[MidgarFanatic]

Well after STRUGGLING for days with the first damn few stages of Rondo of Blood I have finally been able to play a bit of Symphony of Night.

And boy you weren’t kidding when you said SoN was easier… and soooooooooooooo much better. I cannot agree with this more. It is still pretty hard though, and I still kinda suck at it, but at least I am enjoying it more because I’m not falling into every single pit and getting my ass kicked by every single bat I come across, heh.

To me, the game play is very similar to one of my favorite non-RPG games of all time, Super Metroid, and I was reminded of this immediately. Who ever thought a science fiction and a gothic story could have so much in common? Weapon and armour upgrades, large maps, and alternative sub weapons… just love it. About the main difference is that you level up in this game, although I have to admit I do not seem to see much of a difference when you level… at least I mean, the damage you inflict and take does not seem to alter much. But I suppose the building of strength is revealed over time.

As we have already discussed, one of my favorite things about this game are the costume designs… even though it is a video game. And the music is kick ass! The graphics are good too, even though it is reminiscent of a simpler time. Although I hesitate to say that this game would not work equally as well in a 3-D environment (as I have been wrong before in this regard: Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time trumped Link to the Past… although just barely), in SoN I think the confines of the 2-D playing field wouldn’t quite work any other way. And I think the game translates well and is perfectly suited for the PSP, as the abundance of safe rooms allow for short periods of gameplay on the go, which really suits the nature of the PSP… no?

Games like Castlevania set a unique mood and please a select niche of gamers within the world of the electronic arts, and not just because they have been around since the early Nintendo days. The Dracula stories have been done to death (pun intended), and as a result it has been a long time since anything new has been said about the man. Older stories such as Stoker’s Dracula and Murnau’s Nosferatu where truly scary and portrayed a monster with deep inner conflicts fighting against his own instincts as a fallen man; whereas nowadays Dracula is usually synonymous with jokes. And yet the Castlevania games seem to work well, probably because the man himself is not the centre of attention and does not monopolize the entire essence of the game. That audacious task falls into the lap of the player afterall, and it is truly fun indeed.

And here I have gone again… rambling on and on and making this post way longer than it really needs to be. But in short, I am enjoying the game and I can see very well why it has emerged as your favorite video game of all time Terminal, and I’m glad I took you up on the recommendation. It has many of the qualities necessary for a masterpiece (epic storyline, fantastic settings, mythologized characters), and even though it does borrow many of the characteristics from video game’s past… where would we be without those touchstones anyways? XD

I will now leave YOU T with MY favorite Dracula-related quotes, cheers…

I write this and leave it to be seen, so that no one may by any chance get in trouble through me.
- Lucy Westenra (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1897)

Give me back the amulet you little BITCH!
- Dracula, speaking to a 9 year old little girl (Monster Squad, 1987)