Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox 360)

Gameplay: 9.2

Alucard controls with a precision that most modern 2D games still chase. He can backdash, slide, and execute fighting-game-style spell inputs (quarter-circle motions, dragon punch commands) that feel satisfying to pull off and reward players who dig into the system. The weapon variety is staggering for a game of this era: swords, maces, throwing weapons, fist weapons, two-handed greatswords, and shields, each with distinct animations, reach, and speed. Equipment matters. Swapping from a slow claymore to a fast short sword changes how you approach every room. The RPG layer runs deep. Alucard levels up, gains stats, equips armor and accessories, and collects relics that grant new traversal abilities: the double jump, bat transformation, wolf form, mist form. Each one opens previously inaccessible areas of the castle, and the map is dense with branching paths, hidden walls, and optional rooms that reward thorough exploration. Familiars (a fairy, a bat, a demon, a ghost, a sword) level up independently and provide passive combat support or utility. The castle itself is the real achievement. Every room connects logically, and the layout encourages looping back through earlier areas with new abilities to find secrets you couldn't reach before. Warp rooms and save points are placed thoughtfully enough that backtracking rarely feels tedious. The one significant flaw is difficulty balance. By the mid-game, certain equipment drops (particularly a few late-game swords) make Alucard so powerful that most enemies and bosses stop being a threat. The game is generous with healing items too, which compounds the issue. The Inverted Castle, which opens in the second half, reuses the map structure upside-down with new enemies and bosses, but the level design there doesn't feel as carefully crafted as the normal castle. It's still a substantial addition, but the quality gap is noticeable.

Story: 7.0

The setup is clean. Alucard, Dracula's half-human son, awakens from a self-imposed slumber after sensing his father's castle has returned. Richter Belmont, the vampire hunter who defeated Dracula four years earlier, has vanished. Alucard enters the castle to find out why and to stop whatever dark force is at work. The lore connecting Symphony of the Night to Rondo of Blood and Dracula's Curse gives the story weight for series fans, and the game's few story beats land well when they arrive. Maria Renard's search for Richter adds a secondary thread that intersects with Alucard's journey at key moments. The problem is delivery. Story scenes are rare, and the English voice acting ranges from passable to unintentionally funny. The prologue exchange between Richter and Dracula ("What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!") has become iconic partly because of how stilted it sounds. The librarian, the ferryman, and the handful of other speaking characters don't fare much better. The writing itself is fine, sometimes good, but the performances undercut the drama. On the XBLA version specifically, the FMV cutscenes from the original PlayStation release were removed entirely to meet file size constraints. That means the animated prologue and ending sequences are gone, which strips some of the narrative bookends. The story serves its purpose: it gives you a reason to explore and a mystery to unravel. It just doesn't carry the emotional depth or character development that stronger narrative games on the 360 deliver.

Visuals: 8.0

The 2D sprite work in Symphony of the Night is exceptional and has aged better than most 3D games from the same era. Alucard's animations are fluid and detailed, with distinct frames for every weapon type, transformation, and spell. Enemy sprites range from simple skeletons to elaborate multi-jointed bosses with smooth attack patterns. The backgrounds are where the art direction shines brightest. The Marble Gallery's ornate columns, the Royal Chapel's stained glass, the clock tower's intricate gears, the underground caverns' dripping stalactites: each area has a distinct visual identity built from layered, hand-crafted pixel art. Parallax scrolling adds depth to outdoor sections and larger interior spaces. On the Xbox 360, the game runs cleanly with no load times between rooms, a notable improvement over the PS1 original where brief loads interrupted transitions. The frame rate is rock solid. The trade-off is that the XBLA version doesn't support widescreen, so you'll have black bars on a 16:9 display. The removed FMV sequences also mean you lose the animated intro and ending, which were part of the original's visual presentation. For a 2D game running on hardware capable of Gears of War and BioShock, the art holds up because of craft, not technology. The sprite work and background painting are timeless in a way that early 3D simply isn't.

Audio: 9.5

Michiru Yamane's soundtrack for Symphony of the Night is one of the finest in gaming. The compositions blend gothic orchestral arrangements, progressive rock, jazz fusion, and baroque influences into something that sounds like nothing else in the medium. "Dracula's Castle" sets the tone immediately with driving rock energy. "Wood Carving Partita" pairs harpsichord with sweeping strings for the Long Library. "Lost Painting" delivers a melancholic, reflective piece that fits the castle's quieter corners perfectly. "Dance of Gold" brings baroque grandeur to the Royal Chapel. "The Tragic Prince" layers electric guitar over orchestral backing for one of the game's most memorable area themes. The variety is remarkable. Over 30 tracks cover the entire castle without a single weak composition. Sound effects are crisp and satisfying. The crack of a sword connecting, the shatter of a wall hiding a secret room, the distinct audio cues for each transformation: they all feel right. The weak link is the English voice acting. It's charming in a nostalgic way at this point, but it was stiff even by 1997 standards. The performances don't ruin the experience, but they sit in stark contrast to the quality of everything else in the audio package.

Replayability: 8.2

A thorough first playthrough covering both the normal and Inverted Castles runs 15 to 20 hours, with the map completion percentage pushing toward 200.6% for dedicated explorers. Three distinct endings give players a reason to replay and experiment with different choices at a critical story juncture. The sheer density of hidden rooms, breakable walls, and optional equipment means most players won't find everything on a first run. After completing the game, Richter Belmont becomes playable, offering a fundamentally different experience: no RPG progression, no equipment, just classic Castlevania whip-and-subweapon action through the same castle. It's a meaningful bonus that changes how you approach every room. The XBLA version adds 12 achievements worth 200 Gamerscore, providing additional goals like speed completion and map percentage targets. The game's structure naturally supports replay because the nonlinear design means you can tackle areas in different orders and find equipment in different sequences, which changes the flow of a run even if the castle layout stays the same.