Notes:
Ending Acquired: Good Ending
- Played only as Alucard
- Around 185% completion
After unintentionally abandoning the game the first time around, my first complete trip through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night leaves me struggling to encapsulate my feelings on this game into words. While I loved the atmosphere, overall presentation, and map, playing Symphony of the Night today can make the game feel both dated and, in certain moments, poorly designed.
The first half of this game is honestly great. The pacing is excellent, the bosses are fun, the difficulty is perfect, and exploring Castlevania's dimly-light, creepy halls is terrific. This was the part of the game I enjoyed the most.
Then, comes the second half of the game. I'm going to try to remain light on spoilers here, but you basically have to explore the Castle again. I honestly didn't have any issues with this at first, but this is where the game's faults truly begin to show.
Going through this castle again led me to realize how many goddamn long hallways full of nothing but enemies there are in this game. This normally wouldn't be an issue if the enemies weren't the most annoying pieces creatures I have ever had the displeasure of fighting. They stun-lock you, do the same annoying attacks over and over, and in general, are a nuisance. The worst part is, the game actually gets easier during this section! It's just that fighting the enemies feels so boring and slow that I just never wanted to do it. The bosses also greatly drop in quality by this point. Although they are still well designed, they become so easy that it's not even enjoyable fighting them. Normal enemies become harder to fight than the bosses.
I also want to mention this game's "rpg" style of combat system. You get tons of weapons, shields, and armour in this game, but so many of them feel completely useless. There is absolutely 0 balancing in regard to the weapons. Not only that, but almost every sword feels the exact same, and it just feels like a way to pad up the inventory.
Now, I know this review sounds quite negative. But, I truly did enjoy this game. Even during the second half, when my grips become increasingly apparent, I was still having fun. However, I was just...expecting more from a game held so highly by others.
Casltevania: Symphony of the Night has my sheer and total respect for being one of the founders of my favourite genre. I loved the atmosphere, score, and overall feel of Dracula's Castle, and loved exploring it the first time around. However, the game's few, yet apparent issues bog-down the pacing and leave a sour taste. Both my feelings on this game and my opinion of its design can be described with one word; inconsistent.
Ending Acquired: Good Ending
- Played only as Alucard
- Around 185% completion
After unintentionally abandoning the game the first time around, my first complete trip through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night leaves me struggling to encapsulate my feelings on this game into words. While I loved the atmosphere, overall presentation, and map, playing Symphony of the Night today can make the game feel both dated and, in certain moments, poorly designed.
The first half of this game is honestly great. The pacing is excellent, the bosses are fun, the difficulty is perfect, and exploring Castlevania's dimly-light, creepy halls is terrific. This was the part of the game I enjoyed the most.
Then, comes the second half of the game. I'm going to try to remain light on spoilers here, but you basically have to explore the Castle again. I honestly didn't have any issues with this at first, but this is where the game's faults truly begin to show.
Going through this castle again led me to realize how many goddamn long hallways full of nothing but enemies there are in this game. This normally wouldn't be an issue if the enemies weren't the most annoying pieces creatures I have ever had the displeasure of fighting. They stun-lock you, do the same annoying attacks over and over, and in general, are a nuisance. The worst part is, the game actually gets easier during this section! It's just that fighting the enemies feels so boring and slow that I just never wanted to do it. The bosses also greatly drop in quality by this point. Although they are still well designed, they become so easy that it's not even enjoyable fighting them. Normal enemies become harder to fight than the bosses.
I also want to mention this game's "rpg" style of combat system. You get tons of weapons, shields, and armour in this game, but so many of them feel completely useless. There is absolutely 0 balancing in regard to the weapons. Not only that, but almost every sword feels the exact same, and it just feels like a way to pad up the inventory.
Now, I know this review sounds quite negative. But, I truly did enjoy this game. Even during the second half, when my grips become increasingly apparent, I was still having fun. However, I was just...expecting more from a game held so highly by others.
Casltevania: Symphony of the Night has my sheer and total respect for being one of the founders of my favourite genre. I loved the atmosphere, score, and overall feel of Dracula's Castle, and loved exploring it the first time around. However, the game's few, yet apparent issues bog-down the pacing and leave a sour taste. Both my feelings on this game and my opinion of its design can be described with one word; inconsistent.