Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (fan commonly abbreviated SOTN/SotN, KONAMI abbreviated SoN ), released in Japan as Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight, was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1997. It was re-released the following year for the Sega Saturn exclusively in Japan. In 2007, it was re-released in America for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. The original PlayStation release was released for download on the PlayStation 3, playable on both that system and the PSP. Lastly, it was also included in Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP. It is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for the Nippon Electric Company PC Engine.

Although not very successful during its release in North America and Europe (only 60 thousand in each continent), Symphony of the Night has become highly sought-after by video game players, and is widely considered to be one of the best in the series and a milestone of the series. Almost all of the game's successors have emulated its open-ended gameplay.

Storyline


The game's story takes place during the year 1797, 5 years after the events of Rondo of Blood. The story begins with Richter Belmont's defeat of Count Dracula, mirroring the end of the former game. However, despite Dracula being defeated, Richter vanishes without a trace. Castlevania rises again five years later, and while there are no Belmonts to storm the castle, Alucard, the son of Dracula, awakens from his self-induced sleep, and decides to investigate what transpired during his slumber.

Meanwhile, Maria Renard, Richter's sister-in-law, enters Castlevania herself to search for the missing Richter. She assists Alucard multiple times throughout the game.

There are four separate endings to the story. If a certain sequence of events is followed, Richter is revealed to be under the influence of the dark priest Shaft. After the latter is defeated, an upside-down version of Castlevania, the Inverted Castle, appears from the heavens. This castle contains another entire series of adventures, crowned by the ultimate face-off between Alucard and his revived father, Dracula himself.

Characters
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Other Characters

 * Death: An antagonist who stole Alucard's Equipment in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
 * Succubus: A character in Alucard's Nightmare.

Gameplay
Symphony of the Night introduced a more fluid control scheme for its protagonist. Unlike his predecessors, Alucard can back-dash with a single button, and attack with a downward kick while jumping. Alucard can also use Magic Spells learned through incantation scrolls and activated with specific button combinations. Some spells damage enemies, such as Hell Fire, while others heal Alucard, like Soul Steal and Dark Metamorphosis.

As in previous Castlevania titles, Alucard can use a variety of subweapons found in various places of the castle, such as the staple knives, axes, and holy water. Like earlier games, subweapons are powered by hearts, and only one subweapon can be equipped at a time.

Alucard will learn skills when he discovers certain relics, a feature reused in later titles. Using these relics, Alucard is able to increase the potency of his jumping skills, gain the ability to open magically-sealed doors, travel painlessly through water, and even transform into different animals, as well as ethereal mist.

Symphony of the Night is the first Castlevania title since Simon's Quest to use RPG-like elements. Alucard can progress in levels, after gaining a specific amount of experience points. Every time Alucard "levels up", statistics such as attack power, defensive strength, and luck will increase. He can also find special items called "Life Max Ups" to increase his maximum hit points and "Heart Max Ups" to increase the number of hearts he can carry. Alucard is able to restore his health or normal status using various potions and foodstuffs found in the castle as well.

Another RPG element in the game is the option to equip armor, accessories, and weapons for Alucard. Some may merely increase his power, while others make him resistant to certain elemental attacks, or immune to specific status effects. Alucard also has a huge variety of one-time use items at his disposal. While some may do damage to one enemy or a small group, others can be used to attack all enemies covering the screen.

Alucard will be able to enlist the help of Familiars, which include the Faerie, Demon, Ghost, Bat, and Sword. All Familiars have the ability to level up as well, and become increasingly intelligent as their levels increase, making them attack or heal faster. Some may gain new abilities or even new appearances.

Graphics
The visuals of Symphony of the Night are a widely praised element of the game. The game's elegant and incredibly detailed look of the castle has been retained in other games developed under Igarashi: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

Environments
Symphony of the Night draws heavily from the Gothic and Renaissance styles of architecture and sculptures. There is a large emphasis on unity with symmetry and elegant flourishes present in places like the Transition Rooms between areas, with the identical, angelic figures facing one another on either side of the top of the arch. The artists spared no expense in details. Slabs of stonework and pillars emulate the texture and intricacies of their ancient, real-life counterparts the design choices of shape, line, and color. Statues are varied in their poses and designs. Bits of bricks and stone can be seen that are chipped away, or incongruous with the general layout, and thus make for interesting contrasts that catch the eye.

The comprehension of the beauty and complexity of classic architecture is also apparent in places such as the Royal Chapel, with its cut-away views of protruding, shingled, outside structures.

Castlevania's areas also demonstrate impressive graphical techniques, such as copious multi-scrolling in areas like the Underground Caverns, with their natural pillars, stalactites, and waterfalls that can be viewed beyond the openings in the rocky walls, and scrolling objects, such as the clouds in the Castle Keep and Royal Chapel.

There also is the utilization of 3D techniques in the backgrounds that create the illusion of shifting perspectives. This is most evident in the famous room in the Royal Chapel with the stained glass windows and large cross in the far background. As the player walks or jumps, the windows, the beams of light coming through them, the walkway between them, and the arching ceiling will transform their shapes to match the player's location.

Enemies
A good amount of enemies were being imported directly from Rondo of Blood. Bosses such as Granfalloon and Beelzebub are massive, sprawling creatures. Most distinctive are the new enemies, and the personality expressed in their animations. The enemy Hammer will slam his weapon down, and then slightly stagger back after withdrawing it. The Spectral Sword's weapon-minions will react to where Alucard is, giving qualities to objects we don't usually associate with personality.

Death animations are spectacular and unique; Guardians, the most powerful non-boss enemies in the game, will stagger to their knees when defeated and turn a bright gold, proceeding to be consumed by a small pillar of fire, and shrink into minor specks of light. The Fire Demon's body is consumed by darkness, and the player can view flames inside of its negative space as its form slowly fades into nothingness.

Most enemies are taken from folklore, mythology, and literature. For example, Cthulhu from ' s stories, also makes an appearance in the game, although his name has become Malachi. There are other references, such as Alastor.

Alucard
Most fans of Symphony of the Night consider Alucard to be one of the most detailed sprites in 2D history.

The artist for his sprite was aware of how every facet of Alucard's design would react to certain movements.

Alucard also displays a surprisingly wide variety of animations (some of which may never even be seen by players, due to their specific nature, in some cases), and a trait that is wholly unique; an "after-image." When Alucard makes a quick, initial movement, a series of bluish illusions of his body will trail behind him. The after-image technique was later reused for main characters Juste in Harmony of Dissonance and Soma in Dawn of Sorrow.

Weapon effects and spells
Symphony of the Night offers a wide variety of effects for its weapons, such as the curved, multi-colored movement effects of the Masamune and trailing effect of the Heaven Sword, along with intricately detailing the shields with interesting shapes and motifs.

Alucard also has a large amount of spells at his disposal, some of them concerning usage of the shields and Shield Rod and the explosive items, and they're represented in a way that most fans have praised. The effects are stunningly colored and animated. Spiritual helpers are crisply detailed and sometimes downright weird, and animations such as fire and glowing qualities are convincing.

Level layout
Due to its revolutionary exploration aspect for the series, Symphony of the Night opted for a more free and coherent layout.

Thus, objects such as moving platforms and pits, staples of the stage-based games, were removed, and the castle's areas functioned more similarly to how a Metroid game would.

SotN remains unique, though, even with its general core layout being duplicated in Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, because it features the most interactive areas. Bridges can collapse, gears can be hit to open doors, obstacles are destroyed in a wide variety of ways, and more.

HoD is the most similar to SotN's layout, in that it employs a lot of hallways with little platforming in them, along the rooms that have been described by players as "Zig-Zag Rooms," which are vertical rooms that have the player alternately move left and right, up or down a series of structures, to reach the next destination. Both games' castles overall layouts also function circularly.

However, classic elements, such as spikes, have been left in the game to add more challenge to its layout, along with several traps, such as spikes strapped to motion-detecting, rolling contraptions.

The game also houses myriad hidden rooms (which are usually accessed by attacking certain parts of a wall, floor, or ceiling) that contain more enemies and items, along with some of the game's biggest secrets.

As mentioned, the castle's layout follows the traditional formula, set by Metroid, where the player must gain new powers by exploring unknown regions to bypass certain obstacles. Alucard will utilize shapes such as the Form of Mist to travel through thin spaces, or the Form of the Bat, to gain access to higher areas.

Trivia

 * Alucard's stats are influenced by the manner in which Richter killed Dracula in the introduction stage.
 * If the entirety of the Prologue is finished in less than 1 minute, Alucard earns +5 HP, +5 Max Hearts, and +5 STR, CON, INT, and LCK. It should be noted, however, that such a feat is legitimately impossible until the player completes the whole game, as the 'Die, monster' cutscene is unskippable otherwise.
 * If Richter manages to kill Dracula without receiving any damage, Alucard earns +5 HP.
 * If Dracula is defeated without having a sub-weapon in Richter's possession and without using the Flame Whip, Alucard earns +5 HP, +1 STR, CON, INT, and +5 LCK.
 * If Richter finishes the Prologue with the Holy Water equipped, Alucard starts with +5 MP and +5 Hearts.
 * If Richter finishes the Prologue with the Cross equipped, Alucard starts with +10 MP and +5 Hearts.
 * If Richter collects more than 40 Hearts, Alucard starts the game with a Neutron Bomb in his inventory.
 * If Richter loses all of his HP, Maria will make him invincible for the rest of the battle. Alucard then starts with a Potion in his inventory.
 * If Richter finishes the Prologue with no Hearts, Alucard starts the game with a Heart Refresh.
 * Combining the best of the best of these bonuses legitimately possible in playthroughs after beating the game, Alucard can start the game with 85 HP, 55 Hearts, 14 STR, 13 INT, 13 CON, 17 LCK, and 25 MP. All bonuses pertaining to subweaponry and items are not included, however, as very few, if any at all, are legitimately possible.


 * Placing the game CD in an audio player will reveal a hidden song on track 2, and Alucard warning the listener not to place the game in a CD player. This is similar to the warning track in Lunar.
 * In the Japanese version, the Library contains humorous audio clips from the voice cast, replaced by a soundtrack in the US version. Two more familiars are available as in-jokes, Nose Demon and Fairy, though they are the same as the Demon and Faerie with small appearance differences. Some item locations are different from the US version.
 * In the save rooms if you listen the sound is actually Alucard's heart beating. The sound is fainter or more apparent depending on how low on health he is.
 * The Saturn version introduces two new sections: Cursed Prison and Underground Garden, which have new songs, new enemies like Gargoyles and Spectres, a new boss called Skeleton Leader and new items like the Alucard Spear.
 * In the Sega Saturn version the entrance music is different depending on the character you play as.
 * In the Saturn version Maria is playable, much different and more powerful than in the Dracula X Chronicles version.
 * The yellow Medusa heads, Gorgons, and Stone Roses will normally turn Alucard into a stone version of his body. However, after gaining the double jump relic, if you are turned into stone while performing a double jump, Alucard will turn into a huge gargoyle statue. While he normally takes several times the normal amount of damage if hit by an enemy while petrified, he is invincible to enemy attacks in his stone gargoyle form.
 * Alucard is able to visit a confessional in the Chapel. If he sits on the left side, a ghostly priest will come out, and either laugh at him and stab him, or toss some grape juice. This is determined by the color of the priest's robes, pale green for stabbing and blue for helpful. If you jump over to the other side, then a woman will come in. The woman in green will try to stab you, while the one in red will confess her sins.
 * If you have the Rune Sword, you'll notice that a word appears whenever you throw the sword. That word is "verboten" and it means "forbidden" in German.
 * On the bottom floor of the Colisseum, the remains of the Behemoth that chased you in Castlevania: Dracula X (both Duo and SNES) as well as Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness is apparent in the background.
 * There is a hidden passage at the beginning of the castle. Presumably, this is an unfinished section that would have led to the Underground Gardens (apparent in the Saturn version). There's even a save point. The area can be accessed by starting a game as Richter, entering the castle, and quickly running back as the gate door closes.
 * Both Alucard and Richter can quickly go behind the closing gate door when entering the castle. This allows for an exploration of the area Alucard runs through in the beginning, though should the player wish to go back inside the castle, he/she must reset the game. The reason for this is that the gate will not reopen, leaving Alucard/Richter trapped outside.
 * A glitch; Alucard can explore the roof of the castle and increase the map percentage above 200.6%. Alucard must have the sword familiar, and use the Sword Brothers spell in the bottom-left corner of the first bell tower in the Royal Chapel. Walk to the bottom left exit and cast the Sword Brothers spell. While the spell is being cast, transform into a bat and charge to the left. If done correctly, you should exit outside of the castle. This can also be done in the Anti-Chapel. Using other methods, players can double their map percentage to 400.0%, and higher. A lot of fans still use this glitch to look for undiscovered areas of the castle. This can also be done in other CV games that use SotN's map system, such as Aria of Sorrow.
 * Players can skip the underground area of the game by flying as a bat through the hallway of spikes, turning to normal, and using a potion to become temporarily invulnerable. By walking through the door at the end of the hallway, the player has bypassed the need for spike armor. The underground area must still be completed to advance in the game.
 * There's a one-time use item known as the Power of Sire. This is a magical spell that displays a portrait that damages all the enemies on the screen for a few times. The portrait is of Vlad Țepeș, the real-life man who inspired the legend of Count Dracula.
 * With the Shield Rod in hand, press Back, Forward+Attack. Alucard will throw out a little, swirly ball. If you're an astute Konami fan, you'll notice that it's the same exact thing as the shield in the Gradius games. It can be used to block enemy projectiles as well, you can also press attack and block at the same time to see the power of the shields you have.
 * The boss, Count Olrox, was known in the original Japanese as "Orurokku" (オルロック), ie: Orlok, the vampire from the classic vampire film, Nosferatu.
 * In the original Dracula X, Maria's animal helpers were based off the Chinese animal gods Suzaku (the phoenix), Genbu (the turtle), Byakko (the tiger) and Seiryu (the dragon). They return in the Saturn version of SotN, though they are all grown up.
 * Pay close attention to the number of times the clock chimes when you equip both rings in the Clock Room. It rings 13 times; traditionally, a grandfather clock striking thirteen times was said to warn of a death in one's family.
 * In the Saturn version of SotN, Maria has a dragon spell. It's very similar to the blue dragon found in the third stage of the arcade version of the Konami game Life Force.
 * If you have Alucard sit down in one of the random chairs in the castle, he'll drift off into sleep after a few minutes, displaying multiple "Z"'s above his head.
 * In the Saturn (with Lyric Card equipped) and Dracula X Chronicles versions, resting in the chair before the Doppleganger fight with the Fairy familiar active results in her sitting on Alucard's shoulder and singing him a lullaby.
 * Alucard's familiar, the Faerie, will rest upon his shoulder if he stands still for long enough. Moving again will cause her to fall off, and cry out in surprise.
 * Transforming into the Form of the Bat when the bat familiar is around will produce little hearts above the bat's head, make him follow you around and use Fire of the Bat when you do. Once the bat familiar reaches high enough levels, more bats will join in and attack similarly when the above is done. Morphing back into Alucard will send the animal into a state of puzzlement, as indicated by a question-mark above its head, and causes any extra bats to leave. Alternatively, if the Form of Bat is used when the Ghost familiar is active, the familiar will leave in puzzlement instead of following Alucard around.
 * Equipping the Secret Boots will actually increase the size of Alucard's sprite, just as the description of the item says.
 * The Muramasa sword is actually able to be powered up to be the strongest sword in the game given enough time. Killing enemies who gush out blood in their deaths will increase the sword's statistical power, but it becomes increasingly harder to do so the higher the attack power becomes.
 * If Alucard equips two Heaven Swords and presses both attack buttons, the swords will swoop around in back of him, duplicate, then shoot out horizontally, ending with a final slice in the middle.
 * In the fight against the three fakes of the Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse cast, if Alucard kills Trevor before Sypha, she'll resurrect him as a zombie, and continue to do so any time you kill it.
 * During the prologue sequence with Richter, if the player attacks the lower part of the stonework at the entrance to the hallway before Dracula's throne, a passageway will open up, allowing Richter to quickly gain hearts, and also some weapons from the later part of the actual game (although they cannot be used as Richter).
 * Killing the Owl Knight's owl before destroying the knight will cause the knight to cry out in distress, and dash to the wounded owl's side. Upon the owl burning up, the knight will turn around and continuously try to attack Alucard with his sword. Likewise, killing the Owl Knight before killing the owl will cause the owl to enter a rage, swooping at you continuously.
 * In the Outer Wall, there is some outside wildlife to be seen. Traversing to the Telescope Room and waiting will cause a bird to fly by, and take refuge from the cold or rain in a small nest. If you keep re-entering the room and watching the birds, the mother bird will lay eggs, which will hatch, and the two young birds will grow up, eventually flying off and restarting the cycle. Additionally, if Alucard ventures upwards, and proceeds to the far right, the player can view a mouse scuttling around in an outside structure jutting from the wall.
 * Inside Olrox's Quarters, in the largest room with the buildings in the background, there is a huge fountain in the center on the ground. If Alucard waits around for a few moments, the water will turn to blood.
 * Nestling into a tight spot as an animal form, and turning back into normal, will cause Alucard to be stuck, though not permanently, and utter a cry of confusion.
 * Having Alucard stand on an incline or right before a drop-off will have him shift his normal pose to a more rigid manner. Shortly after, he'll readjust his stance and draw his arms nearer.
 * If Alucard waits around long enough for Cthulhu, the monster will rear back, and release a powerful, ice-based blast across the floor.
 * For some indescribable reason, the English version of SotN makes constant references to J.R.R. Tolkien's world in its items and equipment. Some make absolutely no sense within the context of the items' descriptions (such as the Ring of Varda containing a description which would more aptly fit the One Ring), while others perhaps are a more abstract reference to Tolkien's creations. Examples include: The Crissaegrim sword, the Gurthang sword, the Mormegil sword, the Sword of Hador, the Fist of Tulkas, the Nauglamir necklace, and the Ring of Varda and Feanor. There are similar cases in the Suikoden series (such as the Sindarin).
 * There is a secret elevator in a room in the Outer Wall. Break the wall to the left of this room and stand in the hole for a while, and the secret elevator will take you down to the room below which has a grill door and supposedly can only be entered later in the game when Alucard has the ability to turn into mist.
 * In the North American version, the prologue sequence is called "Bloodlines". However, Bloodlines is neither the name of the level nor the name of the game it came from. In the Japanese version this part is correctly called "Rondo of Blood" (though the level is called Bloodlines in the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood). Also, if you are familiar with the music, the background music of the fight with Dracula in Dracula X is the same one used in the Prologue of SOTN, only the music arrangement is a bit different, but musically noted, it's virtually the same one.
 * In the very long hallway in the Marble Garden, you can see a giant Peeping Eye in the background floating around outside, looking through the window.
 * In the Outer Wall, on the outside of the area there is a hanging corpse that seems that the person was hung there. It is really a spoof of Simon Belmont, hanging from a ledge.
 * GamePro Magazine voted this game #10 on its "Greatest 15 Videogames of All Time" list, in issue #150 (between NHL Hockey '94 and Super Bomberman, incidentally)
 * In the game Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation, during the confrontation before the fight with the psychic boss character Psycho Mantis, he will read the player's "mind" (in reality, the statistics of the player's game up to that point). If the memory card inserted into the PlayStation has a Symphony of the Night save file on it, Pyscho Mantis will make a short comment about it, saying "You like Castlevania, don't you?"
 * In the Library area of the Inverted Castle, we meet three interesting foes - the Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin man. Their monster encyclopedia descriptions read "The cowardly lion", "Impaled man looking for brain" and "Heartless tin man" respectively - sound familiar?
 * In the PlayStation version, an audio of a fifth ending has been found, apparently in which Maria saves Richter, but Shaft turns her into a demon right after.
 * It's in this game that the 'Stone Mask' item debuts. This mask - and where it's found, the library - is a reference to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It's a particular Aztec stone mask that turns Dio Brando into a vampire in the first place, and he finds the mask in Mr. Joestar's library. The Stone Mask item is further described as being used in Aztec rituals in Portrait of Ruin, continuing the inside joke.
 * I Wanna Be The Guy, a Freeware PC Action-Adventure Video Game most noted for its very hard difficulty and one-hit GAME OVERs, parodies the Richter and Dracula battle. It uses the same sprites and sound files from the game itself. The pre-battle dialog of The Kid (main character you play) and Dracula references the Richter Belmont and Dracula pre-battle dialog. You are given control of the character after Dracula says "What is a man?" and before he throws his wine cup to the floor. However, if you don't control your character after that or are on the way of the cup throw, the cup will hit The Kid, resulting in a GAME OVER. This battle fight is not reminiscent to the Symphony of the Night Battle and was intended to be designed much harder. A repeated attempt of the dialog appears on the final boss (The Guy), saying "Die Monster!-!", but was immediately stopped with "WHOZAWHAT! YOU!".
 * The original english dub of the game is popular with fans due to the cheesy overacted nature, particularly the Richter and Dracula dialogue, which has been referenced in various places, stories and games.
 * Iga was once said during the interview in Castlevania Chronicles about SOTN, he likes Dracula's Curse and Rondo of Blood, therefore he combined these two elements and bringing a new type of gameplay without one direction to explore, but can go everywhere with level gaining and weapons.
 * The bosses that allow Alucard access to the body parts of Dracula upon winning the fight are likely a nod towards the original Castlevania, as the bosses Simon fought in the first game are essentially brought back with new abilities and traits to try and stop Alucard from foiling Shaft's plan.

Music
Symphony of the Night was scored by Michiru Yamane, composer of Castlevania: Bloodlines. To most, the game remains in the very top tier in where the series' music is concerned. Despite the overwhelming admiration for the soundtrack of Symphony of the Night, there have been some players that have criticized the game for taking on too much of an orchestral tone, and others have claimed it to be unattractively bombastic.

In addition, the game disc itself contains a single track which is introduced by the English voice actor of Alucard, Robert Belgrade.

Related Games

 * Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Symphony of the Night is officially a sequel to this game.
 * Castlevania: Dracula X - To non-Japanese audiences unfamiliar with Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night was considered a sequel to this game.
 * Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Symphony of the Night is a sequel to this game from Alucard's point of view.
 * Kid Dracula - Possibly the previous game to star Alucard. Symphony of the Night contains more serious versions of several elements found in this game.
 * Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night - A puzzle follow-up to this game.
 * Castlevania (PS3-XBox360) - An (yet) unreleased game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 featuring Alucard, which may turn out to be a sequel to Symphony of the Night.
 * Metal Gear Solid - This game has a special quote during the Psycho Mantis boss fight if it finds a Symphony of the Night save on a memory card.

Alternate Editions

 * Dracula X Chronicles - A version of Symphony of the Night included in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. Contains a new localization of this game with added features.
 * Symphony of the Night (LCD Handheld) - A Tiger Electronics LCD handheld interpretation of Symphony of the Night.
 * Game.com Tiger Handheld Edition - A cancelled version of Symphony of the Night for the Game.com.
 * Sega Saturn Version - An augmented version of Symphony of the Night made for the Sega Saturn.
 * Xbox Live Arcade Version - A version available on Xbox Live Arcade.

Other Related Products

 * Dracula X ~Nocturne in the Moonlight~ Art Works - Comic in an artbook that came with the game in Japan when it first came out.
 * Konami Magazine Nocturne in the Moonlight Manga - Manga associated with the game dealing with the aftermath of Lisa's death.
 * Konami Collection Card Akumajō Dracula X - Konami official Trading Cards
 * Castlevania: Nocturne of Recollection - A Japanese audio drama sequel to this game
 * NECA Castlevania Action Figures - Contains 3 models of SotN characters (Alucard, Dracula, and Succubus)
 * Akumajo Dracula: Prize Collection - Volume 2 contains 2 SoTN models that can be won from an arcade (Alucard and Maria)