Episode 20: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – Creature of Chaos

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 
Platform: PlayStation

Japanese Release Date: March 20, 1997

U.S. Release Date: October 2, 1997

PAL Release Date: November 1, 1997

Difficulty: Easy

Current Amazon Price: $149.99 new (ouch), $30.67 used, PSN: $9.99, Xbox Live Arcade: $9.99

Note: there is another (Japanese) version on the Sega Saturn, but this is not being reviewed.   

Podcast: Download, iTunes, PodOmatic

Lightning's Review: 

Someone must have played too much Donkey Kong in their youth.

The Good

• A nice game to sink your teeth into (pun totally intended) if you are an RPGgoer but also are interested in games with platforming elements. Symphony of the Night does a good job incorporating RPG elements with some relatively easy side-scrolling that should be a pleaser for fans of both genres.
• The soundtrack will blow you away! Some parts of it are strange (such as songs that would seem to come out of a cult ‘80s hair band rather than a game about Dracula’s son), but it’s all in good fun. Other songs are appropriately dramatic and have a more classical feel.
• The game also greatly encourages exploration rather than mindless leaping from one side of the screen to the next. New abilities that unlock as you play – such as higher jumps, the ability to turn into a bat or a cloud of mist, and the use of helpful familiars further promotes looking for hidden passages and breakable walls.

The Bad

• The menus are extremely clunky, which is not a good thing when you’ve got, say, a ball of writhing corpses attacking you. To be able to use a potion, for example, you’ve got to drop your shield (or whatever you had in your one of your hands) to be able to use it. Since this is primarily a platformer, I can understand why they didn’t have a battle menu like in most RPGs, but wouldn’t an “item” button have been awesome?

The Ugly

• If you thought Shining Force III had bad voice acting, then this gives it a run for its money. You might want to wear earplugs during the cutscenes.
• Hundred year old pot roast…which you then eat. Being free of food poisoning is actually one of Alucard’s greatest powers.    

 Wasn’t New York New Amsterdam around this time period? Argh – maybe I’m thinking too hard.

The Lowdown

A fun first title to play in the long-running Castlevania series, as well as one of the more highly regarded. Since we had an easy time picking up the platforming elements, I would even suggest that RPG fans who are interested in the series should try this one first. I definitely suggest this game as something to hit up in your retro backlog, especially since it approaches RPG elements in a non-conventional way and doesn’t require much prior knowledge of Castlevania lore to pick up and play.

I finally remembered what Castlevania game I want to play next. Not Aria of Sorrow, or Harmony of Dissonance. LAMENT OF INNOCENCE.

Music Credits:
Castlevania: SotN OST
RPG Roundup Theme Song: "Video Game Theme," J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.