This week our choice for Videogame Pick of the Week is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Originally released for the Playstation, Sega Saturn, and the PC back in 1997; Castlevania was a traditional 2D side-scrolling platformer; and it was the first of the series that adopted a Metroid-like feel to the gameplay. The game also adopts an RPG-like element that was only seen in Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest for the NES.
The plot of Symphony of the Night takes place after the events of the previous game, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Shortly after the previous game’s protagonist Richter Belmont defeated Count Dracula, and destroyed his castle. About 4 years after his defeat the castle returns… usually signifying that Dracula is about to be revived. The game’s protagonist, Alucard, Dracula’s vampire son arrives at the castle to destroy it, and stop his father. Alucard must go through the castle and find out why the castle has come back. Along the way he meets Maria, Richter Belmont’s friend that fought along side him during the last battle with Dracula. She is on a quest to find Richter because he has gone missing, and Alucard ventures through the rest of the castle to stop the evil that resides within its walls.
This game is an instant classic and often regarded as the best Castlevania game in the series because of a few new elements Konami introduced. The first one that is obvious when you play the game is voice acting. This game is known world-wide for the introduction speech between Richter Belmont and Dracula. The choice in voice acting was superb, with memorable lines and great acting that goes along with it. The second element is the RPG element. The last time that Castlevania tried this was on Simon’s Quest on the NES, which was not perceived well by the public. Konami learned from this mistake and perfected it, with an Attack, Defense type system that you usually see in Turn-Based RPGs. Konami introduced this while keeping the traditional 2D sidescrolling platforming that the series is known for. Overall Konami made a smash hit by taking risky chances and perfecting it. The music is very well made, like in all other Castlevania games, the music can turn from being creepy at some points to very calm and relaxing, the soundtrack is very well made like the series is known for.
The only problem apparent with this game was difficulty, the game felt a lot easier than the previous installments. The boss fights were all tremendously dumbed down. All the bosses with the exception of one and the final boss could be easily defeated. Castlevania was known for immense difficulty that challenged the player to defeat hard bosses, like in the earlier NES titles and SNES titles.
If you get a chance you should definitely pick up this Playstation classic. We’ll return next week for another Videogame pick of the week.
