Topic: BOO! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night looks AWFUL

[adam]

I actually think that Simon's Quest was the best out of the original three, because of the atmosphere and music. It was the only game that gave me a feeling that I was doomed and it was sort of a long shot that I would be cured of that terrible curse! Not that it was extremely hard or anything.. (I hated that the only thing death did was take away your hearts and exp at game over. You should have been taken back to town or something.)

Although Dracula's Curse had sweet music as well. Ah hell I don't know.

Oh yeah.. I remember playing SOTN when it came out, and it still felt very much like castlevania to me... Is there anyone here who bought it and said "this doesn't feel like castlevania..."?   Just curious....

[e105beta]

Oh yeah.. I remember playing SOTN when it came out, and it still felt very much like castlevania to me... Is there anyone here who bought it and said "this doesn't feel like castlevania..."?   Just curious....

It definitely felt different. What helped the crossover, for me, was the sprite re-usage from Dracula X, especially playing as Richter right off the bat. Once I got to Alucard, though, I started going "they really changed quite a bit, didn't they?" My character had a sword and a cape instead of a whip instead of a tunic and whip. The architecture was much more indoors, and much more regally Gothic, as opposed to the older, decaying medieval castles from the other games with their graveyards and brick walls. The areas that were dark were much darker, and the areas that were light were much lighter, as opposed to the overall muted feel of the previous games. The music playing wasn't Opposing Bloodlines and seemed like something you'd find in a ballroom (Alchemy Lab to be specific. Dance of Pales was also a new type of song choice for the series, going with the whole waltzy feel), the first level was inside during a thunderstorm with the lights off instead of outside in a village on fire, etc.

While it doesn't seem like it in retrospect, if you go back and compare Symphony of the Night to an older game (Dracula X in my case, being the game I played right before it) there are quite a few differences we gloss right over. I mean, the later levels in the Classicvania's were castle rooms, while in the Metroidvanias, we get these crazy alternate dimension stuff. Symphony of the Night really made the game focus on the Demon Castle. The castle seemed like a living thing. It had really weird, sometimes organic levels, the whole adventure taking place inside of it. This is as opposed to taking place before the castle, in the castle, around the castle grounds, and then back to the top of the castle, where the castle was just this dilapidated, monster infested castle. I mean compare the levels in CV IV and Dracula X to the levels in Symphony of the Night. If we take out the Nocturne in the Moonlight exclusives, SotN takes place ENTIRELY in indoor levels. CV IV and Dracula X had villages, farms, jungle like areas with rivers, etc.

That's not to say there aren't similarities. Like I sad, you've got the reused sprites, mainstay characters like Death, and anachronistic levels like clocktower. There's still Dracula, still Belmonts, still little things like candles and hearts (which were completely useless in SotN IMO. I never needed to use sub-weapons. That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about though), and still a castle. I mean, when it comes down to it, it was still Castlevania.

Didn't mean for the post to get this long, but hey, I could have actually talked about gameplay, which is like *woosh* whole 'nother 3 paragraphs.

[The Silverlord]

Oh yeah.. I remember playing SOTN when it came out, and it still felt very much like castlevania to me... Is there anyone here who bought it and said "this doesn't feel like castlevania..."?   Just curious....

It also felt Castlevania to me too.  There were no complaints from me at the time.  Nocturne in the Moonlight was looking sweet and the European version was eagerly anticipated.  Swords instead of whips (mostly), the RPG elements, and the music stuck in my mind as being different, but not in a bad way.  It was still a trek around a castle to dispatch the creatures of the night.  It felt masterful and grandiose, and it was longer than what had come before.  More Castlevania time = bonus.

But by the fifth iteration of the same thing it becomes an exercise of ritual and habit rather than being an experience with any real immersion, and the level design never really went anywhere.  That begin said, I do not think Symphony has aged well at all, but I think that's credit to some of the things IGA added to later instalments, particularly Aria of Sorrow and it's Soul System which is to my mind far and above the best in-game system Castlevania has seen.

[Belmont Stakes]

     I am an old schooler and I just have a real strong affinity for the NES games, SCVIV (being the best overall experience) and Chronicles. I thought SOTN was a very good game and playing as Alucard was one of the most enriching experiences as a player. If the two styles were incorporated you could have an interesting game. My gripe with SOTN's style is the lack of pit death and the linear style Castlevanias suffer from too many points of no return. Exploration can sometimes be redundant and tedious but I can live with that as long as there is something worth backtracking for and its kept in check.
      Now ya see Zelda II, Battle of Olympus and Rygar all for the NES had the exploration and the instant pit death hazards and they were all classic games. Had Simon's Quest been done that way but no sense beating a dead horse. SOTN could have been done a little bit better graphically as far as the castle goes. It was just bland. The story was excellent and the remake had better voices no doubt.
     One can only hope that Lords of Shadow will do justice to the series. A lack of candle whipping is something I do not like.
Never the less I can not wait to play it.