Castlevania : Symphony of the night review

Sometimes in a gamers life having enough off top hit AAA games or epic shooters you decide to try a 2D side-scroller just for kicks. It’s like having enough of full course meals and trying some nachos.

 

This is not the case for Castlevania Symphony of The Night. You start off the game with Richter Belmont fighting Dracula in the final stage of the prequel.The game wastes no time putting you in the action pitting you directly in a boss fight versus Dracula himself. It gives you a nice taste of things to come and the finely detailed boss battles and ambiance.

 

However the main gameplay is with Alucard the son of Dracula. Several years after Richters fight Dracula’s castle reemerges and the Dark Lord returns. It’s time for Alucard to pack up his gear and drive the fight to his father. The entire action is set in D’s castle and Alucard must traverse, think and fight his way to the final epic boss. It’s like playing a fighting game with you as the Big Boss vs. the underlings, your character is simply more badass than the rest. You notice right of the bat the fluidity of Alucard’s movement and abilities. 

 

As any RPG the biggest kick is the development of your character. In order to progress trough Dracula’s castle you pick up abilities like double jumping, turning into mist, a wolf and a bat, all up to greatest opener, the super jump. The biggest fun factor is Alucard’s arsenal of abilities from magic, weapons,  side weapons, and your overall gear; all of these making up your character an unstoppable power, however you have to earn these. Pitting your character in a boss fight like Demons, a mimic of yourself and even Death itself can be quite fun and challenging. In each fight you have to find the right abilities and strategy to counter your enemy.

 

The game is meant to be played with a gamepad. It’s mesmerizing to see the fluidity of the characters movement and responsiveness

 

The sound of the game is nicely tuned. Nice and real sound effects for every action. And the musical scores are quite high. Each stage of the game having its own sound track blending nicely with the artwork of the game with stages varying from castle entrance, clock tower, gladiators arena and lots more.

 

Speaking of artwork, graphics for today’s standards is not that good. Being a game released in 1997 it’s to be expected. However the artistry of the background and monster design it’s still top notch, seeming almost like an old uncared for painting.

 

The product value of the game is great. To progress trough the whole game it takes about an average 40-50 hours. The game has different ending depending on what part of the castle you decide to end your journey. If you unlock the first playtrough you get to play in the inverted castle finally on your way to finding the true evil behind the castle. After finishing the game you can play trough the castle again with Richter which is another set of style but just as loveable and powerful. Also if you want to find every special ability and secret it can move up the gameplay length.

 

If I were to explain the game to the uninitiated in this oldie.  Because of the age of the game it’s like trying to eat a great pizza standing up and with nowhere to sit but the dirty ground. If you don’t mind getting your clothes dirty a little you can fully enjoy this game.

 

Fun Factor: 8 Game is loads of  fun but when trying to get all the items and abilities it can get a bit tedious that’s unless if you have the luck of the Irish.

 

Control and Gameplay: 9 The characters move seamlessly and fights are very satisfying however because of the easy patterns of enemies it falls a bit

 

Graphics: 5 The graphics are quite dated however the artistry in level design and enemies compensates

 

Soundtrack: 9 You can’t expect to find only best seller hits in games however the classical music and great sound effects add well to the ambiance

 

Replayability: 8 You can play as Alucard in normal and inverted castle. You can also play Richter Belmont and blast trough the game again. You can also spend some time farming and chasing for all the abilities.

 

I’m gonna grade this game by today’s standard. Because of the dated graphics and too easy boss difficulty I’m only going to rate it 7.8  .