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.
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.
