Due to my recent interest in Metroidvanias, I decided to pick up Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Playstation Store. This game is nothing short of fantastic, and it might be one of, if not my favorite PS1 game. As opposed to most Castlevania games where you play as a Belmont, you play as Alucard, son of Dracula, in Symphony of the Night. You explore two castles in quest to stop your father and the evil priest Shaft (yes, this name is real). Alucard levels up, finds new gear, and learns new spell and abilities throughout the castles and builds power to fight powerful foes. Like other games in the genre, this game can be completely broken, and that's a good thing Have you played this game? What are your thoughts on the second castle?
I recently picked up the original PS1 version of SotN, though I haven't had the chance to play through it yet. However, I am more than aware that it is essentially the Super Metroid of the Castlevania half of Metroidvania. Iconic, easy to break, a speedrunner's dream, and has a lot of meat on its bones. I look forward to playing it when I get the chance.
I played through the game a few years ago on an emulator. It is nothing short of amazing and I really need to pick up a legitimate copy of the game so that I can replay it. Though admittedly, I kind of prefer the DS Castlevania games as I feel that they refined the gameplay a bit from the formula that SotN started.
I played Symphony of the Night after I'd played the DS Castlevania games and I found it to be a moderately steep downgrade from the good ones, i.e. not Dawn of Sorrow, but appreciated because it held up very well - still does actually, I have a PS4 copy - and it was more of what I enjoyed. Like a lot of widely lauded titles, I think it served as a fantastic blueprint for better titles, but a blueprint is still just that and I wouldn't call it the best game in the series. But it is by no means a bad title, which is more than can be said for a lot of trend-setting games. I really do wish they'd picked a better voice actor for Alucard, though...I absolutely cannot stand Yuri Lowenthal.
I’ve been interested in this game for a while, but I want to try Super Castlevania first. From what I’ve heard, it’s the best place to start for newcomers of the series. Once I do get to Symphony of the Night, I’ll get a PlayStation 1 copy (so I can play it on my CRT television).
Symphony of the Night is widely regarded as the crown jewel of the Castlevania for good reason, but IMO it does show it's age in a few. It's quite short for starters something that you'd be hardpressed to charge full price today and expect it to sell well and you can get it for 10 USD off the Xbox marketplace largely for that reason. Other issues stem from the fact that it's imitated quite a bit so what would have stood out at the time can now just feel a bit 'samey' to other games which can be fine in their own right and being more recent might have a better sense of the current market environment. I liked it, but I'm not sure I could justifiably recommend it to folks for largely the issue of value when most will be expecting a game that can last them more than a few hours and significantly less pending on how fast you plan on going since you can beat it in about an hour without terribly much stress. I'd prolly refer people to Bloodstained Ritual of the Night instead being a modern game in that style that did it justice, just don't get the laggy and terrible Switch version. As for most games being a Belmont I don't think that's actually true with some conditions, but I'm also not terribly interested in sitting down and working it out. If you count anybody that has a drop of Belmont blood sure, but if you count the distant relatives of the Belmonts as being non-Belmonts then I'd say the myriad of other character's games outweigh the games where you're forced to play a Belmont. If you count games where you can chose to play as a Belmont if you wanted to in which even Symphony of the Night would have to count as one since you can play as Richter Belmont then again yes Belmonts have more games than any non-Belmont lead games. Spoiler Also depending on which canon you want to take Dracula is Gabriel Belmont making Alucard a Belmont by extension specifically Trevor Belmont, Simon Belmont's father. Just off the top of my head: John Morris and Eric Lecarde have Castlevania Bloodlines Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin have Portrait of Ruin Reinhardt Schneider has Castlevania 64 Nathan Graves has Circle of the Moon Soma Cruz has 2 games Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow Shanoa has 2 games Order of Ecclesia (sp?) and and Judgement Dracula has Kid Dracula technically a spin off of Castlevania, but I'd still say it counts. Alucard has Symphony of the Night Legacy of Darkness starred a werewolf named Cornell I think, but don't quote me on that one either way not a Belmont. Harmony of Despair and Grimoire of Souls you don't have to play as Belmont if you don't want to. So that's 13 that I know of that are non-Belmont titles at least, but again depending on what you're counting as a Belmont than Reinhardt Schneider, Charlotte Aulin, John Morris and Jonathan Morris are related to the Belmonts in some way shape or form.
This game is a classic it's 25 years old and still stands the test of time from the gameplay to the fantastic OST which is IMO one of the top 5 gaming OSTs. If you have a ps1 or one of the many consoles it was ported to. Please check this game out it will only do you a favor.