Has Symphony of the Night ever been surpassed?

I'm playing through Castlevania Symphony of the night on my Vita. I played it back in the ps1 days, replayed it on 360 and am now sinking into another run... Currently 150% complete.

Not sure what it was about this playthrough, but this games near perfection cannot be overstated in the face of all that has come before and since. Each of its gameplay ideas hit the mark, it's secrets, it's lite inventory management, the bosses... The very concept of the inverted castle... The art and graphics even hold up with surprising appeal. . The legions of games it spawned, that pay SotN it's due homage....

Lastly, and maybe more importantly, like a link to the past, Final Fantasy 4... Actraiser.... And a few other games I say this about. The game plays as good or better today than it did when it launched.

Dare I say that no 2d action platformer before or since has surpassed (even in 2016) the masterpiece of the genre, nearly 2 decades old...

Is there even a single game system wars can put up that rivals the perfection that is Symphony of the Night?

Clockwork Knight 2

Never played it.

@freedomfreak: O_O. You sir...

Yeah, by OG Castlevania and 4 and more importantly Super Fucking Metroid. For starters the level design is substantially better in Super Metroid.

It doesn't beat its spiritual predecessor, that being Super Metroid. That game is much more well-rounded and more compact in its open-ended design. Symphony is a great game, but it's really no contest here.

To be honest I think *most* of the DS/3DS versions are simply better (but I didnt play SOTN on release) .... SOTN was just too easy overall. was good.

Order Of Eclysia (sp) was ... the metroid vania that made me feel close to the original castlevanias.... and loved its art style.

@jg4xchamp: Adored Super Castlevania IV, but can't say it's a better game than SotN.... In the vein of being an "og" Castlevania game, SCIV is superb, still, the depth of symphony mixed with the exploration, bosses, secrets ring more satisfying for me.

Controlling the whip though... Ahh truly a Super Castlevania...

I've only a partial playthrough of super Metroid.. And I know both games are credited with due praise... Cant say it's better for me at thus point but perhaps a side by side playthrough is in order.

Not for me, it's my favorite game of all time and the only one that comes close is Super Metroid, now I know many people prefer Super Metroid and that's cool I adore the game as well, and I even admit that overall Super Metroid has stronger level design, but SoTN was just different in its own way and just jived with me better, and the soundtrack is just sublime.

As much as I really like the game, there was one glaring flaw that irked me at the time, the one thing that I felt was missing for me to call the game perfect, and that was the fairly easy difficulty of the game. You had all these awesome moves and weapons, RPG elements, but often the game was too easy I felt. In that sense, Super Metroid has the upper hand.

Do not get this confused with Symphony of the Night is a bad game, I fucking love that game, but No.

Symphony and its sequels don't have more depth, they are like really doofy rpgs, that made good on Castlevania 2's shitty design. As a pure action/platformer OG and 4 were actually enjoyable, well thought out, and posed a threat. The nature of Symphony's systems if anything took away some of the platforming challenges that made those games great, and the difference between Super Metroid, besides the fact that Super Metroid actually builds a setting and atmosphere, is that in Super Metroid every item you pick up, is actually useful to the player. Every item, no matter how little improves Samus. In Symphony you find a lot of worthless shit, because that's how rpgs are made to waste someone's time.

Symphony of the Night is a classic, but I wouldn't even call it the best Castlevania game, I don't like any of its sequels, and that one might just be because of the doofy art design, but Rondo of Blood? **** yeah. Symphony of the NIght? Yeah it's great, but the best type of game in the Metroid-Like genre? Over Metroid? Nah. I clearly lack a zero Metroid bias, obviously : >

@jg4xchamp: Yeah SC4 was just something else. I get these flashes of memory sometimes of when I was playing the game, I sometimes feel it might have the most distinct and amazing OST ever. I feel like listening to it now while typing this lol

@jg4xchamp: there is no doubt that symphony poses less a threat in terms of challenge. OG Castlevania, for example was a game that you were willing to leave on pause while you went to school only to come back and pick up where you left off, because the challenge was so unforgiving. I found SCIV to be fairly easy, though wonderfully designed.

Never really saw the comparison between Simons quest and symphony, but yeah I see what you mean, by taking the shit you find and giving it purpose by putting it to use later on being part of the tenor of the game. It makes sense.

There us also some inventory waste scattered about... Though I'd imagine that's in part a product of leaving the castle open to explore... Sometimes you find an item you need and others you find an item you needed an hour ago but you've already found something better...

I'd love to play super Metroid on my 3ds, but Nintendo wants me to go buy another 3ds to make that happen. (lol no). Till then I think I'll finish up symphony again and maybe plug in the basement door jam (the wii) to give super Metroid a solid go. I didn't dislike it when I played it, just downloaded a ton from the store and i never made it through the entire thing.

Egoraptor's sequelitis video on OG Castlevania v Castlevania 2 gets why that game sucks, but so many of its successors: Symphony and the handheld sequels work better, they flat out make more design decisions that benefit the rpg end of the spectrum. Castlevania 2 on top of being convoluted and silly, tried to keep it both ways like OG and whatever the **** they were going for. And you can't be half a doofy game, you gotta go full doofy.

An old friend of mine and I always debated between SOTN and Super Metroid being the top-tier god of Metroivania/Castleroid games. We never were able to agree on anything besides that they were both outstanding games that have no competition.

Personally, I felt like Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness are criminally underrated games for their distinct drawings from SOTN and turning certain elements (atmosphere and music, or Metroivania gameplay respectively) of SOTN into successful 3D versions of Castlevania (however, that means they aren't great 3D action games because the CV formula doesn't translate well to 3D).

However, I loved Curse of Darkness. To me it was SOTN in 3D.

Yeah I'm playing it and I don't think it's as good as most 2D Castlevania's that were made after it. Mind you I am not too far in. I'm not sure how to give a sense of how deep I got because I don't know what comes after and its design is quite open. I got past the ferry man and the library stuff.

I like Rondo of Blood more. And I like Order of Ecclesia more. Oh and I think that Dracula x Chronicles is better designed than Rondo of Blood from what I played of it.

The challenge in Order of Ecclesia is better and the map design is better. I got stuck in SotN quite often because I did not find any way to progress. This did not happen once in OoE yet it stayed fun throughout the game. I also think it controlled slightly better.

Trust me. Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia have nothing on this game.

This is probably my favorite song from the SOTN OST, it's not just the song itself, but the first 15 min or so of the game is one of my favorite parts(up until the point Death takes your gear). I don't know what it is, switching from Belmont to Alucard, how stylish he first feels, etc. just love that part

Also, this is probably my favorite tune from SC4.....damn that soundtrack, just amazing

Honestly, I think Symphony of the Night set the bar REALLY high and most of the Metroidvanias out there have yet to master the brilliance that game made.

The GBA games, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and Aria of Sorrow are EXCELLENT titles, but Even playing through all of Circle and currently going through Aria and Harmony they're nothing in comparison to Symphony of the Night. The only one that feels to me to get it somewhat right or has an equal chance of being way better than SoTN was Order of Ecclesia. I haven't beat the game, but out of the DS trilogy I thought Order of Ecclesia was the best of all of them.

There are other games that somewhat follow Symphony of the Night's pattern like Unepic, Chronicles of Teddy, Shantae (I don't know why), and Shadow Complex, but all of those games haven't matched the Amazing Soundtrack, The Epic Voice acting (eat it haters), and of course the masterful Gameplay. This was truly Konami's top Castlevania game.

Here's hoping for Koji Igarashi for surpassing it with Bloodstained.

@LegatoSkyheart: I'm so excited for bloodstained...

@TheEroica: Same. Another thing I hope is that Iga doesn't pull a Inafune.

@LegatoSkyheart: Wtf happened to mighty no.9?

@jg4xchamp: gotta be honest... I was a huge Simons Quest nerd as a kid... I was the guy lapping up all the "doofyness". Loved it.

Then castle"fuckyou"vania 3 came out and crushed my soul like the first game did... Sigh.

really good question. I think it's close to releasing, but this week like everyone's backer demo just VANISHED from their Steam Library.

I was gonna play it this weekend and I couldn't find it. It's just gone. So I'm thinking they're prepping to release the game VERY SOON. Still the hype that was surrounding the game back when it was announced is no longer there. There's a lot of people that backed the game and feel cheated.

The world will never know. i was looking forward to that game too.

@LegatoSkyheart: I had some high hopes for it when it was announced. That genre is still my favorite in games. Seems to just be recieved lukewarm at this point. Here's hoping to a quick release.

I bought MMx4 and x5 on the psn sale a few weeks ago. Never played them before.

I pretty much just play vita all day and my ps4 is like the Witcher box.

@TheEroica: X4 is pretty much the start of the Zero series (IMO)

X is so trash in that game, but Zero is pretty awesome.

X5 is overall meh.

It's a great game, but it doesn't even make my top 3 favorite Castlevania games.

I do think that Symphony of the Night is by far the best of the Metroidvanias, but I prefer the classic Castlevania games that were difficult and pure action platformers. Symphony of the Night is too easy and I prefer when Castlevania sticks to pure action platforming with stage-by-stage progression.

I haven't played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It certainly gets the best game rankings (93%) from reviewers in the long Castlevania history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania

I played one of the NES Castlevania games on the NES when I was a teenager, and I can't remember which (Castlevania, Castlevania II: Vampire Killer, or Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse)? I need to look at some screenshots an watch some youtube videos to see if I can jog my memory. I recall Simon having to jump on tree stumps in a forest, and I think he was attacked by bats...Nintendo eShop has a lot of these titles so I am going to get one, probably the one I first played to start. I like the genre and Castlevania brand and think the games should continue to be made.

Super Metroid has never been topped

have u seen titanfall??

Only ever played the. DS Games. They was quite fun.

Don't think I could play S.o.t.n now as it's expensive game to purchase the Psx version and to my knowledge not on the PS4 store.

@cainetao11: ... Lol

E-man, I'm really happy for you, and I'ma let you finish, but Super Metroid is the best Metroidvania of all time.

/lameoldmemes

Seriously though, while both are triumphs, please play all the way through Super Metroid next.

I think Super Metroid and Symphony are great in their own ways, which one is better depends when you ask me, I guess.

I think Dawn of Sorrow is better though. Really liked that game, gonna replay it soon.

I've never played it, maybe I'll have to check it out.

SOTN is my favorite Castlevania game, but there are several platformers that I like over it. Bloodstained has a shot of surpassing it too since Iga seems like he'll be going all out. SOTN, as great as it is, is just way too easy and never takes advantage of the multiple moves Alucard has at it his disposable. Plus, there's no variety in any of its backgrounds, and so it can get kind of tiring looking at the same things, especially in the inverted castle portion.

Heil saying he'll "check out" an old game at this point is like Fox News saying it's unbiased.

This forum always reminds me of games I still need to play.

I still remember when they released the PSP version of Rondo of Blood with the updated Symphony of the Night. Most of the glitches were still intact (thank the gaming gods) but they added new voice tracks that were more... "serious" and it lost a lot of that nostalgic campiness the original dub had.

Speed running with Richter got me through many university classes. I think I got to the point where I was only about a minute and a half off the record.

Everyone says this but I don't get it. SOTN is the best sandbox in existence for speed running and artificial limitations. You can go full glitch run and do it in the fastest possible time... or you can do it "legit" and beat it normally as fast as possible. You can get 100% as fast as possible. You can do a "naked run" (one of the hardest things in any game ever) where you have no armour, no weapons, no magic and have to beat all the bosses (something I never did and my friend barely beat Dracula in the second castle by the skin of his teeth after almost a week of trying).

Very few games from that time period gave players that kind of infinite replayability. Now games are just mere shadows of shadows of that.

Never played as well before... But I'd like to try,,

@foxhound_fox: great post... You speak a truth that cannot be left out when discussing why sotn is so special.

A game with an ending... Credits and all... But not really an ending if you've searched for special items that reveal an entire second half of the game. The game offers a flexibility to play... Speed runners, challenge junkies and completionists rejoice.

I haven't played it either.

I'm pretty sure The Order gives it a run for its money.

Weak.

@darkspineslayer: that's the plan... Actually @Animal-Mother: is sending me his wiiu... Maybe I'll have him pre load it and pay him back. I have to see and decide for myself at thus point, because I'm playing through symphony and it's pretty much bulletproof in terms of my expectations for what makes a video game special.

@Blabadon: I lol'd... @Heil68: doesn't know what he's missing not having the vita. Dude! Get one! Craigslist it like I did with PoS3, that way Sony doesn't get your money. :P