(Concluded) Castlevania: SotN 20th Anniversary, 2k members

I played SotN for the first time on the PSP when I was just a little kid. It was way too hard for me back then though and since I couldn't even get past Gaibon and Slogra at the time I kind of gave up on it. Years later, after already having played almost any other Igavania, I decided to pick it up again and had an absolute blast sinking hours and hours into this beautiful experience! To this day it remains one of my three favourite Castlevanias as well as one of my all time favourite games.

I came upon Bloodstained by word of a YouTube Gamer. When I heard of the tremendous support for it, I went over to see what it was all about. Needless to say I was touched to see how much dedication there was for the good old side-scrolling mythological horror that we all know and love. Having only played the DS games I found it difficult to connect with other Castlevania fans, but we were all connected to the IGAvania style.

As for Symphony of the Night, it's a bit too long for me to play and I'm not good at using emulators (something about using the keyboard just doesn't feel right to me). I've seen playthroughs of it; and I love it. Especially its soundtrack, I really look up to Ms. Yamane for her amazing work. Her soundtracks are ones I can listen to for hours and not be tired of them.

I also love the art for SotN, and I appreciate how beautiful Mana's artworks are. And how they remind me of Ayami Kojima's. It's amazing how much innovation and style the staff of Castlevania brought and expanded to this genre of Video Games.

Happy 20th Symphony of the Night!
Congratulations to 2000 members Bloodstained Forums!

My friend was enamored with "Symphony of the Night." He wouldn't shut up about it. He was captivated, and praised it as one of the greatest games he'd ever played. As he was (and remains) on of the most serious gamers I know, I was naturally intrigued. Then I saw him play it. Cool enough, but nothing great. A silver-haired protagonist slashing at enemy after enemy in 2-D corridors. Okay. I went home.

That night, something about the game stuck with me. I don't know what exactly. SoTN still seemed rather basic, rather straightforward, but I kept thinking about it. I mulled it over long enough to keep me up for an extra hour. The next day, I went out and bought a copy. I rushed home and popped it into the PS, not really knowing what I was so excited about. After all, this game had failed to impress me, hadn't it?

From the minute Alucard jumped into the courtyard, I felt an odd sensation. I felt like I was setting foot into a place I'd not been before (I'd never played a Castlevania title prior). I felt like an outsider, breaching the sanctity of a darker world - one which lies just beyond the edges of the daylight. I felt like I was setting foot where sanity shudders to venture.

As I cut my way through the dark, dispatching every twisted, grotesque abomination that blocked my path, I grew in power and understanding. I discovered firsthand what had been apparent to so many others before and after me. Symphony of the Night was a work of genius. It was a master class in understatement and a flourish of creativity at the same time. The design WAS, as I had initially gauged, straightforward enough, but it was brilliant for the same reason. Every extra stretch of hallway, every power-up, drew you deeper into a forbidden world where, despite minimal dialogue, you were allowed to stand as the one ray of hope when the possibility of redemption seemed abandoned. Dracula's legacy was your legacy, and you resigned yourself to atone for the sins of the father by ending his life. You fought the darkness because you could, and because no one else would dare.

By the time the end credits rolled to the masterful "I Am the Wind," all I could do was sit in silence. I couldn't believe the journey was over. I had played the game until the enemies damn near stopped giving me experience. Dracula was something like a 5-hit kill, if memory serves. Rarely have I been so entranced and moved by a game. I felt, at the end, I WAS Alucard. I felt his bittersweet moment of triumph and lamented his decision to remove himself from the world he'd just saved.

I can only hope that Bloodstained will be even a fraction of the journey that SoTN was. I anticipate falling uniquely in love with its characters for their impenetrable wickedness or their unlikely altruism. I'm giddy at the prospect of encountering a menagerie of dark creatures. I shake my head with the foreknowledge that I'll likely comb over every inch of long-abandoned catacombs to find every last weapon, trinket, and power-up.

I can't wait.

I think I probably should attempt to put in words what makes SOTN special for me as that's the topic and if I can talk about it everywhere else I can do so here and now's my opportunity to shine.

SOTN was the beginning of Castlevania for me. I had never touched one prior so for me i didn't have the context of what was different to the past. Granted I knew how the old games were I just never got around to playing them at the time. So my perspective might be different than those who've played the original games first. To me, playing SOTN was a revolution in gameplay design. Not only did it have one of the coolest protagonists ever, but every facet of the game itself was equally as cool. My brother was the one that showed me the game originally when it first came out and needless to say i was blown away.

The Character:

For me playing as a half vampire is about as cool as it gets. Being the son of dracula made it even cooler. Had it been any other vampire game it probably would be just a cool little detail but in this game they sell the crap out of it.

A) The animation - There's no doubt he's a vampire by the animation alone. The run that he does which makes him look incredibly fast despite moving quite slow, the double jump animation with the cape turning into wings, all the spells he could do. The grabbing of his cape at certain points in his animation, The way he stands and corrects his posture when he's at a certain angle. When he gets hit by a super strong enemy and gets hurled against a wall and flipping himself to bounce off. All of these SELL you on who he is more so than any other vampire game to me.

B) The abilities - My god they crammed this game with cool touches. What's one of the first things you think of with vampires? Transforming into a bat? Wolf? Mist? All of it is in the game and not only that you get power ups for each that gives you a feeling of progression for your vampiric abilities. Spells also give you a feeling for what he is, especially Dark Metamorphosis.

These just scratch the surface of why it hit me like a brick in terms of character alone. It only helped that Robbie Belgrade's voice had such a deep ancient tone to it..... I was sold. I've always been a fan of gothic type games, movies, or media. To finally have a game that truly made me feel like an immortal being in 2D no less was exciting.

Details and options-

When I was younger I typically played pretty basic games.. Especially when it came to sidescrollers...so you can imagine when I first played SOTN how much of an impact it made with all the subtle details and things they threw in. The variety of weapons, the variety of items, little details like the shield rod being used with all the shields, the upside down castle, the different cloaks, little moments like the confession rooms, the familiars and leveling them up... Finding out that I could equip the sword familiar once it's leveled up enough.  When you turned to stone and sometimes you'd be a demon in stone. I've never experienced a game of this style before that point that blew me away constantly. Hell, I JUST found out that the red rust sword can curse the doppleganger. I NEVER knew that and just found that out. Some people on this game like a more focused adventure but for me a game that felt endless, that felt like there's could always be something more tucked away in secret .....is a game that will last throughout time. It's like a single christmas present from 20 years ago that still provides you joy in what you discover about it even after all this time. That's a rare quality, call it throwing a kitchen sink in terms of design but it's that design that made it stand out and become so special in the first place. That was the ingredient that made SOTN what it is to people.

The music -

This game easily has my favorite soundtrack in gaming. I've played classical music since I was 7 years old so to have a game that really felt like it transported me to the 18th century at times was really special growing up. It's also a huge sell on the environment and story of the game. The music sets the tone and when I first hit the library and I first heard the Woodcarving I felt like I was transported into the game experiencing that music. All of these elements came together and it's all these reasons that today it's still in my top 5 in gaming. It's this reason why I go on and on in each of these topics pushing for a SOTN approach because it's the SOTN approach that brought IGA into our lives in the first place, it's the SOTN approach that gave Castlevania new life in the first place. We might all have disagreements on which IGAVANIA is the best but no one can ever rob what SOTN introduced to that series, and what that is was a game overloaded with beauty, details, and love.



OH and akuwa and darivampire . You two need to play this game as soon as possible!

I was sure you were going to say seeing a succubus in my dreams,  and I was gonna say "yeah, we've all had that dream."
 
 *Ahem*
 
First played the original Castlevania at my next-door neighbor's when I was about 7 or 8 years old... the NES version, more than 30 years ago...
That I remember the whole thing should tell you how big of  an impression the game made on me.

Even back then, it just oozed style.
 
I really enjoyed Simon's Quest, and absolutely loved Dracula's Curse... my best friend gave me SotN as a birthday present. At first I was a bit taken aback, because it was a lot easier than Castlevania III... but it obviously grew on me, and here I am. I think the only IGAvania I haven't played is the second one of PS2. Other than that, I've played them all, beaten them all, but had lost hope I'd ever see another again... until Bloodstained.

Obviously, as soon as I saw the kickstarter, I knew it was gonna break records and... well, here we are!

Here's hoping this is the start of a beautiful franchise!

My experience is a bit different.

When listening to a YouTube manga music video, back in high school, they played "Enchanted Banquet" and I eventually started playing the game. (No longer there.)

The PS1 dub didn't work for me, but I loved the PSP dub.
The game felt too easy for me, though.
Despite the easiness, I found Adrian to be very relateable. We both have family problems, both stuck in the past (on some level) and are not the masculine stereotype, in regards to the succubus' "advances". As one with a fear of stereotypically lewd creepers, I use that fight to vent.
Also doubles for letting me vent, when reminded of a certain real-life pervert that touched me without asking.... (If she's reading this, I still hate you!)

I LOVE mythology, so it was gnarly to see so many ancient faces in one game.
Of course, loved all of Yamane's music!

I'm still excited to play this game. I'm excited for the music, the gameplay, the scenery, the story, the stained glass theme, the female protagonist, the variety of weapons, the bosses, and the fun that will definitely be had with this game. ^_^

SoTN was kinda weird for me since it came out during a period of a couple years when I had no regular internet access. I still had a Nintendo Power subscription back then, so I knew what was going on with the N64 but the other systems on the market were basically black boxes that only got opened on the rare occasion I made a trip to the nearest city. I'd gotten a PSX mostly for Squaresoft and picked up a few games between them and Capcom, but I didn't even know SoTN existed until I saw it at the store one day. I'd played the series from the start, and had most recently hit up Dracula X on the SNES, so I was expecting more of the same. I was off by quite a bit. XD

The thing that blew me away the most was the combination of RPG elements and Metroid-like gameplay, which was an extremely novel combination at the time. I don't know if it's just because it was the first of the style I played, but none that have come after felt quite as complete; even after beating the game I still found some areas in the inverted castle I'd forgotten to check out, and it felt a bit bigger than it's descendants. I loved the variety of weapons and special quirks that so many had, and still remember laughing like an idiot when I stumbled into a Crissaegram and tried it out. A lot of the music has stuck with me(I sometimes hum the data load screen tune), and I even still have the MP3 of Lost Painting that I generated using a tool that could rip/convert the audio format Konami was using at the time into WAV. The hidden audio CD track was another really cool touch; I'm still sort of torn about whether it could have been better to get to hear it during normal gameplay, or if it was best to be a completely hidden bonus.