Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 842
8💥 Fan of the channel? Help support the series ► https://www.patreon.com/GamingJay1001\n💥 Follow me on Twitter ► https://twitter.com/GamingJay1001\n💥 Check out the website ► http://letsplay1001.com/\n💥 Check out the book ► http://www.amazon.com/1001-Video-Games-Must-Before/dp/0789320908\n\nI'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night[a] is an action role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.[3] It was directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, with Koji Igarashi acting as assistant director. It is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, taking place four years later. It features Dracula's dhampir son Alucard (returning from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) as the protagonist, rising from his slumber to explore Dracula's castle which resurfaced after Richter Belmont vanished.[4] Its design marks a break from previous entries in the series, re-introducing the exploration, nonlinear level design, and role-playing elements first experimented with in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.[5]
Symphony of the Night is considered one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made, praising its gameplay, soundtrack, and visuals, and gained a cult following. It is also considered a pioneer of the Metroidvania genre alongside Super Metroid, inspiring numerous exploration-based action-adventure games, and would have a lasting impact on the Castlevania series, with subsequent mainline entries adopting its gameplay model. However, sales upon release were extremely low, until it eventually graduated from word-to-mouth, becoming a sleeper hit, where it sold over 900,000 units in the United States and Japan. The game would later be re-released on several platforms, with later revisions containing improvements.
In 1994, development began on a Castlevania game for the 32X, retroactively known under the title Castlevania: The Bloodletting. A playable prototype was created, but Konami decided to refocus its efforts on the PlayStation, and the game was cancelled as a result. Changes were made to these initial ideas, and the project became Symphony of the Night.[24]
The game was directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, who had directed the previous entry, Rondo of Blood. Igarashi had creative influence and was involved with the story-writing and programming.[25] Part way through production, Hagihara was promoted to head of the division and asked Igarashi to finish the game as the assistant director.[26] From the outset, the game was intended to represent a new direction for the franchise. According to Igarashi, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night began development as "something of a side story for the series, we were able to break alot [sic] of Castlevania conventions and introduce a lot of new elements that we still use today".[27] Their primary motivation for the abrupt design change was the sight of dozens of Castlevania games in bargain bins of Japanese video game stores; linear Castlevania games offered limited replay value after completion.[28] A noted fan of 2D games, Igarashi was instrumental in refining the game's control scheme.[29]
Igarashi felt that regular action games were too short, and he wanted to create a game that "could be enjoyed for a long time".[25] Consequently, the development team abandoned the traditional stage-by-stage progression of the previous Castlevania games in favor of an open castle that the player could freely explore. Igarashi looked to Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, which involved much exploration and backtracking to extend the amount of gameplay.[30] Igarashi was able to use the critical reaction from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, which was more focused on exploration than action, to pitch Symphony of the Night to Konami.[31] The development team used inspiration from The Legend of Zelda to make most of the castle areas initially inaccessible to the player.[30] The player would gradually obtain items and abilities that progressively opened up the castle.