Symphony of the Night, still a classic

[Gamerforlife]

I finally got around to downloading Castlevania:SOTN for my 360. I own the original PS 1 release, but the convenience of playing the game on my 360 plus the lure of achievement points made me download it anyway. My god, once I start playing it's like the game wouldn't release its hold on me. It's still as fun and addicting now as it was years ago. It's great playing this classic again, and it's very rewarding to get achievement points for it. I'm actually finding that achievement points can be a great motivator for replaying older, classic titles like this one.

My only gripe is that the 360 controller is not ideal, but it's not that bad either. After playing for about fifteen minutes or so I settled on using the analogue instead of the d-pad and I've been doing fine with it. This game has amazing bosses, it throws bosses at you early on that you'd expect to see later in any other game. In fact, the second boss(third if you count the game's opening battle)is essentially the last boss in Zelda 2.

Great game.

[ott0bot]

I couldn't agree more. It's my favorite Castlevania and one of the greatest of all time. Finding all the hidden areas and getting all the sweet "hidden" weapons by killing off enemies is a plus too. I love the levels and the boss battles, escpecially the huge corpse with linbs falling off and flys attacking you. great music too. good times.

[Flak Beard]

Same here, bought the 360 version despite having a PS1 copy. You might want to try picking up a Mad Catz 360 pad, as it has a better d-pad on it.

I'm even tempting to get the JPN version off of the Japanese marketplace. I'm not sure what the differences are though. It shows up as a separate game on your profile unlike most other XBLA titles.

[Doctor Fugue]

Is there anybody here who never played SOTN until recently? I never played Castlevania games until the GBA versions (except a bit of the Genesis game). I beat all those, then I finished all the DS games. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan, I must add, but occasionally I have the urge. Then finally last year I downloaded SOTN and wasn't impressed (I've played it through twice).

Not having any nostalgia for the game, it just seemed like a step back from the DS games. I was rather bored the whole time; I won't go into all the list of things I think Portrait of Ruin does better. Other than being on a big screen, the design didn't strike me very well.

I agree that it is an important game in the series and set many standards, but that alone doesn't mean I should like it. (DonPachi set standards but aged somewhat poorly compared to its sequels.)

I know I'm considered an idiot by 100 percent of the population for thinking poorly about SOTN, so can someone tell me what I'm missing?

[Ack]

I didn't play them much until SOTN, honestly. Then when the GBA launched, I grabbed CotM immediately. And after that...Lament of Innocence, and I really haven't spent much time beyond that with Castlevania lately. Every now and again I'll go back to one of the NES titles, but nothing more recent then 4.

[Bootaaay]

I have mixed feeling about SotN - firstly, I love it because it's the best Metroidvania style Castlevania game in my opinion, the GBA & DS games are good but have never matched up to the experience of playing SotN for the first time - secondly, I hate Syphony of the Night because it spelled the death of the original Castlevania format that I love. If someone had said to me back in 1996 "hey, here's an awesome new Castlevania game, it's not linear and is more like an RPG...but, it means you'll never get another traditional Castlevania game again" I would've told them to stuff it and gone back to re-playing Super Castlevania IV and praying for a Rondo of Blood PSX port. Ever since Symphony of the Night the series has taken a direction I really don't aprove of, firstly the terrible N64 3d CV games were a waste of time and secondly the fact that the series has abandonned consoles and become handheld only.

In an ideal world Konami would make the Metroidvania games for DS that everyone loves, and make Castlevania V as a 2d HD downloadble game in the classic Castlevania style to appease the long-term fans longing for a traditional Castlevania.

[ott0bot]

Is there anybody here who never played SOTN until recently? I never played Castlevania games until the GBA versions (except a bit of the Genesis game). I beat all those, then I finished all the DS games. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan, I must add, but occasionally I have the urge. Then finally last year I downloaded SOTN and wasn't impressed (I've played it through twice).

Not having any nostalgia for the game, it just seemed like a step back from the DS games. I was rather bored the whole time; I won't go into all the list of things I think Portrait of Ruin does better. Other than being on a big screen, the design didn't strike me very well.

I agree that it is an important game in the series and set many standards, but that alone doesn't mean I should like it. (DonPachi set standards but aged somewhat poorly compared to its sequels.)

I know I'm considered an idiot by 100 percent of the population for thinking poorly about SOTN, so can someone tell me what I'm missing?

Are you a fan of Super Metroid? Because thats waht makes SOTN sooooo good. It's everything SMet was but better. It's got a more advanced item collection/equipment method and very creative and wonderfully animated bosses and enemies. You can learn spells, get familiars and collect tons of items. Plus if you get the glasses and beat the little orb the castle flip upside down and you do it all over again with increased difficulty. To top it off its friggin Castlevania and the music is amazing. I think it's a perfect balance of old and new school.
thats just me.

[AwesomeMonstar]

I have mixed feeling about SotN - firstly, I love it because it's the best Metroidvania style Castlevania game in my opinion, the GBA & DS games are good but have never matched up to the experience of playing SotN for the first time - secondly, I hate Syphony of the Night because it spelled the death of the original Castlevania format that I love. If someone had said to me back in 1996 "hey, here's an awesome new Castlevania game, it's not linear and is more like an RPG...but, it means you'll never get another traditional Castlevania game again" I would've told them to stuff it and gone back to re-playing Super Castlevania IV and praying for a Rondo of Blood PSX port. Ever since Symphony of the Night the series has taken a direction I really don't aprove of, firstly the terrible N64 3d CV games were a waste of time and secondly the fact that the series has abandonned consoles and become handheld only.

In an ideal world Konami would make the Metroidvania games for DS that everyone loves, and make Castlevania V as a 2d HD downloadble game in the classic Castlevania style to appease the long-term fans longing for a traditional Castlevania.

You know they remade rondo of blood for psp, which is essentially the best of the classic castlevania? Also the creator has stated if it does well he might delve a tad into the old castlevania stile.

[Gamerforlife]

I have mixed feeling about SotN - firstly, I love it because it's the best Metroidvania style Castlevania game in my opinion, the GBA & DS games are good but have never matched up to the experience of playing SotN for the first time - secondly, I hate Syphony of the Night because it spelled the death of the original Castlevania format that I love. If someone had said to me back in 1996 "hey, here's an awesome new Castlevania game, it's not linear and is more like an RPG...but, it means you'll never get another traditional Castlevania game again" I would've told them to stuff it and gone back to re-playing Super Castlevania IV and praying for a Rondo of Blood PSX port. Ever since Symphony of the Night the series has taken a direction I really don't aprove of, firstly the terrible N64 3d CV games were a waste of time and secondly the fact that the series has abandonned consoles and become handheld only.

In an ideal world Konami would make the Metroidvania games for DS that everyone loves, and make Castlevania V as a 2d HD downloadble game in the classic Castlevania style to appease the long-term fans longing for a traditional Castlevania.

You know they remade rondo of blood for psp, which is essentially the best of the classic castlevania? Also the creator has stated if it does well he might delve a tad into the old castlevania stile.

Hate to be a downer, but recently Igarashi(is that his name?)implied that there doesn't seem to be much interest in old school style Castlevania, which is why the next one is going to be a fighter

Yes, you heard me. Castlevania is now a fighting game. Makes me appreciate Symphony of the Night even more.

I think this guy really wants to stick to doing Castlevania as a 2-d old school style game, but it seems like the big dogs at Konami have no faith in Castlevania as a franchise and think that turning it into a gimmicky fighter for the Wii will get people's interest...which may be an indicator that this "casual gaming" rennaissance is getting a bit out of hand.

Anyway, here's the article:

http://kotaku.com/5020097/wii-castlevan ... hting-game

Honestly, do we really need this? We've already got Soul Calibur which is the same game that keeps getting released over and over again with a different number after the title each time...and is getting ridiculously gimmicky with characters like Spawn, Yoda and Link in it.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Is there anybody here who never played SOTN until recently? I never played Castlevania games until the GBA versions (except a bit of the Genesis game). I beat all those, then I finished all the DS games. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan, I must add, but occasionally I have the urge. Then finally last year I downloaded SOTN and wasn't impressed (I've played it through twice).

Not having any nostalgia for the game, it just seemed like a step back from the DS games. I was rather bored the whole time; I won't go into all the list of things I think Portrait of Ruin does better. Other than being on a big screen, the design didn't strike me very well.

I agree that it is an important game in the series and set many standards, but that alone doesn't mean I should like it. (DonPachi set standards but aged somewhat poorly compared to its sequels.)

I know I'm considered an idiot by 100 percent of the population for thinking poorly about SOTN, so can someone tell me what I'm missing?

yup i downloaded the PSN version a couple nights ago