Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

"'I'm here to put an end to this.'"

There’s no denying: Castlevania – Symphony of the Night is the old gamer’s dream come true. In an age dominated by polygonal 3D graphics, there couldn’t be anything more refreshing than a great platform game in good old 2D. While classic and loved series like Mario and Sonic were going 3D, Castlevania remained traditional, trapped in two dimensions. If the developers could bring back the intense gameplay of the older games, it would be paradise. They did – and they brought more of their ideas along, making Symphony of the Night one of the best games in the series ever, and definitely the most popular, with merit.

As soon as you start to play the game – surprise! You’re just about to face Dracula himself! Okay, this is because the game is the sequel to an old Turbografx 16 game, released only in Japan, called Dracula X – The Rondo of Blood. You control Richter Belmont for this first bit, the hero from that game. After you pound Dracula’s head, you start the game. And who do you get to play with? No, not another whip-yielding vampire hunter Belmont, but the cold-blooded badass son-of-a-Dracula Alucard, the man! Oh yes, the side-hero from Castlevania III returns for a main role in this game.

Ok, so, first of all, let’s congratulate Konami for this decision. Bringing Alucard as the main hero was a wise idea – not only he is a vampire (and everybody likes vampires), he is cool looking (at least now in the Playstation) and he can offer much more depth, which is needed for this kind of RPG-oriented action game (not that the developers took advantage of it, though). Alucard sets out to find out why his father’s castle reappeared if its master had just been destroyed. The game’s story does have some kind of plot twists, but they aren’t really any good. There’s no point in telling exactly what happens because it’s so obvious. But it does have more story than any Castlevania before.

Everybody knows it by now, but the game doesn’t end where it’s supposed to. Wait, that’s a good thing. After going through Dracula’s castle, there’s more to see, if you do the right stuff, that is. The ‘second half’ of the game is surprisingly good, given the fact that you’re traveling through the same castle, with the same map, only inverted. Oh, there’s also new monsters, items, bosses and music.

In this game, you don’t leave the castle. Neither you have to. The place is huge and takes hours to explore as a whole. Many times you will be required to go back to places you have been before to unlock previously inaccessible areas. The whole setting of the game is great: there is a lot of diversity in the backgrounds, music and places you can visit, creating, for the first time, a Dracula castle that actually looks like a castle. It’s clear for everyone to see that the developers took a long time in designing this place, very, very carefully.

But how does the game play? Well, it’s pretty different from previous Castlevania games. The closest thing possible is Castlevania II, which also approaches this RPG-oriented action game style. It works like this: you have a huge map to be explored, which is the castle. In the castle, you will find various items, called relics, that give Alucard special powers, which enable him to access areas that you couldn’t reach before. So, after you have the power to turn into a bat you can fly, so pretty much everything (okay, not everything) is available to your exploration and so on. So, don’t expect to clear levels or fight bosses at the end of stages: these are now the different areas (each with a name of its own) that you explore and, most of the time, fight a boss to get abilities, items etc.

Apart from this ‘exploration’ quality, the game has levels, attributes, equipment and so on. Just like in any ordinary RPG, Alucard can equip weapons, armors and accessories that give him special abilities (like resistance to some kind of attack), increase his stats etc. He also finds usable items, like potions, elixirs and special weapons. Apart from that, you collect gold to buy items from an old librarian. But wait, the new elements don’t end here. Alucard can also learn spells to cast – used with fighting-game like moves – and use familiars – small creatures which follow you around and do special things. As you can see, the diversity of abilities and options in Symphony of the Night is huge and adds a nice touch to the game. Once you’ve beaten the game, you can also replay it as Richter, who has a different set of abilities, increasing the possibilities even more.

Also, the controls of this game are pretty different from the older Castlevania games. Alucard is much smoother and flexible than any vampire hunter we had controlled in the past. Even if the game retains some of the original controls – like the classic Up+B (okay, not B, but c’mon) command to use special weapons – the game has a really different feel from the older Castlevania games, mainly because it becomes so much easier to control Alucard in comparison to the older characters.

By the way, the one aspect of Symphony of the Night’s gameplay that is terribly faulted is the challenge. Okay, if you are a fanatic and don’t have to do anything with your life, you may call it a ‘challenge’ to complete the whole map, inaccessible areas and so on, but, to beat the game, even in the most complete ending is much too easy. The bosses don’t offer any threat at all and there isn’t one difficult area to get through in the game. Surprisingly enough, the second castle could well be easier than the first, specially because you will quickly find superpowerful equipment there. Furthermore, like in any RPG, you could always level up your character. Not that it is needed, though.

In terms of graphics, the game is great. Not only for the fact that almost everything is done in 2D (and I’ll admit I’m a huge fan of well done 2D graphics), but the designs and visual quality is excellent. The backgrounds are beautifully designed and detailed, the monsters are great looking and the bosses are really something to watch. Alucard, as the main character of the game, couldn’t avoid getting and odd walking animation – why does he move his arms like that? – but, overall, has a great, and cool, design, and good animations, specially when attacking. On the other hand, his transformations are horrible. Is it only me or that wolf looks like a street dog turned inside out? Joking apart, the game is great visually. Not a 3D fest like most people seem to love these days, but still very impressive.

In terms of sound, the Castlevania series has a story of greatness. In the music department, Symphony of the Night delivers one of the best soundtracks in the series. Not only it takes advantage on the superior sound quality of the Playstation (when compared to older systems), but the music writing is also excellent. Oddly enough, we don’t have remixes of old songs as far as I’m concerned, at least not in this version of the game (the Saturn version does include remixes of classic stuff like ‘Vampire killer’ and ‘Bloody tears’). Furthermore, the diversity of styles is surprising, ranging from darker, more moody themes, to orchestrated pieces, to heavy rock tunes. A work of undeniable quality, very impressive and one of the game’s strongest points.

Of course, nothing’s perfect, so we have the voice acting. I don’t speak Japanese, so I’m talking about the English voice acting, which is terrible. I’ve read somewhere someone saying that Alucard’s voice was good. Man! His voice is terrible, just like every other character in this game. Richter saying ‘Die monster! You don’t belong in this world!’ is truly pathetic. It makes me want to turn down the volume. Maria’s voice is even worse, just like Alucard’s mother Lisa and the succubus as well. Not a single character gets a decent voice in this game. To make matters worse, the dialogue is corny as hell. Of course, we can always blame translation... but it does take away from the game. The story isn’t good, but the dialogue makes it look really bad.

Overall, Castlevania – Symphony of the Night is one of the greatest games in the history of the series, even if changes a lot from the ‘classic’ style of gameplay. Most of the changes were done quite well, though, and it all works pretty well in the end. The game would be so successful that Castlevania games after it sought to continue the style this game brought to the series. We’re probably not going to see a ‘classic’ Castlevania game for a good time. But, in the end, we have to be thankful that Symphony of the Night was created and injected new blood into a wonderful series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/02, Updated 04/20/03