Castlevania:Symphony of the night

DayshaLove21 · Post by **DayshaLove21** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 12:50 am

Castlevania fans (I know there are a couple on the board), how many have played this one for the PS1?

And while we are on the topic, if you had to pick one from the series, which would be your favorite? I'm picking part IV for the Snes...and thats a hard decision because I love just about every castlevania game.

Mwuahh,
Daysha

Jack Burton · Post by **Jack Burton** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 7:44 am

YAY!!!! Someone else finally talks up Castlevania games!

Castlevania is by far my favorite franchise ever. The gameplay is always supremely tight (minus Castlevania 64), the graphics are always amazing, and the music is to die for. There's a reason this series is my favorite, and it's gotta be the music. The gameplay to me is just icing on the cake....but it's really good icing that need the cake for it to be good...you catch my drift?

Now...here's the real question: Can anyone find a copy of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for PC Engine and a PC Engine? If you can, I will personally come over and pay you for the chance to play what many herald as the best Castlevania game in the series. Yes, even better than SOTN. Stupid Konami only releasing it in japan....

-Jack

RurouniQ · Post by **RurouniQ** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 7:46 am

This. Game. Rules. SOTN was my favorite game for a very long time, and is still in my top 3. The gameplay was nearly flawless and the soundtrack by Michiru Yamane is one of the best videogame soundtracks I've ever heard! Konami was damn smart to get her to do the soundtracks for Aria of Sorrow and Lament of Innocence.
As for Castlevania IV for the SNES, again, fantastic game. (And made by the team from Konami that broke off and eventually became Treasure!) The graphics were nothing short of groundbreaking for its time, and every time a new Castlevania game comes out, people ask, "Does it have the full whip control system that Castlevania IV had?"
It's a great game, but SOTN edges it out on my list. Alucard's just too bad-ass.

DayshaLove21 · Post by **DayshaLove21** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 12:02 pm

What I absolutly LOVED from part IV for the SNes was the rotating level. There is that one part where the background spins back and fourth as you move through. Almost as if your walking through a tunnel. It's difficult to explain unless you've seen it, and I adored the entire sound track as well.

SOTN

, again, I loved this one too. I thought the gameplay was excellent and YES Allucard was GREATTTT! The voice acting was actually pretty good. Allucard sounded like what you might expect him to sound like and so did the rest of the characters. The music was great also.

I agree, Castlevania 64

....don't really know what happened there! I mean for what it's worth, it does somewhat stick to the general castlevania format....but....lol. I don't even know what to say about it. I'm hoping that the version comming for PS2 is nothing like 64. Sometimes games have trouble going from 2D to 3D and I hope that isn't the case with the next installment in the series. We'll just pretend that 64 was castlevania's trial and error in the 3D world and that the upcomming version for PS2 will be AWSOME!

Daysha

AIDS · Post by **AIDS** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 4:01 pm

Yes, I love Symphony Of The Night and Super Castlevania IV. But I think you are forgeting some other great ones like Circle Of The Moon, Harmony Of Dissonance, and Aria Of Sorrow for GBA. I have Circle Of The Moon and I must say I think it was the best 1st generation game that the GBA had. Yes, it was dark and hard to see, but I still played it to death. Actually I just got a used copy of Harmony Of Dissonance yesterday and it's great. I haven't played through much of it yet, but so far I like it alot. I've played a little bit of Aria of Sorrow and that one was also very good. For some reason, Harmony Of Dissonance is kind of hard to find. Has anyone played that one Castlevania they released for Playstation not too long ago? It wasn't Symphony Of The Night, it was something else. Also, I actually liked the Nintendo 64 Castlevania game. I got about half way through it and although it was probably the worst of the series, it still wasn't all that bad...to me at least.

Here's some info on the GBA games:

Circle of the Moon - Main character has a leather whip. You do not have full control of it, but you can swing it around if you hold down the attack button.

Harmony of Dissonance - I think the main character is the son of Simon Belmont. He has a chain whip that you can control if you hold down the attack button (like in Super Castlevania IV).

Aria of Sorrow - Main character uses swords...just like Alucard did in Symphony of the Night. You can even get a sword whip like the one Ivy uses in Soul Calibur.

Hey, can't you play as Simon Belmont in Symphony of the Night? I think I remember hearing somewhere that if you beat the game, you can play through it again as Simon Belmont by entering is a code or something.

RurouniQ · Post by **RurouniQ** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 12:24 am

Bleh, I didn't like Circle, but Harmony and Aria rule. Aria was the first GBA game I purchased.
Oh, and it's Richter Belmont that you can play as in Symphony of the Night. After you beat the game, start a new game with the name "RICHTER" to play as him through the whole game. It's DAMN hard!!!

AIDS · Post by **AIDS** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:31 am

Well compared to Harmony and Aria, Circle isn't nearly as good. But it is still my favorite game that came out at the GBA launch. Konami keeps churning out the Castlevania series for the GBA and I hope they don't let up.

Jack Burton · Post by **Jack Burton** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:41 am

I don't know....Circle is my 2nd favorite on the GBA...like I said earlier...I loves my Castlevania music, so Circle of the moon's was awesome. I'd take it 1st in sound, with Aria in 2nd, and harmony a distant 3rd (although the bonus song when you play through boss mode as the secret character is almost a saving grace). But Aria's gameplay just barely puts it over the top of circle of the moon. But when I want to listen to some cool versions of castlevania songs, I pop in COTM, because it's got the best on GBA.

Here's my song preference list throughout the series:

1st: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood
2nd: Super Castlevania 4
3rd: Castlevania
4th: Castlevania 3
5th: Castlevania SOTN
6th: Castlevania Adventure
7th: Castlevania (on x68000)
8th: Castlevania COTM
9th: Castlevania AOS
10th: Castlevania Bloodlines
11th: Castlevania HOD
12th: Castlevania 2
13th: Castlevania Adventure 3
14th: Castlevania Adventure 2
15th: Castlevania 64

-Jack

DayshaLove21 · Post by **DayshaLove21** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:54 am

Jack, that is a GREAT ranking. Where can I find some screen shots of Rondo of Blood? I'd love to see what it looks like at the very least....since i probably won't ever get the chane to play it

,
Daysha

Jack Burton · Post by **Jack Burton** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 7:27 am

Umm...you could probably try classicgaming.com, or you might just try looking for some castlevania fansites on the net.

It's really tough to find a copy of this game, even on eBay...it usually goes for around $200, if I'm not mistaken...and that's not even with a PC Engine for it.

If you pick up Castlevania Chronicles for PS1, there's actually a little video interview with the producer of Chronicles, and he says that they REALLY wanted to put Dracula X out on PS1 as well, since Americans had never gotten the chance to really try it. That was two years ago....maybe it's an unlockable in LOI?

-Jack

Web_22 · Post by **Web_22** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:49 pm

Dang, don't ask me how Castlevania dropped off my radar. I played 1 and 2 on NES and loved them both to death, and then I started playing other games. Can't remember what took me away from castlevania, but obviously I missed the boat on some of the better ones. I won't be skipping the newest 3D version. Once I get my GBP, I'll be tearing it up on my TV with the GBA Castlevanias.