1997 Playstation, Saturn, Xbox 360, PSP, PS4, Mobile
I've been playing through all of the Castlevania's which is a fairly daunting task not just due to the quantity of them but also due to their difficulty. The previous games have been largely platforming games where you make it through so many stages to fight Dracula and save the world for one century (when he comes back to life again) or until someone just brings him back early. As the games went on they became more and more interested in exploration and storytelling which leads to Symphony of the Night being a game that suddenly changes the genre
Symphony of the Night shows a love of storytelling early on by making you play through the last boss of the previous game again as the opening of the game itself. Showing that this game picks up right where the last left off, something really uncommon in these games. Similarly characters are brought back to form a sort-of cast, which has never really been done either. Maria Renard and Richter Belmont of the previous game are major players in the story and will be talked to multiple times. Alucard himself is a reoccuring character from way back in Castlevania III making up one part of the party (the rest of whom show up again as undead illusions to taunt Alucard in a particularly exciting boss battle).
Though the games were always connected and had been showing more and more story, none of them ever sought to tell a cohesive narrative between two entries and none of them ever reused characters to create a cast of allies to be relied upon throughout the game. Part of this is possible as the game is no longer an arcade-y platformer but instead an exploration-focused RPG. Not unlike Castlevania II: Simon's Quest which saw a character return with events from the previous game being story elements and saw a focus on RPG elements and exploration! Second games back then just randomly turned into RPGs for some reason and Castlevania II was no different. Inexplicable but enjoyable, I didn't think that it was going to so highly influence later entries when I finished it. In hindsight it feels a bit like they recognized they were being too ambitious for the time and pulled back until the technology for a full Castlevania RPG was ready. (Simon's Quest sees some substantial references in Symphony which is definitely not a coincidence)
This game maintains everything fun about Castlevania while also being nearly completely different. Where there was once powerup orbs to imbue your whip with power, usually two orbs seeing that you were as strong as possible and could launch projectiles- now you must collect equipment dropped from defeated enemies and compare it against your stats. I mean, even the whip isn't Alucard's weapon of choice (a switcheroo that's been pulled before with games with more than one playable character like Eric's spear, Maria's doves, Grant's daggers. This is the first game to do this with only one playable character!) instead he begins with a sword but can later find other weapon types.
To be clear, I love games where you're in a small space and that space slowly opens up as you complete certain tasks or unlock certain things. Metroidvania's as a whole tend to be this way but also Survival Horror games like Resident Evil or Kuon do this as well but I mean any game like that so even Super Mario 64. This is one of my all-time itches and even games that seem to meet my criteria have a habit of missing one or two things and not scratching it at all or at least not that well. For instance, Danganronpa and Outlast, two games that don't try to scratch that itch but do certainly rub against it accidentally. Symphony of the Night? The best at scratching it. Oh my god this game is perfect at that feeling.
It's pretty common in survival horror games that utilize that effect to have a sudden new location right at the end, it's a very good way to push things into linearity while also breaking apart the formula to display that things are getting serious. Those games have the pacing of a funnel, getting faster and more straightforward with progress. Symphony of the Night has a twist on this with a sudden, surprising location being revealed right at the end when the game had gotten to it's most story-based! But, it's the exact same size as the first location- in fact, it's the first location just upside fucking down! It sounds a bit shitty on paper but is so thrilling and fun in action. I'll admit, something about playing through familiar locations upside down gave me a headache at first but once I got used to it it was a blast.
New enemies, new unlockables, new secrets but the same place just upside down. The game does go faster and since the player is familiar with where everything is and they're no longer blocked by blue doors, gates or anything like that the progress is a great deal faster. In a way, the game does become more linear and fast-paced at the end and the Reverse Castle will definitely not be half of your playtime.
I was so enthused by this game that I would wind up nearly 100%ing (well 200%ing, as the two castles have two seperate percentages) it without any guides. I was really in love with this game and I now understand why it's such a beloved classic. It is a total blast from beginning to end.