Konami's Castlevania series has seen quite some history. Ever since its unforgettable debut on the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and later onto other home consoles, handhelds, and other systems that have spanned multiple generations, the "Vampire Killer" series has lasted as long (or even longer) than some of the most prominent gaming aficionados. It's a series that has left quite a legacy, notable for its challenging gameplay, chilling storylines, absorbing characters and unique Gothic setpieces, it's no wonder that 1997's Symphony of the Night got the acclaim that it did for breathing new life into the linear Castlevania formula by adding in some fresh takes on other works that clearly inspired it - borrowing from the exploration of the Metroid series and the ever-so-popular RPG mechanics.
That being said, Symphony of the Night is a timeless classic. It's not a masterpiece, and nor did it sell very well at the time of release, but it left quite a footprint in the gaming world - proving that the heart of Castlevania was still going strong and wasn't going to burn out anytime soon. Its potential was later realized (garnering for it a massive hit for not only the franchise, but gaming in general) has been regarded as a cult-classic by the gaming community and cited as one of the best games of all time by numerous gaming publications for its innovations that were ahead of its time.
While other franchises were ready to make the leap to the next generation of three-dimensional gaming, Symphony of the Night opted to stick to a 2D plane just like its predecessors - and it was a darn good thing that they did too, because the game sports some of the most detailed and exquisitely-crafted characters and environments that I've ever seen in a video game. Ayami Kojima (not related to Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima who works at the same company), one of the game's concept artists, designed the main characters' and supporting characters' appearances. To put it short: it all looks great. The characters are all expressive and full of life (well, some of them), and all in all the game's unique 2D art style really sets it apart from the other games released at the time, especially when other games were ready for the transition to the third dimension. The attention to detail is just jaw-dropping, and all characters and enemies are animated beautifully, making full use of the Sony PlayStation's capabilities by not only restricting 2D sprites, but also incorporating some 3D backdrops as well to give that three-dimensional feeling. It's all about immersion in Symphony of the Night, and Konami has done the job well.
Symphony of the Night's story again deals with the struggle between good and evil - this time with vampire-killer Richter Belmont and Count Dracula, the Dark Lord himself. The game begins with an immersive prologue that thrusts you straight into the action with the final encounter between Richter and Dracula. This was a highly-effective move on Konami's part, because most of the other Castlevania titles open up with a wall of text explaining the gist of the story. Upon Dracula's defeat, the story fast-forwards to four years later to Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, also known as Alucard, the son of Dracula himself, in a plot to prevent his father's resurrection by destroying the castle. It may seem like bare bones at first, but the story expands with continuous exploration of the castle and meeting other characters. Exploration is a major part of the gameplay, and you are frequently rewarded for discovering secrets within the game, such as breakable walls (a staple in the series) that can lead to hidden rooms, "relics", which are special items that can enhance Alucard's attributes thus further increasing accessibility of the castle, and abilities, which augment Alucard himself. It was a real enjoyment to see how much stronger Alucard could get with progression through the game - it made me want to explore each and every room in the castle to build up more strength and abilities. It's no wonder Symphony of the Night's formula has commonly been referred to as "Metroidvania", due to its striking similarities to Metroid's rewarding exploration.
The game also makes use of a money system, one of the several traits borrowed from RPG mechanics. Gold can be dropped in varying amounts, and when picked up are collected in Alucard's bottomless wallet. Gold can be used to purchase weapons, armor, items, equipment, magic spells - the list goes on and on - by the castle's merchant (a detailed bestiary containing which enemies you've defeated and their traits can also be found here). While the shop was incredibly convenient, I found myself rarely stopping by - as a Super Castlevania IV player I always preferred to gather equipment simply by exploring the castle and obtaining the equipment (sometimes even better than the ones in the shop) on my own, producing great results. You can also sell items as well. Throughout the castle there are many gems that can be found - some valuable, and others mere chump change - and these can be sold for varying amounts of money, depending on which one you're selling and the quantity. Again, this adds to the exploration concept. However, those with a penchant for gold should find no problem in purchasing one of the dozens of dozens of items in the shop (and even more as Alucard progresses through the castle). In addition to gold, a leveling system as been added to the game's mechanics. As enemies are defeated, Alucard gains experience. And when the maximum amount of experience points needed are gained, he levels up and his stats are boosted like in nearly all RPG games out there. However, the more of an enemy he kills, the lower amount of experience is rewarded, so you will always have to keep exploring to discover new enemies - not because you have to, but because you'll really want to. And when you reach the bosses of the castle, prepare for some action - because many of them will require fast thumbs and quick reflexes to defeat. It's not "mash the attack button until they die" either - most of the bosses require strategic attacking and use of magic to defeat, though there are some of the bosses I found were ridiculously exploitable and all I had to do was mash the attack button (though there are few bosses that require this strategy).
Notice that I've been throwing the word "castle" a lot lately. I'll admit that I have been, but there are a ton of locations in Symphony of the Night. There's caves, clock towers, a library, a chapel, and other environments that can be ventured into. No two locations in the game look alike, and the design is always consistent to remind you that you are actually in a castle and not some mansion designed by like twenty different architects. Each location brims with life and are a ton of secrets to discover in each one. The game even goes as far as to torture you with rooms and items that are just barely out of reach due to Alucard's inability to perform a specific action or ability to get there, feeding the need for you to just keep moving on and come back to it later. There is a lot of backtracking in the game, which might alienate some players (especially the more hardcore Castlevania fans who always saw new environments in every level) who might not favor the room-based system of Symphony of the Night, but it will definitely cater to more casual players and those new to RPG and/or platforming games. This doesn't make moving throughout the castle a chore, however, and the game's designers have mercifully implemented a portal system to instantly transport to other portals around the castle's major areas to make moving around a lot easier - though I did find myself mashing the back-dash button to get around faster, since Alucard's walking speed is a bit on the slow side.
Like many of its predecessor's, Symphony of the Night is a challenging game, but is free of any cheap deaths that you might have come to know in the earlier days of the series. There's no pits that lead to instant death, and since there's numerous armor pickups and equipment, the game has been made a lot more accessible to newcomers of the series - albeit a little too easy. The game is like a cakewalk in some of the later parts, and later in the game Alucard is given the ability to transform into other entities that make avoiding enemies a breeze. This wasn't like in earlier Castlevania titles where you pretty much had to confront the enemy no matter what - but the difficulty is a double-edged sword, because there actually are some pretty difficult parts in the game, especially later on. One thing I did like about the game's difficulty was that it could be fine-tuned to your preference. You can prevent poor Alucard from using certain abilities by simply switching them off in the "Relics" and "Abilities" menus, and optional things are always a plus in my book. There's also a sort of partner system in the game, called "Familiars". Familiars are creatures (usually enemies in the game) with different abilities that can follow Alucard around and assist in attacking other enemies. They can even gain experience and level up just like Alucard does, and the higher the level, the more effective the Familiar. The Familiars vary from a bat, a ghost, a faerie, and others - each with their distinct personality that makes each Familiar unique. A heart symbol of affection may pop up above the bat's head if Alucard transforms into a bat, or a question mark of confusion if he transforms from a bat to himself again. It's these little things that all add to the experience that the castle is full of living and breathing things. The best part is that Familiars can be turned on or off, which can assist struggling players or aid in exploration. I never used Familiars until the second half of the game when the difficulty got a lot harder, and the faerie was especially helpful in my case, healing me with her magic spells or giving me tips on what to do next, or notifying me of breakable walls. It's no wonder that Familiars have carried over to other Castlevania titles, because they are a real compliment to the game's main character.
Musically, Castlevania has never disappointed me, and Symphony of the Night is no exception. The music genres vary from rock, hard rock, orchestral, classical, and even jazz at some points in the game. The varying musical tastes also complimented the numerous locations, and I frequented some locations just to hear the awesome soundtrack. The entrance to Dracula's castle is pure bliss. It makes you feel like a badass - and it should, because Alucard is simply a badass character. He isn't one of those cliche, cool, pretty-boy characters - he is a character with his own feelings and secrets. In fact, he reminds me of Clint Eastwood at times, because he doesn't talk very much - but when he does, everything he says is just awesome. There are several high points in the music and sound department - enemy screeches are realistic and sometimes even frightening. Killing an undead swordsman causes him to yell out in an animalistic, yet human scream to remind you that he was once a living person, before burning up into the air. Where the sound department falls short is the voice-acting. It's terrible. There are two decent voice-actors in the game - Dracula and Alucard, but the rest made me want to slap them in the face. The line delivery on some characters is atrocious - either they were devoid of feeling or were trying too hard to convey a specific emotion. A lot of the lines feel really forced or simply awkward; some even reminding me of the notoriously bad voice-acting in the first Resident Evil. It's not the script that's bad - it's actually pretty well-written most of the time - but it seems like they picked up some random people off the street to voice these characters. Thankfully, a re-release on the PlayStation Portable has redone the voices so they don't sound as bad, but unfortunately the iconic original script has been rewritten as well. However, the voice-acting is bearable at best, provided you don't hold high hopes for it.
The game on its own is a standard eight-hour experience, but if you keep exploring you'll find that there's even more to the castle. I don't want to spoil anything, but unfortunately Symphony of the Night is a victim of artificial prolongation of its replay value. Just like the lame fetch-quests of Metroid Prime, there are some really cheap things the developers did to make the game longer. I really didn't like the idea of having to explore the entire castle again (this time with every room in the game turned upside-down), but I later got used to it and even started to love it. There are even more enemies this time around, more items to be found, more secrets to be discovered, more music to hear, more bosses to fight... the list is endless. What began as a really lame way to make the game longer ended with a satisfying conclusion. Not everyone may feel that the "inverted castle" is a great idea, but those who might be alienated may come to love it, because it does amp up the difficulty quite a bit if you thought the normal castle was too easy. You can even transport between the two castles if you want to. The inverted castle boosts the game's replay value to twice its length, and completionists who aim to explore the incredibly massive count of 1,890 rooms (that is, without glitching to access hidden areas not meant to be seen in the game) will find themselves playing this game for weeks or even months. There's just so many secrets to find and things to do. You want to level Alucard to the max? Take on the harder enemies in the inverted castle. Feel like confessing? Head for the confession room in the chapel. Yes, folks, there's even a confession room in the chapel, where Alucard can even sit down and watch really cool things happen between a priest and someone with a guilty conscience. There's also even a hilarious secret line of dialogue spoken by Alucard himself if you attempt to play your Symphony of the Night PlayStation disc into an audio player. The rest? That I'll leave to you. I haven't even scratched the surface to how many secrets there are in this game.
Symphony of the Night has its flaws, but these are can be easily looked-over due to its impeccable achievements. The game literally reinvented the Castlevania series, breathed new life into the platforming and RPG genres respectively, and has some of the highest replay value I've ever seen. Konami has managed to pull off the impossible by not only defying the third dimension, but by sticking to Castlevania's roots and improving upon its mechanics, crafting an exquisite and unforgettable game that is one you'll definitely want to play again and again. It's not a masterpiece, but more of a flawed brilliance that has managed to stand the test of time.