Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Gameclub

Alon, Danny and Teddy play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was like running a marathon and then running the same course in reverse. Was it fun? Sort of. We’re glad we did it.

SotN is definitely smarter than it looks at first blush. It’s dripping with style and the soundtrack is bananas. There was a lot that didn’t age well, but that's okay. Your racist grandma still has some redeeming qualities. What we really loved was the mastery of the space and navigation of Dracula’s castle -- and it’s our castle now...father.

Some chapters to help you navigate this monster ep:

• 00:00 - Get your mind read
• 01:00 - Background
• 03:46 - Is this is a good game
• 06:55 - Game(r) age
• 09:04 - Other games at the time
• 12:00 - Saving/Dying is bad
• 16:47 - Combat loop is bad
• 19:55 - Favorite boss fight
• 24:03 - Favorite subweapons (spells)
• 29:59 - Game doesn’t incentivize experimentation
• 30:45 - How to eat a peanut
• 31:58 - Inventory and item management
• 36:58 - Danny freaks out
• 40:50 - Forgettable design elements
• 42:15 - Remake differences
• 46:10 - The game has style
• 50:55 - Mob design
• 52:09 - Music
• 58:22 - Depth of design
• 01:04:34 - More music
• 01:11:32 - Broken mechanics
• 01:14:14 - Replayability and difficulty
• 01:19:30 - Getting the castle wired
• 01:24:50 - Best moments
• 01:27:20 - Best lines
• 01:29:00 - Development team principles for SotN
• 01:31:22 - Sunglasses
• 01:33:00 - Great game, but…
• 01:36:47 - Goodbyes
• 01:38:12 - On next month's episode we will be playing Doom (the 2016 reboot)

Show notes:

• It turns out there actual is a pretty helpful game manual: https://s.mprd.se/roms/psx/Castlevania%20Symphony%20of%20the%20Night/csotn.pdf
• Mozart Requiem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart)
• Konami is bad: https://kotaku.com/sources-when-you-work-at-konami-big-brother-is-always-1724058241
• Original interviews with developers: https://shmuplations.com/symphony/

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