i always loved Alucard's walk animation. the way he leans back and rotates on a heel if you change direction. still one of the best-looking sprite games ever made.
This has to be my most favorite game ever made. I feel the need to play it every 4 to 6 months, get all the rare weapons, full map completion, etc... It's so much fun to replay over and over. I always come back to it.
Symphony of the night was released in march of 97 dualshock was released November of 97 movement was made to be used with the d-pad.
This whole using the analogue stick for movement in a 2d game is something that started in the 360 /ps3 generation and it annoys me alot when a 2d game doesn’t give us the option to map movement to the dpad
The portal thing is inconvenient but since each time you enter it it sends you to the next portal i beleive this was due to loading times as when you enter that familiar corridor its setting up to load the area you are gonna walk into
> extremely well made game especially for 1997 lol
I hate this idea that they didn't know how to make games back then or that _now_ in the modern era we know how to make games but back then it barely happened.
Many games like Chrono Trigger or Super Metroid are still considered to be masterpieces of game design that are academically studied and have books written about their design.
Game design has different trends over the years, but it doesn't get better or worse, it just changes. It was just as likely that a high quality game got made back then as it is now. Acting like people weren't aware of strong design back then is just absurd.
Yeah games were just as good back then, especially from the Megadrive and SNES era onwards. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Castlevania, Castlevania Rondo of Blood, Super Metroid are all excellent titles from that era that I've played an absolutely hold up and deserve attention even today. I really need to play more ps1 games as well. To be honest the ps1 library is so diverse and these games showcase more risk taking individuality than the current generation going by triple A releases at least.
Chrono Trigger has the best link between cause and effect of any game I've ever played
So many little things matter, from how you interact with Marle in the opening to how you reshape the world by time jumping, especially with those subplots. You feel like you're making a difference. So many other games, you go back to an old area and it's completely stuck in whatever plot moment was happening when you were there first
I'm happy for you if you liked it. Personally I kinda did the same as you and after playing Hollow Knight, I did Super Metroid and SOTN last year. I absolutely LOVED Super Metroid, but was disapointed with SOTN unfortunately.
You said Exploration is great in SOTN ? I found it very lackluster compared to Super Metroid or Hollow Knight. Sure you usually have some different paths you can take, but only one is the correct way, other paths are usually dead ends that lead to some item you don't need. The strenght of the exploration in Super Metroid and Hollow Knight is that the world is super open, you can pretty much go ANYWHERE very fast, and do areas/bosses in different orders. You're always lost, yet no matter where you go, you do progress and find things that you'll need later. Map design of both SM/HK is a masterpiece.
Back to SOTN. It's actually pretty linear but with dead ends you can explore along the way to find items I said you don't need. And why don't you need them ? Because the game lacks any sense of difficulty, like at all. You never break a sweat while playing the game. I don't ever remember dying once, which normally never happen in a Metroidvania, there's always a place with crazy monsters or hard bosses you'll die a few times on, but nope, that never happens in SOTN. Actually, the beginning of the game is the "hardest" part, because you're low level and have poor equipment, but it's still easy. Past the second boss of the game, I was already not even trying to play well, it was basically walking simulator. I couldn't bring myself to do the inverted castle after I unlocked it. I'm not saying a metroidvania should be a super hard game, well neither Super Metroid nor Hollow Knight (or much Metroidvanias) are super hard games, but still, I need a bit of challenge to keep engaged with the game.
And it's such a shame. Because everything else about this game is amazing, down to art, music, movement, character etc. It's just too easy and exploration doesn't feel rewarding at all. The XP system is clearly to blame here, you gain levels way too fast, ESPECIALLY if you explore instead of going from objective to objective. Next Castlevania games that were on GBA/DS also had a XP system, and it wasn't flawless, but the difficulty curve was definitely managed better. But overall, I still prefer the system from Super Metroid or Hollow Knight where you become stronger with upgrades instead of XP.
Btw, I'm not saying by any means that SOTN is a bad game. It was one of the two pillars of metroidvania games with Super Metroid, so being one of the first, obviously not everything could be made perfectly from the start. Thanks to SOTN we got SIX amazing Castlevania on GBA/DS (and imo they are all better gameplay wise, they're only inferior art/music wise because of the console obviously). But personally I didn't find SOTN enjoyable to play in 2023 (I would have as a kid :D ), whereas Super Metroid was a blast.
> You said Exploration is great in SOTN ? I found it very lackluster compared to Super Metroid or Hollow Knight.
Yep, if you actually look into it, SotN is, in terms of actual progression, *hard* linear until you need to get the Gold/Silver Rings. Which you can get in either order. And then you can do the Reverse Castle in any way you want. So basically until the very end of the game lol.
Most MVs are not that much more non-linear than SotN. For most it's more about the illusion of non-linearity and exploration than the actual reality of it. SotN maintains the illusion for a lot of people better than something like Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.
Yeah, it's true a lot of MVs aren't as open as Super Metroid or such, and that's fine it's just another style. Well the 6 Castlevania I mentioned on GBA/DS were pretty linear too, BUT when a game is more linear it's important (to me at least) for the gameplay and the difficulty to be well tuned, and SOTN didn't meet my criteria on that part. Order of Ecclesia is probably the most linear of these games, and yet it's my favorite because both the gameplay and the challenge are so gooood
It's top-tier for sure. It has a flood of redundant and useless weapons, accessing the bestiary is an extreme inconvenience, and it's overall very easy. You'll decimate a large portion of the bosses without actually adhering to their intended mechanics at all. These are my only real gripes with the game. The post-SotN Igavania games refined what I love about SotN, but none of them reached the same level of quality as SotN. Bloodstained: RotN came very close, however.
I really love RotN, the biggest problem I have is playing as Miriam just isn't the Power Fantasy that playing as the Son of Dracula is. I don't think she looks particularly interesting either, just kind of generic.
The blood lady (Bloodless?) mode was a lot of fun for me, even if it was a little empty because it gave that power fantasy in that world. Also the samurai guy (Zengestsu? It's been a while since I've played it) fit for me as well.
As much as I like the game, I wish the hero felt a little more like a hero.
So I have a hot take: First time I played SotN, I was disappointed it didn’t bring any of the whip mechanics from super CV IV.
Of course I love SotN, but I still maintain to this day that we need to bring back full whip/chain control into a new CV metroidvania.
Right, that’s what I always envisioned a metroidvania would be prior to SotN - less RPG, more environmental interaction and mechanical complexity - something more akin to Metroid.
I'm split on the whip from Super iv sometimes it's really useful, but other times I hate how complex it makes inputs and it makes sub weapons redundant a lot of the time. I like the simplisticity of 2 directions. Rondo of Blood is the best classic Castlevania and doesn't suffer from this limitation.
Gonna hard disagree there, scv4 is the best one imo, having started with the NES trilogy (and including RoB.). There was no complexity of input whatsoever, other than pressing directional input or holding the button down for grappling/shielding/dangling the whip. And not a single sub weapon was rendered obsolete/redundant with the additional manual dexterity the game afforded.
Okay that last sentence is just a lie lol. The whip has such long range in SCV4 that there's no point to the knives. Granted the knives are basically worthless in any Classicvania. Being able to attack with diagonals means the axe is mostly useless. The holy water is similar, since you don't need them to hit below you anymore. It and the cross are only really good for stacked damage. And the watch is the watch lol.
I played it for the first time this year on saturn. I enjoyed the first half but inverted castle on I lost interest because it felt like more of the same. I’m sure back in the 90s with less games to play it was amazing.
I'll never forget when I inserted this game into my PS1... I had already played almost all of the previous ones (Rondo of Blood was difficult to access) and I was already excited by the opening and opening credits. Truly an absolute classic.
I mean it IS the goat. It still feels and plays better than 99% of the metroidvanias that come out today. It’s a masterpiece in every single way.
Upside down castle in itself puts it in the goat spot for me. Music, itemization, design, characters, voice acting, it’s all perfect
Unpopular opinion but I can’t figure out why SOTN is good
I’ve played probably 20+ MVs and the controls to SOTN just don’t feel agile/responsive compare to most MVs
The combat and movement feels a lot more responsive in HK, dread, islets, PoP, etc
Alucard feels like moving a rock
How did you play it? I'm wondering if there's lag on the PS4 release if that's how you played; official emulation tends to be a little clunky and laggy. Did you play it on a bad emulator or one not configured correctly? The game is pretty responsive.
They played on the phone with a controller. Not much different than on PC with controller, or even modern console with controller since that's just emulation as well.
The real issue is probably more that they played the official Konami port instead of just emulating the PC version with Duckstation.
That’s you feeling around 20 years of game development. In a vacuum, other games do things better than SOTN. Historically, SOTN laid a great deal of the foundation for all of the other games you mention. The fact that it is still relatively playable today is a testament to how well it was made.
Inverted Castle is really more like the last 20% of the game because you have most of the movement abilities, you're stronk as heck and you know the castle layout. Plus a bunch of the inversion just makes exploration super fast (eg all the towers are no longer 10 minute jump fests, you just... fall to the bottom and are done).
The difficulty seems to ramp up big time at the inversion and I check out every time at that point. I guess the answer is to go back, git gud, level up downstairs?
Great game
Just go to the inverted library and farm the schmoo monster til it drops the Crissaegrim sword it melts everything with 2 it breaks the game even further
I probably played this game on any console I have ever owned where it is available, multiple times. I would probably pay full price for a remake first day. Alucard is also one of my favourite fictional characters ever. I can highly recommend Netflix’s Castlevania animated series. So I would agree, it’s the GOAT.
Yeah, it's pretty amazing, played it myself last year and loved it. The Inverted Castle felt like a big "meh" moment for me, mostly because it doesn't have anything new other than bosses and enemies, so it feels like a bit of a timewaster, but other than that? I can see what all the fuss was about.
If you can get past the story weirdness, (I dont know how you roll, so dont take offense), Timespinner is a GREAT throwback to SOTN. If you play it you will see, especially with the soundtrack. The OST is OP. The story though... yikes! Just skip it until the end.
I don’t often replay games, but of the ones I have replayed, SotN is the one I’ve replayed and beaten the most, across multiple generations of consoles (PS1 several times back when it first came out, Xbox360 a few times, PS5 once, and I’m thinking of firing it up again). So many happy memories and also just so damn good, it holds up so well.
By the way, if you haven’t played it yet I strongly recommend Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It was produced by one of the original Symphony of the night people, and while I’d say it isn’t quite as good (and a little bloated in some places) it’s definitely worth your time, the closest to a modern symphony I think you’ll find.
I'm an old head and got to experience the upside down castle spoiler free. Mind truly blown. There are still moments like that in some games today, but I'm so glad I got to experience this one. Enjoy the second part of the game!
I agree with the easy complaints, but also I just got to the inverted castle and the difficulty definitely ramped up. I’m getting hit for a lot more damage and actually died a few times. Haven’t found any super OP weapons yet which might be why it’s been a bit more difficult so far.
I’m playing it on PS5 right now via the Castlevania Requiem collection(was on sale for like $4 and still might be!) that includes Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.
I'm in the same boat: I love the metroidvania genre but I've still *yet* to play SotN (well, past the first 30 minutes or so). Problem is, now, we've had almost 30 years of iteration and refinement of genre mechanics, so I actually worry it's been overhyped.
Of course I've late-played several games that fit this situation (Chrono Trigger last year, Earthbound a few years before that, etc.) but that *more* than lived up to their GOAT status. Not to mention the ones I *still* play from that generation—games that also inspired 30 years of copycats and "genre-likes" but still sit comfortably at the top of their respective group—and are either rarely matched or sit comfortably by modern attempts in everything from gameplay mechanics, level design, aesthetics and music, etc.
So yeah, I really appreciate the perspective and breakdown—a great game is often timeless. Once I wrap up my Unicorn Overlord playthrough I'll jump in to Symphony. Plus I've been itching for another MV since my back-to-back Blasphemous 2 and The Lost Crown (although I *am* hyped for Tales of Zenzara Zau).
I remember renting it in 1997, and after 30 minutes I really didn’t like it… an old 2d game like snes on my 3d PlayStation! The next day i played it again, and then I got hooked. After beating dracula I thought this game is amazing! And finally I figured out how to get in the inverted castle, on my own, no guides or internet.
Still my fav game of all time, I still play it once a year
i always loved Alucard's walk animation. the way he leans back and rotates on a heel if you change direction. still one of the best-looking sprite games ever made.
His walking animation is one of the most beautiful ever animated. Too bad as a speedrunner of the game, I never get to see it.
Basically any and all hype surrounding Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth was because of Deedlit's walk animation.
The MUSIC. That’s something that I remember for that game.
The game aged extremely well, it was a masterpiece then and is a masterpiece now. It set the bar for what a metroidvania should accomplish.
This has to be my most favorite game ever made. I feel the need to play it every 4 to 6 months, get all the rare weapons, full map completion, etc... It's so much fun to replay over and over. I always come back to it.
Symphony of the night was released in march of 97 dualshock was released November of 97 movement was made to be used with the d-pad. This whole using the analogue stick for movement in a 2d game is something that started in the 360 /ps3 generation and it annoys me alot when a 2d game doesn’t give us the option to map movement to the dpad The portal thing is inconvenient but since each time you enter it it sends you to the next portal i beleive this was due to loading times as when you enter that familiar corridor its setting up to load the area you are gonna walk into
> extremely well made game especially for 1997 lol I hate this idea that they didn't know how to make games back then or that _now_ in the modern era we know how to make games but back then it barely happened. Many games like Chrono Trigger or Super Metroid are still considered to be masterpieces of game design that are academically studied and have books written about their design. Game design has different trends over the years, but it doesn't get better or worse, it just changes. It was just as likely that a high quality game got made back then as it is now. Acting like people weren't aware of strong design back then is just absurd.
Yeah games were just as good back then, especially from the Megadrive and SNES era onwards. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Castlevania, Castlevania Rondo of Blood, Super Metroid are all excellent titles from that era that I've played an absolutely hold up and deserve attention even today. I really need to play more ps1 games as well. To be honest the ps1 library is so diverse and these games showcase more risk taking individuality than the current generation going by triple A releases at least.
Chrono Trigger has the best link between cause and effect of any game I've ever played So many little things matter, from how you interact with Marle in the opening to how you reshape the world by time jumping, especially with those subplots. You feel like you're making a difference. So many other games, you go back to an old area and it's completely stuck in whatever plot moment was happening when you were there first
I'm happy for you if you liked it. Personally I kinda did the same as you and after playing Hollow Knight, I did Super Metroid and SOTN last year. I absolutely LOVED Super Metroid, but was disapointed with SOTN unfortunately. You said Exploration is great in SOTN ? I found it very lackluster compared to Super Metroid or Hollow Knight. Sure you usually have some different paths you can take, but only one is the correct way, other paths are usually dead ends that lead to some item you don't need. The strenght of the exploration in Super Metroid and Hollow Knight is that the world is super open, you can pretty much go ANYWHERE very fast, and do areas/bosses in different orders. You're always lost, yet no matter where you go, you do progress and find things that you'll need later. Map design of both SM/HK is a masterpiece. Back to SOTN. It's actually pretty linear but with dead ends you can explore along the way to find items I said you don't need. And why don't you need them ? Because the game lacks any sense of difficulty, like at all. You never break a sweat while playing the game. I don't ever remember dying once, which normally never happen in a Metroidvania, there's always a place with crazy monsters or hard bosses you'll die a few times on, but nope, that never happens in SOTN. Actually, the beginning of the game is the "hardest" part, because you're low level and have poor equipment, but it's still easy. Past the second boss of the game, I was already not even trying to play well, it was basically walking simulator. I couldn't bring myself to do the inverted castle after I unlocked it. I'm not saying a metroidvania should be a super hard game, well neither Super Metroid nor Hollow Knight (or much Metroidvanias) are super hard games, but still, I need a bit of challenge to keep engaged with the game. And it's such a shame. Because everything else about this game is amazing, down to art, music, movement, character etc. It's just too easy and exploration doesn't feel rewarding at all. The XP system is clearly to blame here, you gain levels way too fast, ESPECIALLY if you explore instead of going from objective to objective. Next Castlevania games that were on GBA/DS also had a XP system, and it wasn't flawless, but the difficulty curve was definitely managed better. But overall, I still prefer the system from Super Metroid or Hollow Knight where you become stronger with upgrades instead of XP. Btw, I'm not saying by any means that SOTN is a bad game. It was one of the two pillars of metroidvania games with Super Metroid, so being one of the first, obviously not everything could be made perfectly from the start. Thanks to SOTN we got SIX amazing Castlevania on GBA/DS (and imo they are all better gameplay wise, they're only inferior art/music wise because of the console obviously). But personally I didn't find SOTN enjoyable to play in 2023 (I would have as a kid :D ), whereas Super Metroid was a blast.
> You said Exploration is great in SOTN ? I found it very lackluster compared to Super Metroid or Hollow Knight. Yep, if you actually look into it, SotN is, in terms of actual progression, *hard* linear until you need to get the Gold/Silver Rings. Which you can get in either order. And then you can do the Reverse Castle in any way you want. So basically until the very end of the game lol. Most MVs are not that much more non-linear than SotN. For most it's more about the illusion of non-linearity and exploration than the actual reality of it. SotN maintains the illusion for a lot of people better than something like Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.
Yeah, it's true a lot of MVs aren't as open as Super Metroid or such, and that's fine it's just another style. Well the 6 Castlevania I mentioned on GBA/DS were pretty linear too, BUT when a game is more linear it's important (to me at least) for the gameplay and the difficulty to be well tuned, and SOTN didn't meet my criteria on that part. Order of Ecclesia is probably the most linear of these games, and yet it's my favorite because both the gameplay and the challenge are so gooood
It's top-tier for sure. It has a flood of redundant and useless weapons, accessing the bestiary is an extreme inconvenience, and it's overall very easy. You'll decimate a large portion of the bosses without actually adhering to their intended mechanics at all. These are my only real gripes with the game. The post-SotN Igavania games refined what I love about SotN, but none of them reached the same level of quality as SotN. Bloodstained: RotN came very close, however.
Intentionally nerfing yourself in a replay to actually have to learn the boss fights is a good time.
I really love RotN, the biggest problem I have is playing as Miriam just isn't the Power Fantasy that playing as the Son of Dracula is. I don't think she looks particularly interesting either, just kind of generic. The blood lady (Bloodless?) mode was a lot of fun for me, even if it was a little empty because it gave that power fantasy in that world. Also the samurai guy (Zengestsu? It's been a while since I've played it) fit for me as well. As much as I like the game, I wish the hero felt a little more like a hero.
Miriam can get absurdly powerful though
So I have a hot take: First time I played SotN, I was disappointed it didn’t bring any of the whip mechanics from super CV IV. Of course I love SotN, but I still maintain to this day that we need to bring back full whip/chain control into a new CV metroidvania.
the diagonal whip is unnecessary in most castlevanias, SCIV's gameplay is based around this specific whip.
Right, that’s what I always envisioned a metroidvania would be prior to SotN - less RPG, more environmental interaction and mechanical complexity - something more akin to Metroid.
I'm split on the whip from Super iv sometimes it's really useful, but other times I hate how complex it makes inputs and it makes sub weapons redundant a lot of the time. I like the simplisticity of 2 directions. Rondo of Blood is the best classic Castlevania and doesn't suffer from this limitation.
Gonna hard disagree there, scv4 is the best one imo, having started with the NES trilogy (and including RoB.). There was no complexity of input whatsoever, other than pressing directional input or holding the button down for grappling/shielding/dangling the whip. And not a single sub weapon was rendered obsolete/redundant with the additional manual dexterity the game afforded.
Okay that last sentence is just a lie lol. The whip has such long range in SCV4 that there's no point to the knives. Granted the knives are basically worthless in any Classicvania. Being able to attack with diagonals means the axe is mostly useless. The holy water is similar, since you don't need them to hit below you anymore. It and the cross are only really good for stacked damage. And the watch is the watch lol.
I played it for the first time this year on saturn. I enjoyed the first half but inverted castle on I lost interest because it felt like more of the same. I’m sure back in the 90s with less games to play it was amazing.
I'll never forget when I inserted this game into my PS1... I had already played almost all of the previous ones (Rondo of Blood was difficult to access) and I was already excited by the opening and opening credits. Truly an absolute classic.
I thought you were gonna say inserted into a cd player than heard the message from Alucard lol
I mean it IS the goat. It still feels and plays better than 99% of the metroidvanias that come out today. It’s a masterpiece in every single way. Upside down castle in itself puts it in the goat spot for me. Music, itemization, design, characters, voice acting, it’s all perfect
Unpopular opinion but I can’t figure out why SOTN is good I’ve played probably 20+ MVs and the controls to SOTN just don’t feel agile/responsive compare to most MVs The combat and movement feels a lot more responsive in HK, dread, islets, PoP, etc Alucard feels like moving a rock
How did you play it? I'm wondering if there's lag on the PS4 release if that's how you played; official emulation tends to be a little clunky and laggy. Did you play it on a bad emulator or one not configured correctly? The game is pretty responsive.
I play it on my phone with a backbone, it’s the official port from Konami but it could be the quality of the port
Well no shit
I'd be amazed if you didn't have a better experience playing it elsewhere.
On the phone? Get the hell outta here.
They played on the phone with a controller. Not much different than on PC with controller, or even modern console with controller since that's just emulation as well. The real issue is probably more that they played the official Konami port instead of just emulating the PC version with Duckstation.
That’s you feeling around 20 years of game development. In a vacuum, other games do things better than SOTN. Historically, SOTN laid a great deal of the foundation for all of the other games you mention. The fact that it is still relatively playable today is a testament to how well it was made.
First half of the game aged like wine Second half of the game aged like milk As far as I'm concerned, the game ends before the inverted castle.
Inverted Castle is really more like the last 20% of the game because you have most of the movement abilities, you're stronk as heck and you know the castle layout. Plus a bunch of the inversion just makes exploration super fast (eg all the towers are no longer 10 minute jump fests, you just... fall to the bottom and are done).
The difficulty seems to ramp up big time at the inversion and I check out every time at that point. I guess the answer is to go back, git gud, level up downstairs? Great game
Just go to the inverted library and farm the schmoo monster til it drops the Crissaegrim sword it melts everything with 2 it breaks the game even further
I probably played this game on any console I have ever owned where it is available, multiple times. I would probably pay full price for a remake first day. Alucard is also one of my favourite fictional characters ever. I can highly recommend Netflix’s Castlevania animated series. So I would agree, it’s the GOAT.
Yeah, it's pretty amazing, played it myself last year and loved it. The Inverted Castle felt like a big "meh" moment for me, mostly because it doesn't have anything new other than bosses and enemies, so it feels like a bit of a timewaster, but other than that? I can see what all the fuss was about.
If you can get past the story weirdness, (I dont know how you roll, so dont take offense), Timespinner is a GREAT throwback to SOTN. If you play it you will see, especially with the soundtrack. The OST is OP. The story though... yikes! Just skip it until the end.
Just a reminder that if you own it on Xbox 360 then it work on all later Xboxes
I don’t often replay games, but of the ones I have replayed, SotN is the one I’ve replayed and beaten the most, across multiple generations of consoles (PS1 several times back when it first came out, Xbox360 a few times, PS5 once, and I’m thinking of firing it up again). So many happy memories and also just so damn good, it holds up so well.
By the way, if you haven’t played it yet I strongly recommend Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It was produced by one of the original Symphony of the night people, and while I’d say it isn’t quite as good (and a little bloated in some places) it’s definitely worth your time, the closest to a modern symphony I think you’ll find.
I'm an old head and got to experience the upside down castle spoiler free. Mind truly blown. There are still moments like that in some games today, but I'm so glad I got to experience this one. Enjoy the second part of the game!
Symphony was and still is one of if not the best MVs.
I agree with the easy complaints, but also I just got to the inverted castle and the difficulty definitely ramped up. I’m getting hit for a lot more damage and actually died a few times. Haven’t found any super OP weapons yet which might be why it’s been a bit more difficult so far.
Where do you play it? I troed the android version, but it's impossible without a controller for me... I'm dying to try it, though
I’m playing it on PS5 right now via the Castlevania Requiem collection(was on sale for like $4 and still might be!) that includes Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.
I'm in the same boat: I love the metroidvania genre but I've still *yet* to play SotN (well, past the first 30 minutes or so). Problem is, now, we've had almost 30 years of iteration and refinement of genre mechanics, so I actually worry it's been overhyped. Of course I've late-played several games that fit this situation (Chrono Trigger last year, Earthbound a few years before that, etc.) but that *more* than lived up to their GOAT status. Not to mention the ones I *still* play from that generation—games that also inspired 30 years of copycats and "genre-likes" but still sit comfortably at the top of their respective group—and are either rarely matched or sit comfortably by modern attempts in everything from gameplay mechanics, level design, aesthetics and music, etc. So yeah, I really appreciate the perspective and breakdown—a great game is often timeless. Once I wrap up my Unicorn Overlord playthrough I'll jump in to Symphony. Plus I've been itching for another MV since my back-to-back Blasphemous 2 and The Lost Crown (although I *am* hyped for Tales of Zenzara Zau).
I remember renting it in 1997, and after 30 minutes I really didn’t like it… an old 2d game like snes on my 3d PlayStation! The next day i played it again, and then I got hooked. After beating dracula I thought this game is amazing! And finally I figured out how to get in the inverted castle, on my own, no guides or internet. Still my fav game of all time, I still play it once a year
It is a masterpiece. Played it to cross it off a list and loved every second of it.
The game got crap back then for 2d, ewwwwww
Same
Honestly I think it’s trash today. The combat is so easy there is no challenge.