My thoughts on Symphony of the Night

[Light]

Was playing through symphony of the night today for the first time (yes, yes I know... I'm 8 years too late! ), and am quite amazed that there are so many ideas, items, enemies, etc that they managed to put into the game, that when you compare SOTN to its GBA cousins, the handheld games (circle of the moon, harmony of dissonance and aria of sorrow) all pale in comparison. Essentially, they just feel like smaller, condensed versions of SOTN, though with different characters. Though having said that, I have to say that I still find circle of the moon (which is the first one I've played) to be the best out of all of these games (though I think I would have preffered SOTN if I had played it when it came out 8 years ago).

By now I'm actually quite sick of castlevania though (played both harmony of dissonance and aria of sorrow just last month), and can't even bother with the reverse castle in symphony of the night. Which, by the way, I find to be quite irritating as its piss hard and everythings upside down....ugh. Thank goodness for videogame museum.

Also, I didn't think that the soundtrack in SOTN was as amazing as people make it out to be. COTM and AOS's were definitely better.

I suppose most people on this forum would consider symphony of the night to be the better of the four though eh?

[eastyy]

The reverse castle was my only real gripe with the game a obvious way to speed up development time.

(also has some of my fave music)

[Walrus]

The reverse castle was an excellent idea, but imo wasn't quite executed as well as it could have been. The upsidedown-ness of the levels actually rendered some of the rooms redundant. Brilliant game all the same, if not as tight as the Metroid titles it emulates.

I don't agree the reverse catle was done to save time. It had new enemies and bosses which would have taken longer to create than the static levels.

[mid]

I'd rather like to give SotN a go, but while cheap copies of Castlevania Chronicles litter shops across the land, SotN was only ever available in the UK as a limited-edition set with artbook and CD, and never re-released on the cheap.

Arse.

[gossi the dog]

No they did release it as a standard game only. It's much rarer than the Limited Edition.

[S0L]

Big fan of the Castlevania's - though I didn't play the PSX version of SOTN, I picked up the JPN Saturn version. Has more content that the PSX (think there are two extra levels in there, new music and an additional playable character). Not quite so smooth and the loading times grates in places, but maybe the definative version...?

Got all the GBA versions, I agree that Aria of Sorrow is the best, not sure how I'd rank the other two though, I preferred the difficulty and music of Circle of the Moon, but Harmony of Dissonance has it's highlights. I spent ages working through the Battle Arena on CotM - you really do have to level up for that.

Looking forward to the DS version - hoping it will at least match AoS.

Favorite of the series? Would have to be either SotN - or wildcard wise - Rondo of Blood on PC Engine. GBA games are still top though

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S0L
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[eastyy]

I bought the standard version a few months back on ebay

Really annoyed me when they decided to turn castlevania into a 3d game while it was not terrible it just did not feel right.With the power of the ps2 i would really like them to make a 2d game take everything about SOTN and expand on it.

[jim g]

I still love this game, I bought the Jap import on release and completed it, then bought the USA and PAL copies also and completed it again. To complete you have to get 200.6%, a strange number I know.

I still rank this as my favourite Castlevania and I have played them all including the PC Engine. For gaming on the go, the GBA Castlevania games are superb. I guess we all have our favourite for different reasons, but for me SOTN edges it. And if you bought on release, at the time there was nothing to compare to other than Super Metroid (my all time fave game).

[Duddyroar]

Big fan of the Castlevania's - though I didn't play the PSX version of SOTN, I picked up the JPN Saturn version. Has more content that the PSX (think there are two extra levels in there, new music and an additional playable character). Not quite so smooth and the loading times grates in places, but maybe the definative version...?

The Saturn version is a long way off being definative. It's missing many of the better effects found in the PSX version, and the extra levels are pretty poor.

[Kotatsu Neko]

The Saturn version is a long way off being definative. It's missing many of the better effects found in the PSX version, and the extra levels are pretty poor.

It's scruffy looking too. The art was all drawn for the PSX's 256 pixel wide screen mode, but the lowest the Saturn goes is 320 wide... so the art is all scaled very crudely to make it fit the screen. Ugly.

But you do get to play as the little girl you rescued in Chi no Rondo on the PC Engine, which is surely worth something. And the digital Saturn pad is a work of wonder and makes the PSX pad look like the blister inducing shambles it is.

My fav Castlevania is the PC Engine version. A masterpiece.

[mid]

No they did release it as a standard game only. It's much rarer than the Limited Edition.

It must be rare, this is the first I've heard of it.

In any case, my main point was that Chronicles can be had for less than a tenner many a shop in pristine condition, while finding SotN is a nightmare, and when you do it'll not be cheap.

US ones are pretty cheap, though; I'll definitely get one if I ever have a US-compatible machine to play it on.

[AlwaysAce]

although the soundtrack isn't quite up to the pc engine versions, the game is stunning.

oh and most casual gamers will not have played the reverse castle as it was like a reward for doing certain things within the game, so its more of an added extra.

and the game is probably long enough to warrant its classic status withourt the whole reverse castle extra.

[SUMIRE]

SOTN is the best castlevania in my opinion, in fact i'd go as far as to say it is the best 2d platformer ever.

I'd love to see a conversion for PSP, It would be almost criminal not to do it.

[erhgiez]

I might have been the one that sold it to you easty as I sold the standard version a few months back on ebay (found it on a market stall for ?5!) didnt know it was as rare as they say though.

[icarus0]

I've got the Saturn version and while I really enjoyed playing through it, the terrible slowdown and not being able to understand most of the text did sour the experience for me a bit.

Completing Aria of Sorrow recently has inspired me to track down an English language version for the PlayStation. I can't really justify spending big bucks on a Pal copy, so it looks like a US version will be the way to go.