About to start symphony of the night for the first time

Go in blind and enjoy the experience it's not everyday you get to play a truely perfect video game.

Once you've "finished" the game you can start googling and learn everything it has to offer
 
I know others here have already heaped plenty of praise on the game, but it's not enough yet, so I'll add my voice to the mix.

This is a totally awesome game. I hope you enjoy it!
 
I made sure to purchase this on the Vita recently, before it vanishes. I had my ass handed to me at first, obviously going places I shouldn't have been. Then finding certain secondary weapons that made things easier. I went in totally blind and really had no clue what I was doing. Still enjoyable and amazing, just get past some early frustrations.
 
Holammer said:
Enjoy, because after SotN it's all downhill, and I'm only half joking.
Modern entries in the genre try too hard to make the dark souls of metroidvania or cake them in too much exposition and worldbuilding.

SotN was made in a more civilized age.
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Yeah, that's pretty much what I've gathered.

I've only ever played Ori and Strider... and there was a clear dip between the former to the latter. Not saying Strider isn't fun, it's just not on the same level as Ori.

Sounds like all I got to look forward to after Ori is the sequel and this game.
 
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Man, I remember starting dabbling into SoTN way back in the summer of '99. I was used to the more traditional Castlevania games, so this format really threw me off. I *thought* I had finally finished it in '02 (there weren't YouTube playthroughs back then, and I didn't invest in guidebooks, so I didn't know what the hell I was doing).
But I didn't *really* finish it until right around '07.
 
Blind exploration, it will make the feels amazing. I dont lnow for others, but it works for me. Between metroid and castlevania, i often annually finish at least one of their series.
 
SOTN and Dawn of Sorrow are easily my two fav Castlevania games. Haven't played Aria of Sorrow yet, which is pure blasphemy I know, but I now have the Advance Collection so this Halloween it's gonna finally be time.

Enjoy SOTN
 
Just don't be in high school and let your filthy casual best friend borrow your original black label disc. He'll crack it and replace it with a silver label greatest hits copy and not even realize the absolute travesty he has just visited upon you.
 
  • Take your time
  • Soak in the ambience
  • Marvel at the unique death animations and sound effects for each enemy
  • Soak in the parallax
  • Wonder why they put so many weapons and items
  • Beat your head against the wall figuring out the sequence
 
Because of this thread i've started Castlevania Aria of Sorrow on the GBA. Never really played it but it's on many lists up there.
 
Kind of funny that this topic comes up on the same day that a superior game releases: Prince of Persia Lost Crown.

Yeah, I said it. I am about halfway through the game and it beats Symphony of the Night in every aspect except music. I love Symphony as much as anyone else. I played through it to 200% or something just last year on my PS1, and I own the Japanese soundtrack CD. Fantastic game. This new Prince of Persia beats both SotN and Hollow Knight. Get it.
 
Was there never a plea for a remake? It's hard to play this on a big tv. Even just removing the black bars and making it less blurry on the big screen.
 
Shake Your Rump said:
Kind of funny that this topic comes up on the same day that a superior game releases: Prince of Persia Lost Crown.

Yeah, I said it. I am about halfway through the game and it beats Symphony of the Night in every aspect except music. I love Symphony as much as anyone else. I played through it to 200% or something just last year on my PS1, and I own the Japanese soundtrack CD. Fantastic game. This new Prince of Persia beats both SotN and Hollow Knight. Get it.
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That's some high praise. Even if it's better than both, the game will be $15 this time next year and my backlog is beyond full. Gonna wait it out.
 
Damn, this thread inspires me to give this game a new go.
This will probably go down badly here, but I've tried it twice (first time around 2018, second time last year) and I couldn't get into it at all. Played about 1 hour each time and got super bored.
Will try again and go in with a blank state.

I absolutely love the Ori games btw.
 
Is it actually good? I have the game played 5mins and wasnt sure where the first boss was, is there a boss order?
 
You're in for a treat, OP. Game still holds up and still schools 99% of indie metroidvania crap how it's done.
 
You can expect a pretty good time.
Although if the OST isn't doing it for you, turn the music off and play this banger on repeat
 
Ozzie666 said:
I made sure to purchase this on the Vita recently, before it vanishes. I had my ass handed to me at first, obviously going places I shouldn't have been. Then finding certain secondary weapons that made things easier. I went in totally blind and really had no clue what I was doing. Still enjoyable and amazing, just get past some early frustrations.
Click to expand...
Great way to play it. Especially as someone who had only previously played the PAL version on an OG Playstation.
 
LavitzSlambert said:
SOTN and Dawn of Sorrow are easily my two fav Castlevania games. Haven't played Aria of Sorrow yet, which is pure blasphemy I know, but I now have the Advance Collection so this Halloween it's gonna finally be time.

Enjoy SOTN
Click to expand...

I was frothing at the mouth for Dawn to come out after Aria and while I liked the game, for whatever reason the one I keep coming back to again and again over the years is Aria. Dawn is like a slightly less good and more gimmicky version of Aria with better graphics -which still makes it a great game. Of course this comparison originally took place on a GBA SP vs fat DS and if you play Aria blown up on an even bigger screen today the difference in graphics will be even more shocking.

Something about Castlevania just makes me appreciate its sometimes rough, almost NES-like quality. This is also why I don't care about CotM having stiff controls and feeling so "industrial" -it feels like NES Castlevania merged with SotN. And it was a GREAT GAME. Aria shook off all that rust with much better controls, graphics and mechanics but didn't (well, couldn't) go overboard into touch screen rune stuff.

What I really want is a version of Aria for DS that lets me see the map all the time on the other screen like Dawn. That was the best part lol.

edit: Aria also used the same hand-painted, gothic look for its art and in-game portraits as SotN. Combined with the lower-detail sprites I thought the overall tone was cooler and just more CV. By Dawn they had switched over to complete anime style and I felt the silliness of Soma was shoved in my face more -the white-haired, blue-jeaned early 20's guy effeminately storming the castle just seemed more palatable when steeped in the stylings of CV myth, and with more detail left to the imagination, than in full-on anime mode. This is of course preference and doesn't wreck the game, but does hit if you are already a fan of the first one.
 
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Your moveset and the animations of the game are the best thing about it. Its good/fun but the level design leaves alot to be desired, the last third of the game is kinda empty. You also will be picking up alot of junk and looking at the wiki to see what your new toys can do.
 
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Hollowpoint5557 said:
I wish I could experience it again for the first time.

Metroidvania hall of fame

1 Super Metroid
2 SotN
3 Ori 1&2
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No Hollow Knight? It jumped up on my second playthrough I'm doing right now, it's more or less perfect.

Would still place Super Metroid at the top though. It's my all-time #1 all genres included.

Metroid Dread is up there too. Control perfection. Amazing boss fights. Just a bit too easy exploration, they tweaked the scanner too much to do whole rooms and put special blocks on the map.

And both Ori games. Love them. 2 evolved masterfully over the playthrough, the way you move around by the end is top notch.

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is great as well.

And SOTN of course.
 
BlackTron said:
edit: Aria also used the same hand-painted, gothic look for its art and in-game portraits as SotN. Combined with the lower-detail sprites I thought the overall tone was cooler and just more CV. By Dawn they had switched over to complete anime style and I felt the silliness of Soma was shoved in my face more -the white-haired, blue-jeaned early 20's guy effeminately storming the castle just seemed more palatable when steeped in the stylings of CV myth, and with more detail left to the imagination, than in full-on anime mode. This is of course preference and doesn't wreck the game, but does hit if you are already a fan of the first one.
Click to expand...
True about the character portraits, but apart from that, Aria is a full-blown anime game.
I couldn't enjoy the game for a long, long time because of the design, story and dialogue. The dialogue especially uses all the anime tropes it can shove in. And jeez, if that merchant isn't completely at odds with just everything else.
It's only when I played the GBA trilogy back-to-back in the recent collection that Aria's gameplay improvements over Circle and Harmony really stood out to me.
 
LavitzSlambert said:
SOTN and Dawn of Sorrow are easily my two fav Castlevania games. Haven't played Aria of Sorrow yet, which is pure blasphemy I know, but I now have the Advance Collection so this Halloween it's gonna finally be time.

Enjoy SOTN
Click to expand...
I'm currently playing Aria of Sorrow. I really like it. I plan to play other Castlevania games when i finish Aria.
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
True about the character portraits, but apart from that, Aria is a full-blown anime game.
I couldn't enjoy the game for a long, long time because of the design, story and dialogue. The dialogue especially uses all the anime tropes it can shove in. And jeez, if that merchant isn't completely at odds with just everything else.
It's only when I played the GBA trilogy back-to-back in the recent collection that Aria's gameplay improvements over Circle and Harmony really stood out to me.
Click to expand...

I think that's true but whereas I can pretty much tap A and ignore the dialog, can't do that with the way it looks. And definitely when it came out I was younger and had a higher tolerance for it lol. Since then I've just completely ignored it and focused on the gameplay...
 
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