The Energon Pub

I suppose I'm really ignorant for not playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 10 years later. But recently I've been itching to play a new game and decided to play this one. Today I did a brief search at a few independent game stores and turned up empty. And I went online and was shocked at some prices. I guess I'm not aware on prices on out-of-print games.

I know it's on Xbox Live and PSP but I only have a PS2.

*Sigh* I suppose its time to look in EB or Gamestop's used game section.*

The PS1 version is only better in that its dialogue is unintentionally hilarious.

The PSP version (Something of a bonus feature with Dracula X Chronicles) fixes all that, and adds new, very good, voice actors. (Yuri Lowenthal as Alucard? Hell yeah!)

But if you don't own a PSP, it'd come with a $200 price tag. ($170 PSP, $30 game) So yeah, tracking down the PS1 version would be a much cheaper bet. If I found Final Fantasy 7 for $20 a few years ago, (I think it was new, it had the plastic wrap and everything, and it wasn't at GameStop or EB games) SotN should be much of a problem.

Highly recommended. Don't give up on this one (:

A used copy on Ebay will run the same as Gamstop, who, last time I checked, were charging $35 (and that was several years ago). I know it sounds like a lot for a game, but I probably paid $60 plus sales tax when it was originally released.

One last thing... I still haven't played Chrono Trigger. No excuses on that one either, right?

It Is Him wrote:One last thing... I still haven't played Chrono Trigger. No excuses on that one either, right?

No excuses allowed, but since the console has been dead for over a decade, it's totally kosher to get an emulator.

Shadowman wrote:

It Is Him wrote:One last thing... I still haven't played Chrono Trigger. No excuses on that one either, right?

No excuses allowed, but since the console has been dead for over a decade, it's totally kosher to get an emulator.

Phooey! I'll get to it once I finish my Suikoden I-V run-through, and I'm still on II.

Symphony of the Night is very cool because it's fun and you won't be able to stop playing.

Make sure you look up controls online. The booklet doesn't list all the cool combo moves you can do.


But I have to say, it's very overrated as well. The following rant contains spoilers.


The potion system sucks. I hate having to equip a potion in one of my hands, rather than just going into the item menu and using it there.

If you can equip an item in each hand, why can't you have two swords? Lame.

Also, the shields are bad as well. They don't actually act as shields, any attack stronger than a fireball still knocks you back. And as for blocking fireballs, your sword can swipe them out so it's lame.

They completely ruined the perfect oppurtunity to have really cool sword fights in this game. Enemies with shields that can block high or low, and you have to do battle with them.

Another shield complaint is the Shield Rod and the Alucard Shield. It gives you an attack that is so damn powerful, you can beat the final fight with almost no effort at all.

Totally, totally, lame.

Then the level design. It gets really hard toward the end, but up until then, it's way too easy. There are no really difficult jump sections, just a lot of walking. They give you strong weapons in plain sight, and then you stumble upon lesser ones in secret rooms.

Yeah, you have to earn some of the really nice ones, but I got tired of finding short swords everywhere at the start. Or hidden rooms that you have to fly into, which means you need the bat, and inside is some really weak armor that you could have used ages ago.

I also hate how you get the bat ability before you get the super jump.

And wolf mode is useless. Aside from the jewel sword trick, tell me one use of wolf mode.


I really do like the game. I had my parents mail it down to me last fall, I wanted to play it so bad and couldn't wait until Thanksgiving. It is really fun, but I have a lot of complaints and they grate on me every time I play it. I wonder if I could make my own version of it with various rom editing tools, or if other people have?

Dark Zarak wrote:If you can equip an item in each hand, why can't you have two swords? Lame.

You can equip 2 swords. I do it all the time.

They completely ruined the perfect oppurtunity to have really cool sword fights in this game. Enemies with shields that can block high or low, and you have to do battle with them.

They did that in Legend of Zelda 2, it's not that great.

On another note if you've played any Castlevania game in the last 5 years they all attempted to copy SotN. Even going so far as using the same sprites. So you may feel like it's nothing new.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:

Dark Zarak wrote:If you can equip an item in each hand, why can't you have two swords? Lame.

You can equip 2 swords. I do it all the time.

My bad. I knew that. But the rest of my argument still stands.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:

Dark Zarak wrote:They completely ruined the perfect oppurtunity to have really cool sword fights in this game. Enemies with shields that can block high or low, and you have to do battle with them.

They did that in Legend of Zelda 2, it's not that great.

But it is though. I know people hate that game, but that was excellent.

What else is a shield good for? Blocking wimpy fireballs that you can snuff out with your sword too? Why can't you get stronger shields?

Evil_the_Nub wrote:On another note if you've played any Castlevania game in the last 5 years they all attempted to copy SotN. Even going so far as using the same sprites. So you may feel like it's nothing new.

I've played every Castlevania side scroller since SotN. I love the Sorrow games, and I love Portrait. I'm looking forward to the newest one.

But those games have much better interfaces, and more interesting design. Those games don't hide wimpy items in places that you need to fly to get to, and by the time you can, you have way better stuff.

Funny story about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

After I had my fun with Final Fantasy VII (beat it 3 times) I wanted to buy Castlevania: SOTN next. This was late summer of 1998. I couldn't one (or at least I couldn't find a brand new one). There were plenty of them around in the fall of 1997, but I was too much immersed in Final Fantasy VII (and if you like FF VII as much as I do, you know what I'm talking about).

I finally found a Castlevania: SOTN for $45 at Circuit City and bought it. This is the original "black label" version.

Then two weeks later I walk into a Best Buy and find out that the game was re-released as a Greatest Hits "Green Label" version for only $19.99


I was pissed at first, but after playing through and beating Castlevania: SOTN twice, it was well worth the $45 I paid for it.