Juste Belmont in Harmony of Dissonance, and Soma Cruz in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Seriously, just take a look.
Alucard (Symphony) Juste (Harmony)
Soma (Aria)
Please, forgive me when I say that this is absolutely ridiculous. Soma's not so bad, I guess, since it kinda-sorta makes sense with his storyline, but Juste is just(heh) a bridge too far. He's a Belmont; they're just normal humans who are good with whips. It also doesn't help that the other major Gothic(ish)-styled action game from around this time also featured a white-haired half-human pretty boy, but Castlevania can't really be blamed for that. Ironically Alucard wouldn't even have white hair the next time we'd see him.
Anyway, enough of that tangent. I don't mean to rag on things too much, since I genuinely love this series. This is just something that's bothered be for a while.
Symphony of the Night made the intelligent choice of abstaining on a switch to 3D, unlike its N64 brethren. Instead, the focus seems to have been on taking the (then)massive power of the PS1 and using it to make the most visually-impressive 2D action game they possibly could. I'm more than happy to say that they achieved this goal phenomenally. The fact that this game has never gotten a legitimate HD re-release is a crime.
The game is no slouch in the audio department, either. In a series famous for kickass music, SotN carries within it some of the absolute best. Sound effects are, on the whole, awesome and satisfying, especially the spiffy little sound that plays whenever Alucard levels up.
And then we come to the gameplay itself, which more than lives up to its reputation. Symphony of the Night still probably isn't my favorite Castlevania game (that's probably Portrait of Ruin, if only for nostalgia), but actually playing through it has given me a whole new appreciation for it. I know a lot of people decry its lack of challenge (especially compared to previous games), and I can understand that, but at least it's a good game to kick back and play for fun.
That's not to say that the game is always easy, and it's also not perfect. Some portions of the castle are a nightmare to get through, mainly due to throwing tons of enemies at you, completely at random. Now, flooding the screen with enemies and obstacles is nothing new to the Castlevania series, but in previous games they would typically follow a pattern. Things here don't really do that, making certain sections overly frustrating. It wouldn't be quite so bad if you didn't have to go through them multiple multiple multiple times as you're trying to find the next place to go to progress. And speaking of progression...
So, Symphony of the Night has one of the weirdest cases I've ever seen of multiple endings. Basically, the "final boss" of the bad ending is actually (roughly) the mid-game boss. If you haven't done certain things or acquired certain key items, you fight this boss, and the game ends. You get an unsatisfying ending and go on about your life.
However, if you've been thorough in your exploration and do things the right way (I'm being intentionally vague), you beat that boss, then open up the second half of the game, which is another whole castle!
Now, I'm really not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's a nice feeling to know that you've done things right, and it's satisfying to be rewarded for exploring every nook and cranny. At the same time, it's really weird to keep what is essentially half the game locked away from people that focus less on exploration and more on getting through it.
There's also the fact that the "reward" of the second castle isn't overly satisfying. It sounds like it would be a great time, a whole new castle and all that, but it's not that at all. It's actually just the first castle, but turned upside-down. It is, admittedly, pretty cool to see how the progression through certain rooms changes due to everything being flipped, but most of the time it just feels uninspired. It's really only a few steps above Ghosts 'n' Goblins' infamous "beat the game again" demand.
Still, exploring the castle is enjoyable the first time around, and only mildly less so the second time, and it's all wrapped up in a package that's great to look at and listen to. It's easy to see why Symphony of the Night is so fondly remembered, and I'm proud to say I finally put in the time to experience it.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Various
Playing - Hollow Knight (2017)
Reading - Dune (Frank Herbert, 1965)
Watching - NXT TakeOver: WarGames (2017)
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