Topic: Making Symphony of the Night harder?

[zangetsu468]

And in DXC they're all useless at keeping her alive and her enemies dead.

Maria's mode on the PSP is mostly "sprint from boss to boss and hope you don't get nicked on the way there". She was a complete game breaker in the original Saturn port where she appeared, as I understand things (able to FLYING NINJA KICK everything to death), and they nerfed her too heavily in the PSP port in their noble-but-flawed attempt to make the game better balanced.

She was broken but fun in the SS version. I prefer the feel of her character compared to Richter as the additional playable character.

The PSP trying to be a "complete" version should've included both Marias and the additional areas from the SS version.

Were they actually trying to balance the game? I'm not so certain, she seems too underpowered. I'd say her mode IS hard mode on PSP SOTN.

[VladCT]

Honestly, I would've preferred if we got a Maria that's somewhere in between her SS and PSP versions (*cough*likeinSerio'sgame*cough* :V).

[X]

Frankly Maria could have been powerful in DXC. All they had to do was put her attack power just below that of Richter and it would've been fine. While she doesn't use the Vampirekiller she is a Belmont in blood, so there was no excuse to not have her abilities being reasonably strong in this case. She was quite strong in Rondo. Why didn't they simply go with that but reduce it just a tad for SotN?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

By that logic, you have to wonder how she went from being the game Easy Mode to being the Masochist mode.

[Belmontoya]

I imported my Nocturne in The Moonlight back way back in the day just to play as Maria.

It was worth it!

[zangetsu468]

@X she was nerfed for the same reason Julius was nerfed in DoS, and he's the last main heir to the Belmont Legacy. It's a gameplay mechanic, nothing more.
SS Maria (playable) was stronger and more nimble than both Alucard and Richter, why?
Realistically Richter could easily kill them both. It's about gameplay and difficulty not whose blood is from where.

[son_the_vampire]

Richter is easy mode; with practice of course.

Try playing holding the controller upside down if it's a challenge you seek.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Richter is easy mode; with practice of course.

Try playing holding the controller upside down if it's a challenge you seek.

Pretty sure Alucard is the easy mode here.

Evidenced by the fact that I die as Alucard maybe 3-4 times on a given playthrough and like... 99+ times on a given Richter playthrough.

On a Maria play, I die like 90k+ times. In the opening hallway. WHY DO ALL HER ATTACKS DO THE SCRATCH DAMAGE EQUIVALENT OF SCRATCH DAMAGE

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I don't remember the last time I died in SotN as Alucard.
Unless that one time I was trying to do the 'keep your items' glitch attack on a second playthrough and took too much damage.  Pretty sure that doesn't count, though.

[DoctaMario]

I imported my Nocturne in The Moonlight back way back in the day just to play as Maria.

It was worth it!

I actually just found my copy of NitM back at my parents' house and downloaded a Saturn emulator to be able to play it. Man she is way overpowered and It. Is. AWESOME.

[piscesdreams]

I've never played NitM. Maybe when I feel like going through SOTN again I'll go this route instead.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I've always been much kinder to NitM than most, I think, and I believe it was well on the way to accomplishing something great. Most of the extra features are welcome additions for me, and it's merely the rushed execution I take issue with. For instance, while I think the new Richter sprite looks pretty bad, I applaud that they had the sense to question why Richter is still wearing the same clothes, especially as he's shown in the arena to be wearing his new dud prior to that fight, also implying that the Alucard Spear (which I think just began as a mistranslation of "Lecarde Spear" as the names are phonetically similar in English -- maybe Nagumo can weigh in) got its name by being, at one point, a spear wielded by Alucard.

I think the PSP "Director's Cut" of Symphony in DXC should have finished what Notcurne began, polishing up the Saturn version's additions and elaborating where necessary.

But alas!

[zangetsu468]

I've always been much kinder to NitM than most, I think, and I believe it was well on the way to accomplishing something great. Most of the extra features are welcome additions for me, and it's merely the rushed execution I take issue with.

I completely agree. For me personally the screen slowdown wasn't an issue as plenty of older games suffered from this (not that it's an excuse but it's a me thing) but it was moreso the transparency and 3d visual effects which the larger Sword Spectres that didn't look right, as well as that room in the Holy chapel with the stained glass cruciform window that looked bad in the SS version.

However, the pro's heavily outweigh the cons imo. Most notably another character to play as (biased as she is my favourite) but also additional and variant tracks, and the music sounding better on the SS than PSX imo.

Also not sure if it was just me, but some spots - although few and far between - in the game seem to have higher frame rate than the PSX.
One example is the very first part of the game with Alucard (prior to Death/ 'item loss skip'-room) where there are wolves, it just seemed to me upon playing that their frame rate was higher or smoother or something. I will say that other areas in the game specifically in the catacombs and under water/ anywhere with multiple enemies or attacks.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

also additional and variant tracks, and the music sounding better on the SS than PSX imo.

Chaconne in C-moll for organ outdoes everything else in the series that tries to be gothic (okay, BAROQUE; WHATEVER), and has a blast doing it.

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

While in theory I would say that SOTN could be harder, at a second glance, I would say that the game pretty much already gives the player a very customized difficulty level.

Inhibition is the key, really, all one needs to do is equip weaker gear, and you're set. Ever try beating the game with just the short sword? It is possible. Again, setting limits on one's desires to equip only the best gear is really the key to making for a more satisfying challenge.