Castlevania symphony of the night

[D.D.D.]

SotN changed the direction of the entire series for good reason. Take Super Metroid, add Castlevania aesthetics, add RPG elements, and you get a masterpiece.

As others said you'd probably love the handheld iterations that follow SotN's template. For me though they didn't get back to SotN's level until Aria of Sorrow which is actually my personal favorite Castlevania game.

I hear lots of people say they love Circle of the Moon these days but it never clicked for me. Even when it was brand new I thought it was disappointing.

Aria is great. Circle even at launch was dirty and disappointing (that and you couldn't see it on the orig GBA).

What exactly was "dirty" about it? I'm not sure what you mean.

I personally loved the game. It's my favorite out of the GBA titles. I feel it was the closest to SoTN in gameplay style. I never had the original GBA no backlight problem, I played it on GBA-SP. But that's a pretty silly thing to complain about the game for, it's not the game's fault, it's the GBA's fault.

Dirty in the way that graphically it was so weak compared to SOTN and then when Aria came out, it was so much closer to SOTN visually that it really felt like they didn't even try with Circle. Visually Circle reminded me of the GB game.

And yes, on the SP there's no problem but for those of us who got it at launch with an original GBA, it was unplayable (except while in the bathroom where I had vanity lighting behind me). You can blame the GBA design but, it was the only game that you needed perfect lighting to see it. No other GBA launch game had that problem.

[MrPopo]

Dracula X is actually the SNES game kinda-sorta based on the Rondo of Blood assets isn't it? It's a fair bit different, not really the same game.

I completely forgot that game existed. I thought he was talking about the PSP game. With Rondo of Blood readily available these days though I don't see much point in playing Dracula X SNES for any reason other than curiosity.

I was asking the SNES game, actually. I hear that it doesn't hold a candle to Rondo, but usually that's what you hear about it: it wasn't Rondo. I was just wondering if it was fun to play, independent of the disappointment that it wasn't Rondo.

It's not just "It wasn't Rondo", since that's the complaint about Secret of Evermore: it wasn't Seiken Densetsu III. The problem with Dracula X SNES is that they took Rondo and stripped out some of the story and levels and gameplay so it would fit on the SNES cart instead of the Turbo CD it originally was on. So it's Rondo 0.5.

[threetoed]

It's not just "It wasn't Rondo", since that's the complaint about Secret of Evermore: it wasn't Seiken Densetsu III. The problem with Dracula X SNES is that they took Rondo and stripped out some of the story and levels and gameplay so it would fit on the SNES cart instead of the Turbo CD it originally was on. So it's Rondo 0.5.

Was that a technological limitation to the SNES or was it one of those inexplicable videogame company decisions?

Also, most of what you said "stripped out some of the story and levels and gameplay" was what I meant by it wasn't Rondo. I've never played Rondo, so I probably wouldn't notice what's taken out. Is what's left still fun or did the gameplay stuff they took out really affect the game? They took out the second character, right?

[MrPopo]

Technical limitations in ROM size was the biggest factor. They did take out Maria as a playable character.

[Haoie]

This was certainly an influential game! Metroidvania at its best.

[Zing]

This game is far too easy. I bought it, blazed through it without really trying. Got bored and sold it a few weeks later. It's just so insanely easy.

The music and graphics are great.