Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an effective mix of the classic Castlevania series gameplay and RPG elements, such as experience levels and variable equipment. It features a well-written story, the tale of Alucard, Dracula's son, and his attempt to stop his father's evil deeds. I know there's a lot of people out there that think that video games can't have good plots or affect people emotionally--they're just games, right? Hey, guess what, we've moved beyond Pong now. ^_^ Symphony of the Night is just one of many games with an excellent story (Ogre Battle 64, Final Fantasy IV and VI, Secret of Mana, Silent Hill, Golden Sun, Lufia I and II, and the Breath of Fire series come to mind in particular...), and that only adds to the gameplay experience. It is not, of course, without its problems...for instance, the horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible voice-acting. Did they just do it in five minutes, the day before the game's release, or what? Alucard sounds good. Everyone else is really, really bad, to the point that I would mute the TV when voice acting came up. In a game this excellent otherwise, that particular flaw really stands out. Still, other than the voice acting, Symphony of the Night is a thoroughly excellent game.
Review of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
