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What do you here?

If you haven't recently, I recommend playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But one of the original versions, not the PSP Dracula X Chronicles compilation. Not because I don't appreciate "improvements" and the chance to play the previously Japan-only Rondo of Blood, but because the most important part of SotN has been altered irrevocably: the voice acting.

Obviously, SotN is an overall amazing game. It's considered one of the greatest Action/RPG games of all time, and was the first in a series of amazing Metroid-style Castlevanias (the Metroidvanias). But what makes it timelessly wonderful is the over-the-top voice acting ("Think you I would forget such a thing?!"), the unexplainable dialogue choices ("What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"), and well...any moment in the game that requires 'writing' and 'acting.'



I recently played through the PSX version, and purposely died at times just to hear the dialogue again. The voices may make some people suicidal for other reasons, but to them I say "You have been doomed ever since you lost the ability to love."

There

  1. Blogger Hua | March 20, 2008 at 7:19 PM |  

    crack that whip! i love castlevania

  2. Blogger Allen | March 23, 2008 at 1:19 AM |  

    I've tried Castlevania before... it's fun until you get hit by the millionth fast flying creature.

  3. Blogger Liquid_Courage | March 25, 2008 at 9:30 PM |  

    What's strange is that I for some reason memorized the whole conversation between Richter Belmont and Count Dracula...and the conversation between Alucard and Death. Get 200% use the glasses while you fight the last guy, break the globe floating around, get Richter....and good luck with him. Your thumbs will hurt after awhile trying to use his uppercut move to get through the levels.

  4. Blogger Jillian | March 25, 2008 at 9:39 PM |  

    Allen, I think the newer Castlevanias have tried to prevent utter frustrated collapse because of flying enemies...at least somewhat. But there are definitely moments where post-damage invincibility doesn't last long enough and you're trapped by a swarm of monsters that seem to be saying "You used to like this game, didn't you...?"

    LC--so true. I gave Richter a shot for awhile, knowing I'd have to play through as him to get the last Xbox Live achievement when I finally played the arcade version. Such a challenge when you're used to Alucard's fluidity and speed. (Although it never hurts to begin the game with a double jump.)

  5. Blogger Kyle Shipley | March 26, 2008 at 9:30 PM |  

    I think this guy might beg to differ on the difficulty of playing as Richter:

    http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?CastlevaniaSotN_Richter_714

    7 minutes and 14 seconds from start to finish. It's a mighty impressive feat.

    I definitely agree that Richter isn't nearly as fun as Alucard, but it's a nice addition to the overall package. I'm glad they fleshed out the idea a little bit more in some of the more recent games, like letting you switch between three characters in Dawn of Sorrow.