Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

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North American jewel case.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action adventure game released by Konami on the PlayStation in 1997.

Status

I do not own the game, but have beaten it and seen the ending where you kill Richter.

Review

  • Overall:
  • Best Version: PlayStation

Good

  • The background art is really beautiful, and the designers mesh pixel art very well with polygons.
  • The character animation is amazingly detailed. In addition to movement consisting of numerous frames, there is even a lot of dialog animation.
  • The game has a solid soundtrack. The music keeps a Gothic sound while incorporating a contemporary sound.
  • There are a wide variety of interesting monsters.
  • It's kind of interesting to have to collect items for things that are normally commonplace in Castlevania games, like obtaining items from candles, or seeing a monster's name.
  • Gaining vampire-like powers (turn into wolf, bat, mist) is a really cool idea.
  • The familiars are a great system.
  • The inverted castle is a wonderful addition to the game.
  • The fake Trevor, Grant, and Sypha boss was a good homage.
  • The many icons used in the save card are a nice touch.

Bad

  • The voice acting is just terrible.
  • The items aren't very balanced. The cross and Agunea are far better than the rebound stone or Bibuti. So, the weaker ones just get in the way. And the way item changing is handled is annoying. It's common to accidentally hit a candle with a weapon you do not want, and, if it's near a pit, you lose your desired weapon.
  • Having to equip potions and food items to use them was a poor design choice. You should just used them in the menu.
  • Some of the items are humorous, like a snorkel, a corn dog, etc., but totally out of place, and hurt immersion.
  • It's annoying that your inventory gets filled with old weapons and armor. Since you can't sell them, you should at least be able to drop them.
  • Alucard's spells are annoying to have to input for as little as they do.
  • Having to jump to reach a lot of the candles (and duck in the reverse castle) is annoying.
  • A couple of the enemies are a pain in the ass, like the gremlins, imps, and balloon pods.
  • The floor traps in the reverse castle are annoying.
  • With the freedom to roam the entire reverse castle, it kind of makes the second half of the game dull.
  • The gear puzzle in the clock tower is really annoying and difficult to trigger.
  • The majority of the items you get from monsters are useless. Either a weapon/armor that's weaker than what you already have or a healing item that only accounts for 1-2% of your health.
  • The blue and white menu system is quite bland and doesn't fit with the Gothic theme.
  • The CD icon at the top of the rooms when you change sections is entirely out of place.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Box Art

Documentation

Links