Zero Punctuation: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[Silent Eagle]

Hahaha nothing bad to say.
These older game are great because they demanded so much skill that if you couldnt play gtfo!
And werent made to sell copies like todays poison is.

You aren't seriously saying that SOTN required skill, are you? I can see that for the majority of the Caslevania series but SOTN was coma inducingly easy.

Did you do the 99 luck thing and get two crissagrims plus every other item in the game and get to keep your shit from death in the beginning on new game plus?

Wasnt ridiculously hard, but challenging.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Symphony of the Night is a good Castlevania game, but I still personally think Bloodlines was the best. It was creative and very very unforgiving D:

word, Death in Blood lines didn't fuck around at all, that fight sucked x.x

interesting review choice though, but then if i had to review something as was faced with the crap that's out now, probably do Super Metriod >.>

 

[Allan Foe]

Too bad its truth.
No subtlety for this.
Been watching him for years and just feel like Im watching some teanage junior who requires medication and a hug from dad.
No longer funny, informative or frankly even worth a review.
There is no review hear any longer.
Look I loved the guy when he came out. Flat out Genius and funny. Now....he just needs to get laid and get some meds.
Dude, for real

Alas, Poor Noobtron2!
You shall be missed on the Escapist forums.

For future trolling attempts, do try to conduct a bit of research on the subject of your ire. That "needs to get laid" part is especially hilarious, ho ho.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Not to be pedantic but...the Japanese didn't invent Alucard. I believe it was an old American film that coined the name first. AVGN did a point on it in his Castlevania retrospective.

You beat me to it, but it's true. Alucard's name is taken from the 1943 movie Son of Dracula:


Anyway, this review only reinforces my desire to buy Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, which includes Symphony of the Night as an unlockable. I've been wanting to buy that game for a while now.

 

[CriticalQuit]

I wonder if Yahtzee will ever pick up Cave Story. He'd probably love that game.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

you could have gone with Donkey Kong Country Returns instead

No one in their right mind, anywhere, if given the choice, should play Donkey Kong Country Returns over Symphony of the Night.

 

[Jfswift]

I love this game. I agree, I kind of like that you have to figure out how to use some of the special items and explore on your own with very little hints. It's kind of refreshing, and the cd soundtrack still holds well I think.

 

[Biodeamon]

Awesome episode.
And i never knew Alucard was Dracula spelt. backwards. THE MORE YOU KNOW!

I did detect more hate than usual for the universe though....

 

[Rabidkitten]

Pretty much correct.

The running around like a lost cat gets a bit tiresome at times. I got pretty annoyed at the very ambiguous "you need a guide to figure this out" hidden stuff. That and the inverted castle was a bit of a let down as I was basically an unstoppable killing machine by that point. Most of the bosses were a complete joke in the face of the Super Cross Attack. Though that lightning bastard at the top of the inverted castle was a pretty big pain in my rear end.

Oh and the voice acting.

I love Alucard's forward moon walk.

 

[kendall321]

lol loved it ^^

 

[Adam Thompson 354563]

Two nitpicks:

1. "Alucard" was first used in the movie Son of Dracula (1943), where he wasn't actually Dracula's son. The more direct source is the Hammer film Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) which had a character called "Johnny Alucard", and also introduced the idea of Dracula resurrecting every 100 years which Castlevania has copied.

2. The giant wolves at the beginning are only easy because you have great equipment. Once you lose the equipment they're harder.

 

[Kurt Horsting]

Not to sound like a snob, but Alucard comes from Son of Dracula, an movie by universal studios in 1943. The trick of it being Dracula backwards is also pointed out in that movie. Although the japanese abuse this fact (seen in hellsing, SOTN, Blazblue etc) it wasn't their idea.

 

[duchaked]

LOL Patrick Stewart

and ouch to William Shatner, but admittedly in this current generation he's just not doing much that isn't just backwards step in his huge nerdom legacy (maybe the next Star Trek film really will retcon old Kirk in...old fat Kirk that is)

haha SOCOM 4 with the character accent changing...interesting. although I'm not sure if I could take some accents seriously (like say...Irish, although that would be bloody amazing )

 

[Syntax Error]

How funny you should do this review now! Summer Vaccation just let out for (some of) us, and I decided to get in some wholesome gaming. Symphony of the Night was the first game I considered settling into. But sadly I can't play the game anymore. I loved it when it was still fresh for me. But I've played the game over 20 times now. I know all the spells and special moves- not by conventional memory, but rather by muscle memory. No matter how much I change up the game, or equip weaker items to make the experience harder, I just can't get interested anymore.

SotN is one of those rare games they don't make anymore (Shadow Complex aside). It's awesome for those that have played it less than 5 times. There really needs to be more games like it, too.

There's a challenge document somewhere in the net that details a 200.6% Map Completion with only one monster kill. Try that if you want a "Challenge". Or beat the 425.5% Map Completion record (current highest).

 

[storne]

how odd, I actually recently downloaded this from the XBLA and have been loving it myself. What crazy timing.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Well what a pleasant surprise. I personally love the Castlevania series. Definetly one of my favorite game series of all time.

 

[Akytalusia]

woah, that was unexpected. i thought he only did new games. i was very curious to see this review since it's about a game i really like. i'm glad he enjoyed it.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

A definite surprise review. It is one of the best games I have played.

I only have two 100% completion games on my 360 and I'm proud to say this is one of them. I would say the hardest achievement was to preform all the different magic combos, each part had to be entered so fast that it was hard to do with the 360 controller.

My favorite achievement was "Explore all 200.6% of the castle."

Also.. since when does a vampire turn into poisonous gas?! That's overdoing it, but what character doesn't these days?

Well if he can change into a bat, why not poisonous gas and a purple wolf as well? =P

 

[Denamic]

I didn't find out about the fucked up up-side down second part until about a year after I 'beat' it the first time.
It was awesome.

 

[NaramSuen]

Also.. since when does a vampire turn into poisonous gas?! That's overdoing it, but what character doesn't these days?

I have to think that you are joking, but I will take the bait. Dracula, in Bram Stroker's Dracula, could change into mist. Changing into mist is usually a standard vampire power, making it poisonous doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to me.