Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

"Fun, but with very -shallow- flaws..."

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action 2D side scrolling adventure game mixed with some role playing elements. You play the role of Alucard (Dracula conveniently spelled backwards) and not an actual vampire hunter like in the past. This is the sequel to a very large series, let me break it down.

Game Play:
The game play in Castlevania is great at best...

Movement: This is a side scrolling game, so you are walking towards the edge of the screen the whole game. You can jump a fair distance, then acquire a double jump, and then even a high jump. Through out the game, you are constantly trying to get new abilities to over come certain areas. This includes flying as a bat to reach high areas and turning into a mist to go through bars. Just like most things in this game, generally moving around takes little skill and is simple.

Combat: The fighting system in mostly all the Castlevania games is great, this game is no exception. The only problem I can see in the combat is the depth. Other than largely forgotten spells and transforming into various things, all you can do is do a regular attack in two directions and use a sub weapon. Weapons range from swords, clubs, and even brass knuckles and sub weapons range from tossing holy water and chucking arcing axes in the air. Magic can be used but is mostly unneeded in the long run. Shields can also be lifted up to block projectiles. Over all the combat is plain and simple, its good, just not that deep.

Enemies: This is where on of my main gripes is. These is actually about 130 enemies in this game... this may seem great and it sort of is, but this game could of used less crappy enemies and more better ones. You see, all but a hand full of enemies have one attack... some even do nothing but walk or fly and do damage only if you touch them. Others use the same attack, over and over again... One shining grace on these enemies is that at least they drop different items most of the time... The enemies in this game just like stated above, are basic… they could have used less palette swaps too.

Bosses: Castlevania games usually always have a large amount of bosses, this game is no exception. The problem with most of these bosses are almost the same has the above... most bosses do the same thing... over and over again. For instants, there is a Cerberus (three headed doggie) you have to fight. All you have to do is duck! You can win most boss fights just doing one thing, very few actually make you think and plan out during the fight... In fact, if you know what you are doing before you fight a boss, you will probably win without any sort of problem. Basically if you have trouble with any boss for the first time, stock up on hearts (to use sub weapons) and level up a bit. I would just like to say that most bosses are pretty disappointing.

Layout: This game, like all Castlevania’s, is played through out a huge castle. Through out this castle are candles, touches, and blazers that once destroyed, have nice little treasures... like money or hearts. Hearts are only used for sub weapons and money is used to buy many things from a Librarian. Now, like I said in the beginning, this game has various RPG parts to it. First off, you can equip a large amount of items in this game, more than most turn based role-playing games. You get to equip two types of weapons, a helmet, armor, a cape (which other than a little defense, is good for cosmetics), and two accessories to boost stats and other things. Alucard can also level up in this game and collect items to increase is max life, but I think this makes the game a little too easy.

Other than the cheaply made enemies and easy bosses, this game is pretty solid in this area. I don’t think many mind that it this game is basic in many areas, and neither do I.
Good

Challenge:
Ultimately, this is what I think ruined this game. You can say there is three areas in this game were the difficulty applies.

The first part is how you explore. This is the hardest part of the game and is naturally eliminated on your second play through. Why is this hard you ask? Well because some items that are needed to advance to new areas are in places that are hard to find at first. Most of these areas are hard to spot out, like finding an area above everything else.

The next part is just surviving. Now, the only time this is hard is when you are pioneering a new area. This is hard because other than using potions and rarely finding enemies you can “siphon” off of; you can not heal, at all. This just makes venturing hard, until you find another save point.

The last part is the boss fights... these are way too easy. Most bosses can be easily beaten on the first try... the final boss can be kill with ease... which is the case with most of them, it’s harder to stay awake than fighting them most of the time.
Poor

Control:
This is the thing that bugs the hell out of me. There are many hard magic spells to pull off and some over lapping controls... all the while with an unused button. You see, there is a major problem with “Sub Weapons.” To use a sub weapon, you hold in up and press the attack button... now this is all fine and dandy until you use one accidentally while jumping, especially when you have a weapon that uses a lot of hearts.

Now to use spells, you must round the D pad and press a button. Some are very easy to do (Down to forward) but others are crazy... using about eight to ten keys... not only is this hard to pull off, but Alucard will be dancing all over the place turning directions and all.

All of the shoulder buttons are just used to change into different forms... such a waste if you ask me, since other things would have been so much better (Like maybe a quick change of items or a spell).

This game is sometimes difficult to play, on a 2D scale...
Below Average

Story:
Unless you played multiple other Castlevania’s, this story only makes a little sense at the beginning. Well you start the game as one of the Belmonts, a Clan of warriors sworn to hunt vampires. You gain control of Richter Belmont in the “Final Stage.” You just fight Dracula... it’s an easy fight but it’s just to show some story lines from another Castlevania’s ending.

Now this all happened about five years ago, before you return to this Castle as Alucard, a vampire. Your goal is to destroy Dracula... on your way you meet a few people...

The story is not deep at all and half of the lines in this games are either Alucard saying “...............” and a woman named Maria (who is looking for Richter) saying “Alucard” every time you meet her...

The story line could have gone a little deeper, there is only about a dozen “scenes” in which about ten lines are said... This could have pasted for a regular game, but this is half RPG...
Below Average

Visuals:
This game did the worse thing you can do with its graphics. Most of this game is play on a beautiful background and prefect sprites… This is all fine, but some enemies and most bosses are polygonal, in 3d. They both look great, just not together...

Many things in the background move and add lots of atmosphere, like how a giant eye ball will follow you while walking through a long marble hallway. They did a really good job at designing levels... there are a lot of places to explore. The enemy designs are odd... some look corny, but they are unique none the less. The characters you play as all look fine as well.

All in all, the graphics and visuals could of perfect, but game just looks odd that the game used sprites and polygons.
Good

Audio:
Let me just say this game sports a very impressive sound track. Almost every song and tune in this game is good and fun to listen to. The sound effects are also pretty well done. Everything from axes being chucked and your death scream are wonderful.

One bad part is the voices in this game. Most voices sound really fake and make the characters sound really funny. You will note this right at the bat once you here Dracula run his mouth talking about religion. Maria also as a new voice every time she says your name... to make matters worse, she will say it about every other sentence.

Other than the voices, I feel this game lacks great end boss music...
Good

Re playability:
This is what makes this game what it is. Not only is this game very long it also has very many secrets for you to uncover. These so called secrets range from finding rare items and new hidden rooms.

This game can be taken farther than the regular game itself... by searching for dropped items off of slain enemies and uncovering all 1890 rooms of the castle.

One bad part is how I feel the creators got lazy, the other half of this game takes place in an inverted castle… everything is the same as the previous castle except for one thing... the entire inverted castle is upside down. This does double the whole entire game area, but other than stronger enemies, it is the same thing you did before, except upside down.
Outstanding

Pros:
Very long
Music is good
Many enemies to kill
Quite a bunch of items to collect

Cons:
Half the game is the same, just turned over
Many enemies are the same as others and lack innovative attacks
Puddle deep story

Rent or Buy:
I would highly recommend you buy this game, it is worth you money, if you can find it.

Final Rating:
This game is great, but does have many lacking areas. One thing you might not know from looking at this review is that this game is actually fun to play. Even though I’m giving this game a seven out of ten, it is still one of the most fun games I have ever played. It is just that Castlevania:SotN lacks in many areas, but most of these areas can be over come with either practice or time.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/13/04