Castlevania: The Retrospective Part 3

Exploring Konami's horrific legacy from Symphony of the Night to Castlevania: Chronicles!

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night(released in 1997 for the PS1, 1998 for the Sega Saturn [Japan only], 2007 for PSN, Xbox Live Arcade and PSP [as part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles])

The Story
Five years after Richter Belmont defeated Dracula in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the vampire hunter has mysteriously disappeared.  Richter’s sister-in-law Maria Renard sets out to find him, and discovers Castlevania has risen again.  As she continues her investigation, Dracula’s son Alucard awakens from a self-imposed slumber.  Three hundred years before, Alucard had hoped to seal away his cursed bloodline after the events of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, but can no longer rest.  Sensing an imbalance in the battle between good and evil, he enters the castle, determined to locate Richter and destroy whatever dark forces are at work.

The Game
Symphony of the Night marked a major turning point in the series for many reasons.  It was the first entry to employ adventure and RPG elements since Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest on the NES.  It began the long era of “Metroidvania’s” in the franchise, where action was combined with castle exploring, finding relics to access new areas, collecting weapons and items, and gaining experience points and abilities along the way.  It was the first real attempt to pull together the series’ various events into a cohesive story.  Ayami Kojima’s enchantingly gothic character designs, long associated with the Castlevania franchise, debuted here.  And in a surprise move, Symphony marked the first time the main hero wasn’t related to the Belmont clan and didn’t use the classic Vampire Killer whip.

After a brief intro in which the player controlled Richter and re-enacted his victory over Dracula, Alucard took center stage.  Alucard’s arsenal consisted of scores of various swords, clubs, knives, and shields, equipped to a button for each hand.  His basic ability set, including a quick back-dodge, gradually grew to include double-jumping, transforming into a wolf, bat, or mist, and more.  The heart-utilizing sub-weapons returned, with new additions including holy ash and a bouncing crystal.  By entering in fighting game-like controller inputs, magical spells such as blood-drinking ability and Dracula’s signature fireball blast could be unleashed.  Scores of items, from healing potions to throwing stars to screen-clearing neutron bombs, could be found or bought from the friendly Master Librarian; armor for various parts of the body could also be equipped for status boosts.  If that wasn’t enough, devoted Familiars could be discovered.  These creatures, including a floating sword, bat, ghost, fairy and demon, followed Alucard around and gave both offensive and defensive aid. 

Taking advantage of the powerful capabilities of the PlayStation (and later other consoles), the 2D adventure boasted stellar graphics, tons of enemies on-screen at once, incredibly fluid character animations, CD-quality music and sounds, and full voice acting.  The game itself was huge, taking the average player over ten hours to fully explore the castle and fight the multiple bosses, some of which were humongous.  Special effects only dreamed about in earlier iterations of the series were displayed, often utilizing 3D graphics in dazzling quality and color.  Once the game was completed, it could be played through with Richter Belmont and in some versions Maria as well.  While these heroes utilized their signature abilities and some new ones, their quests lacked any true story and did away with Alucard’s item- and relic-collecting features.

In My Opinion
Symphony of the Night is, in short, a masterpiece.  Not only is the basic action exciting and fun, but it remains fresh through the entire expansive adventure due to your constantly changing weapon and ability set.  Michiru Yamane’s music is absolutely stunning, with powerful and sweeping arrangements covering every genre from orchestral to jazz fusion to hard rock; it is easily one of the best video game soundtracks ever composed.  Each area of the castle is varied and a feast for the eyes, inhabited by a huge variety and number of enemies, all with multiple attacks and awesome death animations.  This again keeps the adventure fresh, preventing the constant backtracking from becoming a chore (which can’t be said for some of the “Metroidvania’s” to follow).  And just when you think your adventure is drawing to a close (spoiler alert!), you find out there’s a second upside-down castle, filled with its own tougher enemies and new items.  Symphony is utterly overflowing with content; it’s packed with so many secrets, details, loving touches and cool little tricks and features, both cosmetic and interactive, that it would take pages to describe them all.  Even after years of playing, you’ll likely find more. 

The game’s only flaw is that it’s too easy.  Your multiple upgrades make many bosses seem like minor obstacles rather than terrible foes.  But this is a small imperfection.  Symphony of the Night is one of those rare games where absolutely no effort was spared.  This makes it in many ways the crown jewel of the series (even now), and one of the top video games ever released.  Even 13 years after hitting the market, it’s simply amazing and a must-buy not just for Castlevania fans, but for gamers in general.