Castlevania: Symphony of the night was a monumental game and together with the popular SNES game Super Metroid helped launch an entire sub-genre of games called Metroidvania. However, replaying the game in today’s age and analyzing its design, there are certain things that the game does phenomenal and there are certain that the game shows its age in that with a modern touch could make it even better.

 

Symphony of the night is a game that came out in 1997 for the PlayStation One and has later had multiple re-releases as well as being secret unlocks in further instalments of Castlevania games. The game is a 2d action platformer with a bit of RPG elements sprinkled in that we today would call a Metroidvania. The game has the player exploring Dracula’s castle looking for item, slaying monsters, leveling up and fighting bosses to be able explore further.  However, from my personal experience the game never felt like you needed to grind for more levels or anything similar because it felt like the challenge of bosses more so came from learning their patterns than simply overpowering it with higher numbers.

 

Once the game has started there isn’t any introduction to the move set and thus it is up to the player to discover what they can do. This sort of way to introduce the move set is in my opinion a double-edged sword because on one hand it lets the player discover these new ways of combat for themselves. However, some moves can be missed while doing this, such as the downwards attacks that can be used both in combat and to unlock secrets. I think that if they were to be designed today, I would have made these basic combat moves known to the player but then, like they do in the game, have the more powerful secret attacks hidden so that the player feels a sense of “how did I just do that” when a big powerful spell happens, and then let them look up in the menu how it was performed.

 

While playing the game the player can pick up hearts and item by smashing various items like candles hanging from the wall. This, contrary to what all the experience playing games might tell you, does not increase your health, it makes you get more ammunition for your special attack. This makes some sense for the lore of the game since you are playing as a half vampire but having hearts, that are so commonly represented with health, not be health is in my opinion poorly designed.

 

Exploring the castle the player will find hidden items, anything from new weapons and armor to one time use items such as healing potions and special items that hurt everything on screen. The balancing of these weapons are sometimes questionable but generally the deeper you go in the game the better the items you will find, naturally since the game is so open after just a few unlocks there are some items that can be found that will be better than anything you will find after for a long time.

 

The Level design of the entire map is great in how it often shows you places that you need certain abilities to access such as the double jump, form of mist or double jump. This helps the player narrow down which paths the have available to explore. However newer games have made this process easier by making players be able to place markers on the map to remember where spots like this are. I, personally, am torn in what I would prefer. Because on one hand the markers are great for remembering where something was and can mitigate frustration to the player of where to go next and it can help if the player takes long breaks between sessions. But, with no marker the player is left to remember themselves and for me while playing it helped me remember the castle much more than I have remembered similar maps. So there are options to modernize this design but I am not sure that the cost is worth the gain, however combining the two, if possible, would be the best option.

 

Once the player has found the form of bat the castle is fully open to explore, and the game can technically be beaten. However, if the player fully explores the castle and find two special rings, whose description tells the player to use them in a special room, they can beat the final boss in a new way to be transported to the inverted castle. This is a “new” level where the player is tasked with exploring the same castle, but now with much harder enemies and most noticeably the entire map being flipped to be upside down. Now every opening in the celling has become falls into new rooms and the player has to explore the castle once more. One thing that the designers have left in that feels greatly rewarding to the player is that every secret room that they found in the original castle is there in the inverted version but now with newer, even greater, gear. When playing through the castle normally you will sometimes come across certain areas that have unusual things in the celling like certain rooms that have spikes on them, but once you have gotten to the inverted part it all makes sense and you can see how much thought went into the level to have some obstacles in one version and some in the other.

 

To sum up, Castlevania: Symphony of the nights design has some areas where it shows its age, but they are very few and not noticeable in a destroying way. The game shows how well it is designed mainly in how the level is made to be playable and challenging both normally and upside down. The game also greatly shows the player areas that are unavailable to them due to certain lack of abilities, but could use a marking system to help mitigate frustrations with not being able to remember it.