How Symphony of the Night Revolutionized Castlevania | CBR – CBR – Comic Book Resources

The first Castlevania game released for the PlayStation remains one of the franchise's best and enormously influential for subsequent installments.

One of Konami's most enduring video game franchises is Castlevania,which has been puttinggamers on epic adventures to slay vampires and other things that go bump in the night since 1986. As other franchises moved towards 3D gameplay in 1997, Castlevania remained in 2D with its first title on the original PlayStation,Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Regarded internally as something of a side story to the main franchise at the time, Symphony of the Night would go on to become massively influential to the action-horror video game series and the subsequent animated adaptation on Netflix. And, 23 years since its initial release, Symphony of the Night remains regarded as one of the most acclaimed titles in the franchise, hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time.

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Symphony of the Night is set in 1796, four years after the events of 1993'sCastlevania: Rondo of Blood. In it, the famed vampire hunter Richter Belmonthas vanished, while Dracula's castle has reappeared in the Transylvanian countryside in his absence. Dracula's dhampir son Alucard emerges from his lengthy slumber, after being last seen in 1476 assisting Trevor Belmont during the events of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. Teaming up with Richter's old companion Maria Renard, Alucard investigates the sinister castle, determined to reject his vampiric destiny and destroy his father once more as part of humanity's ongoing conflict against Dracula.

With the exception of 1987's Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on the NES, theseries had relied on the linear gameplay progression that it had launched with its original installment. While Dracula's Curse and, to a greater extent, Rondo of Blood featured divergent paths and secret levels, players navigated a traditional 2D environment with a clear beginning and end, usually punctuated with a boss fight in each level.

Led by director Toru Hagihara, Symphony of the Night was set in a single, nonlinear map entirely within the confines of Dracula's castle and the surrounding grounds. As players gained new items and abilities, new areas of the castle became open to explore, while previously unlocked sections could be revisited seamlessly in a style similar to Nintendo's iconic Metroid franchise.

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How Symphony of the Night Revolutionized Castlevania | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero
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