Just have to mention, the reason you kill those big meanacing wolves in one hit is to set up the way Death steals Alucard's powers and equipment. Alucard is supposed to be super amazing and all that, and the first hallways shows that by letting you just mow through everything. Then Death takes it all away and you need to work your way from the ground up again. I think that's what they were going for. Also, Bloodstained looks so fantastic, but I'm not happy about how they're charging $60 during this kickstarter exclusively to unlock an additional in-game weapon and secret boss, not available in any way ever once it's over. That sounds like a terrible business idea to me.
Shilag You're absolutely right. This is most recently referenced in Double Fine's playthrough of SoTN with Iga here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bqheYYeA4k4.html
Shilag I'm not happy about the backer-exclusive content, either. It's blatantly manipulative to hold content hostage like that, especially for a game that we know nearly nothing about and may turn out to be terrible (*but dare we take the risk and miss out?!*). People who generously fund your project almost two years before it is planned to release should be rewarded, not milked; everyone who paid enough to get the base game should have received the backer content as a bonus for their faith and generosity, but instead we have to pay an extra $32 for a secret boss and weapon (which, at more than the cost of the game itself, is an utterly absurd price tag for what is basically DLC). I really resent the tactics used here and in many other campaigns.
Shilag how the hell does Bloodstained look "fantastic"? there's zero gameplay footage with just 3 pieces of concept art and a mountain of in-game exclusive items and kickstart welfare funded bonus garbage lining the pockets of an idea man
There is something about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that I never seemed to get from other games even of the same type. It was overly complex and full of unnecessary stuff, but I think that is what made a game rich for discovery. Magic spells that you could cast at any point as long as you knew them. Weapons that went from swords to fists to maces to even tonfas, some of them having their own unique abilities. All the nooks and crannies that often didn't always do much, but they felt meaningful for the exploratory achievement itself: the spinning bookshelf on the Library, the chapel ghosts, the clock tower statues. Not everything was important, and it sure could have used some more balance, especially for the consumables who weren't useful at all. But that game impressed me with a sense of wonder that to this day I can't find in many other games. Even Super Metroid which is overall better designed doesn't seem to evoke the same from me.
+Alex Carvalho all of these things you mentioned are intention. its not trying to be EXACTLY like super metroid. its trying to be very similar, but different in its own ways. weird weapons to mess with, spell to use if you want, but its not necessary to beating the game, its all extra stuff that is there if you want it, and can be ignored if you dont. not every single thing has to be important in every videogame. this game is excellent, and even if you try and dig for flaws, theyre so minor theyre not even worth talking about. the game is just super fun to play and doesnt even really get old over time. its aged very well. wander around, look for cool items, fight some enemies, try and stumble on the way forward, thats what these games are all about.
Its extraordinarily ambitious for its time, but didn't age well though. I never felt like I had any idea where to go or what to do, yet I love Metroid and Dark Souls Thats because Metroid, Dark Souls and possibly the rest of the Castlevania's properly reward exploration by Telegraphing important rooms and boss fights with landmarks. Avoiding repetitive encounters/rooms in areas that will be well traversed Creating shortcuts with new traversal powers, or new access to rooms. Making sure that most progress will be made by taking the path of least resistance. with overwhelming resistance or straight up walls leading to rewards and/or things you need to come back to.
The combat was fun, but ultimatley the combat didn't evolve throughtout the game You had spells which is cool, but half the time it was quickers and easier just slap everyone with a sword due to better spells having longer inputs, and sometimes long animations Weapons didn't change you're moveset enough *relative to how many weapons there were.* They literally coulda just had like 10 to 20 weapons that you could upgrade with enemy drops or modify with other equipment so item management would be a chore, like Dark Soul's titinite shards, or FF7's materia system It would also mean you could assure random finds were almost always worthwhile, as instead of finding weapons, you'd mostly find stuff to upgrade or modify anything you're currently using.
Khrene Cleaver A weapon progression system would be welcome, as the different weapons became worthless a few levels either. But as far as spells go, it might just be that some players didn't bother about them, because of their unusual input commands. Personally I got a lot of mileage out of Soul Steal and Dark Metamorphosis for healing between save rooms, and Tetra Soul was helpful to get rid of some enemies I didn't want to get close to.
I don't think the comments actually understand his criticism of the wolves in the opening hallway. He obviously knows Death eventually takes your weapons away. His argument is that the devs intended for you to feel like an unstoppable force at the start and that it would feel really cool and so it motivates you to get your weapons back. But it doesn't make him feel that way, it just makes him feel confused. it's just this feeling of "wait, what? why?" because it gears you up for a challenge that you realize isn't there and you don't understand why. And then when Death shows up, it's like "oh, NOW I get it", rather than "oh wow I gotta get that powerful again, I'm so motivated". Compare this to Metroid Prime: the game actually forces you to use things like missiles, the morph ball, the charge beam, and the grapple beam, before taking them away, to give you a taste of how equipped you could be and how much gameplay variety there could be, and yet none of those items neuter the challenge or level design in the game's intro while you have them. You don't get this in Symphony apart from your equipment, and that superspeed sprint Alucard does in the intro never shows up later which makes it even worse. I mean, why would I WANT to one-shot everything? I want a challenge, damn it. Thus that motivation to get your equipment back just isn't there. It's just not the best-designed intro for a Metroidvania.
to be fair, killing the giant wolves in one hit happens prior to Death removing all of your super OP equipment for the remainder of the game until you find it. I think it shows off the difference in power before and after that happens well. maybe that's just me though.
I don't think the comments actually understand his criticism of the wolves in the opening hallway. He obviously knows Death eventually takes your weapons away. His argument is that the devs intended for you to feel like an unstoppable force at the start and that it would feel really cool and so it motivates you to get your weapons back. But it doesn't make him feel that way, it just makes him feel confused. it's just this feeling of "wait, what? why?" because it gears you up for a challenge that you realize isn't there and you don't understand why. And then when Death shows up, it's like "oh, NOW I get it", rather than "oh wow I gotta get that powerful again, I'm so motivated". Compare this to Metroid Prime: the game actually forces you to use things like missiles, the morph ball, the charge beam, and the grapple beam, before taking them away, to give you a taste of how equipped you could be and how much gameplay variety there could be, and yet none of those items neuter the challenge or level design in the game's intro while you have them. You don't get this in Symphony apart from your equipment, and that superspeed sprint Alucard does in the intro never shows up later which makes it even worse. I mean, why would I WANT to one-shot everything? I want a challenge, damn it. Thus that motivation to get your equipment back just isn't there. It's just not the best-designed intro for a Metroidvania.
Still one of my top 3 favourite games of all-time. I remember discovering the second castle in 1998 and having my mind blown. The music and art style of the game were both massive contributors to my enjoyment of it at the time, and they're still contributors to my enjoyment of the game up until today.
TL;DR: The people who love Symphony of the Night are the people who like uncovering mystery and hidden mechanics. That's what the game exceeds at, and why many people adore it. That's why people play it. That's why people will continue to play it for years to come. I view Symphony of the Night more in the realms of a dungeon game. It has a simple base combat system, and the areas are consistently the same design aside from a twist here or there. It's not a game trying to get you to grind for hours on end, or analyze the level. What the game rewards you for is searching every nook and cranny in the castle, and understanding every hidden feature of its combat system. Symphony of the Night is one of the few platformer games where the progression is on how your character interacts with the world instead of increasing stats on a screen. This is what the intro of the game is trying to say, "Look how cool you can be if you explore the castle". Even the Richter pre-battle has a secret area with items hinting at what you can unlock later on. While the criticism for the obscene amount of similar weapons is valid, the game also has an obscene amount of unique weapons. And each weapon changes the way you interact with the world, Hellfire makes you invincible but you can only move left and right, holy water does multiple damage can stick anywhere but has a short radius, you can equip your sword familiar as a weapon, the shield rod and shields create one time effects that take away your mp, etc, etc. Lastly the lore of the castle, the little details, like a mouse searching for food, or a bird laying a nest, or a skeleton hanged. I love the fact that when you save, you sleep in a coffin. That you can sit in any chair, and in one room listen to a confession being made by a ghost. These are all reasons why I keep coming back to Symphony of the Night. The people who love Symphony of the Night are the people who like uncovering mystery and hidden mechanics. That's what the game exceeds at, and why many people adore it. That's why people play it. That's why people will continue to play it for years to come.
I made a pause at 4:08 to make this observation: The one hit kill on wolves were to give the sense of power to the player. To then, when Death appears and get all your top initial inventory out of you, you feel the impact of it.
I don't think the comments actually understand his criticism of the wolves in the opening hallway. He obviously knows Death eventually takes your weapons away. His argument is that the devs intended for you to feel like an unstoppable force at the start and that it would feel really cool and so it motivates you to get your weapons back. But it doesn't make him feel that way, it just makes him feel confused. it's just this feeling of "wait, what? why?" because it gears you up for a challenge that you realize isn't there and you don't understand why. And then when Death shows up, it's like "oh, NOW I get it", rather than "oh wow I gotta get that powerful again, I'm so motivated". Compare this to Metroid Prime: the game actually forces you to use things like missiles, the morph ball, the charge beam, and the grapple beam, before taking them away, to give you a taste of how equipped you could be and how much gameplay variety there could be, and yet none of those items neuter the challenge or level design in the game's intro while you have them. You don't get this in Symphony apart from your equipment, and that superspeed sprint Alucard does in the intro never shows up later which makes it even worse. I mean, why would I WANT to one-shot everything? I want a challenge, damn it. Thus that motivation to get your equipment back just isn't there. It's just not the best-designed intro for a Metroidvania.
i wouldnt say the art was changed into "anime boys", but actually closer to gothic art style, it got inspiration from movies like interview with the vampire, and even renaissance androgenous arts.
I've watched Super BunnyHop for a few years now and this is my first time commenting, the reason being that the criticism felt incredibly forced, nitpicky and slightly off point. The point about (3:50) "killing giant angry wolves in one hit" is based on the story and setting. During this part of the game you're playing as Alucard as he enters the castle. He has all of his power ups, weapons, skills etc so would naturally be overpowering everything. A few screens later all of your "baddarsery" is taken away from you to which the the game then starts. You then go through and collect all your items and power-ups again. If you, the player, then return the fight the 'giant angry wolves' you'll find it takes multiple hit to kill them. Based on the context of the scene, it's pretty misleading to state that in your video. As for (3:59) it's true that the game has multiple "hallways occupied by giant easy enemy", but this does fit with the design and setting of the game. It's set in a castle, if the rooms had multiple platforms and ledges I would question why would a castle have random platforms scattered about a room that should be a traditional castle hallway. (5:04) SOTN has around 2000 rooms(rounded up), and while there some with hallway monsters(as stated earlier) the staircase room is one of those unique rooms you come across as it's the only one in the game(well two if you include the inverted castle). Not to mention you only show the rooms that look tedious to travel though but don't show off the high castle wall with the moon in the background. Nor the bell tower(or mention it outside the small brief time that it has earlier on in the video), the giant clock room itself, the moat under the castle, the Cathedral, each boss room plus so much more. (5:30) Leveling is used a means to make Alucard dispatch of enemies quicker, but isn't an integral part of the game like traditional RPGs (6:38) Isn't a fair criticism at that point since that was your choice to save and buy a very powerful weapon. For those that didn't opt-it to using a powerful weapon, each "pointless" weapon find and pickup with a benefit to player. But that's why SOTN is so great, because it let's you play to your style. The weapons you find are only pointless if you go out of your way to choose the a highly powerful item to begin with. (8:26) Both Magic and Familars have their own leveling system within the game. Magic attacks can actually be unlocked from the start if you know what the inputs are(using a cheat guide) or by finding out how to unlock them via going through the game naturally(Magic Scrolls #). Familiars are incredibly useful for your overall gameplay. The more you use a familiar the more it levels up. Some are more useful than others though. For example, at 9:10 there is a small square at the top right corner, the only way to hit this switch is to use the Demon Familiar who will activate a script in this room and press it and thus unlock a hidden item. The fairy is helpful for locating hidden paths.The sword becomes so power that you'll eventually be able to use for some incredible damage output and special effects(well worth doing). The Bat familiar has it's own little personality depending on what form Alucard is. The skull will latch on to an enemy and depending on it's level will dish out a constant high damage output. They add more personality the items. They could've just been an item you use but instead, they're living(sorta) beings with their own voices and actions that extend from Alucard's overall moveset and exploration abilities. Castlevania LoS is worth playing, calling it a "big overproduced God of War beat 'em up" is overlooking the games original return to form (linear progression as opposed to backtracking and exploration). It's far from as bad as people claim...
mariotaz " Isn't a fair criticism at that point since that was your choice to save and buy a very powerful weapon." Choosing not get the best weapon is a poor strategy and it is legit criticism. Not picking it up only serves to make the game harder because you deliberately avoided an upgrade. It's the equivalent of defending a games difficulty by telling people to handicap themselves
Josef Stalin True but it's used as a negative against the game. Imagine if in a game like Dark Souls I saved up a lot of souls at the beginning, bought a very powerful weapon and then stated that everything I picked up afterwards was "rubbish drops that took up inventory space". That was my choice to buy a powerful weapon. It's your choice to do that in a game but it's hardly a negative or a purposeful handicap should you continue to pick up weapons as you would normally.
mariotaz Darks souls does not work that way though, you are not likely to get very far if you do not level up, unless you are skilled player in which case you are only handicapping yourself. Dark souls also has different move sets and scale with different stats making more weapons relevant. I haven't played SoTN, but i'd call it imbalanced since so many weapons are made worthless as there wasn't much good to spend your money on anyway.
Josef Stalin You're still missing my point though. It's the concept it gaining a powerful weapon early in the game and then making a bout about how worthless all the other weapons are, when for me, I found nearly each new weapon to be an upgrade. Also, each weapon has it's own moveset and attributes regardless of direct damage. Not to mention you even stated that haven't SoTN yet can call it imbalanced based on this (honestly incorrect/skewed) view of it. Until you try this game(or any game) for yourself, then you won't have a more informed view of the game. Similar to my point before. I could make a "review" about how I found a powerful gun/sword in Borderlands/Dark Souls and then make a statement about how the whole weapon gain system was irrelevant for a long time. Like I said before, it's only imbalanced if you do that. The game is balanced.
mariotaz "Until you try this game(or any game) for yourself, then you won't have a more informed view of the game." Fine fair enough, so long as you stop using Dark souls since it's not comparable in this situation. Neither is Borderlands since one of it's "features" is that it has an excessive amount of weapons that you will never use. Let's not call it imbalance then, let's assume it was an oversight and that perhaps the developers wanted you to use the money for other things first, rather than save up for better equipment. As for movesets he apparently found no weapon that was worth the tradeoff, then again maybe he never tried them out.
Still stands as one of my favorite games, and one of the main reasons I devoted some cash into Bloodstained. Igarashi and Yamane in particular are heroes of mine. I maxed this to 100% (or rather, 200.6%) several times, and I don't regret a minute of it. Also, one of the best soundtracks in gaming, in my opinion.
Doom2Guy I never touched any of the spells. Did you know that once you find a certain shield and the shield rod, you become OP as fuck and every enemy you touch with that shield will die in mere seconds.
Doom2Guy The spirit spell (left right up down square?) saved my ass when I got too cocky. The blood healing spell, dark metamorphosis can be handy with medusa heads, tetra spirits is a really good damage dealer, hellfire looks cool and the powered up version is good for hallways until you get the bats special smash ability (it's mainly just a neat tie in to Dracula), and soul steal is obviously OP. They can all basically be considered the games cheats.
Familiar not useful? whoa... Bat can multiply and spit fire,sword can be equip or help,devil can use multiple skills,fairy can aid status or hp and ghost can heal you.
Super Bunnyhop I could see why the early introduction of the one-hit-kill wolves and the petrifying stone flowers feel out of place, or underwhelming. However each serve a purpose- the early enemies die easily to showcase the advancements your character can go through later in the game and the stone flowers (IIRC) are the first time that petrification is revealed (as a safe way to understand that status effect before having to worry about being damaged by other medusa heads).
I don't think the comments actually understand his criticism of the wolves in the opening hallway. He obviously knows Death eventually takes your weapons away. His argument is that the devs intended for you to feel like an unstoppable force at the start and that it would feel really cool and so it motivates you to get your weapons back. But it doesn't make him feel that way, it just makes him feel confused. it's just this feeling of "wait, what? why?" because it gears you up for a challenge that you realize isn't there and you don't understand why. And then when Death shows up, it's like "oh, NOW I get it", rather than "oh wow I gotta get that powerful again, I'm so motivated". Compare this to Metroid Prime: the game actually forces you to use things like missiles, the morph ball, the charge beam, and the grapple beam, before taking them away, to give you a taste of how equipped you could be and how much gameplay variety there could be, and yet none of those items neuter the challenge or level design in the game's intro while you have them. You don't get this in Symphony apart from your equipment, and that superspeed sprint Alucard does in the intro never shows up later which makes it even worse. I mean, why would I WANT to one-shot everything? I want a challenge, damn it. Thus that motivation to get your equipment back just isn't there. It's just not the best-designed intro for a Metroidvania.
SOTN was one of the best 32 bit moments of gaming. Any game that oozes atmosphere and creates a world enjoyable to explore is going to be a great game for me.
Great review, but one thing I think you missed out on with regards to how many weapons aren't worth using is that there were secret combos for some weapons that actually made them better or at least fun to play with, even if their base stats weren't great. A good example of this was the Sword of Dawn, that at first seemed like a weak, slow 2 hander, but when you pulled off the weapon combo, you summoned skeletal minions to fight for you.
I was really, really looking forward to watching this interview when I saw its thumbnail. I came out of the video disappointed. One of the best qualities you have as a reviewer is your tendency to gush about small details, and really celebrate a game for what it is. This is especially apparent watching your MGS reviews. It seemed like you spent all of that attention to detail bashing microscopic flaws while hand waving big successes that SotN made. Especially the music. I've seen you go on HUGE tangents about the music of other games (like NiN system shock) but all SotN gets is 'kitschy and catchy'? Really? I'm surprised you remarked on the stone roses part negatively, that's the game's tutorial on what happens when you get stoned, it's teaching you with kiddie gloves. It feels like normally you'd appreciate the game giving you one of those before subjecting you to the clock tower. This was probably your big 'buck the trend' review where you subvert expectations and end up spending what seems like the majority of the video criticizing an almost universally lauded video game. I'm just sad it had to be SotN.
Sotn is hipster. Just like shovel knight, celeste , hollownight etc. If you say you enjoy 2d side scrollers that rehash played out gameplay gimmicks(that were innovations once upon a time) you get the hipster version of street cred. If you enjoy those, cool, but its not innovation anymore
I disagree with your review. I enjoyed the grind, I enjoyed playing these style of castlevania to treasure hunt, to get 100% not just beat the game. This style of castlevania are the best in the series.
That's the point of Igavanias. There are many ways to tackle the same enemies and obstacles. This is even more true in the later games, especially Bloodlines: RotN. The fact that you find an optimal path early on (say, by grinding to get a great sword) doesn't make all the other ways you could've handled a specific enemy, obstacle, or boss useless. You just took a different path. This is like complaining about all the warrior equipment you still find throughout an RPG when you've decided early on to be a thief or a mage character.
A problem we have nowadays is with IPs. New IPs don't ever necessarily mean new game design ideas or mechanics. A cast of new characters and a new title for a new series nowadays doesn't usually come with new gameplay ideas at all. That's why I have no hype for Mighty No. 9. Because it's just Mega Man. Again. With HD visuals and all that flair. I hope, looking at all the achievements that the Bloodstained kickstarter has gotten, that it will be much more creative and memorable, and not just a complete repeat of the 2D IGAvanias, more an evolution of them.
Jason Bissainthe I totally get what you mean. It always annoys me the way people complain about Nintendo for not making new IPs, when a lot of their series see more innovation within themselves than some entire genres. So what if they bring out yet another a new Mario or Zelda game? There's a good chance there's still something more original and fun going on in there than the next copy-pasted Shooty Gruff McMilitary game.
Jason Bissainthe Rehashing proven gameplay ideas is not a problem, but people don't realize that just because the tools we have today are more advanced, making games at the level of the great classics is nowhere near easy. 16 bit pixel art is very popular nowdays, but many Sega Genesis or SNES games completely blow out of the water the modern indie releases in terms of graphics (and often gameplay too).
It's a problem to me when stuff like Shovel Knight or TLoU gets game of the year nods and stuff like Wonderful 101 does not. SK and Last of Us are like the world's most perfect recipes for the most perfectly baked loafs bread. Everyone likes bread, but it gets old and bland and generic pretty fast.
Jason Bissainthe At least with Shovel Knight, they managed to combine ideas that were never together in a single game before (which is a form of innovation, though a lesser form) and had some stage design ideas that were original (and let's face it, platformer innovation is more about how the mechanics interact with stage design and not just mechanics themselves). But otherwise, I agree with you. So many games feel like the same third person action game, with the same character model sizes, who all control like they have the same weight, who are controlled with the same control scheme, who play in a game that has a mix of shooting sequences, stealth sequences, and scripted sequences, that all attempt to fallback on their "storyline" to try and convince you that you're playing a good game.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Nigh was my favourite game on the ps1. I think it would fit right in in today's gaming scene because we have so many indie games that are trying to mimic that retro look and feel that Symphony has.
"Secret levels that are...treated like a treat, and not the main course". Isn't that what a secret level is supposed to be? The main game is the main course, but the secret levels are the treats you find.
i used the magic all the time, and built up my familiars, swapped out ones for different areas of the castle etc, also weapons with lower states are sometimes much better for the special moves that they have which you seemed to ignore
George, you mentioned that the Symphony successors on GBA and DS outright reused many of the sprites from SotN, but I would say that the stylistic pool from which they all draw is actually Rondo of Blood, which of course makes sense because Symphony is Rondo's sequel. The way I see it, this creates a bridge from the original Castlevania games through to the IGAvanias despite the fact that there is a clear line drawn at that point in the series's history when Symphony changed everything. In practice, it always annoys me to see the same enemies and the same sprites in every game, but conceptually I find it a little charming.
This review had some good points. Some. Then you talk about how easy it is to kill the giant wolves and I had to ask myself if you really could understand the game at all. The point of the wolves was to be easy.. It was hard to sit through the whole review with thoughtless points like these going on..
This game and Super Metroid go down as the best side-scrolling games of all time in my book. So much to discover, so much atmosphere, a stupidly vast number of items and enemies with secrets, encyclopedia entries, etc. Just a huge, huge game with tons to enjoy.
Woah, that was a lot more critical than I was expecting it to be. Very interesting. I've actually been playing this game for the first time myself recently as well. So I can also give a perspective on it to how it comes across as a fresh experience in 2015. Although I'm not close to finished, I've mostly been enjoying it. The beginning was pretty rough though. It was pretty hard to acclimatise to. The knockback is just brutal, and sometimes a bit too much in some places. And in general I think the game doesn't really do the best job of telling you where to go. Not that I expect to be hand-held, or even have a big shiny icon telling me where I need to go, but I often feel like it's not clear or logical what I'm supposed to do at any given point at time, or how some of my actions have affected the game. But still, after getting used to the controls and pace of the game, I've been really liking it. I love to art style and tone of it, and I love exploring all the weird new areas in the castle. It's made me interested to try out other games in the series, although SotN isn't actually the first I've played. And one more thing; the Lords of Shadow games are good. Not amazing, but still really sold. Also, LoS2 is better than the first, and even more similar to the older games than it gets credit for. These games area also the first in the series I've played and what made me interested to go back and play SotN and the other games in the first place.
That vid grab of the kickstarter where the goal is 500K and the current donation is over 4.2mm is fucking great. One giant, multi-million-dollar middle-finger to Konami. I would hope they were forced to sit on it, but a finger in the bum can be a very nice thing, and I don't think they deserve such things.
You probably don't realize Konami thinks that's still not enough interest to make another game. They won't move for 4M$, they probably laugh at it, their cheap as fuck mobile games make that much while costing nothing. Fans truly are blind.
I'm playing through it for the first time myself, and I'm blown away with how good it is. Definitely a refreshing experience in comparison to just about anything being released today.
What makes the game exceptional is how engrossing and imaginative it is. Not just beautiful backgrounds fill this game. Confession booths where you confront ghosts and a telescope where you can see places you will never get. The strange and gothic ambience is why I remember this game and have forgotten so many others that had arguably more solid gameplay.
Juan Cruz Nicolas Maciel If you listen to him on podcasts you'll notice he says "super duper" a hell of a lot too. People just have go to phrases I guess. Always gives me a chuckle though.
I don't think the comments actually understand his criticism of the wolves in the opening hallway. He obviously knows Death eventually takes your weapons away. His argument is that the devs intended for you to feel like an unstoppable force at the start and that it would feel really cool and so it motivates you to get your weapons back. But it doesn't make him feel that way, it just makes him feel confused. it's just this feeling of "wait, what? why?" because it gears you up for a challenge that you realize isn't there and you don't understand why. And then when Death shows up, it's like "oh, NOW I get it", rather than "oh wow I gotta get that powerful again, I'm so motivated". Compare this to Metroid Prime: the game actually forces you to use things like missiles, the morph ball, the charge beam, and the grapple beam, before taking them away, to give you a taste of how equipped you could be and how much gameplay variety there could be, and yet none of those items neuter the challenge or level design in the game's intro while you have them. You don't get this in Symphony apart from your equipment, and that superspeed sprint Alucard does in the intro never shows up later which makes it even worse. I mean, why would I WANT to one-shot everything? I want a challenge, damn it. Thus that motivation to get your equipment back just isn't there. It's just not the best-designed intro for a Metroidvania.
This game looked & sounded at release like it was out of time. 2D gameplay & voice acting that was almost on par with the first Resident Evil, when the rest of the industry had moved on. And that's part of the charm. A group of friends & I actually discovered the second castle without the use of guides. We saw the hints & through discussion & trial & error opened up the second half of the game. That was such an amazing feeling. I still play this game today, on Vita now. There's still so many little secrets & rare equipment drops that, along with the amazing visuals & soundtrack, make it a highly replayable game. That's correct about the series getting stale, I don't think Igavanias ever reached the heights of Symphony. There were some fun sequels but I'm hoping what's happened will give Iga the kick in the pants to raise the bar again.
My biggest gripe with this game is how 'not actually very Metroid at all' it ended up being. I didn't play it until 2012 and while I generally enjoyed the experiance a lot, I couldn't get over how the power-ups like Bat, Wolf, and Gas forms only ended up having maybe one or two necessarily game progression uses (don't get me started on Bat Radar and Spike Breaker only having one real use). In Metroid you use stuff like the morph ball, bombs, missiles, etc... the whole game. Even late game items end up being generally useful continually after acquisition. Except for the double jump, Symphony (and most of its children) just do not have that. They have big explorable maps, and solid combat. And that's it. Great games, but the Metroid angle just isn't strong enough to warrant the 'Metroidvania' moniker. Very looking forward to Bloodstained
James Purcell The last two games (Portrait of Ruin and Ecclesia) basically ended up segregating the more open world parts with the more traditional parts, which I think worked in Ecclesia but Portrait of Ruin was wonky. They did improve the collectables since the characters later actually gained different spells and subweapons. Plus there was more emphasis on the elemental stuff.
James Purcell True, but I think some of the upgrades were integrated organically a little better in Castlevania. For example, the bat or the boost boots weren't some arbitrary relic to get past a door that you would normally be able to walk right through. But rather, they changed the way the game felt, and how you viewed traversal as a whole. So, not only did it allow you to get to new places, but also made you reconsider where new places could be that could have been right under your nose.
James Purcell There were also bosses that could be fought very easily with specific upgrades. There's one that turns your cloud upgrade into poisonous gas, so whenever you touch an enemy or boss as the poisonous cloud, you'd often kill them pretty quickly.
i definitely give SotN credit for starting the "igavania" style, but he improved upon the format completely in later games. aria of sorrow, portrait of ruin, order of ecclesia... god, those are some great games.
I bought this game a few days ago on PSN, I'd never played it before. I enjoyed it very much. I sometimes prefer the graphics from these older games vs newer consoles, as it allows your imagination to fill the gaps.
I think everyone who has played SotN at release remembers that one day when someone told them "Hey, there's a whole other half to the game you haven't played" and had their mind blown.
This game is STILL one of the best games ever made!!!! I have my original copy still! I love Castlevania in general but SotN takes how great the games preceding it were & made it even greater!!
The famously reused sprites are actually from Rondo of Blood before SOTN. Also, I would never state that Super Metroid had better level design, you backtrack much more in that game (especially for 100%) and there's no warp points or teleporters or anything. Falling through the quicksand area just to have to redo a good 5 or so minutes to get back, or missing the missile power up on the left hand side of the starting area just to have to run back is nauseating. Super Metroid and SOTN are both masterpieces. However, I really do think SOTN took everything SM did and improved on it much more.
SM isn't a hard game, the upgrades turn you into an essential god mode. Most the secrets / upgrades are useless once you have plenty of missiles / super missiles. There's 3 boss fights, then mother brain. None of these are hard. SOTN was actually considered very hard when it came out, both games have been played to death and everyone knows how to deal with them. Your fanboy rant about copying is still wrong. The first Castlevania game was actually released twice, with the PC version having gameplay very similar to SOTN. Finding keys to unlock doors, getting upgrades, and even a store. Igavania is more or less the correct term as Metroid has all but abandoned the style of game. Many games pull inspiration from others, hell Zelda 1 is a knock off. I speedrun SM, I play it quite a bit. I feel SOTN took everything SM was and improved on it ten fold. The only thing I really prefer with SM is the atmosphere.
ilazul I really don't agree with SOTN being difficult by any means. The first hour when you're punching skeletons, sure, but the rest of the game I unintentionally managed to beat without being killed once. The enemies are terrible, the only ones posing a threat are the golden knight guys who are in one hallway in the entire inverted castle. It was a total cakewalk and I went in completely blind. SM isn't much better in that regard because of how fast you can get upgrades, but still. SOTN is not a hard game. It's the easiest in the entire Castlevania series, bar none.
i on the other hand disagree, because while MANY of those aspects are trully useless on the first playthrough, the game has alot of replayability, and many of those "flaws", change completely when you go for the other modes.
While SOTN is a much more cluttered game than Super Metroid, I like it better due to complex routing. Super Metroid, besides a few wall-jump secrets and missile collection, has little to differentiate subsequent playthroughs. SOTN, on the other hand, allows me to play how I wanted. Want to beat the whole game with just the jewel knuckles? Give it a go! How about a " equip everything you pick up" run? If you want, sure. Both have their replay value, but I tend to come back to SOTN at about a two times more than Super Metroid (also there's more mechanical complexity in SOTN...)
A lot of George's complaints were stuff I never noticed in this game but stuck out crazy hard in Harmony of Dissonance and Portrait of Ruin. I guess when you put enough passion into a game it smooths out the flaws and you just have a grand ol' time.
The big thing about Castlevania is that it was not designed by game designers, it was crafted by artists. Iga said repeatedly in interviews that they had no level designers or systems developers, but that the team was comprised almost entirely of artists, animators, and sound designers. The art team were free to make cool designs and turn them into levels & enemies; the entire team pitched gameplay ideas into the pot and they basically added anything and everything they could that was realistic to add given their time constraints. This is a big reason why the game looks beautiful and charming and crams a diverse set of game mechanics into the package but barely holds together; the mechanics just don't work together towards a cohesive whole because there was no attempt to design them in such a way to do so. You can see this even in the overall map structure; there are a ton of cool looking rooms and areas but, as you say, also a lot of rooms that just look like the devs took the same thing and copy pasted it three or four times. That's because it was; they didn't have a centralized, overall design plan, so when it came time to connect the well-crafted areas together they had to take shortcuts due to time and budget constraints and just stretched them out to be as long or as short as they needed them to be. The game is practically bursting from the seams with charm and creativity... and it's bursting from the seams precisely because it has very little holding it together. I think a lot of games suffer from the tradeoff between charm and the rigid demand of functional mechanics. Let developers run free and wild and they'll bring to life something awesome, if also barely held together. Rigidly and mechanically construct something for function foremost, and it comes across as uninspired, lifeless, and dull.
I played this for the first time ever last week. Had a huge pile of playstation games to try out and saw this and thought "ah I'll give it a go I suppose". Damn! I LOVE this game. Ended up spending the next few days playing it almost non stop. Yeah, those Medusa head rooms are a nightmare. I just used the stopwatch every time. Oh and..I didn't even know I had magic :/ never used it
Honestly, I have played most of the games on GBA and DS that Igurashi produced and they have gotten better and better. I am very optimistic about his new project as long as he injects the energy and effort that he has put in Aria of Sorrow or Order of Eclesia. There is real beauty in those games, in the secrets they have and how they use skills and different weapons. Symphony was a good prototype but you have to take the others into account as well. And I want more of those!
The thing with Super Metroid is that it is very much trying to disguise it's linearity, which I think is the appeal. It's a very cohesive game with only the most essential power ups needed. So if someone is comparing SOTN to it, the latter is going to seem much more bloated. But while it is a flawed game, I really appreciated the exploration in Symphony of the Night. You could theoretically finish the game quickly or examine every nook and cranny of the castle.
I'm aware of what sequence breaking is(wall-jumping allows you get a lot of powerups early, you can fight certain bosses out of order, etc.), I was merely trying to make a point about the appeal of Super Metroid in that there are subtle hints in the environment that allow the player to know where to go next. Perhaps I shouldn't mention linearity anywhere near Metroid fans next time. Super Metroid can be played in a bunch of different ways. I'm just saying that the intended order is very much hinted at my the way you wander the game. Even the opening level, there's a little part that teaches you to jump.
Dawnemperor1 right, but that doesn't equate to linearity is my point, it equates to direction. very subtle direction. one that allows casual players to beat and allows hardcore players to experiment with in subsequent play throughs.
+Super APM Technically, many games exist on a spectrum in terms of linearity. Super Metroid isn't completely nonlinear either. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfLinearityVsOpenness
Metroid did it better? I'm not entirely convinced. The design of Symphony of the Night allows the player to take multiple routes in order to accomplish the same objective. It greatly helps with replayablility. Super Metroid blocks off areas until you get a new item. Afterwards one or two new areas would usually open up. The player would get the item in that, and repeat. I don't recall a point in Super Metroid where 20% of the map opened up at one time, and was completely optional as with Symphony. SOTN is horribly unbalanced (hilariously though sometimes), but the rooms themselves are well designed. There is a huge variety of enemies (though it sort of cheats by taking enemies from Rondo of Blood and just throwing them in the game).
Pan Z If you are REALLY good at walljumping, there are a lot of areas and things you can get in Super Metroid long before you are supposed to be able to. For example, you can get Power Bomb extremely early in the game if you jump up the area where you are supposed to freeze the flying invincible enemies with the freeze beam.
Jason Brown To add to what you said, you can also mockball to get Super Missiles without fighting Spore Spawn, and thus completely skip Spore Spawn (you can even get 100% without fighting him). You can reach kraid's lair without high jump if you can walljump and be precise. You can mockball to get ice beam without speed booster. You can completely skip a lower section of norfair (and still get 100%) by freezing enemies in the big room on the right of norfair. You can get wave beam before grappling beam by wall jumping. You can get into the wrecked ship without grappling beam if you walljump carefully or shinespark, and thus get gravity suit. You can do norfair and marida varia and gravity suitless respectively. You can enter ridley's lair without space jump if you perform a gravity jump. BTW you don't have to be REALLY good at walljumping to get the power bomb early, it is way easier if you kill the fuckers with super missiles. I hope this didn't come across as me trying to brag about how much I know about super metroid, I just really love the game.
littlebigphil I didn't even think about Super Missiles. I just timed it so that they would all be moving right. You can get them to move in sync, since their position freezes when they are off-screen. I would jump up the first time and destroy the block, and then the second time I went up the flying enemies would be moving out of my way, and I would be able to clear the gap before the block re-materialized.
I think the leveling system makes the two games (SOTN and Super Metroid) different enough to make them not really comparable in an "one is better than the other" way. In my opinion they are both wonderful, fun games and everyone should get the chance to play both of them, ESPECIALLY if you like these kinds of games. I think the leveling system serves SOTN well. SOTN type of games require backtracking, and leveling up makes backtracking less of a chore.
Two things are pretty important to understanding the background of SOTN: 1. Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. Dracula got a whole lot sexier in the 90's. Hard not to see a ton of influence from that film in the latter era of Castlevania. 2. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. First game to have branching paths, and SOTN is an immediate sequel to Rondo, and many character designs and enemy sprites are directly ripped from that game, from 1993.
Your description is quite outdated now, since Castlevania Requiem got released on PS4. It has the retranslated version of SotN from the PSP and the TurboGrafx CD version of Rondo of Blood that was translated and given an English dub on the PSP release. But, thankfully, it left out the shitty 3D version of Rondo that was released as the main feature of the PSP Dracula X Chronicles version.
"It's probably a safe bet now to assume that they'll never port this beyond the 360 and PSP." Well, here we have Castlevania Requiem on PS4. You just lost a bet.
Back in 1997 as a young 17 year old dude, I beat the game and saw the ending where Richter dies, and said "wait, that's not right!" After a quick strategy guide search, and found out I missed some stuff! Boy was I amazing and I had so much fun with this game! This and Super Metroid are some of my fav games!
Now it's 2019. The latest season of the Castlevania Netflix series was released last October, and Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood were re-released for the PS4 on that same day. For me, it was a godsend. I didn't think I would ever get to play Symphony of the Night, and now I can without having to buy outdated hardware. As a Gen Z'er who wasn't alive in the nineties (so no nostalgia factor), I say it totally holds up. There are times when it feels dated, especially in the first couple minutes, but it doesn't feel SO dated that it distracts from gameplay or ruins the fun. Your criticisms are all valid, but I LOVE this game!
I disagree about metroid having better level design. I get lost way more often in metroid. The rooms in symphony are much more unique and different from one another.
I really like SotN, but it definitely has it's problems. It's certainly not the crown jewel of metroidvanias like it's hardcore fans say it is. One of the things that I didn't like was just how the upgrades didn't make Alucard a more effective fighter, they kind of allowed you to just avoid fighting. When you get the bat form, you can just fly through most rooms without even bothering to kill them. Only you have to kill some enemies in order to level up your stats and such, otherwise you can eventually get to a point where you can die in two hits. The game is clearly incredibly ambitious, and it's the type of ambition we need more of, but I just don't think some of it worked as well as intended. Aria of Sorrow feels like a much more polished game to me. Some folks criticize it for not being as big, but I see that as a good thing. It trimmed the fat. Backtracking is much less of a hassle, and there are much fewer "filler" rooms. Although I personally feel that Super Metroid and Zero Mission are the best metroidvanias. Super has the best level design, ZM has the best controls and mechanics, as well as the most opportunity for sequence breaking.
Totally neglected to mention that when played as CD the disc had a secret audio track. Which ties in with the second castle aspect. It was cool as shit when I was in high school. I'd still rank it as a top ten.
A fair and accurate review. I thought I was the only guy who noticed all those empty hallways and found it bizarre that so many lauded the game for its superior level design. SOTN is a Metroidvania jack of all trades that is held together by great presentation and controls. That presentation (talking visuals and music) still gives it an edge over its portable successors despite the fact that some of them are arguably better designed. Symphony of the Night is simply one of those games that seemed to be elevated to god status by those who first played it without having played many other great 2D sidescrollers. Sort of like what people who didn't play many RPGs beforehand did with FF7. Both are stylish games that can leave a powerful impression on relative newcomers. But in terms of substance, longtime fans of both genres are likely to find them to be a bit overrated.
SotN, as you mentioned, due to the time it came out was special. About 10 of my friends were playing it, none of us had home computers or access to the internet. Over a period of months all my friends were sharing secrets they found. I can't remember how long it took, but I'd already put the game down and someone found the upside down castle, and it blew all our minds.
This guy's a scrub. Evolution in a series was important and Symphony did that brilliantly. What's the point of comparing it to the older games when the whole point was to move away from it?
I know this is a much older comment but he's right lmfao. Exploring a big part of the map and ending on a climatic boss only to get an item that is literally worse than anything you already got is something ANYONE would have a problem with.
So you beat the game, got the bad ending and immediately googled the answer without even bothering to explore and figure it out on your own? I feel you're deeply missing the point of a game like this. Also did you find the gravity boots? I didn't see one clip of you using them. It's a game-changer.
12:36 - I'd say that the reason that people on Kickstarter like "old/established" franchise reboots is because the KS platform gives the original creators more control over their game without worry of publishers hampering their ideas.
For me, the lack of funneling in this game is what makes it so enjoyable. There's a solid critical path that let's you enjoy it just fine, but encouraging yourself to explore the map and get that 200% completion of the entire map just feels very satisfying and let's you discover a lot of cool trinkets, that granted, aren't at all critical, but letting you combine them and experiment with gives it more replayability. Kind of like experimenting with Dark Souls builds or using your gear in inventive ways in MGS 3. The spells aren't crucial at all, but they offer you a new way to play through the game in a new run. It allows for a lot of self imposed challenges. I do agree that the game isn't very well balanced with its RPG mechanics. I became so overleveled and overpowered that I just steamrolled through all the bosses in the inverted castle.
I picked this game up a little over a year ago, and I fell in love. I rarely replay games, even games I love like Bioshock and Skyrim(at least full playthroughs) but I'm on my third for SotN. At least, I thought I was. I was playing it like I would have if I got it on a PS1, without looking anything up on line. So I fight Ricter, roll credits, the end, new save file. I was just looking for a video to fall asleep to, but now I'm hearing I missed half of the game?!?! I'm just absolutely blown away. Though while I feel you were a bit nit picky and didn't take context fully into account with some of your criticisms, I'd like to thank you. Thank you for letting me know one of my favorite games is only half of the whole game. Now I have to decide if I'm sleeping before work, or searching the castle for the way to trigger the rest of the game.
