Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Play it on: PlayStation (or any of its various later ports)
Current goal: Stop thinking about Michiru Yamane’s terrible politics
Buy it from: GameStop
Konami’s 1997 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night not only put the “vania” into “metroidvania,” but also served as a much-needed reminder that 2D games were not only still relevant, but still vital in an era obsessed with the wonders of crudely rendered polygons. Frankly, I found it electrifying.
So naturally I like to revisit it, and the itch returned this week. The only thing is, I think I’m running outta juice. A few years ago I conquered the HardType fanhack, which was alright, and made me play like a weenie to survive (hello, rune sword!). So that was out. Luckily I spied a new hack called SotnKindAndFair, which was said to be a well-done rebalancing of Konami’s tragically easy, highly exploitable game. Off I went.
And you know, it’s been fine. I am once again playing one of the seminal 2D search-action games and having a decent time. But I kept wondering if the hack had actually worked, because I wasn’t noticing much of an increased difficulty curve. Yeah, the hack was fine. I think the problem is more just that SotN’s strengths do not lie in its overly simplistic combat or impossible-to-tune difficulty, which both pale in comparison to the countless more sophisticated games that have iterated on it since. In fact, many aspects of this trailblazer feel less sturdy now. Its massive charm still shines through, its impeccable vibes remain intact, but in various important mechanical senses SotN shows its age, and no amount of stat hacking can paper over that.
As a result my latest return to the all-time classic has been a little lighter on the dopamine than expected. I hope new players continue to find their first runs as enthralling as I did my own, but after several hundred hours across 26 years I think I’ve hit diminishing returns on this particular touchstone. And that’s fine. We’ve had a legendary run. — Alexandra Hall
