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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

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8.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
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Based on 28 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Digital Eclipse

Genre(s): Action, Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: March 21, 2007

Summary

[Xbox Live Arcade] Dracula's castle has risen again and it's up to the mysterious Alucard to face Dracula and save the world from his nocturnal embrace. Uncover the riddle behind why the castle has returned and what became of the world's last hero, Richer Belmont. Upgrade your weapons, armor, and stats by defeating the castle's defenders. Encounter allies and enemies throughout the castle who help you uncover the real story of both Castlevania and Alucard's personal demons. With non-linear gameplay and multiple endings, its up to you to guide Alucard through the castle as you see fit. Achievements, to challenge players to completely conquer Dracula's castle. Leaderboards, so you can vie for position with other players to become the undisputed worldwide master of Symphony of the Night. Enhanced background visuals that take advantage of the HD graphics capabilities of the Xbox 360. All of the original PlayStation music, sprites, and gameplay content. Ported controls let you experience every battle and boss fight as originally envisioned. Gamer themes and picture packs coming soon to let you customize your Xbox 360 in the Castlevania style. [Konami]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX)

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

ZTGameDomain

If I’ve said it once, I have said it a thousand times; this is the greatest game ever. There is really nothing wrong with this game whatsoever. If you enjoy old school side scrolling, or you just want a really good adventure game to play on your 360. Look no further than Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you won’t be disappointed at all!

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Team Xbox

With a mixture of open-ended gameplay elements, more advanced controls, and a gripping story, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the epitome of the side-scrolling genre.

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Game Chronicles

The future of Xbox Live Arcade starts here and today with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

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360 Gamer Magazine UK

Simply the best example of a retro game on Live Arcade. It's flawless in its design and outstanding as a game, even ten years on. [Issue 25, p.67]

Official Xbox Magazine UK

It was, and still is, a gaming masterpiece. The term ‘Must Buy’ was created for games like this.

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Just RPG

While this version of Symphony of the Night may not be as original, innovative, or graphically modern as the original version was back in the day, it’s still a very solid game, with great enhancements and a price that you just can’t beat.

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AceGamez

A true classic in its own right - even with the minor enhancements and downgrades, but its port to XBLA may prove to be more important than the game itself.

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Eurogamer

Symphony of the Night presents exquisite design, extraordinary scope, aesthetic coherence and transcendent elegance mostly unmatched elsewhere on Xbox Live Arcade, or anywhere else for that matter.

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IGN

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is easily one of the greatest games of all time, this is a pretty solid version minus a few oddities and a piss-poor d-pad (if Konami brought the game, the least Microsoft could do is give us a decent pad for it now), and at the price of $10 it's a steal.

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Cheat Code Central

Symphony of the Night is a momentous addition to the Xbox Live Arcade family, both because of its incredible depth and the fact that it is the first game allowed to break the 50 MB size restrictions.

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Games Radar (in-house)

Gameplay on the 360 is almost perfect, but for the mushy d-pad on the wireless controller. Precise jumping (of which there isn't all that much, thankfully) or very quick direction changes aren’t always easy. You definitely have to want to look past some of the issues this creates. But when the core game is this great, that’s pretty easy to do.

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Xboxic

One of the nicest things about the game is how aurally pleasing it is. The soundtrack is masterfully constructed and each distinct area has its own background music.

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X360 Magazine UK

Beautifully paced and with the sort of gothic visuals that would scare Marilyn Manson. [Issue 19, p.116]

Gaming Nexus

Symphony of the Night is full of imaginative gameplay, great level designs, outstanding music, and some of the greatest action you've ever seen.

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Gamer 2.0

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night packs a lot of value into its relatively small package. It has multiple endings, a second inverted and more difficult castle to unlock, as well as the ability to play as Richter Belmont once the game has been fully cleared.

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Planet Xbox 360

The game holds up better than the majority of games even half its age, and provides a rich gaming experience that will have 360 owners drooling in anticipation of the next great retro release on Arcade.

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Xbox World Australia

While Symphony of the Night was served up in the nineties, it's still welcomed with open arms today by XBLA enthusiasts.

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RPG Fan

If you've been hankering for a good 2D Action RPG that lets you dash around as a half-vampire in a massive dungeon, maybe it's time you go back and check out the game that really started the modern Castlevania phenomenon.

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Official Xbox Magazine

If you've never set foot in the whip-cracking universe of the marvelously long and storied Castlevania series, Symphony is the best possible way to get your meet-and-greet on. [Mayt 2007, p.76]

GameSpot

Symphony of the Night was an amazing adventure back in 1997, and even after 10 years, it's still most definitely worth playing.

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Game Over Online

As a 360 game, Symphony is weird. The Achievements are insanely easy and seem to have been chosen at random. None of them require any real thought to accomplish, either. Symphony is the easiest two hundred Achievement points you will ever earn.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tim C gave it a9:
Simply excellent gaming for those who enjoy a bit of old school! Brilliant, lenghty and memorable. Highly recommended.

Pablo G. gave it a10:
Amazing game. I have never played a Castlevania game before, but after the first hour(steep learning curve and almost no instructions on sub-weapons, spells, or anything), I was hooked.

Simon P. gave it an8:
I couldn't quite see what the fuss was about when I first played this, but it began to grow and grow on me. It has two things - an addictive quality and above all charm. Although a PS1 game, it reminds me more of some of the best SNES side-scrollers. Game-play is varied and challenging and the limited RPG element of levelling up weapons adds depth. The graphics aren't outstanding even for a PS1 game, but they have character and a great level of variety and detail. Sound is first-rate with some suitably gothic soundtracks. Being 38, I love the idea of retro games because they remind me of happy times when I played them first time around, but usually once the rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia come off I don't tend to return to them for extended play. This game is very addictive though and now I'm finding myself snatching a half hour on it every morning between my girlfriend leaving for work and me having to do the same. Overall, it’s a great game and definitely worth the asking price.

Marc. D. gave it a9:
Buy it if you've never played it on the PSX. Buy it if you have. It's that good. SOTN is a testament to the longevity of excellent game design. A decade has done nothing to taint this game's appeal. After playing it...I'm eagerly anticipating the PSP release of Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles...thanks in large part to a new version of SOTN packaged in. 360 owners...do your Arcade library a favour and just get it.

Ryan P. gave it a10:
A great PSX game comes tot he 360 and what a what a welcome addition it is too. The controls carried over perfectly as did the graphics, music and the all important gameplay. Faultless execution linked with a lovely new hi-res graphic (you have choice to play is hi-res or original mode) makes this one of the best purchases on Live thus far.

Stephen R. gave it a10:
For me, Castlevania was my greatest experience ever on XBLA. Until the release I had never actually played it, but many people I knew told me how great it is and I decided to spend those 800 microsoft points for this masterpiece. The game is incredible, there are so many items to collect and it has a nice feeling to it, the style, the music, the funny dialog & all... The "levels" have been incredibly well designed, as you see from the different areas and how well they work in both the regular and inverted castle. In my eyes, it's a great reason to spend 800 Microsoft points and it is most definitely worth every single one of them! So far I've played the game for 20 hours, nearly as long as I've played a few of my full-priced $70 games so you can't complain about pricing issues on this one, unlike other (more) retro titles like Gyruss & co.

William J. gave it a9:
Although I didn't have the original on playstation or Saturn, (playstation version suppose to be superior) I brought it on xbox live and as i played the game from its pretty lame introduction at the beginning I got into it. The speech surprised me and makes all the difference to the text, which would otherwise be dull. Musically this game is very very good and has themes all around the castle as you explore, from organs to 80's like pop music. The conversion has an option to switch to original or enhanced graphics. Enhanced graphics will be much preferred because it blurs the blocky graphics, something that the n64 did and playstation didn't. The game progress is help't by a map that is utterly ecential and gives much need ideas of where to go next. The lifespan is good as the completion of the normal castle will take something like 7-9 hours and theres even an ingenious inverted castle with completely different boss fights. Once this game is completed and done (which is very difficult) theres nothing to do. I give this 9/10 because of this.

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

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