'Castlevania: Symphony of the Night' Review: Retro Gaming at its Finest

Are PlayStation One games considered retro yet? Has it really been that much time for them to be referred to as legacy games?

Before the inevitable downfall of developer and publisher Konami, they were known for creating some of the best platforming games of the 80's and 90's. Sadly, that is nothing more than an accolade, and the company believes its best direction for its future is that of gambling in the form of pachinko machines.

Designer Koji Igarashi, now working on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, cemented himself with the gothic style of Castlevania; a game with a unique narrative on the vampire genre. Vampires residing in beautiful, enormous castles filled with various enemies and challenges that one must face before the inevitable final battle between your highly skilled vampire killer and the vampire.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night shines as one of the best in its series due to its beautiful features and art for its time; it was only 1997, but it took an excellent leap into the world of more powerful technology. It stays true to its predecessors while offering something new. That's sadly something very rare these days. Interestingly, the game originally performed quite poorly up until critics pushed its name out there in the United States.

The game has the expectation that the player doesn't need their hand to be held throughout, and it's evident with its simplistic map, which shows the player where they have been in the castle, and where they could go next in attempt to progress throughout the story. With that freedom, it still remains difficult to accidentally progress a little too far into the game, where you are not quite ready to take on the monsters.

Combat follows the typical use of several abilities that are obtained throughout the game, although some abilities allow the player to build their character around the type of combat they'd prefer to use: it's your choice whether you want to slice up the enemies with your powerful sword, or something stick back and rely on the abilities of magic to weaken them, then finish them off with a slice in order to preserve your health.

Due to its gothic themes and focus on vampires, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the perfect game to relax to during the month of October, leading up to Halloween.