Moving on with Castlevania games, I played the version of SotN which is unlockable on the PSP’s Dracula X Chronicles. This is a pretty faithful port of the PS1 original, but with improvements to performance/frame rate, a redone English script and voice acting, and the addition of Maria mode (a better one than the Saturn version).

Symphony of the Night is widely regarded as a great game and it started the “Metroidvania/Igavania” subgenre within the series, with a 2D open world-type experience, with levelling up and loot and all that good stuff. It was pretty great and just as smooth to play and satisfying to clear as the three DS instalments that I’ve played; however, I enjoyed those later games more than this.

There are intangible and possibly subjective tweaks that have been made over the years, such as balancing: I found almost half the game overly easy, even without grinding levels. There are conveniences like the DS’s second screen being used to persistently display the map, or selectable destinations in warp rooms. And I had the feeling playing this that it was cluttered with systems I didn’t feel the need to use, like the two-hand system or the spells that use complicated inputs. I often had an overabundance of hearts, and although I like familiars following me around they didn’t seem that useful. There’s also little variety in the different weapons you find; overall I was unprepared for how many improvements I perceived to have been made to the sequels.

The classic twist in this game is the inverted castle, which opens up if you fulfil the right conditions. This is a neat idea with potential, but the design of the castle made it unnecessarily hard to traverse the inverted version; the superjump maneuver was needed too often, and while I understand that castles really aren’t designed for you to get around them upside-down it made it less fun.

As always there are some bonus modes; Richter is more versatile than in Rondo of Blood but still sluggish. Maria was delightful to play as again, with challenge coming from her low damage output that needs to be offset by using her animal companions. I’ll note here that being a direct sequel to Rondo a few years later works in its favour, and not just in reusing enemy sprites; continuing the story with the same characters is fun and reintroducing Alucard makes for a great dynamic between the three as well as Shaft, Dracula, and Death.

So for the most part the game is built to the high standards expected of the best Castlevania games. But I think they managed to do better as they went on. Sorry fans.