Topic: Finally played Sotn, personal conclusions...

[Malus]

I remember when I was younger I had a sega genesis and I always wished I had a super nintendo because I was convinced mortal kombat 2 was better on super. When I finally got a super nintendo in my late teens, late 90's, I realized that it was better on the genesis all along.

I'll get to symphony of the night, just wait a second. Mortal kombat 2 ran faster on the genesis even though the graphics are more washed out. It also has a darker soundtrack on genesis.

When I got my next system after the super nintendo I got a N64. So instead of playing Symphony of the Night, I played the 64 vania's.

I thought the same thing then, Symphony of the night must be amazing since everyone talked about it, and nothing or negative things were said about the 64 vania's.

After finally getting Sotn, and playing through it twice I feel as if I always had the best castlevania game, and I never even knew it. NOT Sotn, but the 64 vania's, the games that I played as a teenager. The games that I put 300 plus hours on, and couldn't get enough of.

Sure Sotn is great.... Not really. Wonderful music in the first castle, terrible music in the second. Beautifully drawn castle, but bland character drawings. Lackluster and monotonous game balance. Very functional yet unattractive menus. Completely terrible story. Reinhardt's story and Carrie's story is so much better.

I spent 25 hours on Sotn, and if I never play the game again I'm fine with it, though I would like to listen to the soundtrack from time to time, it does have some lovely music.

After 300 plus hours on the 64 games, I am still looking forward to playing them after only 10 months I feel compelled to buy a Nintendo 64 and a copy of CV 64.

I believe their was a perfect storm of negative elements that could explain why the 64 vania's got the shaft. They have wonderful gothic design in both level colors and character designs. A very interesting and unique story. And more important, I always got the impression that the development team really put their soul into the game, regardless of their lack of pushing the processing power of the system.

[Profbeanburrito]

I'm completely fine with people having their own opinions, but I'm surprised to see someone who doesn't seem to like it at all. I will agree that I think the inverted castle is somewhat of a waste, there could have been a much better second half, but I still enjoy it.
As for the 64 games, I love the level designs, the atmosphere and the characters too. Although I'm not too big on Legecy of Darkness and its characters.

So how do you think SotN compares to the more modern Metroidvania's?

[Aridale]

In Reply To #1

Your problem here is the exact same as everyone that played SoTN when it was new. Cept your the exact opposite. You played the N64 CVs when you were younger and they were newer while most everyone either played only SoTN or both and at the time SoTN really WAS leaps and bounds ahead of the N64 ones.

You have the nostalgia factor workin for you with the N64 ones but you never felt any of that for SoTN cause it was new to you when you played it... what? 12 years late?

Its the same reason almost no one can go back now and play the N64 ones if they never played em then.

SoTN is still the better game tho regardless of how or who or why nostalgia clouds ppls perspectives

[Profbeanburrito]

Its the same reason almost no one can go back now and play the N64 ones if they never played em then.

Surprisingly I hated 64 when it came out, then played it a few years ago and I love it.

[PFG9000]

In Reply To #4

Yeah, I have to respectfully disagree with Aridale on that point.  I've always hated the N64, because I'm an Atari fanboy, and the N64 tried to steal the Jaguar's thunder.  Stupid reasoning, I know, but it is what it is.

I played CV64 briefly around 1999 or 2000, and I hated it.  But a few years later, around 2005, I played through both CV64 and LoD, and I loved both of them.  I have a few minor gripes, and I have a tough time going back to them due to framerate/blurry graphics issues, but I have a good deal of respect for them.

That being said, I think SotN is by far the superior game.  Overhyped as it is, it's the pinnacle of the series for me, even better than CV3, SCV4, and AoS.

[A n t r a x x]

In Reply To #1

Judging by your name alone I'm not surprised by your verdict, but if you think Malus is a better character than Alucard, Richter or Maria...

I have to question your sanity

[Giz]

NOSTAAAALLLLGGGGIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAA~

[Malus]

In Reply To #6


Judging by your name alone I'm not surprised by your verdict, but if you think Malus is a better character than Alucard, Richter or Maria...

I have to question your sanity 

Malus IS a better character than alcuard, ricter and maria. Those characters, I'm sorry are dead. They have terrible voice work that I did not find funny at all. And the written dialogue for those characters is uninteresting and very flat.

On the other hand, Malus is completely original. Malice, Malus? Great idea, making evil incarnate in a child. Great idea, and very well executed in voice work, and dialogue.

[Malus]

In Reply To #3

Your problem here is the exact same as everyone that played SoTN when it was new. Cept your the exact opposite. You played the N64 CVs when you were younger and they were newer while most everyone either played only SoTN or both and at the time SoTN really WAS leaps and bounds ahead of the N64 ones.

You have the nostalgia factor workin for you with the N64 ones but you never felt any of that for SoTN cause it was new to you when you played it... what? 12 years late?

Its the same reason almost no one can go back now and play the N64 ones if they never played em then.

SoTN is still the better game tho regardless of how or who or why nostalgia clouds ppls perspectives

[Profbeanburrito]

In Reply To #9

Well I would say that if you take everyone who has played both SotN and the 64 titles, about 95% would say SotN is the better game, which is still just opinion, but SotN being the better game is more of a "fact" than 64 being one

[Mr Sven]

What did I tell you?
I don't really need to say it but, I told you so!

http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/forums/index.php?topic=2116.0

Dont over hype the game before you have a chance to play it.

Yes it looks beautiful ( Except the horrid looking polygons of some enemies/areas )and yes there's a crap load of stuff to collect ( even though 90% of it is useless by the time you collect it )

It's not as good as some people make out, it's too easy, the level design is mostly long boring coridors, nearly every weapon you find in the game is outclassed by something you already have before you even find the item as such diminishing the sense of variety that should be there and the inverted castle just feels tacked on to make it longer ( especially the fact that you can go anywhere in the castle right away or miss most of it out completely and go to the final room.

By all means it's worth a play through but I would personally try to find a copy of Rondo instead.

By the way, i'd like to point out that i've also played Castlevania 64 and agree that the story and atmosphere are far superior.
The art direction is very nice but the graphics ARE muddy, not the games fault but the system it was produced for, all N64 titles had a blurry look to them.

Seconly while i like the gameplay in the 64 titles the camera is hideous and horribly out dated, for a game that involves a lot of platforming you're going to die a lot not because of your own shortcomings but the terrible camera that defies looking in the direction you want to go.

Neither are bad games but neither stand out to me as fantastic either. 64 is good because it has a dark atmosphere and a better difficulty, bad because of poor controls and ugly graphics.
similarly SoTN is good because of the lovley spritework ( not the horrible 3d textures and backgrounds errrugh..) variety of things to see and do but bad because the variety is rendered useless by being too easy and negating the need for variety
plus the second castle was thought out badly and repetetive music wise.. i hated the second castle.

[Malus]

In Reply To #11

By the way, i'd like to point out that i've also played Castlevania 64 and agree that the story and atmosphere are far superior.
The art direction is very nice but the graphics ARE muddy, not the games fault but the system it was produced for, all N64 titles had a blurry look to them.

Seconly while i like the gameplay in the 64 titles the camera is hideous and horribly out dated, for a game that involves a lot of platforming you're going to die a lot not because of your own shortcomings but the terrible camera that defies looking in the direction you want to go.

Neither are bad games but neither stand out to me as fantastic either. 64 is good because it has a dark atmosphere and a better difficulty, bad because of poor controls and ugly graphics.
similarly SoTN is good because of the lovley spritework ( not the horrible 3d textures and backgrounds errrugh..) variety of things to see and do but bad because the variety is rendered useless by being too easy and negating the need for variety
plus the second castle was thought out badly and repetetive music wise.. i hated the second castle.

[A n t r a x x]

I don't know how you can consider the character art "ugly," they are some of the most beautiful illustrations in the series, some stylistic misproportions aside, and they fit alot better with the era than CV64's clothes, for the most part.

But I don't want to knock on CV64 too much because Reinhardt, Carrie and Actrise are great... just that I still like SotN's characters more. They each have more of a reason to be there than Carrie or Reinhardt, but I guess Cornell had a good reason, just that I don't like him (he sucks to play as since he's supposed to be mid-range but he always misses).

Oh yeah I'm also an avid fan of Henry... too bad his quest is so short.

I don't really like the stories of either game, and find them both rather weak. But then I don't play CV for plot anyway.

SotN is my favorite CV game tho (well it's between that and Dracula's Curse), whereas CV64 would still rank in the bottom ten somewhere (I used to detest it to be honest), due to controls, camera, some misplaced level designs and waiting for stupid day/night crap. Mostly the camera, though, as it can be very, very problematic when you need it to be otherwise.

I love the soundtracks to both games, but I feel SotN is much more hummable, also the graphics are far, far prettier in SotN.

I also have a problem with CV64's sloooow pace (especially LoD's).

But actually, it's kind of futile to compare these two too much because they're so very, very different, as are the systems they were made for.

In Reply To #11
A great fan site is called project manhunt.com, its for the ultra violent games manhunt, and manhunt 2. That community is far more interesting than the one here.

HAHA .... whut.  What's the point of posting something like that?

[A n t r a x x]

In Reply To #11
A great fan site is called project manhunt.com, its for the ultra violent games manhunt, and manhunt 2. That community is far more interesting than the one here.

HAHA .... whut.  What's the point of posting something like that?

[Malus]

In Reply To #14

I agree with Mr.Sven a lot more than you. I agreed with maybe 20% of what you think.

And I don't take back what I wrote about the "interesting" community we have here with the pre-programmed responses. Sotn this, Sotn that. The game is broken in difficulty. That means its not fun or interesting to me. Every response against the game gets the same typical defense mechanism responses. It's as if were talking about your private parts or your appearance. Its sickening and not the least interesting.

I use to really read your posts, but after that response I'm probably not going to bother any more. Write something that isn't predictable, that is interesting. Because time and time again I constantly read posts like yours I'm not going to frequent this site anymore.

Sotn is overated just like Mr. Sven has pointed out. Only nostalgia blinds everyone about it. I had the pleasure to play Sotn as an adult, with zero nostalgia; so I can see the game as it really is.

very flawed, very overated. Sure it has great music and its a beautifully drawn castle, after that the rest is inflated drastically.

2 cents worth, over an out.