Symphony of the Night was a ground breaking game that had stood the test of time. Playing

it today is just as great as it was when it first came out. It took the Castlevania formula

and added some major additions that created a completely new game model.

You play as Alucard, the son of Count Dracula who is out to put an end to the Count reign.

You storm into Castle Dracula, destroying everything in your way. Until you reach Death,

who then takes away all your powers, leaving you with just your fists. So you need to recover

your powers, and kill all the monsters before you can fight Dracula.

The big change from previous Castlevania games is the non linear style of the gameplay. While

Simon’s Quest was non linear it wasn’t the same as this. This is a game that is much

more in the Metroidvania gameplay style. The entire castle is yours to explore, with areas

being blocked off until you acquire certain powers. These powers include the ability to

turn into a bat and the high jump boots among many others. This means that you will be backtracking

through the castle many times over. But this is not a bad thing because another element

was added to the game. And the it is the RPG elements. Each enemy you kill will rewards

you with ep, that builds up has you going up in level. This gets you added health and

strength, making those old enemies seem like nothing and having you looking for new bigger

monsters to slay. Now normally when a game series that is not an RPG adds these things

it makes either become too easy too quickly or have you enter a room only to have the

enemies use your blood as a new dynamic kind of wallpaper, this being a way of saying you

are not ready for this area yet. But Symphony of the Night does a good job of having you

level at a steady pace as you explore the castle. Leaving the game to have a good amount

of challenge while not being too unforgiving. Also, all your equip slots can be changed.

You can either find or buy new weapons and armour that will either increase your strength

or resistance to certain attacks. This encourages you to explore everywhere in the castle.

And you will have to. The castle is huge, with areas in the sewers along with laboratories

and libraries. Everything is very detailed and looks great. The rooms feel alive and

different while each enemy is very detailed and colorful. You instantly know which enemy

is which once you see it.

One thing that blows me away is how much of the game is hidden. No, I don’t mean secret

areas or whatever. If you find a pair of goggles you can see that the end boss is being controlled

by an orb. If you destroy the orb, it opens up an entire second half to the game, which

is Castle Dracula but inverted. Most people I know didn’t even know about this because

it was so hidden. Crazy that so many people didn’t even know about another half of the

game.

Symphony of the night is one of my favorite games on the Playstation. I love it that they

kept the series in 2D, the way it belongs. This allowed them to take the already amazing

formula of Castlevania games and make it even that much better. Doing this made a game that

is not just one of the best of the series, but one of the best games of all time.