castlevania

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

A Night to Remember

Experimentation can be tricky when it comes to long-running video game franchises, although some series like Final Fantasy have relied upon them for many console generations. Such was the initial case with Konami’s Castlevania series, with its first sequel, Simon’s Quest, throwing roleplaying game elements into the mix, which the developer would heavily extend with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, initially released on the Sony PlayStation and receiving countless ports for over two decades, among the latest of which is that included in the Requiem collection, itself based on the version unlockable in the PlayStation Portable’s The Dracula X Chronicles.

Symphony opens where its chronological narrative predecessor Rondo of Blood ended, with vampire hunter Richter Belmont vanquishing Count Dracula. Four years later in 1796, Richter has disappeared, and Dracula’s castle rematerializes, with protagonist Alucard arriving in want of sending it again to the depths of the netherworld, along the way teaming with Maria Renard, who had aided Richter in his past crusade against the forces of darkness. The plot is simplistic and spread out thinly, with plot holes involving how Maria finds her way through the castle to chambers Alucard needs to use special moves to access, although there are good twists, and the narrative is at best serviceable.

The translation is based on that for the PlayStation Portable version included as an unlockable within The Dracula X Chronicles, and while it is legible and has some decent lines, many of the iconic ones in the original script are missing. There are also plenty of missing periods at the ends of sentences, misspellings galore, and misleading item and spell descriptions that make it a sub-par effort.

Luckily, the gameplay largely compensates for whatever narrative and translational foibles Symphony has, with most critics and audiences rightfully hailing it as the godfather of the Metroidvania subgenre, even if it builds upon the formula that the first Castlevania direct sequel Simon’s Quest executed. Alucard can move around and jump (with the arc and intensity of his leaps mercifully being far more flexible than in Rondo of Blood), attack with an equipped weapon, and, if his armament is one-handed, block projectiles with his shield, players also able to outfit him with other equipment like armor and two accessories.

Frankenstein was his creator, not the monster himself.

Killing enemies nets Alucard experience for occasional level-ups, points earned from enemies proportional and based on his current level. He also gets several moves with which to explore Dracula’s castle and may occasionally need to purchase items from the Librarian such as a key that opens glowing, blue-outlined doors, alongside other amenities such as healing potions, equipment upgrades, magic spells, and tactics for defeating certain bosses. One item for which players might find use is the Library Card, which instantly conveys Alucard to the entrance of the Librarian’s chamber and can be helpful in case the player finds himself or herself in an undesirable situation, namely if close to death since the game dumps players unceremoniously back to the title screen if they die, with progress lost.

As with the protagonists of prior Castlevanias, Alucard can obtain sub-weapons from broken candles, which can allow him to perform Item Crash abilities that entail throwing axes into the air, throwing a knife directly forward, having a Bible swirl around him, and the like, which consume hearts also obtained from shattered illumination sources. While many sub-weapons can be useful, keeping specific ones can be troublesome at times, since Alucard can’t freely swap between them as desired, and I found myself often and accidentally losing sub-weapons I preferred, since players can’t freely swap between them, although luckily, the locations of certain ones remain fixed throughout the castle.

Exemplifying the Metroid side of the Metroidvania formula, Alucard can find fixed upgrades to his maximum hearts and life throughout the castle, with the latter usually obtained after boss battles. The mechanics largely work decently, although one major scrappy mechanic that even the game’s staunch defenders acknowledge is the method through which to use consumable items, which entails the player to go into the menus, equipping one, and using it outside the menus. There are various other annoyances such as the knockback when contacting foes and/or their projectiles if applicable, which can lead into accidents such as Alucard being knocked into the last chamber, but aside from dated mechanics such as these, the gameplay helps Symphony well.

As mentioned, exploring Dracula’s castle can be enjoyable, so long as players remain meticulous in their exploration, although newcomers may find themselves lost at times. Furthermore, the spacing of save points can be inconsistent and annoying at times, although going into the menus pauses the action, and a suspend save is available if the player needs to quit to when real life calls. The need to go into the menus for item use and the lack of an option to sort items in the player’s inventory automatically are other issues, but otherwise, Symphony interacts decently with players.

Sir Alucard and the Green Knight

The soundtrack is another high point of the game, with a variety of pieces from various genres such as neoclassical that fit the environments well, although those played in the second accessible game map can be somewhat repetitive. The Requiem port also uses the rerecorded voice acting from the Dracula X Chronicles unlockable, which is good for the most part, among the most improved voices being those for a few of Alucard’s familiars. The quality of the sound effects, though, is somewhat poor, many sounds at times dated, but Symphony is easy on the ears.

The two-dimensional visuals remain largely unchanged from the original PlayStation version, aside from the option of smooth texturing that makes them better, which isn’t a bad thing as they still look nice even today, with the character sprites having great anatomy despite not showing much emotion during cutscenes, pretty environments, great animation, and even some 3-D effects involving many monsters and occasionally the scenery. There are a few incongruities such as the graininess of the CG FMVs, most enemies having weird death effects such as catching fire upon their demise, and Richter’s character sprite not reflecting Ayami Kojima’s design, but otherwise, the graphics help the port far more than hurt.

Finally, the game will run players somewhere from six to twelve hours, with things such as unlocking every PlayStation Trophy, completing the automaps, filling out the enemy compendium, varied endings, and even different characters to play enhancing lasting appeal, although there can be slight frustration at times in an initial playthrough, and no New Game+ or adjustable difficulty.

Overall, while Symphony of the Night rightfully deserves its status as the godfather of the Metroidvania subgenre of roleplaying games, given its good fusion of gameplay elements from the Metroid and Castlevania franchises, along with RPG aspects such as leveling, that doesn’t automatically render it one of the greatest titles of all time as many have hailed it. For one, there exist many dated elements within and without the gameplay that haven’t aged very well, such as a few scrappy mechanics, a weak translation, and subpar audio quality. Regardless, it’s more enjoyable than classic Castlevanias of yore like Rondo of Blood, and a nice look into video game history.

This review is based on a playthrough of the version included with Castlevania: Requiem to the main ending of the secondary map.

Score Breakdown
The GoodThe Bad
Good combat and exploration mechanics.
Beautiful soundtrack.
Nice art direction.
Plenty lasting appeal.		Some scrappy gameplay aspects.
Poor plot and translation.
Weak sound quality.
A few dated visual aspects.
The Bottom Line
A decent start to the Metroidvania subgenre.
PlatformPlayStation 4
Game Mechanics7.5/10
Control8.0/10
Story6.0/10
Localization4.0/10
Aurals8.0/10
Visuals7.0/10
Lasting Appeal8.5/10
DifficultyModerate
Playtime6-12+ Hours
Overall: 7/10

Deep Look – Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

糞のロンド

Konami’s Castlevania series has a storied history dating back to the 8-bit era of video gaming, with its inaugural entry on the Nintendo Entertainment System establishing it as a side-scrolling action series focusing on the Belmont family of demon hunters focused on preventing Bram Stoker’s iconic vampire Count Dracula from wreaking havoc upon the world. The first entry proved successful to the point where they turned it into a franchise, with occasional variations of the formula along the way, especially early on with the first sequel Simon’s Quest, which bore elements that would influence the Metroidvania iterations of the series such as Symphony of the Night. Serving as a narrative predecessor to that entry was the traditional action title Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, not seeing an official English release until well over a decade later. Has it stood the test of time?

In 1792, the forces of darkness have resurrected Count Dracula yet again, with Richter, the current heir of the Belmont Clan, seeking to rescue his love Annette from the vampire’s clutches, along with a few others along the way such as the preteen Maria Renard, who can potentially become playable like the vampire slayer. The introductory cutscene, narrated in German, is cool, but developing scenes throughout the game are scarce, and the plot follows the typical “damsel in distress” cliché and the franchise’s “kill Dracula” goal, and essentially, once you’ve experienced one series entry’s plot, you’ve pretty much seen them all.

Given that the game’s scarce narrative reflects the fact that it originally released in 1993, the game itself plays as such, especially one originating in Japan. Richter’s whip has good attack range, although he can only lash it leftward or rightward, a step down from Super Castlevania where players could execute attacks in all eight cardinal directions. Consequentially, combat can be frustrating, especially in the case of small or flying enemies (or adversaries falling into both categories), their unpredictable offensive patterns not helping matters. Whenever Richter so much as contacts an enemy or a projectile, he receives damage, and can only take so much before he dies and the player needs to restart from a stage’s checkpoint, the degree of repetition in that case varying wildly.

In Rondo of Blood, players can expect to die a lot, with cheapness aplenty in the form of bottomless pits that lead to instant death, compounded by significant knockback whenever Richter takes damage, not to mention a mostly uncontrollable jumping and falling arc whenever the player has him leap into the air while moving. Upon death, the player loses one of four lives, after which the game brings Richter back to the beginning of the stage or last checkpoint (which go unindicated), amounting in significant repetition. Lose all lives, and players have the distinct honor of having to restart the stage they died in entirely.

Luckily, players can record their progress upon dying up to the stage they died in, and while there is also a quick-save feature, quitting and reloading it takes them back to the beginning of whatever checkpoint they crossed. Another system is the Item Crash, where Richter can find a variety of sub-tools throughout the stages such as throwing daggers, hurling an axe into the air, throwing a flaming potion onto the ground, and so forth, which consume a few hearts he can collect throughout each level, and carry one at a time. Dying loses him all hearts and the sub-tool he had upon death, further augmenting the myriad frustrations throughout the game. An additional move I discovered unintentionally is Richter’s ability to backflip with two presses of the jump button, though this barely helped me in my partial playthrough.

For the record, that’s how you’ll likely feel if you choose to play the game.

In general, the game mechanics are incredibly unfriendly towards novice players, with no way whatsoever to soften the difficulty except for cheating (which is pretty much impossible) and using an online guide would hardly dent Rondo. The enemy AI also involves heavy randomization in some cases (like a floating sword enemy surrounded by endless weapons, which can be easy or hard to kill depending upon whether it floats upward or downward), and even if you know how to defeat certain foes, putting any kind of strategy into play can still be incredibly difficult. In the end, this Classicvania still plays like a Japanese action game originally released back in 1993, given the endless degree of classic gameplay kusottare.

Apart from the mentioned quick-save feature (which is half-hearted) and ability to pause, control is really nothing to write home about, given things such as the inability to backtrack in levels (since there are occasional hidden things such as recovery items), alongside unskippable sequences before boss battles and the degree of repetition in the case of dying and/or getting a Game Over.

The soundtrack, though, is passable, given the rocky tracks in each stage and superb instrumentation, although there are indicators of primitive sound in cases such as the death and Game Over jingles (which you can expect to hear dozens of times), and sound can’t compensate for an overall lackluster gameplay experience.

The visuals also look good on the surface, with the rare anime cutscene, with well-proportioned character sprites and their respective animation, a choice of wallpaper around the game screen (since Rondowasn’t originally made widescreen), although there are many palette swaps among the enemies, and the need to pay attention to dozens of things at once during gameplay doesn’t really aid the visual aspect, either.

Completing the game, if humanely possible, would probably take somewhere around twelve hours or so at the least, with much of the time consisting of endless repeats of the various stages, and while the potential alternate paths in each level, which can lead to acquiring a secondary playable character, would theoretically add lasting appeal, there would be little to no joy in investing any more precious time into such a masochistic experience.

Overall, Rondo of Blood is a disappointing experience, especially due to its unaccommodating difficulty, the maddening degree of repetition, the paper-thin narrative, and the artificial longevity that occurs due to said level of challenge. The game does have decent sound and sight, although those can’t atone for the countless gameplay foibles, and it very much plays like a Japanese action game originally released in 1993. This Classicvania is a relic of video games past, and those interested in the franchise would be far better off investing their precious gaming time into the contemporary Metroidvania entries, including its vastly superior direct narrative sequel Symphony of the Night.

This deep look is based on a playthrough of a copy digitally downloaded by the reviewer to his PlayStation 4 up to the fifth main stage of the game

Recommended?
NO