The video game sub-genres “Metroidvania” and “Soulslike” are inextricably intertwined. The term Metroidvania, named for Nintendo’s Metroid series and Konami’s Castlevania series, implies a 2-D sidescroller with a heavy emphasis on non-linear exploration (read: extensive backtracking). Soulslike games are a modern iteration of the Metroidvania sub-genre and refer to games similar to those in FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series, with a focus on unforgiving combat, challenging boss fights, and infrequent respawn points. Classic Metroidvania games, such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, have these elements too, but Soulslike games take them to a new level.
In my opinion, Hollow Knight is the definitive “Metroidvania Soulslike,” for those looking to experience both sub-genres in one game. I love Hollow Knight, and I will forever rank it among my favorite games of all time. In fact, I even earned the achievement for finishing the game in under five hours.
This article isn’t about Hollow Knight, but it’s important to know that before this week, I had never played anything from the Castlevania or Metroid series. Therefore, all of my opinions should be viewed as those of someone who played nearly 100 hours of Hollow Knight before any classic Metroidvania game.
And yet, as a long-time fan of Soulslike games, and as a more recent fan of Metroidvanias, I felt compelled to try the most iconic Castlevania title to date, released in 1997 for the Playstation 1.
What made Castlevania: Symphony of the Night work so well? What is it like playing it for the first time over 25 years after its release? Does it hold up?
Allow me to answer these questions and more.
Atmosphere
As a fan of gothic horror ever since I started DMing Curse of Strahd, this game won my heart from the concept alone. Four years after the defeat of Dracula, his castle has reappeared. Richter Belmont, the man who killed Dracula, has gone missing. You, Dracula’s rebellious son Alucard, must venture into Castlevania and destroy your father’s domain.
And in case you didn’t notice, your name is Dracula spelled backwards.
There’s plenty of nineties cheesiness here, compounded by poorly-translated and clunky dialogue. In that sense, the game doesn’t age well. Unless you like that sort of thing, which I do.
Surprisingly, though, the graphics have aged wonderfully. Many modern games have sought to recreate the graphics of this era and found success, especially indie games. One such example that comes to mind is Shovel Knight.
As in Hollow Knight, you explore numerous varied environments in this game, each with their own unique visual feel. What’s more, each area has an absolutely stellar soundtrack. Many genres of music are represented across the OST, and they all blend perfectly to create a cohesive whole. To get an idea for the quality and variety of music we’re talking about, listen to a few songs. I recommend “Wood Carving Partita,” “Wandering Ghosts,” and “The Tragic Prince.”
Exploration
As with any good Metroidvania, this is where the game truly shines. Personally, I would attribute the success of the sub-genre largely to this point alone. There is an immense satisfaction upon realizing that since you now have a certain upgrade, you can go back to an area you couldn’t reach earlier and keep exploring. Or that there’s a secret passage you nearly missed that leads to a whole new area with powerful items and bosses.
In order to fully enjoy the experience, I recommend not looking up any guides until you’ve seen at least one ending of the game. More on this later.
Exploration seemed to me the most challenging part of the game, as well, with enemies respawning every time you enter or exit a room. To discuss this in further depth, we need to talk about combat.
Combat
The combat in Symphony of the Night was the weakest part of the game for me. Unfortunately, this is where Soulslike games, with their difficult bosses and hard-to-master combat systems, shine over Metroidvanias. Not to say that there weren’t challenging bosses in this game, nor that the combat system was easy to master. However, the difficulty of the bosses dipped severely after the early game. With a bit of exploration, I soon became stacked with powerful equipment that would allow me to shred through bosses. (Except for Galamoth. That boss severely humbled me.) I will say, though, that unique boss designs often made up for the lack of difficulty here.
I still haven’t mastered the combat system, but I don’t feel that it’s hard to master for the right reasons. Half the time when I try to cast a spell, the game doesn’t pick up my inputs. When an enemy hits me, I may go flying into another enemy, unable to move, and get hit again. Which then sends me flying back into the first enemy. These stunlocks made exploration more difficult, but oftentimes, they felt frustrating and unfair. Certain enemies would make me groan when they came on screen. Looking at you, Flea Men. And Gremlins. Oh, and Imps, too.
The “Ending”
Warning: MINOR SPOILERS in this section. Skip to the next section if you wish to avoid spoilers. I am only going to divulge information I would have felt comfortable knowing before playing the game, but I understand some people might want to go in blind.
Here’s where things get strange. According to Symphony of the Night’s HLTB page, the game should take about eight hours to finish and sixteen to 100%. I was surprised, then, when I finished the game at 93% completion in just under five hours.
“I must be pretty good at Metroidvanias after all that Hollow Knight,” I thought to myself. How naïve.
Little did I know, I only finished half the game. Oh, I saw one of the game’s endings, as semi-satisfactory as that particular ending felt. But as it turns out, you need to complete a series of events involving two rings and a clock room in order to get a special item. And equipping that item during the “final” boss fight will allow you to go to an inverted version of the castle you spent the whole game thus far exploring. A second castle, upside down, with the same rooms, but new items, monsters, and bosses. Therefore, the max completion in this game is not 100%, but 200.6%! (The extra 0.6% comes from rooms in the second castle that don’t exist in the first.)
As you might guess, the first castle felt far more exciting and fresh than the second. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the extra content, and I appreciated viewing everything from a new perspective as I explored the castle all over again. Moreover, the true ending made the extra work worth my time.
Finishing the game at 196% map completion or higher, as I did, nets you the “best” ending.
Wrapping Up
All in all, I highly recommend playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, especially to Metroidvania and Soulslike fans, even 25 years after its release. The graphics, music, and exploration are all delightful. Certain aspects of the game’s combat may be lacking, but not painfully so. Most of the time.
And now, with our ease of access to Google and YouTube, we can all experience the most hidden of secrets the game has to offer. For that reason, Symphony of the Night might be more worth a shot today than ever before.
– AJG
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