Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

"The only major problem with Symphony of the Night is finding a word that accurately describes just how fun it is"

Up until 1997, Konami had been producing the Castlevania series, a linear action/platformer whose general premise in every game was to slay Count Dracula. Then they decided to make a change, and the result was a game whose enjoyment factor has, for me at least, gone almost unparalleled.

Even from a cursory glance, it's clear that Symphony of the Night is a graphically superior 2D scroller. Take Alucard for example. As if his character design wasn't already badass enough, his animation motions are inconceivably fluid for a PSX 2D scroller—a backwards dash on one foot causes his cape and hair to flap in the wind, and, after the dash is complete, his hair and cape momentarily wave in the opposite direction of the previous motion before ceasing movement, and his “ordinary” movements leave a blue afterimage. Furthermore, every cape, every shield, and most weapons have individual animations: The Twilight Cloak's insides alternate between red and black hues; the Crystal Cloak's innards are a mixture of yellow and translucence, the Alucard Shield is covered with innumerable crests; and the Crissaegrim (sword) attacks in what can best be described as several, fast-paced, consecutive, crescent moon-shaped strikes; just to name a few of my personal favorites.

The enemy animation is no slouch either. Even if the quality of animation isn't quite up to par with Alucard's, their models are still high quality and unique to boot. In fact, virtually every new monster you encounter has an entirely new model, and only a scarce few are ever pallet-changed rehashes. Some monsters are simply gorgeous, such as the beast made up of three wolves' heads for a torso, innumerable eels for an abdomen, and a human woman mounted at its head, or the creature whose entrails are a squishy core which sprouts tentacles while bearing an outer shell composed of disfigured human bodies. The truly amazing feature though is that these designs are seldom if ever merely aesthetic; the entirety of their models are included into their combat capabilities: The former beast uses its human woman to summon water spirits, its wolves' heads to shoot water projectiles, and its eels to snap at our hero if he tries to get too close to the main body, while the latter creature drops human bodies from its shell when attacked (at which time the fallen parts start to chase after you until you destroy them) and transforms its tentacles into laser beam cannons once you've destroyed enough of the outer shell. Even the enemy death animations exhibit vestiges of individuality, from the common sight of a skeleton's bones being scattered about (and whose head may tumble about for a little bit for disappearing in a poof) to the envelopment of large monsters by beams of light.

The environments themselves are just as stunning, and while all of its parts are strong, the backgrounds clearly stand at the vanguard of their exquisiteness. While they are clearly distinct from each separate area of the castle, even rooms in the same area of the castle are vastly different from one another. The backgrounds are all extremely detailed; even relatively “ignoble” rooms may be filled with vivid mythological or religious imagery. But the animators knew not to go too far in that respect, so they balanced out pictures of the grand and other-worldly with pungent images of the moon, sky, forest, study, laboratory, dining rooms, coliseum, etc. and frequently multi-layered the backgrounds all while somehow retaining that medieval feel to the castle.

Still, no matter clever anyone is, coming up with around 1000 clearly visually distinct rooms is quite the task, but the foreground and platform arrangement cleverly pick up any possible slack. During very few moments do you ever feel as if you've been in the same room twice (unless of course it's obvious that's the intended effect, but to avoid spoilers I won't elaborate on that statement).

But it's the smallest details which really stand out: Zombies behind bars changing direction as they watch you pass, Alucard being able to sit down in a confessional in the chapel (a priest appears to hear his sins), a floating eyeball watching you through a window in the most distant background as you dash through a long corridor.

The music and sound effects only supplement and enhance the impressions left upon you from the graphics. Symphony of the Night's music track is easily one of the best video game musical soundtracks I've ever heard the pleasure of listening to (the fact that it's eight years old has no bearing on its greatness), and more than a few of them almost make you regret having to move on to the next area. They're all appropriate and fitting for the environment: If you're busting through the front gate of Dracula's castle, your spirit is energized by an intrepid beat; if you're wandering through the chapel, you're greeted by an ethereal chant; and if you're scaling a massive wall, you're accompanied by an adventurous melody. The sound effects, whether they be the battle cries of Alucard or his evil foes or the decimation and shrieks of death, were also strong.

Unfortunately, Symphony of the Night does have a couple minor flaws in audio regards (its only flaws at all in reality). First off, the number of tracks in the second half of the game is dramatically smaller than in the first half, and the same track may be used in two, three, or even more areas of the castle. Although the music is still stellar, depending on how long you play those portions of the game, those tracks may become repetitive. And secondly, the voice actors, although a nice touch for a PSX game, really needed some more practice (though, from what I've been told, the Japanese VAs actually did a worse job). More than a few of the lines were just voiced in a rather cheesy manner.

Putting aside its small blemishes, Symphony of the Night's gameplay is addictively fun. The traditional Castlevania gameplay is meshed with the type of gameplay from Super Metroid, resulting in a Castlevania game with RPG elements and whose enjoyment factor has gone unparalleled by any of its previous or following titles (although Aria of Sorrow is often said to come up closest).

Cutting down hoards of zombies and the like, aside from being fun by virtue of itself, now has some concrete value, as leveling and statistical systems have been integrated. You pick up items from either fallen foes or from the field, and they may be either one time use weapons/restoratives/miscellaneous, equipment, or magical relics that up Alucard's core abilities.

Of particular interest among the magical relics are the ones that enable Alucard to shape-shift into either Mist, a Bat, or a Wolf, which themselves have relics which can increase their abilities. My favorite among them would have to be the fully upgraded Mist. Traveling around the castle as an invincible, poisonous gas cloud is just so cool. Another set of noteworthy relics include the familiars which aid you in battle. Although they're not very different when you first get them, they too level up and gain new abilities over time.

The whip is (if you haven't figured this out yet) completely non-existent in Alucard's equipment set. This news may come as a bit disconcerting to fans of the old Castlevania battle mechanics, but the change works incredibly well; Alucard isn't bound to simply attacking horizontally and can swipe in a downward direction with whatever weapon he has equipped. Actually, Alucard just has more ways of attacking in general than any previous Castlevania. Aside from offensive capabilities granted from relics, the sub-weapon system is as strong as ever and our hero has MP to work with to cast magic spells, yet despite the sheer number of abilities Alucard has to work with, the controls are still well organized and easy to work with.

The real appeal of Symphony of the Night‘s battle system though is that it always retains the same fresh and exciting feel as when you first started playing. Between the constantly changing environments and background music, a fairly non-linear and freedom-granting quest, the combatively evolving Alucard, and enemies which all look and fight in their own way and gradually require more of Alucard to yield to him, the game just never gets old. Even if you don't use the mass array of resources the game lays at your feet, Symphony of the Night is so abundantly rich in every category that you'll still end up falling in love with it.

As if all that weren't enough of a reason to want to replay this game, it still offers plenty of concrete reasons to keep playing: The game has multiple endings depending on your map completion percentage and fulfillment of other certain criteria; achieving a high enough map completion percentage unlocks the Sound Test (which contains all the game's music); and beating the game enables you to replay as Richter Belmont, which offers a much more traditional Castlevania experience.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is just one of those games that compels you to keep playing and leaves you craving for more, just because it's that much fun—the tell-tale sign of a truly spectacular game. If you have it, play it. Now. If you don't, whether you're a big fan of the genre or not, get it ASAP. You won't regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06