Symphony of the Night

Symphony Menu: Areas - Walkthrough - Game Genie - Secrets
Weirdness - Opening - Ending - Foreign

SotN Weirdness

Many of the unused items information comes from Anapan's CV Files, which has boatloads of ripped graphics and sounds.

The famous intro speech is a variation from the ending of Dracula X for the PC Engine Duo. The major difference is that Richter and Dracula spar words before they fight in Symphony, whereas the speech after happen the defeat in Dracula X

Zach Keene's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night FAQ mentions the possibility of a hidden fifth ending, where Maria turns into a monster and attacks. The text is excerpted as follows:

"Then, while listening to the various texts for the battle with Richter, I heard these lines. Later, during the texts for game endings, I heard the bit at the end that Alucard is saying [also see file.] I put all the lines into a single MP3 file, and for the sake of size, there isn't much space between the lines--but apparently they detail in different parts:

1. Maria showing up to save Richter
2. Maria transforming into a demon
3. The demon defeating Alucard ["Such power..."]
4. The demon being defeated by Alucard ["It won't end like this..."]
5. Alucard mourning Richter and Maria's passing.

I have no idea how to trigger this ending--but I assume it IS in there, since Konami wouldn't bother to have the English voice actors do these parts unless they had a purpose for them!"

The attached file that Mike speaks of was an MP3 file of the above five lines, which I will attempt to transcribe here:

1. Maria: "Wait! Don't hurt Richter any more!"
Richter: "Ma.. Maria?"
Maria: "Richter!"
Richter: "You saved me!"

2. (Male voice, perhaps Shaft?): "If not for you, I would have lost this fool(?)"
Female Demon (Maria?): "EEYAAAHH! Uh! Hahaha! Four Demons I hold you to your oath. Defend your master who commands you!"

3. Female Demon: "Oh! Such power in such a little girl. Hahahaha!"

4. Female Demon: "EEYAAAHHH! It won't end like this! You should be destroyed along with this castle. Hahaha!"

5. Alucard: "It's over, but the sacrifice was great. Maria, Richter... I did not wish for you to die. Such is the fate of mortals. I'm certain that some dark force was behind Maria's transformation, but it doesn't matter now."

Zach sent me the MP3 that he spoke of. Download it and hear for yourself! Our best guess is that this was in the original script and dialogue was recorded for it, but nothing was ever programmed into the game. It's not a fraud either... I've gone through the CD myself and listen to it. Wanna hack into your CDs? Check out the Playstation Utilities at the Misc section.

When you first start the game, enter the Alchemy Lab, but immediately turn around and go to where Death steals your weapons. You'll fight an early battle against Sloga and Gaibon, though after they've suffered enough damage, they'll take off and await the real battle.

The yellow Medusa heads will normally turn you to stone. However, on seemingly random intervals, Alucard will turn into a gargoyle statue. There seems to be no advantage to this, and no actual point to it.

Check out the confessional in the Chapel. If you sit the left side, a ghostly priest will come out, and either laugh and stab you, or toss you some wine. If you jump over to the other side, then a woman will come in, confess her sins, and also stab you. Fun.

This is interesting. If you have the Rune Sword from Symphony (check out the Symphony Weapons if you don't) then you'll notice that a word appears whenever you throw the sword. That word is "vertboten" and it means "forbidden" in German. Neat. Thanks for the screen grab Mike.

Check out the bottom floor of the Coliseum. You'll find the remains of the Hell Hound that chased you in Dracula X (both Duo and SNES.)

Konami Man actually makes an appearance in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! Sort of. You know how each time you save the game, there's a nifty little picture that appears on your memory card? Sometime's a stake being hammered, other times an eye, or even just graphics of the three main characters cycling? Well, one of them is a picture of Konami Man flying! I only got this one once, so if you REALLY want to see it, you're going to have to keep saving and going back to the load screen to see the nifty picture you get. Thanks to Anapan for pictures for all the save icons. Konami Man is all the way on the right.

Take a look at the Time Trial page once you get far enough. You'll notice that they refer to Trevor by his Japanese name, Ralph, even though it's used correctly elsewhere in the game.

This is the debug room, which doesn't seem to do a whole lot. The Game Shark code to enter this is:
80097918 0040
800974A0 0040

These are some of the unused items found in Symphony of the Night, ripped once again by Anapan. Note that some of these did appear in the Saturn version.

And these are some unused Richter animation sprites.

There's a hidden passage at the beginning of the castle. Presumably this is an unfinished section that would have led to the Underground Gardens. There's even a save point down here. Other than using a cheat code, the only way to enter is as Richter - once you enter the castle, immediately dash out the door before it shuts, and you'll fall down into this area.

There's a one-time use item known as the Power of Sire. This is a portrait that kills all the enemies on the screen. And guess what the spirit is that does it? Yes, a picture of Vlad Tepes himself will crush the bad guys.

Many people have pointed out the similarity between the Moon Rod and the staff that Sailor Moon uses, right down to the attack. This could be a coincidence, but it's worth mentioning.

Also in Symphony, with the shield rod in hand, press Back+Forward+Attack. You'll throw out a little swirly ball. If you're an astute Konami fan, you'll notice that it's the same exact thing as the shield in the Gradius games! It can be used to block enemy projectiles as well! The same shields appear to protect Juste in Harmony of Dissonance.

There's another cool reference to old movies - the boss Count Orlox was named from Count Orlock, the vampire from the classic vampire film, Nosferatu.

In the original Dracula X, Maria's animal helpers were based off the Chinese animal gods Suzaku (the phoenix), Genbu (the turle), Byakko (the tiger) and Seiryuu (the dragon). They're back in the Saturn version of Symphony, though all grown up. The fact that all Maria can do with the Suzaku summon is call an owl familiar is confusing to me, but when casting it, you can easily see the outline of the phoenix, as well as hear her call out, "Suzaku!"

Pay close attention to the number of times the clock chimes when you equip both rings in the Marble Gallery clock room (right before you meet Maria.) It rings 13 times...not only impossible for a clock, but also the unlucky number. Just thought that was kinda cool.

In the Saturn version of Nocturne in the Moonlight, Maria has a special dragon attack. It's very similar to the blue dragon found in the third stage of the arcade version of Life Force! (which is essentially the same fire dragon in Salamander, just colored blue.)

The portal that the Doppelganger comes out of looks very much like the Aztec Calender. The monolith found in Mexico consists of 18 months of 20 days plus 5 unlucky days, that being the Aztec calendar. The glyphs represent the Aztec cosmogony, gods and myths as well. Thanks to Ratzuo for the pics and info.