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Easily one of the greats of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

For shame on anyone who does not own this game but has a playstation. Some might cry that it's not a 3D game but thats because they haven't played this beautifully created game. Every aspect of this game is near flawless. 2D graphics do not get much better than this. The music perfectly matches the game setting for each area. The game is rediculously long and a whole new game awaits those who dig deep enough to find the castle's true secret. The voice acting is silly at best but easily dismissed once the game gets giong.

Saddly this game is not available in most game stores and is indeed rare among gamers. I'm glad I have my copy. If you don't believe this game is that good, lets just say if I were stranded on an island with ten games to choose from this game would be #1 on my list.

The greatest game for the PSX

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

There are only a handful of games that I will play multiple times, and Castlevania, Symphony of the Night(SOTN)is one of those games. This game is so addictive, so fun, and so diverse that I have played through it about 10 times and still am not bored with the game. In fact, I wore my original copy out so that it had scratches on it, so I had to go online and purchase a brand new copy. Anyways, this game combines classic Castlevania 2-D elements, side scrolling combat, rpg relics and equipment, and a great magical and battle system all into one game. Furthermore, you get to play as Alucard who first appeared as an optional character in the NES game Castlevania 3, Dracula's Curse.

The graphics in this game are simply amazing and are probably the best 2-dimensional graphics ever produced in a game. The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal and makes the gameplay even more fun; Many of the tracks fit the environemnts and castle sections perfectly so it really adds a great dimension to the game. The gameplay is excellent. There is just so much variety and so much equipment that it is hard to get bored or to experiment with everything. You can Alucard with countless swords and armors, learn magical spells, and collect numerous relics that will allow Alucard to transform into a bat, wolf, or mist. Eventually, Alucard can learn additional skills which will allow him to attack in those forms so well. The castle itself is large and has a lot to explore with many different enemies to fight. Moreover, the replay value is great because you can play through as Richter once you beat the game, and even if you want to play through as Alucard again, there are always new itmes to find.

The only negative thing I have to say about this game, and a very small and minor thing it is, is that the voice acting is very sub-standard. Yet, even this element brings a certain charm and likeable quality to the game that I really don't think I would change. Trust me, this is one outstanding game and one no one should go without in their Playstation library. If you don't own a copy look at used game retailers for a used copy. If that fails, search online at auction retailers or other locations until you find a copy of Castlevania SOTN. Believe me, you won't be dissappointed.

a castlevania masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Castlevania has been around since the original NES. we have played as countless belmonts, earned countless powerups, and destroyed draculas on countless occasions. Now the castle is back and to the rescue come Alucard, an acient vampire slayer with a shocking past. The castle is huge, the action is huge, and the enemies are huge!

Throughout some of the more recent installments of castlevania there have been several different powers to acquire. whether those be magical cards, or the collection of souls, its been around. In this installment Alucard collects relics. These relics can do anything from allow you to jump twice in midair, to summon a ghost to help you in your battle through the castle. The relics are all nicely organized uin the pause menu, and are easily tuned on and off with the simple touch of a button.

Another great addition to SOTN is the spells. You are able to buy magic scrolls from the merchant, which contain button combinations of how to perform different spells. Everything from health regeneration to summoning souls for a quick attack on the enemy, with ease! with this merchant comes my one and only gripe. In this game you only have the choice to sell of different gems, zircon, aquamarine, garnet, and so on. Toward the end of the game a relic which duplicates any item use becomes available, the only problem? its 500,000 dollars! seeign that the most valuable gem, the diamond, only pulls 20,000 bucks, it takes quite a logn time to find all the money for this item. I thought being able to sell off old, useless weapons, armor, and accesories would have helped this problem a long a bit better than simply wandering the castle for cash.

In conclusion, it is impossible to talk about the plot of this game and not give anything away, so you will just have to play it. Take it from me, a person who has been collecting videogames for years and years, this game is going to attain a very high price tag in not very long. The original version can go for upward of 50 dollars, and ive even seen the greatest hit version for 40! Its a great expierience you won't be able to put down, great for the action/RPG junkie!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Quite simply this is quite possibly the best game ever made, period. By taking the standard formula which Super Metroid perfected on the Super Nintendo, of finding items and opening up new areas, Castlevania Symphony of the Night excels on every level to combine and create the most significant game accomplishment, in my opinion ever made. By using the standard side scrolling elements of the classic games from the 8 bit days and combining them with some of the lushest and most breathtaking visuals and special effects, the hand drawn effect that this game creates rivals almost any game on the original Playststion. The music is etheral accomplishment and ranks at the top of my best soundtracks for a game ever, joining the ranks of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Silent Hill 2 as some of the most noticeable and well done music to ever pass through the gaming world. The music combines orchestra type composure in a rock opera vibe that fits every single enviroment so well that you will never dread entering any area, in fact you wil even find yourself backtracking to previous areas just to hear this music again (By the way I own the soundtrack, thats how damn good this games music is.) The gameplay is some of the best ever in a game, incorporating all the classic elements of the Castlevania series, and combining them with experience and equipping items from Role Playing Games to form a natural bond that still makes me wonder why more developers have not tried to make a game like this (probably due to the fact that few could accomplish what Konami has done with this game). The only weak part of this game is the voice acting which literally sucks (pun intended) it seems like they picked people who were overly ambitious in their voice acting skills, and I'm sure the dialogue was bad because of the Japanes to English translation when it was brought stateside. Beyond that though if you buy this game I can guarantee you will not be dissappointed. Every boss fight, every encounter, everything about this game pushes it leaps and bounds ahead of the competion. No 3dimensional game I have ever played can crete the sheer passion and joy of controlling Alucard; his movements and actions are graceful and even just picking up the HP max ups is a chilling experience. This game cannot be missed, and I guarantee that I will still play this game when I am like 50 years old and wondering what in the hell happenned to the artistry and pure skill that a two dimensional "old-school" game can pull off and achieve so well.

One of the greatest games ever created (4.5 stars)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

There's no other way to put it, there has been no other game I've ever played in my life where I've wanted to play the game from the beginning over and over as I did with Castlevania:SOTN. Sure, I beat it countless times, but from beginning to end is just so much fun it's unbelieveable. The game is SUPER DEEP, you'll never use EVERY special trick no matter how long and how many times you play this game. The graphics are spectacular for 2D, the music is the best of any game I've ever played (why no soundtrack available??)
So why not 5 stars? It hurts me to not give it 5 stars but I have to be honest, the games kinda easy, sure it's super long, but back in the day of the old castlevania games, they were just so challenging in terms of obstacles and amount of enemies. But with this game, with all the save spots, free extra health and lack of extremely hard obstacles it's kinda hard to die. Although, if it had been that hard then I probably wouldnt be playing it over and over again. Let's say 4.5 stars.
One more thing, if you go through the entire castle and beat Belmont, don't think you're done yet, you've still got a whole other castle to conquer.

Castlevania, Time to Battle the Forces of Evil!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 27, 1999
Author: Amazon User

In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you are Alucard (notice Dracula spelled backwards) You are his son, an offspring of Dracula and a mortal woman. Castlevania has arisen once again from the mist and Alucard was awakened from his slumber. Now it is up to you to save the world. The graphics are the best to date for Castlevania. Solid side-scrolling game. Rich variety of weapons, armor and items. Beautiful musical score. The usual baddies along with many new ones and HUGE bosses. Very nice story-line, different from the normal Castlevania you are _____Belmont, save the world storyline. My only complaint is that you can beat the game rather quickly after your first time through. Still this is one of the best Castlevanias.

Excelent choice for many types of gamers.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been in to the Castlevania searies since Siamons quest ( part 2, NES ) which unlike the first game and most games since, worked on more of an adventure game as apposed to the others which were simpley levels. I rented this game from Blockbuster Video in 1998 just because I wanted to see my long admired game searies first appearince with the advanced graphics on the newer 32 bit CD roms and was very uplifted to discover that Castlevania SOTN goes back to the adventure style of gamelpay. I had been long use to Castlevania playing as the Konan looking warior who fights with morning stars, ball&chains etc. which cought me by surpprise that you are now using Alucard. To thoes of you who don't know, Alucard first appeared as Aale chearictor in Castlevania 3 which is the very first Castlevania adventure story wize but IMHO, was poorley configuerd and very hard and undesireable to use. With that prior experiance with using him on the NES, I didn't expect the game to be much dispite it's adventure platform. Well, I was very wrong. As one who loves jam packed action and RPG "build you're chearictor up" games this game was like the ultimate dream come true. The game is very similer to Final Fantasy VII in turms of leveling up, gaining powers, abtaining weapons, armor etc. but instead of fighting on A special screen sellecting you're moves on A template, you are fighting in in full action ( like the old NES games, Contra, Mega Man etc. ) and each time you move up A level, the game will freez and A wave-like graphic will appear telling you that you whent up A level and then allow the game to go on. The controles and dynamic remind me of Super Metroid ( Super NES ) but the puzzles somewhat remind me of Resident Evil ( actually quite unique but compareable ) wear the graphics are more similer to Castlevaina 4 ( SUPER NES ) but clearor, more overall detail and better affects and even A few 3D FMVs. Music was great. Some of the music was aweful but most of it was very good and the size of the soundtrack is very much like Final Fantasy VII ( I think their are over 30 songs ) and even plays A professional remake of: I Am The Wind after the Epiluge. The graphic content is not as aweful as you may be led to belive but their is A little. It is about as miled as I have ever seen A teen rated game get. The graphics may bother or be unhealthy to some children but that veries from child to child so if you are considering this game for you're child, rent it or go play it at A "play before you buy" store first. Shortley after the first boss battle, you will have seen all the different kinds of blood graphcs and their is no profanity nore nudeity or lude display. Above all, the No. 1 grace of this game is the replay value. The game is not very hard once you figuer it out and I can finish this game from the very begining in 5 houres flat but it took me over 200 houres to do everything over A half A year or more. Another grace is that instead of enemys only droping hearts and mony bags, they now also drop items, weapons armor etc. However, only sertain enemys drop sertain items and they only drop them occasionally. How often they drop them depends not on the scale of the enemy but the value of what they drop. Example: Their is A gargoil-like enemy who is very powerful and drops A Pentagram ( A 1 time use screen whipe out item ) very often because the Pentagram is not very useful. The shmoo ghosts are an easy 1 shot, 1 kill but they only drop A Crissaegrim sword ( most affective weapon in the game ) every half houre or so. Their are hundreds of different enemys in the game and almost all of them drop 1 to 3 special goodies. The weaponrey and armor is also different in the uniqueness. For example: The Sword Familiar which can be used as A reguler sword after it reaches it's 50th level does more damage blow for blow then any other sword in the game but can only be swong about as rappid as Siamon could swing his whip on previous Castlevania games and makes alucard stop to swing it wear the crissaegrim only does A little more then normal damage blow for blow but is literally machine gun rappid ( strikes in birsts of 5 ), has the longest range of all Alucards swords, covers his body from head to toe and can be swong while alucard is runing without him stoping to swing it. Different armor has different defenses aginst different attacks and some even grow in strength and their are many different kinds of weapon and armor from head gear to rings to body armor and some armor can even be seen on him while playing.This game is sertainley A great that just never got notice, probibley because it came out duering the highlight change of focus from 2D games to 3D games. It is well recomended for gamers of all kinds and likley to become A favorite to you're collection if you have any interest in the above kinds of games.

Like a disease.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This grows on, in, and around your consciousness. Castlevania: SOTN is bliss, a heavenly escape from life. Transcending mere fun, this game becomes a way of 10-hour life; maybe not so long, but one joyous ride. Corny voice acting gives a lighthearted twist to the intended serious story, but that's hardly enough to detract from the uncut fun. If you enjoy hybrids, I've counted these genres: platform, action, adventure, and RPG, one heady mix, and need nonstop action from your games, Castlevania should have long ago been yours.

As far as I am concerned, THE PSX game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

To describe how great this game is would require talent that perhaps I don't possess. Excellent gfx, a delightful mixture of 2d platform gameplay with RPG elements, and an awesome musical score that really makes it a Symphony of the Night. If you can get a hold of this, do it! You won't regret it!

Why this game is Great.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I heard the funniest thing; you see it was this review on this very website that smacked the game as horrible and said that Castlevania 64 was a lot better. It's good to see that people from the bizarro world still keep in contact with ours.

Simply put, you have to play this. It's enthralling musical score and wonderful animation may not equate to more than ten hours on your first try, but I doubt anyone will get everything in the game on their first try. Anyone who likes games, or basically anything that's good will enjoy this game. I've owned since it came out and have yet to stop playing it.

My words alone don't display the greatness that you will gain from this game. I have no idea how anybody could not like this and still call themselves human. No one game will be exactly alike. And as for Castlevania 64; that game is horrible, the whole thing reeks from lack of polish.

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