10

10

   Symphony of the Night, featuring a vampire protagonist instead of a Belmont, is arguably the most favorite Castlevania game amongst the fans of the series. It featured a vast array of weapons, familiars, allies, relics, and a few magic spells. While the speed-run for this game might be fairly short, if one were to play the game "right" (i.e. getting everything 100%), Symphony of the Night can provide numerous hours of entertainment, casual and hardcore gamers alike. This particular Castlevania game features multiple different ending, depending on completion and certain choices made in-game.   The graphics, as it is with most side-scroller Castlevania games, are not the best they could be. The characters are typically small, yet the pixels can still be clearly seen. Occasionally one who plays it might not even know what they are looking at. Despite this, the background art is up to par, yet the animation is slightly choppy. All this aside, the graphics don't really deter one who plays it from the overall enjoyable-ness of the game. The character designs seem a bit overused as well, but as I mentioned before, it doesn't affect game play.   I understand, for it's time the sound was most likely the best it could have been. I felt, however, that the sounds weren't used enough, in order to cover up for the perceived bad quality of the recordings. For instance, when most enemies were killed, they would make a sound of burning up. Only a few enemies would make a sound that would be unique to their kind, i.e. a lion roaring upon it's death. That put aside, the voice actors that were hired to give the few lines that were given in the game, performed their job rather well, using good tone and inflection. The music for this game, despite being not the best quality of recording, was incredible. The songs used for the different areas in the game could be listened to for hours on end without one getting sick of them.   Although the game play was rather thin, a simple 2-D "Metroidvania" (The term being used to describe the sub-genre of this Castlevania game) , I personally found it to be rather addicting. With hundreds of weapons and magic spells to assist you in your quest, I felt that the combat remained fresh from start to finish. There was also an arsenal of powerful familiars at your side, ranging from bats to flying swords, that would aid you in taking down some more challenging enemies. Combat aside, I also found the puzzles and "secrets" of the game to be greatly entertaining, and the few Easter eggs that could be found were also amusing.   Like many other Castlevania games, the story found in this game was distributed sparsely. However, once you would get to a part in the game where there was story, the plot was deep and thought-provoking. There was not a lot of character dialogue, and most of the story was implied rather than spoon-fed to the player. The average game play of Symphony of the Night would be about 6-7 hours of game play, varying greatly depending on which ending the player is aiming for.   Overall, if you want to play a game that is simple yet addicting, featuring a darker kind of hero, bent on revenge and driven by hate, I would greatly recommend this game to you.