Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Certain bosses are a pain to fight, and the second half gets off to a rough start. Look past minor flaws like these and you're left with a borderline masterpiece, with excellent graphics and a stunning soundtrack.

Likes:
Insane intro for a game, felt like the start of a movie or play or something.
Visuals are really cool too. Interesting mix of 2D + 3D effects
I like the movement and combat mechanics, all feels really fluid (good animations helps too)

Dislikes:

This was my favorite Castlevania game for years. The only one I have played more than thos one is Aria of Sorrow. This us a must play PS1 game. Top ten game for the console, easy.

Best metroidvania oat
Masterpiece 10/10

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is doubtlessly an important video game. It's one of the the earliest entries in the Metroidvania subgenre (of which I adore), and even makes up half the namesake. But there's a problem: it's a fun 2D action platformer, but not a very good Metroidvania. It checks all the boxes: nonlinear/ability-gated progression, level design focused on map connectivity and backtracking, etc—but the problem mostly stems from its abilities. These abilities appear in the form of "relics," and suffer several different design issues, such as pacing and redundancy. Like, why would I get the relic that allows me to high jump AFTER the relic that lets me fly? Why is there an upgrade that lets you use the mist ability indefinitely (aka FLY) after you already have the bat ability that lets you FLY? There's even abilities that are completely pointless, like the Soul of Wolf. Ability-based progression is the most important aspect of a Metroidvania, so I'm pretty bummed to find that it's so messy and un-streamlined here. The level design is actually pretty good...until the Reverse Castle. After "beating" the game you are forced to replay the entire game...upside down. This is bad. The Reverse Castle is bad. All design philosophies are thrown to the wind here. The level design that used to work, doesn't anymore—it's just a chore to navigate. There's even parts of the map that you can't even fill in without exploits (probably because video games aren't meant to be played upside down). With all the abilities already unlocked (and no new ones to be found in the Reverse Castle), It's not even really a Metroidvania anymore. There's also a magic system that I almost never touched, due to the spells themselves requiring absurd inputs and combos to be pulled off. Ultimately, the core loop is still fun, and the introduction of RPG elements are really what set it apart from Metroid (and is the best aspect of the game). I wouldn't be so harsh on this game if it were the one to actually pioneer the genre, but it wasn't—Metroid was.

Masterpiece