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[Esque7]

Hehe, thank you!

For some reason I've never made a thread, so welcome to my first and potentially only one. I finished the game last week on my X1 through BC and It took me a surprisingly long time to finally get to, considering I've been a fan of the series for quite some time. OPEN SPOILERS AHEAD.

So to start, this is the first Metroidvania style game in the series where the gameplay is focused more on exploration than a linear set of levels. You play as Alucard, the son of Dracula, and you explore Dracula's castle in search of the vampire hunter, Richter Belmont. Throughout the way you gain new abilities to help you explore the castle further until you solve the mystery of Richter's disappearance. Eventually you find him and discover he is being controlled by the evil wizard, Shaft, who seeks to revive Dracula.The big surprise here is that you must follow Shaft into an Inverted castle and then fully explore that castle as well until you reach and defeat Dracula.

The game gets quite a lot of praise around the internet but I have to say I was slightly disappointed for various reasons. First, I already knew about the inverted castle so the major surprise was lost on me. It was still a very unique idea, however I feel like the developers didn't capitalize enough on the idea. Almost nothing was changed in terms of level design, so traversing it was often annoying. The novelty quickly wore out as I made my way through and there were absolutely zero story events, making the the inverted castle just feel like padding out the game's length and by extension messing with the pacing.

Second, the difficulty was non-existent except for one annoying boss late in the game. I think the issue here is the game just gives you too much to work with. Alucard has a ton of abilities and weapons in his arsenal that make quick work of the enemies. The infinite mist cloud ability is probably the worst offender here, letting you pass though anything unscathed. Alucard's spells were cumbersome to pull of in the middle of a battle sometimes due to their input method and I don't think the game even tells you how to pull off some of his moves such as the high jump and the weapon special moves. Also, the bosses were just terrible, probably the worst in any of the Castlevanias I've played. They each suffer from various things such as low HP, easily chained, etc., but only Galamoth provided a challenge and that's mainly because he's poorly designed as well.

Lastly, some minor things: Voice acting was pretty bad but almost in a funny way. The inventory wasn't very streamlined. What was the point of the wolf form? And a potentially controversial opinion: the soundtrack was just ok. The quality was very nice, but the compositions mostly lacked any interesting melodies that the series is known for.

Summary: I enjoyed my time with the game and genuinely liked certain aspects (Practically everything about Alucard), but felt disappointed, as if it couldn't reach the high expectations I had set in my mind from reading all the praise the game gets over the years. It lacked the difficulty I enjoyed from OoE and the tight design from the linear games and some of the later entries. I'd rank it in the middle of the series, although I still need to play some other titles such as the GBA games besides Aria, and I believe there was a Sega Genesis title? I'm not expecting anything to top Rondo or OoE in my mind, especially now that Konami has essentially killed the franchise. Here's hoping Bloodstained will be decent, but I'll really miss the Castlevania aspects in that game regardless.

 

[Nosgotham]

i feel about the same. i played it after the gba and DS games and would not rank it in the top 3. if i had played it upon release, i might be singing a different tune since it birthed that style of Castlevania.

 

[bjork]

First, I already knew about the inverted castle so the major surprise was lost on me. It was still a very unique idea, however I feel like the developers didn't capitalize enough on the idea. Almost nothing was changed in terms of level design, so traversing it was often annoying.

Inverted isn't redesigned. Of course the levels would be the same... right?

only Galamoth provided a challenge and that's mainly because he's poorly designed as well.

There's an item you can get that makes lightning heal you, turning him into a complete pushover.

What was the point of the wolf form?

I think initially, just for swimming, but it has found later use in sequence breaking and extending the room completion percentage beyond 200.6%.

It's the first of its kind and it helps if you were there at the time, but I don't think anything you've said here is unfair.

 

[Greatest Ever]

Fantastic game, inverted castle does indeed stink.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

I personally enjoy the linear games more

 

[Blugrass]

man, been wanting to play this game for ages. Would love a steam release or some remaster on the psn

 

[Card Boy]

Currently going through Rondo of Blood in preparation for this. Ritcher Belmont is the best Belmont.

So to start, this is the first Metroidvania style game in the series where the gameplay is focused more on exploration than a linear set of levels.

No Castlevania II - Simons Quest was the first which set the template for SoTN and future Metroidvania style Castlevanias.

 

[hatchx]

I played SoTN years ago on PS3's PSN, and I absolutely loved it. I went on to play Dawn of Sorrow on DS and the sequel, Order of Ecclesia I think it's called.

God, Dawn of Sorrow is great. It just might be my favourite in the entire series. I digress. SoTN is great. It's a PSX game, maybe try to look past some of aged gameplay. It was a beautiful game when it came out too.

 

[MooMilk2929]

The point of the wolf form is when you get some wolf attack relic. You can do a fireball motion and attack and then the wolf takes off and hits enemies. It can get you down long hallways pretty fast.

If you want a challenge there are two difficulty hacks on romhacking.net. One just makes the bosses harder and one is even harder. I couldn't pass doppleganger 10 with the 2nd patch. I had to use savestates.

 

[Nohar]

The game is indeed better with a difficulty patch, though it won't change many of the inherent problems of the game (namely Alucard's atrocious knockback, most enemies' attack pattern not being even remotely dangerous, Alucard being clearly too powerful for the game's balance, etc). It is still a very good video game, but after replaying it not long ago, I was kind of dissappointed, and didn't finish the inverted castle in this new playthrough (and I had a difficulty patch installed - still wasn't enough to make the game challenging).

Order of Ecclesia is the only Castlevania with a balanced difficulty and which offers a true challenge on Hard difficulty as far as I know (and maybe Circle of the Moon too, I need to replay that one).

 

[BIGWORM]

I remember running across a Crissaegrim randomly one time, not knowing that sword existed. When I equipped it...holy shit. I need to play that game again.

 

[Creaking]

Wolf form is for speedy travel across long rooms/halls. And barking at things.

 

[Esque7]

Inverted isn't redesigned. Of course the levels would be the same... right?



There's an item you can get that makes lightning heal you, turning him into a complete pushover.



I think initially, just for swimming, but it has found later use in sequence breaking and extending the room completion percentage beyond 200.6%.

It's the first of its kind and it helps if you were there at the time, but I don't think anything you've said here is unfair.

I'm not exactly sure what I would have wanted, but maybe inverted AND slightly redesigned? I wasn't a fan of all of the inverted castle bosses appearing in the same exact spots as the normal castle, for instance.

For Galamoth, apparently his head has very little defense but there didn't seem to be a way to reach it easily and consistently. I opted to mist in between his legs and attack him during one of his animations, which locked him into using the same 2 moves the duration of the fight so that kinda broke him. I was aware of the item that heals you, but I wanted some kind of challenge lol.

 

[Creaking]

I actually liked that a lot of the music wasn't so overtly melodic. It allowed it to be more atmospheric and less gamey. Gives SotN a unique mood.

 

[bjork]

I wanted some kind of challenge lol.

Play it without anything equipped?

 

[RareFantasy64]

Amazing game. Played through it for the first time in my life a few years ago. One of the best games I've ever played. One of my favorites

 

[Haruka]

My least favorite aspect of the game is indeed the difficulty. Entering that special code that lowers all of Alucard's stats except luck does make the game slightly more challenging, except that only ended up lasting until the first boss fight unfortunately.

Anyway, what I think where SotN truly shines is not the metroid-type exploration, but the overall feel of its world. To clarify, the castle on the game feels very organic and real compared to the later entries. That's because as the series went along and the games had to be pumped out on a yearly basis, they suffered more and more from "boxed room syndrome". The map was designed to be a bunch of boxes stacked on top of each other. For example, in DoS the Clocktower area is nonsensically put on top of the Dark Chapel so that they both conveniently fit within the borders of the map. In SotN the shapes of the rooms is much more varied as because it seems the designers seemed to consider more how the rooms or the areas related to each other logically. Also note how each area has no copy-pasted rooms or hallways. Just go through each area and count how many beautiful and unique set pieces there are to be observed (in contrast to games like DoS and PoR).SotN is an absolute masterpiece in conveying its world.

 

[Esque7]

I actually liked that a lot of the music wasn't so overtly melodic. It allowed it to be more atmospheric and less gamey. Gives SotN a unique mood.

I agree, It was definitely more atmospheric and that translated really well on some of the tracks and environments.

Play it without anything equipped?

If I ever play it again I'll definitely handicap myself. I think I would enjoy it much more that way.

My least favorite aspect of the game is indeed the difficulty. Entering that special code that lowers all of Alucard's stats except luck does make the game slightly more challenging, except that only ended up lasting until the first boss fight unfortunately.

Anyway, what I think where SotN truly shines is not the metroid-type exploration, but the overall feel of its world. To clarify, the castle on the game feels very organic and real compared to the later entries. That's because as the series went along and the games had to be pumped out on a yearly basis, they suffered more and more from "boxed room syndrome". The map was designed to be a bunch of boxes stacked on top of each other. For example, in DoS the Clocktower area is nonsensically put on top of the Dark Chapel so that they both conveniently fit within the borders of the map. In SotN the shapes of the rooms is much more varied as because it seems the designers seemed to consider more how the rooms or the areas related to each other logically. Also note how each area has no copy-pasted rooms or hallways. Just go through each area and count how many beautiful and unique set pieces there are to be observed (in contrast to games like DoS and PoR).SotN is an absolute masterpiece in conveying its world.

Yea I agree here too, lots of copy paste in some of the latter games and in general less interesting environments. Kind of related, but Alucard's animation was wonderful, something the GBA games could obviously never match.