"A recent review for this awesome game..."

Introduction

I must say that after playing through Castlevania: Symyphony of the Night one and a half times I have come to conclude that this game may very well be one of the best games ever made. The Castlevania series has been around for quite a while, if you don't already know. And the games in the series have always been the classic ''Go through stage A to reach stage B''. Well Castlevania: Symphony of the Night completely changes that. No more going through tedious repetitive levels, and no more of the slow walking and jumping! This game really rocks in every category as I will explain...

Graphics 9/10

I guess its better to start with the worst category first. In my opinion, graphics don't really matter in a game, but this games graphics are so beautiful that it really makes a difference. First of all, this game is NOT 3-D, which makes the game much better. The hand-drawn graphics are so much better than 3-D graphics in my opinion. The graphics are sharp, and are really an improvement from the SNES Castlevania games. The blood spray looks really cool and it is really awesome when you hit a skeleton and the bones scatter all over. I have one small complaint though... The game does slow down a bit when you turn to mist form. And it REALLY slows down when you turn into mist form by a bunch of enemies. But besides that, the graphics are great.

Sound/Music 10/10

First the sound. It is amazingly realistic! It is really cool to hear some of the sounds like when you kill a bat you hear a splat as blood goes everywhere. And the sound of scattering bones as you defeat a skeleton is cool too. All the sounds make you feel more into the game. And the music is REALLY good. It competes with that of the Final Fantasy series music. The music in this game is some of the best music I have heard in a video game. I hum some of the songs wherever I go, the music is THAT good. You won't be disappointed in this category.

Story 9/10

This game really doesn't focus on story, and neither do the past Castlevania games. But the story in this game is still really good. The best in the series besides Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. In this game you are Alucard, the son of Dracula. You awaken from your ''supposed to be eternal slumber,'' aware of the evil that has been unleashed upon the world. At the same time Richter Belmont, the vampire hunter who defeated Dracula last, has gone missing, just 4 years after he defeated Dracula. His girlfriend, Maria Renard, set out to look for him in Castlevania, the castle of Dracula which is only supposed to appear once every century. You, Alucard, sense the evil returning to Earth and go to Castlevania, in order to find out what the evil is. You enter the castle and your journey begins...

Gameplay 10/10

The most important factor in any game is of course the gameplay, in which this game does not fail! As I said in the introduction, this game changes the original Castlevania formula. Instead of doing ''Levels'' or ''Stages,'' you get to explore Dracula's humongous castle! The exploration is much like that of the Metroid series. If you have not played Metroid then I will try to explain the formula as best as I can, although it is a little complicated. You start out with nearly nothing at the beginning of the game. And you just explore what you can with what you have at the moment. You find different abilities, or ''Relics'' as they are known in this game, that give you cool stuff to help you explore. For example: There will be high ledges that you cannot jump to when you first see them, but when you get farther into the game you can get a Relic called the ''Leap Stone'' that lets you jump once more in mid-air, thus letting you reach the ledge that you couldn't before. So basically you just go around the castle collecting Relics to help you reach other places in the castle that you couldn't reach before. There is a total of 28 relics in this game, which will each give you a different ability to help you explore or defend yourself against the many demons littered around Draculas castle. And you can probably already tell that you can't just run around the castle and get what you want that easy. You will have to fight many demons to achieve what you want, and the fighting in this game is really fun! It is much like any other action game in that you press a button to swing your weapon at the enemy, thus killing or hurting it. And of course the enemy will defend itself in its own way and it will attack you with everything its got. But there is a twist to the action. To make the game even better Konami decided to put in some Role Playing Game elements, which was a really good idea. Instead of just using one weapon the whole game, you get to use literally hundreds! In the ''Menu'' screen, you can equip yourself in 7 categories; Weapon, 2nd weapon/Shield, Head, Armor, Cloak/Cape, and two slots for Accessories such as rings and amulets. And even more RPGish about this game is the fact that you can ''Level Up,'' much like other RPGs. And if you play RPGs then you should know that the more ''Levels'' you gain the more powerful your character becomes. Like if you ''Level Up'' then your Maximum Health gets higher and so do your other stats like Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Luck, and Maximum Magic Points. And much like other RPGs you gain levels by killing enemies, which in this game happens to be demons. The deeper you head into Dracula's castle the more powerful the demons become, so you need to ''Level Up'' to even have a chance at taking them on. And also like a lot of other RPGs, your equipment is VITAL in this game. If you go up to face a really difficult boss with a measly dagger and cloth armor equipped, then yeah you are going to get your butt kicked! So as you explore the castle you will find much better equipment to help you take on the tougher enemies. To also help defeat enemies you get spells. Spells are done like how a move is done in a fighting game. For example; In order to cast the spell ''Summon Spirit,'' you must press ''Left, Right, Up, and Down+Square.'' Spells cost MP, or ''Magic Points,'' to cast so you just can't keep casting spells over and over. You have to wait for your MP to recharge. There isn't that many spells but that's alright since you have yet ANOTHER way to defend yourself. That way would be ''Sub-Weapons.'' Sub-Weapons are in all if not most Castlevania games. You can have one Sub-Weapon at a time, and there is a lot of Sub-Weapons. They range from a throwing knife, to an amulet that summons a giant cross made of blue fire! But just like spells you can't keep using it over and over. Every time you use a Sub-Weapon it costs ''Hearts (not health).'' Some Sub Weapons (like the throwing knife) only cost a teeny bit, while others (like the huge cross) cost a lot of Hearts. You have a set amount of hearts depending on what Level you are. You can have more Hearts the higher the level your character is. So a ''Level 1'' character may be able to only have a maximum of 52 Hearts on him, while a ''Level 20'' character may be able to have a maximum of 109 Hearts! So yet again it matters what Level you are. So as you see the gameplay in this game happens to be a mix between the the ''Adventure'' genre, ''RPG'' genre, and ''Action'' genre. The game overall is really fun, and is probably one of the enjoyable games out there.

Length/Replayability 10/10

The game length of this game is as much as you want it to be really! To go completely through the game with getting most of the stuff it would take about 10 hours depending on your skill. To explore and get everything in the game it could take you 15 hours. Which really isn't that long but here is where the replayability kicks in to give it the 10/10 score it deserves. For one, this game is fun and I would at go through it at least 5 times just because it is so fun, and for two, this game offers A LOT of secrets. There are extra play modes, and there are hidden rooms all around Drac's castle. Some are EXTREMELY hard to find and would only be found by sheer determination or an extreme stroke of luck. No matter what though this game is sure to last you a long time!

Final Score 9.6/10

I give this game 9.6/10, which rounds to 10/10! I definitely recommend this game. This is the kind of game that just about anybody would like. This game is great for RPG, Action, and Adventure fans. Even if you aren't a fan of any of those genres then you should still at least try this game out. It is one of the best games on the Playstation.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/03