October Retro Community Playthrough - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

[JerryGreenwood]

The reason you don't fight Dracula is that with Richter, you're playing the timeline that is pre-Alucard.  If Richter defeats Shaft then Dracula is not resurrected and Alucard never needs to show up to take care of it.  The reason Alucard showed up is because Richter failed and was possessed by Shaft, necessitating the game proper.  A Richter playthrough is the "pre-game", essentially.

So....

1. Richter kills Dracula in the beginning (which I think is from the end of Bloodlines)
2. Unbeknownst to the player, Richter goes back to kill Shaft, but fails and Shaft possesses him
3. Alucard goes into the castle to stop the resurrection

So #2 is the Richter quest. Sorry if this was explained in the intro or in other dialogue. I don't pay attention to many video games stories. 'Alucard has to kill Dracula' is good enough for me.

There was a certain sword in the inverted library, that I obtained, to make the game pretty easy. I wonder if this sword is as cheap as the rod combo? Going to have to try that rod combo to see....

Spoiler (hover to show)

Crissaegrim?

[singlebanana]

The playback of Richter killing Dracula in the beginning is from the end of Rondo of Blood (Japan only release). Rondo was released on the SNES as Dracula X, but there are several heavy differences.

[SirPsycho]

So....

1. Richter kills Dracula in the beginning (which I think is from the end of Bloodlines)
2. Unbeknownst to the player, Richter goes back to kill Shaft, but fails and Shaft possesses him
3. Alucard goes into the castle to stop the resurrection

So #2 is the Richter quest. Sorry if this was explained in the intro or in other dialogue. I don't pay attention to many video games stories. 'Alucard has to kill Dracula' is good enough for me.

1. Richter was the main character in Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo on the PC Engine CD. You know, that completely kickass Castlevania game that never materialized on the Turbo CD despite being a total killer app. We did get the much less exciting SNES port though. At least us foreigners can play it on our PSP now. So the beginning of SOTN is the ending of Dracula X, which is a pretty awesome way to establish a sequel. A lot of the development staff for SOTN also worked on Dracula X, but since it wasn't the most popular system they didn't get a big budget for Symphony. The budget went to the awful N64 Castlevania.

2. Richter being in the Castle again is the entire reason Maria is there. She was also in Dracula X but was a child in that game, now she's all grown up and knows that if Richter is going off to some strange, dark castle then something's very wrong and she wants to help.

3. Alucard is the Dark Horse that neither Richter nor Maria expected to show up at this point in time. He had been asleep for over 300 years after all. The last time he helped fight Dracula was when he traveled with Trevor Belmont in Castlevania 3, which was a major inspiration for Koji Igarashi and the entire team's design of this game and the later 2D games.

Bloodlines is the Genesis game, and it actually takes place in the 1900s, well over 100 years after Dracula X and SOTN. John Morris is the son of Quincy Morris, the random cowboy Texan from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the book. John Morris' son Jonathan is one of the two protagonists in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the DS, which is one of my favorites from the post-SOTN era. Portrait of Ruin came with a sweet pre-order package that includes a timeline poster, a soundtrack CD, DS stylus, and a nice game case. The timeline is useful for figuring out when games that released before Portrait fall in line with the overarching timeline.

I'm also a Castlevania nerd, but I've been quiet on here for the most part.

[singlebanana]

To add to it -- SotN takes place only 4 years after Rondo of Blood. In RoB, you can rescue the 13 year old, Maria early in the game and upon ending your game (finishing/dying), you can switch characters and play as her. Her weapon is throwing doves at enemies......yeah, if you think that's weird, you should see her sub-weapons.   This makes Maria seventeen in SotN

[singlebanana]

And yes............we also cover this in the podcast.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

She's actually 12, and she has the ability to summon and control Animal spirits. She's also able to slide and double jump, which is awesome.

[JerryGreenwood]

1. The budget went to the awful N64 Castlevania.

2. She was also in Dracula X but was a child in that game.

Bloodlines is the Genesis game, and it actually takes place in the 1900s, well over 100 years after Dracula X and SOTN. John Morris is the son of Quincy Morris, the random cowboy Texan from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the book. John Morris' son Jonathan is one of the two protagonists in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the DS, which is one of my favorites from the post-SOTN era. Portrait of Ruin came with a sweet pre-order package that includes a timeline poster, a soundtrack CD, DS stylus, and a nice game case. The timeline is useful for figuring out when games that released before Portrait fall in line with the overarching timeline.

I'm also a Castlevania nerd, but I've been quiet on here for the most part.

Fortunately, I've never played CV64.

Maria is also a playable character from Harmony of Despair. I've also rescued her in Dracula X on the Wii. I think they only offer the SNES version. I don't see what's so bad about the game. I can't imagine how much better it could be on Turbo CD, but I've heard it's far superior to the SNES one.

I've beaten Bloodlines a long time ago. Jonathan is also in Harmony of Despair and he's my go-to whipper.

My buddy is a Castlevania nerd too and he said one of the newer games totally destroyed the story and timeline. I forgot what he said, but he figured out that the story contradicts itself somewhere and they made poor choices on the plot. I think he said.....

Spoiler (hover to show)

Alucard is Trevor's dad or some ridiculous thing like that??

[singlebanana]

In re: the SNES version, Dracula X (from Wikipedia):

"While the plot is similar to Rondo of Blood and it uses many of the latter's graphics, it featured a different art style, redesigned levels, and altered gameplay elements (such as having only two alternate levels and Maria as a nonplayable character)."

[JerryGreenwood]

Good to know Banana.

RE: correction to my plot line spoiler....

Spoiler (hover to show)

I talked to my friend about the story. He said in Lord of Shadows on 360 and PS3, it is revealed that Alucard IS Trevor Belmont from CVIII. That is a train wreck of a story line. Follow this -  Dracula (aka Gabe Belmont) had a son named Alucard (who is Trevor Belmont). Trevor Belmont had a son named Simon Belmont. So in the original Castlevania, Simon's mission is to kill his grandfather, Dracula.

I really don't think this is what they had in mind in 1986.

My final stats are LV 45, 9:08:24 hours, 196.7% exploration. That's good for 1,098th place on the broken Xbox leaderboards.

[singlebanana]

That spoiler just made my damn mind explode. Dear Gawd, when did Castlevania turn into "The Young & the Restless?"

[SirPsycho]

That spoiler just made my damn mind explode. Dear Gawd, when did Castlevania turn into "The Young & the Restless?"

When Konami decided to outsource the project to Western devs and push Koji Igarashi to the side. IGA was at the helm of Castlevania from Chronicles through Harmony of Despair. He also wrote and co-directed Symphony and had something to do with Rondo of Blood, but he's just listed under the Special Thanks section of the credits. Under his lead the story of Castlevania continued to be deeply interconnected with Bram Stoker's novel, as ridiculous as that sounds.

I haven't played through either Lords of Shadow, mainly because the demo for the first one was dull and disappointing, and I knew it wasn't the Castlevania I loved. After reading that spoiler it seems like my instinct was correct in this instance.

Spoiler (hover to show)

DRACULA IS VLAD TEPES GODDAMMIT! SCOURGE OF THE OTTOMANS. PRINCE OF WALLACHIA. THE IMPALER. HE'S NOT A FREAKING BELMONT!

Now that I've got that done I would really like to play the 1999 game where Julius Belmont completely destroys Dracula. He's obviously the most powerful Belmont but he's relegated to badass old man in the Sorrow games.

[Slowman]

As far as Dracula X vs. Rondo of Blood, they are wildly different games that share a few commonalities.  It shares the basic story line but the level designs are completely different.  Richter controls the same.  If you've played one and then play the other, you'll get that "I've been here before..." feeling.  Rondo of Blood's texture resolution is probably double the SNES game's.  The music is redbook CD audio and the .   They should not be directly compared though, they are two different games and both are good but Rondo is better.  Rondo of Blood is available on the Wii Virtual Console and Dracula X is available on the Wii U Virtual Console.

[JerryGreenwood]

I haven't played through either Lords of Shadow, mainly because the demo for the first one was dull and disappointing, and I knew it wasn't the Castlevania I loved.

Ditto. I played for about 20 minutes.

@Slowman - I'll have to check it out. Didn't know it was on the Wii.

[singlebanana]

Stop making me want to download a game...

[SirPsycho]

Stop making me want to download a game...

You could buy a real, physical copy of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for your Sony Playstation Portable!