Castlevania games have always been about a human vampire hunter family called the Belmonts, and their struggle to (repeatedly) put to rest the vampire Dracula and his mutlitude of minions inside Drac's lair, the giant fortress Castlevania. Light horror elements are present in these games, as is your Belmont's traditional weapon -the whip. Simon Belmont (and other family) are iconic and beloved by fans of the Castlevania series. Sure, in the beginning, Simon isn't the fastest guy, but Konami updated with the times and Richter Belmont is agile and has a dashing slide that helps him traverse ground faster as he explores and completes the castle in a linear fashion, like his forebearers!  And of course, like any Castlevania, Richter has a whip! It just wouldn't be a Castlevania game without a whip!

Then this game happened. Belmont is a supporting character. You actually play as a vampire!? An nonlinear castle you can explore as you want? XP and gear to acquire? Familiars that help you? Wait he changes main weapons whenever he wants to?  Where is the whip?? But despite the horror elements of Castlevania, one need not fear this game, for it is good. Really freaking good. And history was made as Castlevania players faces were rocked in this awesomeness.

I am not normally one to gush over games, I'll let my history speak for itself. And I will point out the flaws is this one. But this being a little milestone on my reviews, I wanted to treat myself by doing a really good game. I wanted to talk about one of the best Playstation games around and one of the best Castlevanias - to this date!  Symphony of the Night (often abbreviated SotN) does pretty much everything right.

Yes, in this game (which still has Richter Belmont, though he's actually against you in this), you are Alucard, son of Dracula. Yes, his name is just Dracula spelled backwards. But this hero is trying to stop his father, just like the Belmonts. He uses swords, or canes or his fists, instead of whips. He also learns spells, picks up small creature allies that can open hidden doors or briefly fight enemies. And lastly, he can use his vampire powers to turn into a wolf, a bat, or a mist cloud to pass through bars and grates.  

A vampire as a warrior of God. He doesn't use his fangs.
I did find the games portrayal of Alucard as a pious vampire an interesting idea, and despite being an evil creature, Dracula himself has a church in his castle and you can pray there. Alucard repeatedly denounces the abomination Dracula is several times, a dark creature whom exists to steal souls and cause suffering. You may play as a cursed man, who hates his tainted blood - but he will not bite any mortal in this game and seeks solitude to not bother mankind. His half-vampire status and powers against his kind reminds me of Vampire Hunter D, an anime about a similar subject.
Alucard can use the same sub-weapons as other Belmonts, namely; the holy-water, the flying cross, and some I haven't seen before, sacred ashes, a bible and a ring that causes holy lightning. This seems to suggest that Alucard himself is considered a hunter.


How does the game fits in with Castlevania games?
As mentioned a little above, the classic sub-weapons are here, the stopwatch, the ax - and some new ones.
SotN is so open and exploratory, yet this is not such a new thing to Castlevania. For instance, Castlevania II had the open world and special item gathering - it was flawed game overall, but attempted.

And our Vampire hero? Done before. Castlevania III was the first to introduce other heroes besides a Belmont to play as and whats this? Even Alucard was in Castlevania III (as a good guy, of course), although his character model looked a LOT different. So our hero has already been in Castlevania, he's just the main character for this one.

SotN references the last game, Rondo of Blood, making this entry seamless.  It also has classic tunes remastered from previous games AND past bosses like the giant bat, Death, the mummy, and Medusa. This game started a line of DS Castlevania games in this theme of "Metroidvania". It may be quite different from earlier versions, but thats because this game is not a follower, its a leader of excellent Castlevania fun.


Richter!
While he plays a bad guy (sort of), and is a minor character in the story overall, there is also the hidden option to play as Richter himself in place of Alucard. This is great for anyone who wants to play a traditional Belmont. But this castle is clearly made for Alucard's unique skill sets and you see much less of it.  Its funny, with playing as Richter like the old Castlevania games is just too limiting (he never changes his main weapon) and just showed me how much more fun Alucard is, he has spoiled us with all his abilities.


I have played a lot of this series, and the overall scores here will not disappoint.

Graphics: 9
The bevy of rooms and a ton of character designs, befit a monstrous castle and its demonic denizens. The skeletons, armor plated knights, mer-men, witches, and often HUGE, room filling bosses are fantastic. The cut-scene art by Ayami Kojima is fantastic, popping with color and detail. I love all the special effects and gorgeous backgrounds in this game as well, and so varied!

• The shadowy, invisible huntress, you can only see her by the sword hovering in the air until you hit her. 
• A sentient, floating, glowing sword enemy surrounded by other blades it launches at you.

• Torches that drip oil. The lanterns that dimly set the dank, dungeon caves with a somber glow.
• The giant buzzing flies that zoom in and out of your screen when fighting a rotting boss!
• A hideous enemy that is LEGION, composed of many fallen foes
• A luminescent, giant skull that follows and taunts you over a moonlit, open ruin
• Elemental background effects , like fog or rain, when you climb the side tower
• A clockwork monster type that falls apart when killed, steam and gears escaping
• A haunted book enemy that looks 3-D when the pages open to attack you, and when defeated the pages fly out haphazardly
• In fact, nearly every enemy has a unique death animation, with light explosions, crumbling, fiery immolation and more...

The CG cut scenes are few and far between, but also not great, and probably weaker than other attempts by other developers at the time. In game graphics do get a bit pixelated in rare times.  I was going to mark it down to maybe an 8, but honestly, look at that bullet list. That is just a small sample of the light effects, 3-d elements and in general clever design by the art team and programmers. This game tries so hard to do so much artistically, I cannot fault too much for having a few pixelated graphics on some rare close up enemies, as the PS1 had similar issues when this game out. This is not the best looking game ever, but it was the best looking Castlevania game at the time of its release.


Sound: 10
I love this soundtrack. Even my wife loves this soundtrack, and she's never played SotN. It is not, as the uninitiated might assume, a collection of spooky music. Its dramatic (Moonlight Nocturne - in the cg opening); chilling (Door to the Abyss), lonely (Crystal Teardrops, in the caverns), hopeful (Requiem for the gods, played in a church no less), creepy (Abandoned pit, which yes, it is). Symphony in the name is so appropriate as SotN brings a plethora of emotions in this soundtrack. The very first music you hear is called Prayer, and its clear, calming and uses a small choir - vocal only. Songs like Wood Carving Partita (played in the library) are full-on harpsichord compositions, beautiful and archaic as the dusty tomes in the library.

Modern drums and guitar are used for many tracks, so its not fixated on old sounding music.  Take one of my favorites tracks from the 30 plus melodies - Wandering Ghosts. It starts out with some whispery, shivery melodies that sound like ghosts are about to pop out. Then it goes into a rhythm drum and guitar section thats sounds kind of like Santana playing in a haunted house. And you know what, it works. There are definitely some tracks I feel are weaker than others, but not a bad song to be found. With so many strong numbers in the musical score, I must also give this game a pass, even with its laughably bad voice acting.

But no review of sound would be complete without talking about the voice work...

Spoken Dialog Cheese scale --3 out of 5 golden gouda  
Choice Cheesy line:"WHAT IS A MAN? ..... A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS! BUT ENOUGH TALK! HAVE AT YOU!"

This is one of those games that had some pretty unintentionally hilarious dialog in the original game. If you ever played Resdent Evil 1 for PS, you know what I'm talking about. Dracula is hammy, Alucard is quite monotone for most of the game, and despite other voice actror/actresses, its these two together that take the wheel, of cheese. Fortunately, dialog is pretty uncommon in this game, only at certain scenes (not on most bosses) and never lasting long, you could play hours without hearing it. There was a redub, rewriting lines and the pauses and wrong tone were erased. But I kind of like it cheesy. If you play the prologue and find the dialog irritates you, then stop immediately and try the redub version. There is nothing but questionable rhetoric and corny threats in the original.


Story: 7
This is an action game, so I wasn't expecting a lot of story, but it does clearly tell you your goal and plot ideas don't get confusing. At least the tone is clear, and there was never a 'HUH?' moment in this game, not that it wasn't trying, but it didn't lead its narrative astray.

You are going to find Dracula and stop his resurrection. You start off very strong, but quickly lose all your abilities and items thanks to Death, the grim reaper. Now reduced to level one, you must fight your way back to being able to handle a duel with Dracula.  Along the way you meet this strange girl, Maria, who knows Richter Belmont is inside but is acting strangely, and wants your help to find him. If you meet him you meet him, you've got more important things to worry about.

You will also meet a friendly, if greedy, Librarian in the castle, he and Maria are the few NPCs who will try to help you. The Librarian functions as a shop, and a creature compendium which you can refresh your memory at what rare drops each regular monster has. The shop wares don't update however, so he becomes less useful later. Maria's infrequent appearances are purely story driven, and anytime she is present you are closer and closer to the ending. There is more to the story with Dracula, whose resurrection you are trying to prevent. You also find out things are not what they seem, and things continue from there. Including seeing the castle from a very different perspective.

I do like the these minor allies as some friends are refreshing (why no priest?), but their dialog is often weak and Maria, as the sole 'female vampire hunter' in the game, represents badly. Shes always seen wearing little elfin shorts, no armor and no weapon. In a castle full of monsters. Its so illogical I'm glad shes not in many scenes.  Alucard himself does get a bit of back story in the game, although its not much. His character is better suited to being mysterious, I guess.


Gameplay: 8
Speaking of abilities, the controls work well, and some double button presses (like using the shield rod) are used. Alucard walks a bit slow, and you might find yourself turning Alucard away from where you want to go and using his quick back-step instead. The cape flutters and hangs on the character believably, his shield raises to block attacks, all the buttons work like they should. The weapons all have different speeds and reach, a nice touch with such an assortment. Soon in the game Alucard gets a double jump and its awesome in how fast it is, creating speed lines, if he hits a ceiling he actually flips in midair (going probably 40mph mind you) and lands in a crouch upside down before falling. Alucard is just a cool hero. if not in a hurry to get anywhere.

All in all, I wish Alucard didn't have to walk backward to quickly get where he is going. He does have his shape shifting forms once you learn them, the bat, the wolf, and the mist. These are not equal however, the bat form is clearly the best, having range of movement and unique powers - and flying a bit of a necessity in the alternate stages. The mist cannot be hurt, and has an upgrade to wound enemies, but its so slow theres no point in using it as alternate transportation.  The wolf form is one of the first you get, and its fast, however it takes a bit for it to get up to top speed, and often the stages don't have room to accommodate that. Also his attacks are fairly lame. I hardly ever used the wolf, and he could have really used some beefing up. Maybe a werewolf boss you have to fight canine to canine.

Besides the wolf, I had other hang ups with how the game uses some of its creative choices badly.  The familiars you get are a mixed bag. They consist of a fairy; a gremlin, ghost and more, some kind of useless, all optional allies. The spells require you to learn them, and take button presses that can border on overly complicated. I hardly used them myself. Weapons can also have special moves, and this is fun to experiment and see, as most moves are merely holding a direction and seeing if it does something.

This is more a ingenious design choice, but its so well done it blends in great to the gameplay -the fast load times and the novel loading screens. I really like SotN has a small window of the game open when its loading the CD for a new zone, its done masterfully and tastefully. The loading is disguised with cherub carvings and a stone CD symbol etched onto the keystone (lol) and just has you walking Alucard to the short end of the window. On PS1 it takes only seconds and you're already back in the game.


Depth: 10
The vast terrain of the castle is inventive, often artistic, and explored in so many ways. The vast labyrinthine castle screams secrets, and SotN does not disappoint, there is lots to find. But there is another reason to revisit areas other than seeing the castle like some demented tour guide. Three words: Rare Loot Drops. Probably one of the first console games to fully use this idea, there are some rare items that give serious power to Alucard. There are even tricks you can do with the shields that make it worth saving a copy of each!

There were over a hundred items to get- ranging from one-use items; single and double-handed weapons, shields, boots, armor, pendants and other accessories, the list goes on and on. The exploratory nature of this game means you often can just go where you want, finding secrets or new levels all the time. I was excited the first time I found out what the rooms with the strange, stone keyholes were, teleporters, to make your way around this maze of connecting towers and ramparts. There are lots of bosses, none repeated, and so many things that are just done so well. Many of the rare weapons, the bat form with all its power ups, they are awesome.

So you're collecting your loot, killing the bosses and having a great old time. The upper area of Dracula's tower is all that is unexplored, and you saw it in the prologue, you know the big boss is there. Just when you think the game is coming to an end, the game throws a giant surprise at you. If you just go to Dracula's room and fight the boss normally, you will get the bad ending. There are not only multiple endings, you are actually only half done with the game. Another castle exists (no princess inside, Mario), a mirror of the first, but you play it in a surreal, really out of the box way. Thank goodness for mist and bat forms!


Difficulty: 6
With a decent memory and map skills, SotN is not especially hard. You can get lost in this as there is so much to do. If you are the type who forgets where you were in a game after a week, it might not be your cup of tea.  Playing the game,  the beginning might be one a bit rough, as you need gear, don't start with any relics and your life is low. Any items found are essential in the early stages. You will use the sub-weapons like the dagger and holy water more than you do towards the end, when they compete against spells and familiars that help you just as much.  You will eventually float through most areas unscathed, but will occasionally run into magically or physically sealed barriers, and have to open those later to continue exploring the castle, a minor setback to your quest, if even that. You also can find rare items that almost trivialize the enemies, but this is more towards the endgame.

The bosses don't have many tricks up their sleeves, but all look fantastic, and are not just punching bag types.  Perhaps in one death you will see how to tackle them, which is good because there is a lot of bosses, overall, and some are classic monsters like the mummy. There is an optional boss that is made to be harder, but overall I wished for more bosses in the second (hidden) half of the game. This is a bit of wishing thinking, as the game has many, many bosses already. I don't feel short-changed at all, I just loved what they brought I want more!

That is not to say the game can't be challenging at times.  Areas like the clock tower with its large gears and Medusa heads can really bog  Alucard if one can't dodge well or find decent gear. However this game's exploratory nature is also a bit to blame, as you could explore different areas and possibly get a better weapon than normal. The more you travel and know, the easier the game becomes. The optional castle feels at times too short, and I found myself breezing through most parts, I wish it was a lot harder.


Addictiveness: 10
Can I give an 11? This game is like video crack. The large areas to explore; the myriad of weapons to test out, the rare drops, the weird, sometimes ghastly foes, the hidden endings. There is so much to this game, it never feels to me like a grind or that you just want to kill this guy and get out. I loved exploring everything. Seeing what monsters could drop for me. Trying out the rare attacks. I've done it all. And will still fire up the game every couple months and do it all over again.


Final Verdict: 10
 I feel sound and addictiveness are on par for an 11, and honestly, with so much done right in this game - i can't find it in my heart to yank the final score down a tiny smidge for some cheesy dialog and a bit of scattered game play problems. (If it helps, I also thought the lame voice work in Resident Evil 1 was endearing). Nothing seems missing to me, there are things I could want more of (like a glutton), but I finished it and was beyond satisfied with the product overall.  The game is over ten years old now, plenty of time to change my opinion on its faults, and I gleefully still play it. It was like the stars aligned for Konami.  Castlevania meets Metroid, thy name is SotN, and it is beautiful.