October Retro Community Playthrough - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[Boshamp]

I was being serious, what does it for me in terms of voice acting is Alucard's voice. The way it almost echos as he speaks has always been cool to me, since they are in an "empty" castle, after all. I think if I was picky, I could point out the delays between conversations, almost as if they sometimes cut off the start/end of a recording too soon. I am not picky though. All that matters to me is gameplay. Graphics and voice-acting are pretty low on my list of needs for a good game.

[techwizard]

finished! great game, i really enjoyed it. good tip for everything near the end:

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Shield rod + Alucard Shield (square + circle to activate) is OP as f**k. activate it and then just touch everything with the shield held up, i killed galamoth, shaft, and dracula in less than 30 seconds each with that.

[Boshamp]

The first thing you should do when you hit the inverted castle is go directly to that shield. I couldn't get it done so quickly without that, although I do run out of Mana rather quickly earlier on. You really do have to balance killing enough enemies to level up with bypassing as many as you can afford to. Otherwise, I am either under-leveled and getting eaten alive by some of the more powerful bosses, or overpowered and taking forever to get the job done.

What would you guys think if you had a time limit to beat the game? A couple endings are based on completion, but I think it would have been really cool if there was a fifth ending for beating it quickly along with the regular stipulations.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

To everyone enjoying this game for the first time, I highly recommend the GBA and DS Castlevania's.

[GrayGhost81]

What would you guys think if you had a time limit to beat the game? A couple endings are based on completion, but I think it would have been really cool if there was a fifth ending for beating it quickly along with the regular stipulations.

No.

[JerryGreenwood]

the voice acting is terrible, and i can't tell if those who say they like it are being sarcastic or not...

I don't think anyone is being sarcastic. I think some is okay and some is bad. You also have to consider the lines that were written for the actors and the editing. Some of the lines are awkward and I think the editing is of the voices is very poor, but I don't know if this was a PlayStation issue or not. By this I mean, there are too many pauses between sentences and exchanges.

Richter is beyond atrocious. That actor is clearly inexperienced and just reading words off of a piece of paper.
I think the Librarian is the best actor. A little hokey, but I imagine that's how a creepy old librarian in Dracula's castle would talk.

What would you guys think if you had a time limit to beat the game? A couple endings are based on completion, but I think it would have been really cool if there was a fifth ending for beating it quickly along with the regular stipulations.

It doesn't need it, but it would be ANOTHER cherry on top.

[singlebanana]

Week #3 checkpoint is up on initial post.

[Boshamp]

All right! How is everyone doing? Did you guys go in the direction of the outer tower to start the inverted castle? or back towards the entrance? I forgot just how much freedom you are given in your exploration of the inverted castle to get to Dracula. How do you guys like the relatively drastic change in difficulty?

[singlebanana]

I like the idea of the inverted castle, but

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traversing through it is a great deal annoying.  Continually changing forms is the pits.

Sure, the difficulty amps up a little bit, but after getting a certain OP relic, difficulty isn't much of an issue anymore.

[Boshamp]

There are a few ways you can make it a lot easier on yourself. A couple OP weapon combos, the really good relics, and always good, old-fashioned grinding for levels with a couple of my favorite enemies to farm.

[RetroRage]

Today I got to the Colluseum and started fighting Belmont's monsters.  Should I not be fighting him yet?

[singlebanana]

Today I got to the Colluseum and started fighting Belmont's monsters.  Should I not be fighting him yet?

Not really sure what "Belmont's monsters" is. Can you give a better description and tell me which castle they are in? Thanks

[MaterialHandlerMike]

I think he means when you fight the Werewolf and Mino

Today I got to the Colluseum and started fighting Belmont's monsters.  Should I not be fighting him yet?

If you are at the point I think, you don't even fight Richter. Belmont's monsters = Werewolf and Minotaur?

[Slowman]

Yeah, must be the Werewolf/Minotaur combo. 

Also, I completed the game through Dracula but I skipped a few "non-essential" squares in search of a faster time and it cost me the finish percentage I was hoping for.  I'm going to livestream this complete game on Oct. 25th as part of a marathon but I'm going to run through it yet again before that hoping for sub-4hr and 196%+

[img width=700 height=393]http://oi60.tinypic.com/16jpiqd.jpg[/img]

[JerryGreenwood]

I like the idea of the inverted castle, but

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traversing through it is a great deal annoying.  Continually changing forms is the pits.

Continually changing forms? I think you have to do more of that in the normal castle.

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If you have the gravity boots (from the normal castle) you don't really need to change forms at all. You can fly around much faster.