Symphony of the Night didn't just change the Castlevania franchise, it solidified the genre that is now known as a Metroidvania. It is a pivotal game in gaming history. Breaking away from the series's tradition, it transformed Dracula's castle into a huge, nonlinear, sidescrolling map, and added RPG elements into the mix, a new formula that would be copied for decades to come.
The game features Alucard, Dracula's son returning from CVIII, breaking into Dracula's castle to stop his dad from getting resurrected again. Let me just say that Alucard is the coolest Castlevania protagonist, both in concept and appearance. Both his relationship to the antagonist, as well as his spritework and how way he moves in a floaty, supernatural way, are one of the most striking parts of the experience.
And the protagonist is especially important because, like Rondo of Blood before it, Symphony of the Night takes a step further towards fleshing out the narrative for CV games: there's other characters around the castle, there's cutscenes, there's a twist, there's multiple endings... Combine them with the new level design and gameplay systems, and it's impossible to look at later CV games and not see how much of SotN is in them.
However, replaying it in 2022, it's hard not to see the rough spots, too, and how later games would do SotN's formula way better. It hurts to see how the game's balance is completely wacky: some sections and bosses are too hard, others too easy. There's intimidating, but completely unthreatening enemies, while some puny ones can deal massive damage, and attacks that go through walls are a dime a dozen. Equipment you get is all over the place in terms of stats. Etcetera.
All of these issues are compounded in the inverted castle, and/or when playing as one of the alternate characters. The inverted castle is a pretty cool idea, but it's less fun to play than I remember. There's no real progression, since you enter it with all of Alucard's powers already unlocked, and enemy compositions are completely random. Plus, you spend a lot of time as a bat, since there wasn't that much thought put towards traversal while on the ceiling.
Still, considering how much of a departure it was from the usual CV formula, and how many new things it tried, it's incredible how much SotN got right on the first try. It's still a very solid game, even in 2022.
The game features Alucard, Dracula's son returning from CVIII, breaking into Dracula's castle to stop his dad from getting resurrected again. Let me just say that Alucard is the coolest Castlevania protagonist, both in concept and appearance. Both his relationship to the antagonist, as well as his spritework and how way he moves in a floaty, supernatural way, are one of the most striking parts of the experience.
And the protagonist is especially important because, like Rondo of Blood before it, Symphony of the Night takes a step further towards fleshing out the narrative for CV games: there's other characters around the castle, there's cutscenes, there's a twist, there's multiple endings... Combine them with the new level design and gameplay systems, and it's impossible to look at later CV games and not see how much of SotN is in them.
However, replaying it in 2022, it's hard not to see the rough spots, too, and how later games would do SotN's formula way better. It hurts to see how the game's balance is completely wacky: some sections and bosses are too hard, others too easy. There's intimidating, but completely unthreatening enemies, while some puny ones can deal massive damage, and attacks that go through walls are a dime a dozen. Equipment you get is all over the place in terms of stats. Etcetera.
All of these issues are compounded in the inverted castle, and/or when playing as one of the alternate characters. The inverted castle is a pretty cool idea, but it's less fun to play than I remember. There's no real progression, since you enter it with all of Alucard's powers already unlocked, and enemy compositions are completely random. Plus, you spend a lot of time as a bat, since there wasn't that much thought put towards traversal while on the ceiling.
Still, considering how much of a departure it was from the usual CV formula, and how many new things it tried, it's incredible how much SotN got right on the first try. It's still a very solid game, even in 2022.