| Game | Castlevania: Symphony of the Night |
| Release | October 2nd, 1997 |
| Genre | Metroidvania |
| Publisher | Konami |
| Developer | Konami |
| Time Played | 16:27:13 |
| Buy It On | Ebay |Amazon |
Ah, The PS1, back to my realm. It was nice breaking back into the PSXSLAYER challenge with Symphony of the Night. One of the best god damn games ever made. Now, I will say, I gotta personally put this as my second favorite vampire game on the PS1, as of writing this I just beat Blood Omen once again, see ya in about 11 reviews from now, and I gotta say that game is damn near flawless, as is this one.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – A Masterful Blend of Action, RPG, and Exploration – The Negative Press – Here is the clean professional version of a review of this game, continuing below is my destructive thought process.
I stated the last time I reviewed this game, it is difficult to construct a new take on something that has been reviewed and played to death. I am going to try though.
Also, fuck you! I caved, read above, read the genre… I HATE THAT NAME FOR WHAT THIS IS! IT’S JUST A PLATFORMER WITH ACTION RPG ELEMENTS AND BACKTRACKING!
Symphony of the Night Story
Alucard, Dracula’s patricidal son (SPOILER) is just rushing up into Dracula’s castle because he wants his past due weekly allowance! Nah, to be honest, I have no real idea why Alucard is so pissed at Dracula, it’s the town people that killed his mother (DON’T BURN THE WITCH!). But hey, go fuck Maria or something. I believe Alucard just doesn’t like how Dracula treats humans…
Moving on, there is no real plot to this game except Richter Belmont goes to kill Dracula, Dracula is like no bitch boy you are my slave, then Maria and Alucard are like aight, lets go fuck shit up. The plot is not what matters, what matters is the EXCELLENT voice acting that tells the lack of a story and the gameplay.
But I will leave you with this. Dracula is his castle, when Dracula reappears in each game the castle changes as Dracula is aging. Hence when you kill Dracula the whole castle dies with him. So when Dracula says “What’s a man? A miserable little pile of secrets” He is referring to himself as he is his castle, the castle is the miserable little pile of secrets.
Symphony of the Night Story 8/10
Symphony of the Night Gameplay
Do the Alucard shuffle baby! Firstly, I would like to say that this game features a very reasonably lengthy map. Imagine more of your favorite games compacted into this style, they would be huge!
The concept of this game is simple, hack, slash, evade, evade, evade, evade, pick things up, grab magic, equip new weapons and armor and OH SHIT BOSS FIGHT KILL IT QUICK! rinse and repeat. If you do this you will probably just get the fake ending which is you end up killing Richter Belmont who is possessed. If you take the time to figure out what to do, which involved rings and goggles, you can kill the thing possessing him, invert the castle and go crucify the shit out of Dracula’s heart with a cross as your stake.
You can find teleportation devices and the save rooms are little 3D Coffins, I always liked that. This game has a lot of little shit to it, cool little secrets and awesome weapons. Really quick load times. There are some annoying parts and you will sit there and have to grind to level up. But hey, that’s the nature of the beast.
Symphony of the Night Gameplay 9/10
Symphony of the Night Difficulty
PERFECT! This game is properly balanced between challenging and rewarding. You can find a way to figure it all out.
Symphony of the Night Difficulty 10/10
Symphony of the Night Graphics
This game at times feels like playing a piece of art. This is probably the best 2D graphics game of it’s time and STILL looks badass to this day. The 2D direction was one of the best moves Konami could have chosen. If only that would have thought about that for Lament of Innocence or Curse of Darkness.
Symphony of the Night Graphics 10/10
Symphony of the Night Controls
Yep, perfect score. It’s hard to fuck up a 2D platformer. AND TADAAAAAAA they didn’t
Symphony of the Night Controls 10/10
Symphony of the Night Sound
Yeah, even a non video game fan can sit and listen to this soundtrack and feel content. That says a lot. The voice acting and sound effects, so god damn good.
Symphony of the Night Sound 10/10
.The AI gave this game a 90%, I give it
Symphony of the Night Overall Rating
%
Rating
The next PS2POCALYPSE game is #0025 25 To Life. The Next PSXSLAYER game is #0003 Soul Blade. Symphony of the Night was TV-666EP#PSX-0002-5/2-0025-0/OV26. Half-Life was played before this, Soul Blade to be played after this.
About the Author: Re_LodeR was born in the 90s and lives in Michigan. Hobbies including complaining about video games and life, Listening to a lot of niche music and enjoying classic flims like Die Hard. This guy is a huge Simpsons fan and likes to watch wrestling.
He can be found on Twitch, contacted on Discord, and you can email him at ReLodeR@thenegativepress.com