October Retro Community Playthrough - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[GrayGhost81]

What's everyone's favorite sub-weapon?

Mine is far and away the flying bible. I love that it serves as a force field as well as an attack. I also love that clackety sound it makes. I've been using it pretty much exclusively the whole game so far.

[JerryGreenwood]

What's everyone's favorite sub-weapon?

Is there such a thing? 

Even though it's one of the weaker weapons, I like the garlic(?) or the daggers. I think the holy water is a little overpowered so I avoid using it.

[Boshamp]

What's everyone's favorite sub-weapon?

Mine is far and away the flying bible. I love that it serves as a force field as well as an attack. I also love that clackety sound it makes. I've been using it pretty much exclusively the whole game so far.

Dagger, hands down. 1 Heart to use it, decent damage to most enemies and bosses, you can throw a few dozen between most attacks if you need to. Plus, I use a very short range melee weapon for most of the start of the game, so having the dagger as a long range option is a must for me.

[techwizard]

i've been using the axe for the most part so far, but i haven't tried much else yet. it seems pretty strong but eats through hearts fairly quick

[SirPsycho]

I've always been partial to the cross. With a well aimed throw you can get 3 or 4 ticks of damage in with each toss, and it hits hard.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Axe is good for flying enemies. Holy water is good for ground enemies. Dagger is generally good, but does less damage. Holy cross is good for crowd clear, since it goes through everything.

[GrayGhost81]

I feel as if I have really found my footing in this game in the past few days. I found the Holy Rod and bought the Diamond Plate so I have what I think at this point is a good weapon and a some great armor.

I also started playing around with other sub-weapons and I am kind of leaning on the admittedly overpowered Holy Water.

So, it took me a while, but now I'm sucked in. I have to stop myself when it's time to quit rather than praying to find a save room to stop the beatdowns I was constantly getting.

[Boshamp]

If I need to clear a crowd, or deal with a flyer, I have two spells that are used exclusively for those situations, since my melee weapon/dagger combo blows through all the bosses and ground enemies I see in the first half of the game incredibly fast. After that, I have leveled up a ton and have more than enough HP and MP to speed through the rest with another combo I will mention after the second week.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Finally got started last night. Looked at my old save file. 194%. Played for about an hour before bed. Hope to make the checkpoint by Wednesday.

[Slowman]

So...I beat this last night. only to 200.5% though, but still...it is too intense to put down. Anyone want to compare a speed run with me since I will be running it a few more times? The XBLA version allows you to see when you hit certain checkpoints in the game...get a little friendly competish going if anyone else that has already played this game before is interested. Redd, you beat it quick, you down?

Edited out the place name which could be perceived as a spoiler.  Actual spoiler below the picture.

[img width=700 height=394]http://oi62.tinypic.com/vq5dah.jpg[/img]

Spoiler (hover to show)

This is my time for the first castle.  I got into the Reverse Keep and made my way to the first save point.

[Boshamp]

Slowing things down a bit for a second playthrough. Going to be using Soul Steal in any rooms I may have missed the first time around to make sure I get the 200.6 this time. Just passed the ferryman and continued for about another half hour. Going to go to bed now, even though I have a hard time putting it down. Looks like the ferryman was a good spot for the first checkpoint, as it puts you right around 50% on the save file depending on what else you may have done to that point.

[GrayGhost81]

Cool I beat the game. Kicked the shit out of that evil Richter Belmont. I am the wind baby! See ya'll next month...

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Boshamp, I may fire this up on my JP Xbox 360 and play through the JP version. I'll let you know.

[Boshamp]

Would that version be the same version Redd was playing on the Saturn? Or is the JP version the same game as the PS1/US 360 release?

[singlebanana]

Cool I beat the game. Kicked the shit out of that evil Richter Belmont. I am the wind baby! See ya'll next month...

I've already spoken to Grayghost about this, but if you really want to "complete" the game, the battle with Belmont is only half of the game...... The second half of this playthrough will be the inverted castle, which starts in Week 3. If you are unsure about what you have to do to get to the second half of the game, PLEASE consult a guide about what you have to do to get to the inverted castle before battling Belmont. I would hate for some of you to miss the second half of the game. I hate to post spoilers about what to do, but if some of you need some help, please send me a PM.