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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Weltall - 25th February 2003
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
The solitary Castlevania entry on the PlayStation is arguably the greatest in the series. In the previous game, Dracula X, the legendary vampire hunter Richter Belmont defeated Dracula in a fierce battle of power and will, which you have the fun of being able to play. After his great triumph, Richter and his sister-in-law Maria Renard, whose rescue was an objective in Dracula X, return to live in peace, now that the scourge of Dracula is gone... or is it? Four years later, Richter mysteriously vanishes. As Maria tracks him, she suddenly sees the legendary castle of Dracula appear again in front of her... but it is only supposed to appear once every 100 years, and yet here it is again, only four years later. Symphony of the Night features, instead of a Belmont lead character as in prior games, the son of Dracula himself, Alucard. With a markedly different look than his previous appearance (Alucard was one of the three support characters in Castlevania III, and looked like a traditional movie vampire as opposed to his current lithe body and long, silver hair), Alucard awakens from the sentence of eternal sleep he levied upon himself after defeating his father in the third game, for he senses the presence of Dracula once again. Armed to the teeth with some great weapons and armor, he storms the legendary Castlevania to investigate the appearance of the castle and put his father down again if need be.
Gameplay
Harkening back to the series' roots, SotN is a beatiful 2D sidescroller, set in a gigantic castle with nearly 2000 rooms in total. The game uses RPG stats to measure health, magic, gold, etc. Alucard can equip literally hundreds of different items to aid his quest, some purchased from the egnimatic Librarian, others found in secret crevices or from defeating enemies. He can also equip two items in his hands, one in each, which makes it easier to plan for dangerous encounters. Will you keep a shield in one hand for defense, or will you equip a sword for power and a knife for speed? There are tons of combinations, and finding the perfect one is part of the fun. With regard to combat, killing enemies nets you experience points, which ultimately raise your levels and stats. There are also many hidden potions which raise your HP and your MP scattered everywhere.
Alucard will also be able to cast various spells by performing certain button combinations. You can learn them by buying the required scrolls from the librarian... though that is not necessary if you already know the sequence. I personally found the magic to be a rather useless feature, with the exception of the neat Soul Steal spell, none of them really have an effect worth all the finger-dancing.
Last, there are a varied assortment of special items you will find on your quest, which give you various abilities, such as a double-jump, super-jump, and seeing your enemies' damage done when you strike. There are three special Soul orbs that allow you to shift your form into a bat, wolf, or mist, as well as various orbs that add abilities to those forms. These are the most important, as you must find them all to proceed at one point or another. Finally, there are the Familiars, friendly monsters that will follow you and aid you in various ways. Faerie will use healing items on you when your health wanes. The little demon can hit some switches you can't reach. The Bat is a good wingman for you when you become a bat yourself. The Ghost performs Soul Steal on nearby enemies, damaging them and healing you a bit. And finally, the Sword Familiar, the most useful, attacks enemies nearby, and when it reaches a certain level, can actually be wielded as a weapon itself! My only issue with the gameplay is that the bosses are just insultingly easy, and that's pretty disappointing. Fortunately, there is still ample challenge in actually getting to them.
The true fun of the game is finding every secret passage and room, and there are plenty of them. Of course, if you are diligent in finding these secrets, you will be able to find the alternate castle... a complete (and far more difficult) inversion of the real castle, which makes for an entirely new game after you clear the first! But it takes some careful searching to find!
Graphics
As far as 2D graphics go, they don't get better than this on PlayStation. Lush, colorful and large sprites dominate the action and are beatifully animated. Some boss monsters are simply gargantuan, one being FOUR TIMES the size of the screen! The backgrounds are similarly beautiful and extremely diverse and detailed, which makes for a very pleasing experience. The single nagging issue is slowdown when the screen gets crowded, but it's infrequent and you really won't care.
Sound
A truly great aural experience is an accurate description of the soundtrack in this game. Impressive tracks ranging from stunning tocattas, to baroque, to some more modern rock guitar, to orchestral, this game has it all. Sound effects are similarly decent. Where it goes wrong is the voice acting. With Metal Gear Solid still a year away from revolutionizing voice-acting in videogames, SotN unfortunately follows the times by having some truly apalling voicing, and worse still, there s a strange echo to it that makes it even harder to understand.
Longetivity
The game has four endings, but if you're good you can really experience all four in one playthrough. The endings you get are determined by the percentage of the game you complete, though there is no real reward for getting good endings... except for one. Getting one of the good endings unlocks Richter as a playable character! Now you can use him beyond the opening sequence, and the game is totally different with him. He cannot use items but he has his awesome whip and many of Alucard's special moves right from the start. It's really just a sidequest however, for there is no story attached to Richter and he cannot go in some places.
Final Word
This game is quite rare, but a good find if you're looking for perhaps the single best 2D Platformer on the PlayStation.
Overall: 8.9 / 10