This is how the title looks like in the inverted castle: ever scroller side action 2D best the possibly Quite
The story takes place at the end of the 18th Century in Transilvania.The game begins with the final level of Bloodlines, with Richter Belmont defeating Dracula.This represents the last moments of the classic Castlevania gameplay & it transcends to another style, another gameplay just like Mega Man X did with the Mega Man series.It begins...the Animania series, since then you can see the Japanese style all over the place in the series.It's both a good & bad thing- it represents the "middle of the road".
Richter defeats Dracula, with the help of a woman Maria Renard.After 4 years he dissapears & so Maria goes to search after him.The castle materialises once again & Maria goes there to search for him.Richter was taken under the control of a priest named Shaft that will ressurect Dracula.Now, Richter thinks he's the Lord of Castlevania.The protagonist of the game is Alucard, the son of Dracula which was in eternal slumber but he was awaken by the appearance of the Castle & therefore goes there to check things out.He meets Maria there a couple of times.Alucard is determined to kill his father once again as he cared about humans.His mother was human too but his father Dracula, hated the humans.
SotN is half RPG, like Castlevania 2-Simons Quest.& there is no more the linear gameplay of the previous titles.Exploration is the key word.Basically, if you know Super Metroid, then you know exactly what to expect from this game.The entire game takes place in the castle & there are 2 of them:after you beat Richter at the end, you will begin the inverted castle to slay the true monsters responsible for all the things that are happening.The inverted castle represents 1 of the many reasons why this game is a masterpiece...
Another reason is the excellent soundtrack, pure rock & classical tunes that stay in your head for a long time after you've finished the game.The most impressive part of this game, when it comes to graphics, are the backgrounds.Stuff that the SNES could have handled easily with it's Mode 7 Graphics.The gameplay is smooth.Alucard has some "slow-motion" shadows when he walks , it's quite impressive & he can also do the moonwalk.As you slay enemies, you gain experience & level up.You can equip 2 weapons at the same time, keep a lot of things in your inventory, summon "Familiars" that will aid you, morph into animals like a Wolf or a Bat or even transform into mist.When Alucard become playable, you have absolutely no power, you are very weak-the only things that you have are some pathetic weapons that will be taken away seconds later by the Reaper.Later in the game, Alucard learns a move than reminds me much of the Shinespark from Super Metroid, the same thing can be said when you morph into the wolf & run.Alucard will also learn spells that requires some MP to cast.The progress can be saved in a coffin that is covered in a red sphere, pretty original ideea.You collect money & buy items from the Librarian in the Library.The game is boss-tastic, it's full of countles epic boss battles, from the encounter with Slogra & Gaibon all the way up to Shaft & Dracula.After you defeat each boss, you receive a potion that increseas your HP by 5 points.The special weapons that you use require the traditional hearts.This amount is also increased as you explore & level up, just like the HP & MP.My favourite themes are the Tragic Prince & Dance of Pales...man, sometimes i think(like in this moment) that the music of video games is the best one ever made, simple as that.Later in the game, there is a chill-out music that i think it was made by Vangelis, it sounds very similar with his style.The game is quite hard but the fact that your HP is refilled each time you visit a coffin simplifies things a lot.It's very frustrating when Alucard makes grunts when he's hit & when he dies, it's a very unpleasant feeling.The game is quite long & you are required to explore at least 90, 95% or higher of each castle, you can't afford to skip any areas.My only major complaint is the bad voice acting, there are some chessy dialogues especially at the begining that are stuck in my head & give me head-aches.& i really don't understand...what's with the music at the end credits?It doesn't fit so well...
SotN is greater than all the games that were made in the "2 halves" of the franchise: the one before it & the other one after it.Castlevania 4 & Dawn of Sorrow have come close to the epicness of this one but...not quite.GS says, it's "Quite possibly the best 2D action side scroller ever." & in my opinion it's 2nd only to it's source of creation:Super Metroid.