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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Developer(s)	Konami/KCET
Publisher(s)	Konami
Designer(s)	Konami
Engine
Latest version	{{{version}}}
Release date(s)	March 20, 1997 (Japan) October 2, 1997 (North America) November 1, 1997 (Europe)
Genre	Action adventure, Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Media	1 CD-ROM
System requirements
Input

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (commonly abbreviated SotN) is an action-adventure game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1997. It was rereleased the following year for the Sega Saturn exclusively in Japan. Its Japanese title is Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight (悪魔城ドラキュラＸ月下の夜想曲 Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku). It is part of the Castlevania series, and is a direct sequel to Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the NEC PC Engine.

Although not very successful during its release in North America, Symphony of the Night has become highly sought-after by video game players, and is widely considered to be one of the best in the series and a major part of the series' history. Almost all of the game's successors, aside from the Nintendo 64 3D games, have emulated its exploration-based action-role playing style.

Contents 1 Storyline 2 Characters 3 Gameplay 4 Graphics 4.1 Environments 4.2 Enemies 4.3 Alucard 4.4 Weapon effects and spells 5 Level layout 6 Castle areas 6.1 The Castle 6.2 The Inverted Castle 7 Odds and ends 8 Music 9 Packaging artwork 10 See also 11 External links

Storyline

The game's story takes place during the year 1797 and after the events of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Dracula X. The story unfolds as Richter Belmont defeats Count Dracula at the end of the former. However, a curse cast by the Dark Priest Shaft causes Richter to fall under his control and effectively become a demon. Richter claims lordship of Castlevania, which, in this installment, is explained as a malevolent entity under Chaos' sway that periodically (each incarnation) alters itself internally to confuse invaders.

This causes the son of Dracula, Alucard, to awaken from his self-induced sleep, to find Richter Belmont missing, and to begin searching for clues to his disappearance. The trail leads to his father Dracula's castle, Castlevania, which has reappeared after only five years of banishment instead of the traditional century. This is where the game's plot truly starts, with Alucard deciding to brave his father's cursed realm and find Richter and determine what happened to him.

Alucard ventures through and explores the very large and elaborate Castlevania to investigate Belmont's mysterious disappearance. As he begins his quest, the spectre of Death, an ally of Dracula, appears. After some icy banter and an unsuccessful attempt to sway Alucard back to his father's cause, Death takes away Alucard's family heirloom sword and garments. After travelling through part of the castle, Alucard encounters Maria Renard, Richter's sister-in-law, at the center of the its interior, the Clock Room. She states she is also questing for details of Richter's fate. During his quest, Alucard finds various other weapons, shields, armor, capes, rings, and items to aid him.

There are four separate endings to the story (five in Saturn version), depending on Alucard's level of exploration of Castlevania itself. If a certain sequence of events is followed, Richter is revealed to be under the influence of Shaft's will. After the latter is defeated, an inverted version of Castlevania, the Inverted Castle, appears from the heavens. This castle contains another entire series of adventures, crowned by the ultimate face-off between Alucard and his revived father, Dracula himself.

Characters

• Alucard (Real name: Adrian Farenheits Tepes)
• Richter Belmont (Playable only at the beginning, until he is unlocked)
• Maria Renard (Playable only in the Sega Saturn version)
• Dracula
• Death
• Shaft
• The Master Librarian
• Succubus
• The Ferryman
• Lisa

Gameplay

Naturally, in order for the game's character to have been able to express himself, and to be able to explore every crevice of the interconnected castle, Symphony of the Night's creators endowed Alucard with more abilities than any previous hero in the series. The game's controls are thought of many fans as being the smoothest in the franchise, even now (although Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow could possibly take that place). While some could argue that that it's not saying much, seeing as how most of the characters in the series are known for being relatively limited in their control, it's still quite the feat. The gameplay still holds today in most gamers' minds, and has been proclaimed to be one of the most pleasing aspects of the game.

From the very beginning, the player will be able to have Alucard quickly dash backward by using the triangle button, and the player will notice how briskly and swiftly Alucard swings his weapons. He is able to attack in downward-diagonal manner, eliminating the basic gameplay of having a weapon that attacks horizontally only. Later on, the player will be able to extend the powers of each weapon usually through a similar button combination, and can extend the reach of the weapon, or have them produce magical attacks.

As in previous Castlevania titles, Alucard can use a variety of subweapons found in various places of the castle, including knives, axes, and holy water. Also in the same fashion as earlier games, use of these subweapons is limited to the number of hearts that Alucard currently has, and only one subweapon can be equipped at one time.

Throughout his journey, Alucard will learn skills through the obtainment of certain relics, a feature copied in the later installments of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and later titles. Using these relics, Alucard is able to increase the potency of his jumping skills through the Double Jump and Moon Jump, gain the ability to open magically-sealed doors, travel painlessly through water, and even transform into different animals, as well as ethereal mist.

In addition, the player can allow Alucard to cast spells using fixed button combinations, either by purchasing the incantation scrolls at the Master Librarian's room in the Long Library or trying to learn them randomly with the controller. Some of the spells damage the enemies while restoring energy to Alucard, such as Soul Steal or Dark Metamorphosis. Others, such as Hell Fire, are simply offensive spells.

Symphony of the Night also gains some role-playing game characteristics, a first for the series. Alucard can progress in levels, which are numerical representations for how powerful he becomes as he transverses the castle, after gaining a specific amount of experience points. Every time Alucard "levels up", attributes such as attack power, defensive strength, and luck will increase. He can also find special items called "Life Max Ups" to increase his maximum hit points and "Heart Max Ups" to increase the number of hearts he can carry. Alucard is able to restore his health or normal status using various potions and foodstuffs found in the castle as well.

Another RPG element in the game is the option to equip armor, accessories, and weapons for Alucard. Some may merely increase his power, while others make him resistant to certain elemental attacks, or immune to specific status effects. Alucard also has a huge variety of one-time use items at his disposal. While some may do damage to one enemy or a small group, others can be used to attack all enemies covering the screen.

Alucard will be able to enlist the help of Familiars, which include the Faerie, Demon, Ghost, Bat, and Sword. All Familiars have the ability to level up as well, and become increasingly intelligent as their levels increase, making them attack or heal faster. Some may gain new abilities or even new appearances.

Therein, however, lies the topic that is the constant of almost every player's complaints with the game. Whereas the older games in the series were infamous for their difficulty, Symphony of the Night's creators' decisions for the game's balance end up making the game extremely unchallenging. Players have been known to go through the game with using only the weakest sword, and no armor, simply because the experience of the game's challenge level is too unrewarding and uninvolving for them. It's been said to be not so much an unavoidable problem, as it was inexperience on the game's designers' parts. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow displays an extremely similar gameplay design, yet the game is noticeably harder in all aspects for most players. Alucard becomes more powerful than nearly anything else halfway through the game, and so the term most described for the game, by even fans of SotN, is "unbalanced."

Graphics

Despite Symphony of the Night being nearly a decade old, most fans consider it to be the unquestionable highlight of the series' visuals. The game's elegant and incredibly detailed look was "duplicated" in the two Game Boy Advance games made by Igarashi: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. However, the restraints of the system made the games, in most players eyes, still inferior to the visuals of SotN. In addition, the two handheld Igarashi games were noticeably brighter and more colorful in their conception, which was slightly unattractive to some players, seeing as how the series has usually had an emphasis on dreariness and darkness.

That being said, SotN has even been called the most gorgeous and intricately detailed 2D game ever in terms of graphics. There are many areas that support these claims.

Environments

Symphony of the Night draws heavily from the Gothic and Renaissance stylings of architecture and sculptures, arguably two of the most pleasing art styles for each respective area to ever have been conceived. There is a large emphasis on unity with symmetry and elegant flourishings present in places like the Transition Rooms (hallways connecting one area to another), with the identical, angelic figures facing one another on either side of the top of the arch.

In addition to the nearly universally appealing stylings, the artists spared no expense in their details. Slabs of stonework and pillars emulate the texture and intricacies of their ancient, real-life counterparts in ways such as cracks, lines, and discoloring. Statues are extremely varied in their poses and designs. Bits of bricks and stone can be seen that are chipped away, or incongruous with the general layout, and thus make for interesting contrasts that catch the player's eye.

The comprehension of the beauty and complexity of classic architecture is also apparent in places such as the Royal Chapel, with the cut-away views of the protruding, shingled, outside structures.

Castlevania's areas also demonstrate impressive graphical techniques, such as copious multi-scrolling in areas like the Underground Caverns, with the natural pillars, stalactites, and waterfalls that can be viewed beyond the openings in the rocky walls, and scrolling objects, such as the clouds in the Castle Keep and Royal Chapel.

There also is the utilization of 3D techniques in the backgrounds that create the illusion of shifting perspectives. This is most evident in the famous room in the Royal Chapel with the stained glass windows and large cross in the far background. As the player walks or jumps, the windows, the beams of light coming through them, the walkway between them, and the arching ceiling will transform their shapes to match the player's location.

Enemies

Despite a good amount of enemies being taken directly from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the foes still hold up incredibly well by even today's standards, and the new ones exhibit impressive animations of bodily details, such as Malachi and Blade.

Most distinctive, though, is the wide variety of the enemies' personalities, and how they are displayed in the animations.

The enemy Hammer will slam his weapon down, and then slightly stagger back after withdrawing it. The Spectral Sword's weapon-minions will react to where Alucard is, giving qualities to objects we don't usually associate with personality.

Death animations can be spectacular or very unique; Guardians, the most powerful non-boss enemies in the game, will stagger to their knees when defeated and turn a bright gold, proceeding to be consumed by a small pillar of fire, and shrink into minor specks of light. The Fire Demon's body is consumed by darkness, and the player can view flames inside of its negative space as its form slowly fades into nothingness.

The bosses are also renowned for being either very interesting, or downright unimpressive.

Players have been critical of major enemies such as The Creature or Cerberus, but also have expressed admiration for sprawling creatures like the Granfalloon and Beelzebub. Cthulhu, from H.P. Lovecraft's stories, also makes an appearance in the game, although his name is spelled Cthulu and is switched to Malachi.

Alucard

Fans of Symphony of the Night consider Alucard to be one of the most detailed sprites in 2D history. This could be the main reason he is considered to be one of the most famous characters from the series.

The artist for his sprite was aware of how every facet of Alucard's design would react to certain movements, and, as a result, many fans believe the character is one of the most intriguing and personable ever in a video game.

Alucard also displays a surprisingly wide variety of animations (some of which may never even be seen by players, due to their specific nature, in some cases), and a trait that is wholly unique; an "after-image." When Alucard makes a quick, initial movement, a series of blue-ish illusions of his body will trail behind him, lending his character a stylistized aura that only enhances the player's connection and interest with him. The after-image technique was later reused for main characters Juste in Harmony of Dissonance and Soma in Dawn of Sorrow.

Weapon effects and spells

Considering the high amount of items in the game, it would be unsurprising if they were all insipid or average in their visual attraction.

However, Symphony of the Night offers a wide variety of effects in the swords, such as the curved, multi-colored movement effects of the Masamune and trailing effect of the Heaven Sword, along with intricately detailing the shields with interesting shapes and motifs.

Unfortunately, as lamented by some players, there is an irkful number of weapons that are extremely similar in their design, most notably in the "white sword clones."

Alucard also has a large amount of spells at his disposal, some of them concerning usage of the shields and Shield Rod and the explosive items, and they're represented in a way that most fans have praised. The effects are stunningly colored and animated. Spiritual helpers are crisply detailed and sometimes downright weird, and animations such as fire and glowing qualities are convincing.

Level layout

Due to its revolutionary exploration aspect for the series, Symphony of the Night opted for a more free and coherent layout.

Thus, objects such as moving platforms and pits, staples of the stage-based games, were removed, and the castle's areas functioned more similarly to how a Metroid game would.

SotN remains unique, though, even with its general core layout being duplicated in Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, because it features the most interactive areas. Bridges can collapse, gears can be hit to open doors, obstacles are destroyed in a wide variety of ways, and more.

HoD is the most similar to SotN's layout, in that it employs a lot of hallways with little platforming in them, along the rooms that have been described by players as "Zig-Zag Rooms," which are vertical rooms that have the player alternately move left and right, up or down a series of structures, to reach the next destination. Both games' castles overall layouts also function circularly.

However, classic elements, such as spikes, have been left in the game to add more challenge to its layout, along with several traps, such as spikes strapped to motion-detecting, rolling contraptions.

The game also houses a whole myriad of hidden rooms (which are usually accessed by attacking certain parts of a wall or floor or ceiling) that contain more enemies and items, along with some of the game's biggest secrets.

As mentioned, the castle's layout follows the traditional formula, set by Metroid, where the player must gain new powers by exploring unknown regions to bypass certain obstacles. Alucard will utilize shapes such as the Form of Mist to travel through thin spaces, or the Form of the Bat, to gain access to higher areas.

Castle areas

Odds and ends

• Placing the game CD in an audio player will reveal a hidden song on track 2, and Alucard warning the listener not to place the game in a CD player. This is similar to the warning track in Lunar.
• In the Japanese version, the library contains humurous audio clips from the voice cast, replaced by a soundtrack in the US version. Two more familiars are available as in-jokes, though they are the same as the imp and sprite. Some item locations are different from the US version.
• The yellow Medusa heads, Gorgons, and Stone Roses will normally turn Alucard into a stone version of his body. However, on random intervals, Alucard will turn into a huge gargoyle statue. While he normally takes several times the normal amount of damage if hit by an enemy while stoned, he is invincible to enemy attacks in his stone gargoyle form.
• Alucard is able to visit a confessional in the Chapel. If he sits on the left side, a ghostly priest will come out, and either laugh at him and stab him, or toss some grape juice. This is determined by the color of the priest's robes, pale green for stabbing and blue for helpful. If you jump over to the other side, then a woman will come in. The woman in red will try to stab you, whle the one in blue will confess her sins.
• If you have the Rune Sword, you'll notice that a word appears whenever you throw the sword. That word is "verboten" and it means "forbidden" in German.
• On the bottom floor of the Colisseum, the remains of the Behemoth that chased you in Castlevania: Dracula X (both Duo and SNES) is apparent in the background.
• There is a hidden passage at the beginning of the castle. Presumably, this is an unfinished section that would have led to the Underground Gardens (apparent in the Saturn version). There's even a save point. The area can be accessed by starting a game as Richter, entering the castle, and quickly running back as thte gate door closes.
• Both Alucard and Richter can quickly go behind the closing gate door when entering the castle. This allows for limited exploration of the area Alucard runs through in the beginning.
• A glitch; Alucard can explore the roof of the castle and increase the map percentage above 200.6%. Alucard must have a level 99 sword familiar, and use its circular attack in a specific hallway while chaning into a bat and flying upwards. Using other methods, players can double their map percentage to 400.0%, and higher. A lot of fans still use this glitch to look for undiscovered areas of the castle. This can also be done in other CV games that use SotN's map system, such as Aria of Sorrow.
• Players can skip the underground area of the game by flying as a bat through the hallway of spikes, turning to normal, and using a potion to become temporarily invulnerable. By walking through the door at the end of the hallway, the player has bypassed the need for spike armor. The underground area must still be completed to advance in the game.
• There's a one-time use item known as the Power of Sire. This is a magical spell that displays a portrait that kills all the enemies on the screen. The portait is of Vlad Tepes, the real-life man who inspired the legend of Count Dracula.
• With the shield rod in hand, press Back, Forward+Attack. Alucard will throw out a little, swirly ball. If you're an astute Konami fan, you'll notice that it's the same exact thing as the shield in the Gradius games. It can be used to block enemy projectiles as well.
• The boss, Count Olrox, was known in the original Japanese as "Oorokku" (オーロック), ie: Orlock, the vampire from the classic vampire film, Nosferatu.
• In the original Dracula X, Maria's animal helpers were based off the Chinese animal gods Suzaku (the phoenix), Genbu (the turtle), Byakko (the tiger) and Seiryu (the dragon). They return in the Saturn version of SotN, though they are all grown up.
• Pay close attention to the number of times the clock chimes when you equip both rings in the Clock Room. It rings 13 times. This is not only impossible for a clock, but also the unlucky number.
• In the Saturn version of SotN, Maria has a dragon spell. It's very similar to the blue dragon found in the third stage of the arcade version of the Konami game Life Force.
• If you have Alucard sit down in one of the random chairs in the castle, he'll drift off into sleep after a few minutes, displaying multiple "Z"'s above his head.
• Alucard's familar, the Faerie, will rest upon his shoulder if he stands still for long enough. Moving again will cause her to fall off, and cry out in surprise.
• Transforming into the Form of the Bat when the bat familiar is around will produce little hearts above the bat's head, make him follow you around and use Fire Of The Bat when you do. Once the bat familliar reaches high enough levels, more bats will join in and attack similliary when the above is done. Morphing back into Alucard will send the animal into a state of puzzlement, as indicated by a question-mark above its head, and causes any extra bats to leave.
• Equipping the Secret Boots will actually increase the size of Alucard's sprite, just as the description of the item says.
• The Muramasa sword is actually able to be powered up to be the strongest sword in the game given enough time. Killing enemies who gush out blood in their deaths will exponentially increase the sword's statistical power, but it becomes increasingly harder to do so the higher the attack power becomes.
• If Alucard equips two Heaven Swords, and presses both attack buttons, the swords will swoop around in back of him, duplicate, then shoot out horizontally, ending with a final slice in the middle.
• In the fight against the three clones of the Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse cast, if Alucard kills Trevor before Sypha, she'll resurrect him as a zombie, and continue to do so any time you kill it.
• During the prologue sequence with Richter, if the player attacks the lower part of the stonework at the entrance to the hallway before Dracula's throne, a passageway will open up, allowing Richter to quickly gain hearts, and also some weapons from the later part of the actual game (although they cannot be used as Richter).
• Killing the Owl Knight's owl before destroying the knight will cause the knight to cry out in distress, and dash to the wounded owl's side. Upon the owl burning up, the knight will turn around and continuously try to attack Alucard with his sword. Likewise, killing the Owl Knight before killing the owl will cause the owl to enter a rage, swooping at you continuously.
• In the Outer Wall, there is some outside wildlife to be seen. Traversing to the Telescope Room and waiting will cause a bird to fly by, and take refuge from the cold or rain in a small nest. Additionally, if Alucard ventures upwards, and proceeds to the far right, the player can view a mouse scuttling around in an outside structure jutting from the wall.
• Inside Olrox's Quarters, in the largest room with the buildings in the background, there is a huge fountain in the center on the ground. If Alucard waits around for a few moments, the water will turn to blood.
• Nestling into a tight spot as an animal form, and turning back into normal, will cause Alucard to be stuck, though not permanently, and utter a cry of confusion.
• Having Alucard stand on an incline or right before a drop-off will have him shift his normal pose to a more rigid manner. Shortly after, he'll readjust his stance and draw his arms nearer.
• If Alucard waits around long enough for Cthulhu, the monster will rear back, and release a powerful, ice-based blast across the floor.
• For some indescribable reason, the English version of SotN makes constant references to J.R.R. Tolkien's world in its items and equipment. Some make absolutely no sense within the context of the items' descriptions (such as the Ring of Varda containing a description which would more aptly fit the One Ring), while others perhaps are a more abstract reference to Tolkien's creations. Examples include: The Crissaegrim sword, the Gurthang sword, the Mormegil sword, the Sword of Hador, the Fist of Tulkas, the Nauglamir necklace, and the Ring of Varda and Feanor. Despite the blatant use of Tolkien's copyrighted creations, no legal disputes have ever arisen with representatives of his work, such as his son, and Konami.
• There is a secret elevator in a room in the Outer Wall. Break the wall to the left of this room and stand in the hole for a while, and the secret elevator will take you down to the room below which has a grill door and supposedly can only be entered later in the game when Alucard has the ability to turn into mist.
• Sometimes when you are turned to stone by an enemy such as "Medusa's Head" you will turn into a large bird-like statue, possibly a Griffin. This is an extremely rare occurence and may happen only a couple of times during many, many hours of gameplay. .

Music

Symphony of the Night was scored by Michiru Yamane, composer of Castlevania: Bloodlines. The game remains in the very top tier in most player's minds where the series' music is concerned, and has been proclaimed by many as the greatest video game soundtrack ever. Despite the overhwhelming admiration for the soundtrack of Symphony of the Night, there have been some players that have criticized the game for taking on too much of an orchestral tone, and others have claimed it to be unattractively bombastic. For more information, see Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight OST.

In addition, the game disc itself contains a single track which is introduced by the English voice actor of Alucard, Robert Belgrade.

Packaging artwork

Japanese box art (PlayStation version)

North American box art

European box art

Japanese box art (Saturn version)

See also

• Devil May Cry and Castlevania comparison

External links

• The CastleVania Dungeon's SotN section
• MrP's CastleVania Realm's SotN section

Akumajō Dracula/Castlevania Series
Castlevania timeline | Castlevania characters
Video game console titles
Vampire Killer | Castlevania | Castlevania II | Castlevania III | Super Castlevania IV | Rondo of Blood | Bloodlines | Dracula X | Symphony of the Night | Castlevania 64 | Legacy of Darkness | Castlevania Chronicles | Lament of Innocence | Curse of Darkness
Handheld game console titles
The Castlevania Adventure | Belmont's Revenge | Castlevania Legends Circle of the Moon | Harmony of Dissonance | Aria of Sorrow | Dawn of Sorrow | Dracula Castlevania
Miscellaneous titles
Haunted Castle | Kid Dracula | Castlevania: Resurrection

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