Castlevania: Symphony of the Night demonstrates that a title does
not have to use 3D to be great. Great graphics, sound and gameplay 
make the combination 2D side scroller/RPG a hit!

The Story: After a brief flashback to Richter Belmont's final 
confrontation with Dracula you assume the role of Dracula's son, 
Alucard. Father/son conflicts seem to be very popular in Japanese 
RPG's and C:SotN is no exception. The plot develops through brief 
encounters with other characters which give the game depth without 
jarring interruptions. For example, at the start Death steals all 
your good equipment making it a pleasure to later exact revenge on 
him and eventually recover all your original items.

Gameplay: C:SotN takes the old 2D side scroller and adds role 
playing elements (gold, items and experience) and combination moves 
a la Street Fighter. Play is non-linear as different areas of the 
castle can be explored first and as power-ups give you access to 
new areas you will end up visiting each area several times. Saving 
is done via save locations which are sprinkled liberally around the 
map. The game itself isn't so much about winning as it is about 
finding everything there is to find. Three endings are available 
depending on how much you have figured out. Unfortunately the 
endings don't provide you feedback as to how well you did and it is 
possible to finish the game having seen less than half of what is 
available. Saved games indicate percent complete - so far I'm up to 
200.4% but I'm sure there are a couple of things I haven't figured 
out. Another complaint is that some of the puzzles must be solved 
through sheer luck as there aren't clues that I could find for some 
of the trickiest things. Then again it is nice to know that there 
is probably more depth to the game than you'll ever find. Mapping 
is done for you and you'll need it as the castle is large with many 
secret areas. There are teleport sites to help you get around once 
you've done the initial exploring.

Graphics: Gorgeous. The backgrounds are beautiful and varied, 
employing layers to give a sense of depth to outdoor scenes. Weather 
conditions change in some parts of the castle shrouding you in fog 
at times. The monsters are also visually pleasing especially some of 
the bosses although Dracula himself is a bit overdone.

Sound: Great and awful. The soundtrack is so good that after a 
particularly long session the music kept running through my head 
when I tried to go to sleep. Aside from one electric guitar track 
that needs some work the music provides an excellent accompaniment. 
Each area has its own theme which sets the tone nicely. The voice 
acting is atrocious, however,  second only to the voice writing in 
awfulness. Dracula himself is especially terrible. Fortunately the 
Start> button skips these painful interludes.

Controls: The combo moves are difficult to master which is good as 
some of them are too powerful to be readily accessible. Since most 
aren't documented serendipity is required to find them all. Some 
require special timing and seem impossible to find without a spoiler. 
This is another area where it is fun to know that you may unwittingly 
discover some cool new thing late in the game. The game can be 
enjoyed without figuring out every move and in some cases there is 
more than one way to get around. As the game progresses you get 
access to new forms, each of which have their own secrets to learn. 
Even some items have their own combinations to discover.

Difficulty: On the easy side. I happen to like this aspect as I often 
don't have the patience to bother with learning the exact tricky 
sequence required to defeat a particular enemy. C:SotN gives you lots 
of ways to get the job done and leaves it to you to decide how to do 
it. The later game gets a bit too easy as various items make you more 
or less invulnerable. I would have appreciated some tougher bosses later in
the game as I never had to use any of the many one-time 
items. When I got around to facing Dracula it was trivially easy but
I also had most of the cool items by then. Some interesting parts of 
the game require some tedium like having to grab a particular bag of 
money 200+ times in order to get enough cash to buy a cool toy.

Overall: This is a winner. There isn't much replay value once you get 
tired of searching for secrets but the first 20 hours are a lot of 
fun. The graphics and sound are great but the voice acting is 
gut-wrenching. The game has a lot to offer: the real challenge isn't 
winning but getting the highest percentage complete on the block. 

I give it a 9.

     -James

james@nwcs.net