Game Debate #97: Castlevania Symphony of the Night

[Reed Rothchild | 9,548]

[Nintegageo | 582]

10. Nothing to change.

[Hammerfestus | 3,859]

This game is awesome.  Easily one of my all time favorites.  One of the best games on the PSX if not the best game.

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

I didn't play it for the first time until around 10 years ago, but I loved it.  I wish I could have experienced it when it was first released, but I didn't play Castlevania growing up with the NES, so it wasn't really on my radar back then.  

[JamesRobot | 5,806]

10

Just played through Symphony of the Night again in February.  I try to use a new main weapon averytime I play.  My new favorite load out is the Muramassa, Blood Cloak, Blood Stone, and daggers.  Auto blood heeling, free hearts, and the Muramassa levels with damage to creatures hat bleed.  Daggers work in tandem with enhanced the leveling of the sword.  Muramassa is potentially the strongest weapon in the game but takes some serious effort if you are going to max it out at 999 damage.  Not all that powerfull in the beginning but a very satisfying weapon for veterans that can achieve an attack power sufficient to destroy Dracula.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Good, not great. The Metroidvania games from Aria of Sorrow onward are generally better.

I assume I don't need to break down what's cool about Symphony of the Night? I'll add I actually like the charm of some of the kinda awkward PS1 presentation stuff here, the legendary voice acting obviously chief among it. The problems:

-The amount of nonlinearity does not gel well with the RPG elements. Don't go in whatever exact right order the developers had in mind and you'll probably later hit an area where basically nothing can deal meaningful damage to you. This game would have been improved had experience and levels not existed and the game been rebalanced accordingly. I kind of suspect the RPG elements are covering up some questionable action design in parts although the question of "why isn't this part good" is kind of academic when substantial parts of the game aren't that fun regardless of the reason.

-The inverted castle is often the epitome of the previous problem, is not-infrequently kind of boring, and it's, uh, half the game.

-Weird personal problem here but I have trouble tolerating fighting game inputs and don't really appreciate transplanting them to a genre and context I otherwise like where they have little benefit. Magic in this game basically doesn't even exist to me.

-The menu sucks but it never really bothered me too much. I think they also still require up plus a button to use subweapons which is pretty silly.

Dracula's Castle Hallway Simulator is still pretty good though.

[guitarzombie | 924]

10.  I always find it strange to compare other later, metroidvania games to it because this one really started the ball rolling.  There have been others (Ufouria, Blaster Master, Turtles 3 for GB) before it, but without this, the others really wouldnt exist.

The ONLY thing I wish for in this game, is not only a switch port, but a randomizer.  I know they've done it before with Bloodstained and others (Resident Evil for N64) but it would give so much more life and replayability if you didn't know where everything was, and have to look thru the castle like its your first time playing.  

[Californication | 1,477]

I've heard of it.

[mbd39 | 2,025]

I voted 6. I've always been more of a linear Castlevania guy. I never could get into this one.

[The Count | 527]

10/10 for me! One of my favorite games. I love the map and the inversion and collecting all the items and the  familiars and looks and attacks and whatnot. Perhaps the peak of its genre.

[Webhead123 | 679]

A very good game with quite a lot of excellent qualities going for it. Excellent graphics, music, atmosphere, character options...

...but also a game that is over-bloated for what it is. I really enjoyed my time with it when I first played it about 5 years ago but by the time I had reached the end, I was relieved that it was finally over...and I haven't been in a hurry to pick it back up.

Ironically, the veritable deluge of stats, gear and special powers that the game tempts you with end up being so numerous that they just become white noise. By about halfway through, I just picked whatever gear seemed to have the best overall stats and just powered through most encounters rather than try to keep up with all the variables. I used almost zero consumable items (because dealing with item management in menus is fine in a turn-based RPG like Final Fantasy but I don't want to juggle all that in the middle of an action-platformer) and only used special powers when it was obvious that they were required or made a particular section trivial to complete.

So yes, excellent core game with just a little too much junk in the trunk for what it needed to be. If you play it more like a straight, classic Castlevania title and ignore a lot of that hullabaloo, it is much less tedious and quite fun. Not as good a Castlevania game as a classic NES/SNES/TG-16 title and not as good a Metroid game as Super Metroid but it did manage to create a pretty noteworthy synthesis of the two.

7.5 (rounded to an 8) out of 10

Edited April 14, 2022 by Webhead123

[spacepup | 2,405]

I gave it a 10.  That isn't to say the game is literally perfect, but it's just hard for me to justify not giving it a 10, in my personal opinion and experience.

I really liked the Castlevania series prior, but this game completely changed Castlevania, for me, and many others.  And to me, it was a huge improvement.  I know some people prefer the older, more linear style, and that's cool, but for me, this one is just classic Castlevania now.  When I think of the Castlevania that I love, it goes back to SOTN.  

'Metroidvania' (love the word or hate it) basically spawned from this game, imo.  And it's just such a great example of one.  

I loved the action, crisp graphics, music, the light rpg elements, etc.  Just so much fun, even all these years later.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Easiest 10 of my life.

...Well, other than Breath of the Wild, haha.

[CMR | 520]

10  One of my all time favorite games.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,548]

I'm doing a 10 as well.  The fact that I grinded out every item in the game, twice, is saying something.

It definitely has some issues (too many ways to break the difficulty), and later games and clones have refined and added a lot of things, but it was a revelation in its time, and it stills holds up wonderfully today.

I never use gaming kiosks, but when Software Etc. had SotN in one I played it for over an hour.  There was no memory card so every death meant going back to the title screen, and yet I still happily restarted over and over.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

10. As close to perfect as it gets. There is so much here that even the official guide is missing a ton of shit, yet somehow 95% of it works. Playing with the luck code on is probably one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. It's also fun to play through as Richter or Axe Armor to change things up. I never went through as Maria since she wasn't available in the original US releae, but I'll correct that one day with one of the many re-releases.

I only have three complaints:

1. That damn switch the Demon refuses to hit unless you perform some voodoo magic. You know what I'm talking about.
2. The area where you have to swim perfectly along the ceiling as the wolf to unlock a few partial percentage points on the map.
3. The fact that you can sneak out of the castle at the very beginning, but there is nothing to do there and you're stuck. So basically I'm just complaining that they would remove any amount of content.

[LostLevel83 | 85]

Stepping away from our Nintendo-only house allowed me to play this gem. Fantastic in its time.

[twiztor | 851]

easy perfect 10 for me. 

this is everything i want in a game.

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

Also a 10 from me. It could be a little more challenging in multiple ways but I guess not every game has to be, even a Castlevania game. And I mean, the best Castlevania game is also too easy for the series... Castlevania 4 being the best Castlevania of course.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

Thought it was good back in the day, hate it now as it really started the trend of the sucky-ass Metroidvania games.

I  NES Metroid and GB Metroid II, thought Super Metroid was okay.  I love OG Castlevania, NES, SNES, Genny. But the FPS Metroid and Castlevania that is actually a Metroid clone shit, I'd rather get castrated without painkillers than play any of that, its what ruined both series.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

Oh and the guy who never played it and never will, will you go out with me for beers or something?

[Gloves | 11,794]

This may surprise Reed with how generous he probably thinks I am with the 10s, but I gave this a 9.

It's a killer fuckin' game. It's probably the best iteration of its genre, one which it helped to create.

But it's not my favorite genre, and never has been. I'm not a Metroid fan (don't @ me, bro), and I've only really played two Castlevania games aside from this one (the original, and IV on SNES). 

I own the game and I'll definitely play it again but it wasn't top of my list of games to buy when I started collecting, nor do I ever really get an itch to sit and play it through. 

So a 9 for me, dawg.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

I just got rid of the game when I offloaded what remained of my PS1 stuff within the early part of the week.  It was one of 9 holdout titles I kept it sitting around as a desk paperweight for nearly 2 years.  It's not perfect, but it's nearly so, within its genre, it defined a direction that Metroid, specifically Metroid 3 did just a little bit better, where it was better in balance and area design, Castlevania notched its way int the belt with the environments it had coupled with a story that progressed as Metroid really doesn't say much at least not before Fusion rolled around (and Other M.)  SOTN has a few little odd spots others brought up that makes it definitely not a 10, but it's sure as hell something on or +/- a few tenths off a 9.

 

That said Konami did dump it on IOS and Android not long ago, I picked it up so I'm no without.  I just need to now find a gamepad if I want to ever take it seriously my phone will pick up.   I have an adapter with a branch so it can go to the tv if I wished it.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Tanooki

[Reed Rothchild | 9,548]

The two usual miscreants  

[JamesRobot | 5,806]

Heathens!