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Old 01-16-2023, 06:38 PM   #10 (permalink)
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Default 1997 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

1997

Much like, 1996, there are a lot of reasons to love this year in gaming, given that many of my personal favorites released this year. And instead of doing the same thing as 1996, I'll try to just choose one. Fallout, Diddy Kong Racing, and Star Fox 64, among many other greats. Even games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey also spring to mind. However, if I do have to choose just one to talk about, I'm going to go with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The funny thing about 1997 is that, if you had asked me literally 3 or 4 months ago which one I would choose as my favorite from that year, the choice would not have been Castlevania, and that has a lot to do with the fact that I just recently started playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and had realized fairly quickly that I really missed out when this game originally released. I think I even talked about this game in my previous journal about a month or so ago, and while my thoughts on it were relatively new and fresh, I would honestly still say that I hold this game in pretty high regard. In comparison to the other Castlevania games I've played, I think I like this one the most, but that's more due to the fact that my experience with Castlevania games in general is relatively limited. I've really only spend a lot of time on this one and the Game Boy Advance games, and haven't really gone much further than that. It's honestly really crazy to me that this game came out back in 1997, because I think I even said this in my previous journal, but this game definitely holds up as far as what I've come to expect with metroidvania side scroller games. In fact, I honestly would say the metroidvania Castlevania games are some of my favorites in general, and I would honestly seek them out time and time again when I have an itch for this type of gameplay. I've also played very few of the non metroidvania style Castlevania games, and I think I just prefer the metroidvania ones over the non. Not to say those games aren't great, but I love the randomness and the tightness or the metroidvania style games.

I'm pretty sure this is the contrary to what I said in my previous journal, but I have not actually finished Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. And despite me saying that I was planning to finish all the Game Boy Advance era of Castlevania games, I don't think I've actually finished any of them since starting them a few months ago. And yes, I'm aware that Symphony of the Night was released on Playstation and not on the Game Boy Advance, but going through the Game Boy Advance games somewhat recently made me realize that I had not played through this one in particular, so I was happy that I was able to find it on the Xbox store. And yeah, it's very good. I still plan to finish not only this one, but the others as well. And honestly, I would say I'm at least 80-90% done with the games, I just need a little bit of time with each of them to finish out the map and finish the games in their entirety. Even talking about it now makes me want to boot it up and play it.

Between the time that I started playing the Castlevania games, all the way to now, I would say without a doubt that out of the Game Boy Advance games and this one, I would say that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has become my favorite of the bunch. Originally, I was always going on and on about how good Circle of the Moon is, and don't get me wrong, that one is good. But when you compare it to the other Castlevania games that evidently did the formula better, it's hard to go back to Circle of the Moon. In fact, it actually has become my last choice as far as which games I would play if I have the itch. I would definitely choose Aria of Sorrow or Harmony of Dissonance over Circle of the Moon any day. And Aria of Sorrow I find to be better than Harmony of Dissonance so I would definitely always choose one over the other.

My current ranking for the metroidvania Castlevania games would honestly look something like this:

1) Symphony of the Night
2) Aria of Sorrow
3) Harmony of Dissonance
4) Circle of The Moon

Hell, I would say 3, and 4 are interchangeable. However, I would still put Circle of the Moon above it just for nostalgia sake. Actually, I think I may end up putting Harmony of Dissonance at number 4, and Circle of the Moon at number 3, mostly because I definitely like more from Circle of the Moon. Eh, I'll keep it that way for now.
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