LONG BLOG
My Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Now, I did not play this game when it first came out. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until a few years after it was released and I never owned a Playstation 1. I first heard of it early in my 9th grade year. My best friend was obsessed with the anime Hellsing, which he kind of pushed me into liking as well. It wasn't hard to do that, but it's definitely nothing that I would consider a favorite ever, but it was certainly enjoyable. His long-distance girlfriend at the time had Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and told me about how awesome it was. The last time I played a Castlevania game was Super Castlevania IV through emulation on the probably not completely unused ZSNES. So, now that I had something that could play PS1 games, I just had to get this game. The main character of the game had the same name as the main character in Hellsing and I got to play as the half-vampire son of Dracula and I get to kill Dracula? It was everything that this fourteen year old anime-obsessed goth kid wanted in life. Although, back then I was really fickle with money. I basically wanted to spend every cent of my pretty limited money on anime, anime conventions, and PS2 RPGs. I would see the game at places like Funco Land and at booths at anime conventions, but I had no interest in paying a whole 35 dollars or more for an old game! Who in their right mind would do that? IT'S OLD! Nobody wants old games anymore. except for me, obviously.
Finally, two years later in 2003, I was in a Costco's with my dad and was looking in their video game... aisle, if you could even call it that. I saw a bin of greatest hits PS1 games, and while I was sifting through the numerous copies of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, and Tactics, I found one lonely copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Brand new. For $17.99. I couldn't help it anymore. I had to have it. I bought it without a second thought. I couldn't wait to get home to play this game. Two years of waiting came down to this fifteen minute car ride. It was probably the longest fifteen minutes of my life. It felt like a year, I feel like I could count the blades of grass as we drove home.
Now, for those of you who do not know anything about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it's an action platformer set in 18th century Transylvania (currently called Romania) where you play as Alucard, the son of Dracula who woke up to save Richter Belmont, the current generation of the long-living Belmont clan who have the job of trying to kill Dracula whenever his castle, Castlevania appears. This time when Castlevania appeared, Richter is nowhere to be found. This game is a huge departure from the series, which was known for being a high-quality, yet difficult straight-forward action platforming series. This game adds in a lot of exploration, inspired by Super Metroid, as well as RPG elements with leveling up, hit points and changing equipment. Instead of using a whip like in almost every other Castlevania game before it, you had a variety of weapons to choose from, as well as having the option to use a shield at the same time to help protect you as well.
Now, back to my first time playing the game: As soon as I got home, I ran into the living room, ignoring my father's yells to help him with the groceries, ripped off the plasic around the game so quickly, I thought I broke the case at first and popped the game into my PS2. I didn't even sit down at all. I just stood there, mear inches from the screen as I listened to the haunting vocals that is the start screen music. It didn't even confuse me one bit that the game's save file started at the very bottom first. I just selected the first square, selected my name as Alucard, and started playing. The first thing that I really noticed about the game was the music. It completely blew me away. The mix of classical music with elements on modern electronic and metal music reminded me of a band that I was obsessed with at the time (and still am, honestly) Malice Mizer.
The gameplay, and the game overall felt so familiar, but completely new at the same time. The game can be fast-paced and very action-oriented, yet at the same time it requires some calculation, from strategies to beat bosses to what type of weapon to use against which type of enemy. I was completely hooked. I played for a while, beat the first boss, found a save point and then... I realized that you can't use PS2 memory cards to save PS1 games. I didn't care. I was going to try to go as far as I could until I died. I did this daily for about a week until I could get a PS1 memory card. Since then, I have beaten the game numerous times. I own it on every platform except for Sega Saturn, and I try my hardest to play it at least once a year. At this point, I can get basically run through the game and get to Dracula in a few hours, and every time it brings me back to my awkward, gothy anime-obsessed teenage years, reminding me that not much of my character has really changed. I just grew up a bit.
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