48. Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night

(Various Home, Konami, 1997)
How do you encapsulate some of these games in short text? With some games it's a challenge, with others, it's clearly impossible.
Castlevania: SOTN is a game which has already had so much written about it, so all I can do is briefly describe the game then attempt to put across my opinions of it. I'm pretty sure I can't sum up a game like this in a short journal entry.

Originally released for the Playstation and Sega Saturn, SOTN marks a massively important new direction for the long running Castlevania franchise, taking their standard action platform style and adding incredibly deep RPG elements and open ended gameplay, along with a Pandora's box of secrets and immense replay value.
Set roughly halfway through the muddled Castlevania timeline, SOTN sees Alucard, son of Dracula and the most emo man ever, traverse the castle attempting to stop his father's wrongdoings, along the way he will meet Maria Renard and Richter Belmont, sporting an all new crazy personality.

So begins an epic and labyrinthine story that unfolds across the huge castle, featuring an enormous array of rooms and monsters for the player to work their way through, collecting a variety of weapons, armour, familiars and spells along the way. Though at heart a platformer, SOTN features all the HP, MP, attack points, defence points and levels you would expect from any standard RPG, including specific weaponry, armour and items to help defeat each and every creature you come across. After many hours of searching, collecting and fighting. Alucard will face Richter, defeating him will be the end of the game.... or will it?
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a perfect game, featuring lavish, beautifully animated visuals, a classically performed music score and an incredibly deep game engine. It is a game that can be blindly fired through and completed, without the player even realizing what he could have missed or been missing, as what was the end for many players, could merely be the halfway point for others, or even 25% for the die-hard Castlevania player. The game encourages the player to spend as long periods searching every nook and cranny of the castle and finding as many magical items as possible in order to open up a whole new host of routes, rooms and vicious boss fights against an army of the most satanic creatures ever dreamt up for a videogame.

Every inch of SOTN screams class, from the art, sprites and backgrounds to the visual effects, sound and the above mentioned music score. SOTN is a game that demands your attention, your best playing abilities and some lateral thinking skills. Konami proudly present you with one giant riddle then sit back as you slowly work your way through the puzzle and put all the pieces together. Very few games carry the same level of excellence in all departments, and when the only real negatives come from the horrible, but thankfully brief voice acting, then you know you are playing something that is nothing short of brilliance. SOTN's commitment to beauty and excellence makes it the videogame equivalent of Rembrandt, Da Vinci or Mozart.
I was wrong, I can sum it up in one line, let alone a whole entry:

Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night is a masterpiece, it's one of the best games ever made.