October Retro Community Playthrough - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[singlebanana]

Yep I finished it last night for purposes of recording and didn't start until the 3rd

[techwizard]

yesterday i made it to the "bad" ending and watched through the cutscenes, i'm now in the inverted castle at the first save point. i would actually recommend people give the bad ending a try, because (not having seen the real ending yet) it feels like it might be quite a bit different and worth watching anyway.

one thing i don't like is that the game gives absolutely no hints that there's a better ending, i'm sure a lot of people hit the first ending there and thought that was the actual end of the game..

[GrayGhost81]

Although it's impossible to know, playing the game and having knowledge beforehand of the "good" ending, I felt like the "bad" ending was effectively unsatisfying and would leave the player feeling as if something wasn't right.

[techwizard]

Although it's impossible to know, playing the game and having knowledge beforehand of the "good" ending, I felt like the "bad" ending was effectively unsatisfying and would leave the player feeling as if something wasn't right.

i feel like that depends on past knowledge of the game, not knowing anything much about Richter i felt like he could have gone evil.

[singlebanana]

Not entirely true about the game not giving hints. From the beginning you are told that you are there to destroy Dracula and prevent his resurrection. Look at the inscriptions on the gold and silver rings, which  provides a clue to the clock tower. Then, you meet up with Maria, who gives you the Holy Glasses and gives you the big hint. Sure, not clearly spelled out, but this is what makes it great and gives the gamer that "holy crap" feeling when they figure it out.

[Boshamp]

After learning a couple new things about this game from you guys, (Specifically,

Spoiler (hover to show)

the Sword Familiar glitch for the "White" Rooms on the map

), I decided to break my own rule and looked into the game online to see what else was out there. I usually don't go online for any reason to spoil games for myself, but seeing as I have played this to death, I am comfortable knowing that everything I learned about this guy online, I would never have found on my own. That being said...there was a LOT I didn't know about. I will bring up more topics in later weeks, but for now, I learned there are four possible endings, and a fifth that was rumored to have never made it into the game, but two of four can be experienced before venturing into the inverted castle. If you want to experience all four, you will need to defeat Richter a total of three different ways at the week 2 checkpoint. (Two for "Bad" endings, the third to continue to the inverted castle.)

[RetroRage]

then sign me up  I've been looking for an excuse to play this game.  I bought it 6 months ago and haven't turned it on once (shame pile).

[techwizard]

Not entirely true about the game not giving hints. From the beginning you are told that you are there to destroy Dracula and prevent his resurrection. Look at the inscriptions on the gold and silver rings, which  provides a clue to the clock tower. Then, you meet up with Maria, who gives you the Holy Glasses and gives you the big hint. Sure, not clearly spelled out, but this is what makes it great and gives the gamer that "holy crap" feeling when they figure it out.

i fought richter for the bad ending well before i found both of the rings let alone the holy glasses, you can fight him as soon as you have the bat power. if i had done all you said first then i agree it would have been a bit clearer, but without that there's not too many hints about what's going on.

[singlebanana]

Whether you found the rings or not, it's obvious from the map that there are more areas to explore due to the unclosed blocks on the map. With knowing that there is more to explore, I think that many gamers would go back and do so, even after getting the "bad ending." This is what I did when first playing through the game. Plus, I doubt anyone thought at the time that this ending was the only one in the game and that the run time was long enough to make the game complete; I mean come on, it's Castlevania, you're going to battle Dracula. There are not many overt hints, I agree, but for those with a completionist mentality, there is enough there to get at least one of the rings and determine that there is more to the puzzle.

[Boshamp]

You can also see by the missing relics there is a lot more to be done.

[techwizard]

oh ya i didn't mean that there isn't more to do, but a lot of games can have as much as double the content beyond the main quest, and like i said not knowing castlevania i don't know that it's guarenteed you have to fight dracula at the end. if i hadn't been warned by people on here i never would have known there was more endings, and grayghost didn't seem to either when he first got that ending.

anyway i think i'm pretty close to the "real" ending, i have most of the inverted castle explored. i have 4/5 of the pieces of "vlad", but i don't know how to find the last one. the only major locations left that i know of to check are the mineshaft above (below in normal castle) the caverns, and the place above the clock tower. i can't figure out how to get access to either, the methods from the normal castle don't seem to work. any hints?

[JerryGreenwood]

After learning a couple new things about this game

Did you know....(the contents of the spoiler are before the week 2 checkpoint)

Spoiler (hover to show)

You can skip the scene with Death at the beginning of the game and keep the gear he steals from you? If you do this, you're incredibly overpowered from the start of the game. It's an easy glitch where, if you get hit by a Warg (the big wolf) under certain conditions, you'll get flung past the Death room and skip that scene. Also, you don't need Spike Breaker to beat the game.

[GrayGhost81]

oh ya i didn't mean that there isn't more to do, but a lot of games can have as much as double the content beyond the main quest, and like i said not knowing castlevania i don't know that it's guarenteed you have to fight dracula at the end. if i hadn't been warned by people on here i never would have known there was more endings, and grayghost didn't seem to either when he first got that ending.

anyway i think i'm pretty close to the "real" ending, i have most of the inverted castle explored. i have 4/5 of the pieces of "vlad", but i don't know how to find the last one. the only major locations left that i know of to check are the mineshaft above (below in normal castle) the caverns, and the place above the clock tower. i can't figure out how to get access to either, the methods from the normal castle don't seem to work. any hints?

None of them require any special tactics to get to. I'd just look it up on a map online if all else fails.

Also I knew about the inverted castle the whole time. For reasons I've mentioned already, I'm half with you and half with Rich on the ambiguity of the "bad" ending.

[JerryGreenwood]

the only major locations left that i know of to check are the mineshaft above (below in normal castle) the caverns, and the place above the clock tower. i can't figure out how to get access to either, the methods from the normal castle don't seem to work. any hints?

I'll tell you where it's not...

Spoiler (hover to show)

If by Clock Tower you mean the room with the big clock, it's not near there. And if by Clock Tower, you mean the Clock Tower, it's not there either.

As for the bad ending, the first time I ever beat Richter I was very skeptical about it. After fighting all these huge, awesome bosses, the final boss is puny human Richter? I don't think so. It felt incomplete. I didn't know how to get the good ending and I didn't know there was an inverted castle, but when I filled out all the blue squares and I was still missing a ton of relics and I didn't fight Dracula (he's kind of a big deal), I knew something was up.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

It helps if you know Castlevania games. The same "bad" ending sketch is a theme among the Castlevania games, and caught me off guard on Order of Ecclesia.