There's now a translation for the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night that ports over the PS1 translation to it. So you can play the Saturn version and experience the new content without being fully lost in the menus and story. There's a prepatched version up on CDRomance. Official thread for the translation can be found here: segaxtreme.net/threads/translating-dracula-x-sotn.24647/
The fan translated ps1 version feels more natural than the official eng versions. Some of the item name choices we got in the us/uk version seen a lot more odd once you play the translated version. I hate the how the saturn version runs so slow a lot of the time, but it's still an interesting experience.
This has been and will always be my #1 favorite game. Beaten it hundreds of times, only a few without the keep inventory glitch (felt so satisfying to beat it the intended way), but this is the game that taught me how to "get good" at a game without giving up on it. I still speedrun the game to this day.
God. Don't even get me started on that. I'm glad those Unworked Designs hacks exist now, still holding out for retranslatoons of those games on top of it.
@@Aboveup Unfortunately, it seems highly unlikely that we'll see retranslations of those games any time soon, given how niche they are and the fact that the majority of people simply don't care enough about the differences in translation to warrant a project as large as a full retranslation. Working Designs has so many rabid fanboys still defending their liberties and additions to this day, due to what I can only imagine is pure nostalgia. Their pop-culture references and toilet humor may not be as cringe-inducing as Nintendo Treehouse's abominable meme translations (and there's a commendable sense of earnestness about Vic's work and his obvious love for the games him and his team did), but that doesn't make them any less corny in Current Year.
You say that, but in terms of recent translations I still have Sakura Taisen on Saturn, Rogue Hearts Dungeon on PS2, Metal Max 3, Ganbare Goemon 2 and 3, Brigandine Grand Edition, and Brave Prove waiting left to be played. And I'm still waiting for that Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu 2 translation to get released, supposed to be 100% scripted and patched, but for some reason they want to dub the whole thing. I think we're well past a point where modern popularity or levels of being niche really matters as much as people think anymore. There would be more of an audience for retranslated Working Designs games than a number of the titles I have on my to play list right now.
Those several examples didn't have previous existing English versions. The fact they have English translations even if sketchy is surely a huge factor why those games have not gotten complete rewrites.
@@Aboveup That's actually a good point. Admittedly, I haven't been following the fan translation community too closely outside of the few I'm interested in (Sakura Wars and Persona 2 EP on PSP come to mind). I guess in my eyes, it wouldn't seem to be as high of a priority to retranslate them since they're already in English and not so awfully butchered that they're borderline illegible by today's standards (i.e. they're not Breath of Fire 2 levels of bad). And I don't know a lot about ROM hacking, but it seems like a tall order to do a fan-translation, just based on the complications that arise with text and translating something in a compact language like Japanese to something like English. That's what I was trying to get at. Not to mention the egregious gameplay changes, which are much easier to fix, hence the Unworked Designs project. I would definitely still love to see someone take a crack at retranslating WD's stuff, though! They published some great games and the conversation surrounding their works should be kept alive by hacks with more accurate translation and gameplay. I know their work on Silhouette Mirage in particular gets a lot of flack for censoring a lot of the religious and mythological references. Same thing happened with their Exile localization, though that was something they were strong-armed by NEC into doing, if I recall.
Rondo of Blood is the best, just the victim of multiple confusing rerelease attempts. Great review I beat sotn recently and didn't resonate with it at all, gorgeous game with an amazing ost but I just felt like there was too much fluff and all the boss fights were so messy and uninteresting. Disregarding the combat and there's tons to love about it as you say and it is the cornerstone for a lot of games I love, it's a load of people's favourite and I don't like ragging on it. Also the rings were a Castle of Cagliostro reference if people haven't seen that wonderful movie yet fuck em 😤
I love how many Cagliostro references the Vania games have, usually with stage design or castle structure. It's one of my favorite movies but I didnt even notice the rings thing till I read your comment :D I love it. Cagliostro had a Vania style game for MSX predating Vania 1 and it's one of the better Lupin games. When it comes to fluff and boss patterns Aria of Sorrow does a way better job. Even if there are more souls than you need you'll always find yourself experimenting just to see what they do and the boss patterns feel like actually patterns instead of blank attacks and movement.
SotN is one of the games I put the most time into, playing it on a ‘Capcom Collection’ disc with my xbox360. I even remember going through the castle with my grandma watching, in awe of the game’s art and overall appearance. I recall the castle’s basement especially, with the eerie wails mixed into the music causing it to really stick with me. It’s the first metroidvania I’ve ever beaten (though I never got the bad ending, stumbling across the way to the true ending while looking up guides for other items). I’ll miss the iconic lines from the og voice acting, but maybe I should get it for another playthrough on my ps4.
I prefer a bit more later handheld games for replay value because as a whole the castle here (with its inverted form to do every time) it's a bit more of a patchwork than the other places. Makes sense because it's a magical place, a nightmare, but still i like a bit less "chaos" ;)
I think actual content wise, no other entry is really a match for Aria of Sorrow, personally. I always just miss the precise and fluid movement of SotN playing the other games. Which is fair considering they're handheld games. Aria is impressive for a GBA game, especially when put next to the first attempt, Circle of the Moon.
@@Aboveup They still pushed for good enough 2D work with those handhelds (with highs and lows as everything) while within consoles they started to switch to 3D and nowadays pixel art of that quality is of limited scope (the ammount of enemies in Castlevania games is large to justify the budget required to do everything with sprites). I quite like the light use of 3D in the PS1 era (DS/3DS, PSP, etc) and i really wish they'd use that approach instead of cell shading nowadays. I also prefer something like the 3D JoJo fighting game on late consoles, some kind of "adult" comic art shading with watercolor style instead of the same Warcraft handpainted stuff many use. It's sad about oldschool 2D art because you can see lots of talented people on the internet doing nice pixelart but it's rare seeing a game fully using that power, more so with animated stuff :)
What you said at the end is too real. The Vania communitys relatively small and we all like to point out the SOTN simping every now and then. Larger game discussion/personalities go one about it as if it's the only one. When Bloodstained came out it was constantly compared to this game when it took standout elements from all the Igarashi games; soul steal, side quests in a village hub, crafting, arching weapons and plenty of easter eggs to the series even before his time. Yes, the journalistic opinions will just say "A SOTN spiritual successor. Get some of that nostalgic SOTN action". It takes away from how the formula changed so much. Going through the GBA and DS games (hell even the PS2 games) you see a ton of quality of life improvements. Choosing where the teleprompter brings you, arching weapons, bigger weapon variety (most in SOTN feel like the same sword or knife), using items from the menu, better post-game areas, better bonus character playthroughs, better boss fights and the list can go on. Not to shame SOTN, but it was the amazing foundation that did have room for refinement and improvements. SOTN started it all but, and to this day is a perfect game to sink into, but there's even more to enjoy with games like Aria and Ecclesia even surpassing it. This isn't even mentioning the linear games, which seem to be fading from relevance more and more. Rondos still super praised but the others deserve as much love (3 to this day executed the partner mechanics the best, 4 and Bloodlines are painterly beautiful and atmispheric)
The art and music is some of the best ever made honestly even to this day. The sprite work is amazing. The biggest criticisms though I agree with its pretty easy, and some of the bosses are kind of easy. Overall the game is quite easy. That is the only real criticism Id have, and a few frame rate drops
I just played the Xbox 360 version of SOTN not too long ago, and I got 200.6% for the first time ever on a playthrough of the game. I have played it on several other platforms before. After thinking the tops of the underwater caverns were unattainable in the inverted castle for years, I read online about the doggy paddle ability while in the Wolf form, and finally completed the map fully. I had no idea it was a thing, even after playing through the game 4-5 times before. I will be honest about the 360 version, I really didn't notice much of a difference in the audio compared to the other versions, but I'm not really a stickler for audio in games.
The android port is the one I recommend to people. It has the stuff from the saturn version, richter and maria are available from the beginning and auto saves everytime you enter a doorway with no load times or slowdown plus u xan connect whatever bluetooth controller you want
I wish they would've put the cursed prison and underground garden in the latter ports. Sadly every port after the dracula x chronicles on psp has been a direct port of the psp version. Call me dumb, but I miss the awful voice acting and roughly translated script from the psx version and the xba port (even though the sound is extra Crunchy in the xba one, the load times and framerate on it makes it the definitive version for speedrunning the game).
For the 360 port my game basically loses video connection when I enter the chapel right after you talk to Maria it flicks on and off but stays mostly off I have to hide in the far right nook looking at the forest how do I fix this do I have to restart for now I'm using the shitty ps4 version with new dialogue
I have to be honest the major difference I have to like the metroidvania over the classic Castlevania is the way replayability work, In classic is all about death, Learn, repeat and in the metroidvanias you have more options to tackle practically every enemy in the game and change the order in what you do things.
I have to disagree about the redub being bad or unmemorable. I think a lot of the acting is a significant improvement. The scene between Alucard and Dracula at the end is pure kino. The thing that bothers me about it is actually that the timing is slightly off for some parts, like Dracula throwing the glass before he finishes his sentence. Though I do also wish the enemy voices were kept the same since they don't have dialogue anyway.
I finally played SotN last year. It had a lot of cool things but I found most later metroidvanias to be substantial improvements on the formula. The inverted castle was cool in theory, but not very good in reality.
I love SOTN. I just bought Castlevania Requiem for my son. I wanted to play SOTN with him. He started playing Rondo of blood when I was away. He asked me to play it with him. Wow, it took me a few attempts to learn the game mechanics. Especially the jumping mechanics. You pretty much have to plan out your maneuvers before you commit because there’s no real light jumps, double jumps, or any room for errors. I kept jumping too close too enemies and taking damage. Also, the fact that you start over from the beginning of the level made me put the controller down. The two games share a lot of content, but game play is really different.
14:22, LOL. I like Nightmare Creatures but even as a kid I thought the game looked rough. That's funny to see a direct comparison with NC getting a B- and SOTN getting a C-. 9/10 professional reviewers are trash and base reviews on shallow opinions.
Rondo is a slept on game but hands down Sotn is by far better it's night and day, it not even close. After playing hell divers 2 there no way in hell I'll be going back to hell divers 1. You can say the same thing with Rondo of blood. 10 times out of 10 times if I had to choose one or the other I'd pick Sotn. If you like Rondo there's nothing wrong with that and that okay.
There's now a translation for the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night that ports over the PS1 translation to it. So you can play the Saturn version and experience the new content without being fully lost in the menus and story. There's a prepatched version up on CDRomance. Official thread for the translation can be found here: segaxtreme.net/threads/translating-dracula-x-sotn.24647/
The fan translated ps1 version feels more natural than the official eng versions. Some of the item name choices we got in the us/uk version seen a lot more odd once you play the translated version. I hate the how the saturn version runs so slow a lot of the time, but it's still an interesting experience.
Thanks, I tried the rom but it just crashes after the start fight.
This has been and will always be my #1 favorite game. Beaten it hundreds of times, only a few without the keep inventory glitch (felt so satisfying to beat it the intended way), but this is the game that taught me how to "get good" at a game without giving up on it. I still speedrun the game to this day.
Bernie Stolar did a lot to hurt these Japanese games coming to the West like the Working Designs releases.
God. Don't even get me started on that. I'm glad those Unworked Designs hacks exist now, still holding out for retranslatoons of those games on top of it.
@@Aboveup Unfortunately, it seems highly unlikely that we'll see retranslations of those games any time soon, given how niche they are and the fact that the majority of people simply don't care enough about the differences in translation to warrant a project as large as a full retranslation. Working Designs has so many rabid fanboys still defending their liberties and additions to this day, due to what I can only imagine is pure nostalgia. Their pop-culture references and toilet humor may not be as cringe-inducing as Nintendo Treehouse's abominable meme translations (and there's a commendable sense of earnestness about Vic's work and his obvious love for the games him and his team did), but that doesn't make them any less corny in Current Year.
You say that, but in terms of recent translations I still have Sakura Taisen on Saturn, Rogue Hearts Dungeon on PS2, Metal Max 3, Ganbare Goemon 2 and 3, Brigandine Grand Edition, and Brave Prove waiting left to be played. And I'm still waiting for that Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu 2 translation to get released, supposed to be 100% scripted and patched, but for some reason they want to dub the whole thing.
I think we're well past a point where modern popularity or levels of being niche really matters as much as people think anymore. There would be more of an audience for retranslated Working Designs games than a number of the titles I have on my to play list right now.
Those several examples didn't have previous existing English versions. The fact they have English translations even if sketchy is surely a huge factor why those games have not gotten complete rewrites.
@@Aboveup That's actually a good point. Admittedly, I haven't been following the fan translation community too closely outside of the few I'm interested in (Sakura Wars and Persona 2 EP on PSP come to mind). I guess in my eyes, it wouldn't seem to be as high of a priority to retranslate them since they're already in English and not so awfully butchered that they're borderline illegible by today's standards (i.e. they're not Breath of Fire 2 levels of bad). And I don't know a lot about ROM hacking, but it seems like a tall order to do a fan-translation, just based on the complications that arise with text and translating something in a compact language like Japanese to something like English. That's what I was trying to get at. Not to mention the egregious gameplay changes, which are much easier to fix, hence the Unworked Designs project.
I would definitely still love to see someone take a crack at retranslating WD's stuff, though! They published some great games and the conversation surrounding their works should be kept alive by hacks with more accurate translation and gameplay. I know their work on Silhouette Mirage in particular gets a lot of flack for censoring a lot of the religious and mythological references. Same thing happened with their Exile localization, though that was something they were strong-armed by NEC into doing, if I recall.
Just discovered this channel, my type of content. Much love !
Rondo of Blood is the best, just the victim of multiple confusing rerelease attempts.
Great review I beat sotn recently and didn't resonate with it at all, gorgeous game with an amazing ost but I just felt like there was too much fluff and all the boss fights were so messy and uninteresting.
Disregarding the combat and there's tons to love about it as you say and it is the cornerstone for a lot of games I love, it's a load of people's favourite and I don't like ragging on it.
Also the rings were a Castle of Cagliostro reference if people haven't seen that wonderful movie yet fuck em 😤
How the absolute fresh hell did I not catch that reference. I love that movie.
Rondo is good, but only in top 4~5 range of the series.
I love how many Cagliostro references the Vania games have, usually with stage design or castle structure. It's one of my favorite movies but I didnt even notice the rings thing till I read your comment :D I love it. Cagliostro had a Vania style game for MSX predating Vania 1 and it's one of the better Lupin games.
When it comes to fluff and boss patterns Aria of Sorrow does a way better job. Even if there are more souls than you need you'll always find yourself experimenting just to see what they do and the boss patterns feel like actually patterns instead of blank attacks and movement.
SotN is one of the games I put the most time into, playing it on a ‘Capcom Collection’ disc with my xbox360. I even remember going through the castle with my grandma watching, in awe of the game’s art and overall appearance. I recall the castle’s basement especially, with the eerie wails mixed into the music causing it to really stick with me.
It’s the first metroidvania I’ve ever beaten (though I never got the bad ending, stumbling across the way to the true ending while looking up guides for other items). I’ll miss the iconic lines from the og voice acting, but maybe I should get it for another playthrough on my ps4.
I was right about to close out of the video, but then he puts on my jam in the end credits, and I couldn't stop groovin
I'm glad i've stumbled upon this video
I prefer a bit more later handheld games for replay value because as a whole the castle here (with its inverted form to do every time) it's a bit more of a patchwork than the other places. Makes sense because it's a magical place, a nightmare, but still i like a bit less "chaos" ;)
I think actual content wise, no other entry is really a match for Aria of Sorrow, personally. I always just miss the precise and fluid movement of SotN playing the other games. Which is fair considering they're handheld games. Aria is impressive for a GBA game, especially when put next to the first attempt, Circle of the Moon.
@@Aboveup They still pushed for good enough 2D work with those handhelds (with highs and lows as everything) while within consoles they started to switch to 3D and nowadays pixel art of that quality is of limited scope (the ammount of enemies in Castlevania games is large to justify the budget required to do everything with sprites).
I quite like the light use of 3D in the PS1 era (DS/3DS, PSP, etc) and i really wish they'd use that approach instead of cell shading nowadays. I also prefer something like the 3D JoJo fighting game on late consoles, some kind of "adult" comic art shading with watercolor style instead of the same Warcraft handpainted stuff many use.
It's sad about oldschool 2D art because you can see lots of talented people on the internet doing nice pixelart but it's rare seeing a game fully using that power, more so with animated stuff :)
Crissaegrim!
I always wished for a DS port if this to supplement DoS, PoR and OoE. Such great games.
Nice
What you said at the end is too real. The Vania communitys relatively small and we all like to point out the SOTN simping every now and then. Larger game discussion/personalities go one about it as if it's the only one. When Bloodstained came out it was constantly compared to this game when it took standout elements from all the Igarashi games; soul steal, side quests in a village hub, crafting, arching weapons and plenty of easter eggs to the series even before his time. Yes, the journalistic opinions will just say "A SOTN spiritual successor. Get some of that nostalgic SOTN action".
It takes away from how the formula changed so much. Going through the GBA and DS games (hell even the PS2 games) you see a ton of quality of life improvements. Choosing where the teleprompter brings you, arching weapons, bigger weapon variety (most in SOTN feel like the same sword or knife), using items from the menu, better post-game areas, better bonus character playthroughs, better boss fights and the list can go on. Not to shame SOTN, but it was the amazing foundation that did have room for refinement and improvements. SOTN started it all but, and to this day is a perfect game to sink into, but there's even more to enjoy with games like Aria and Ecclesia even surpassing it. This isn't even mentioning the linear games, which seem to be fading from relevance more and more. Rondos still super praised but the others deserve as much love (3 to this day executed the partner mechanics the best, 4 and Bloodlines are painterly beautiful and atmispheric)
Excellent video!😎🤟
The art and music is some of the best ever made honestly even to this day. The sprite work is amazing. The biggest criticisms though I agree with its pretty easy, and some of the bosses are kind of easy. Overall the game is quite easy. That is the only real criticism Id have, and a few frame rate drops
I just played the Xbox 360 version of SOTN not too long ago, and I got 200.6% for the first time ever on a playthrough of the game. I have played it on several other platforms before. After thinking the tops of the underwater caverns were unattainable in the inverted castle for years, I read online about the doggy paddle ability while in the Wolf form, and finally completed the map fully. I had no idea it was a thing, even after playing through the game 4-5 times before. I will be honest about the 360 version, I really didn't notice much of a difference in the audio compared to the other versions, but I'm not really a stickler for audio in games.
The android port is the one I recommend to people. It has the stuff from the saturn version, richter and maria are available from the beginning and auto saves everytime you enter a doorway with no load times or slowdown plus u xan connect whatever bluetooth controller you want
I wish they would've put the cursed prison and underground garden in the latter ports. Sadly every port after the dracula x chronicles on psp has been a direct port of the psp version. Call me dumb, but I miss the awful voice acting and roughly translated script from the psx version and the xba port (even though the sound is extra Crunchy in the xba one, the load times and framerate on it makes it the definitive version for speedrunning the game).
Yea im currently playing SOTN on my 360 cause I have a copy of Konami Classics Vol 1 and goddamn is this version smoother than a bald mans head
The best soundtrack in SoTN is Woodcarving Parthita
For the 360 port my game basically loses video connection when I enter the chapel right after you talk to Maria it flicks on and off but stays mostly off I have to hide in the far right nook looking at the forest how do I fix this do I have to restart for now I'm using the shitty ps4 version with new dialogue
I have to be honest the major difference I have to like the metroidvania over the classic Castlevania is the way replayability work, In classic is all about death, Learn, repeat and in the metroidvanias you have more options to tackle practically every enemy in the game and change the order in what you do things.
Finally, kinda surprising you haven't done this one before.
Now here's one question left: Memories of Celceta when?
I have to disagree about the redub being bad or unmemorable. I think a lot of the acting is a significant improvement. The scene between Alucard and Dracula at the end is pure kino. The thing that bothers me about it is actually that the timing is slightly off for some parts, like Dracula throwing the glass before he finishes his sentence. Though I do also wish the enemy voices were kept the same since they don't have dialogue anyway.
I finally played SotN last year. It had a lot of cool things but I found most later metroidvanias to be substantial improvements on the formula.
The inverted castle was cool in theory, but not very good in reality.
I love SOTN. I just bought Castlevania Requiem for my son. I wanted to play SOTN with him. He started playing Rondo of blood when I was away. He asked me to play it with him. Wow, it took me a few attempts to learn the game mechanics. Especially the jumping mechanics. You pretty much have to plan out your maneuvers before you commit because there’s no real light jumps, double jumps, or any room for errors. I kept jumping too close too enemies and taking damage. Also, the fact that you start over from the beginning of the level made me put the controller down. The two games share a lot of content, but game play is really different.
14:22, LOL. I like Nightmare Creatures but even as a kid I thought the game looked rough. That's funny to see a direct comparison with NC getting a B- and SOTN getting a C-. 9/10 professional reviewers are trash and base reviews on shallow opinions.
Each of the four teleporter rooms has a unique animal head, showing you which one you are in, and thus where is the castle you are.
You missed the Saturn and PSP versions, plus being able to play as Maria in them.
PS4 version is the PSP version.
IGN taking Ls and having the most brain rotting takes, even in the 90s.
I've played Gameboy Advance version
I didn't kill Dracula i was tricked to finish the story but not the way it should've been
What a chad.
Rondo is a slept on game but hands down Sotn is by far better it's night and day, it not even close. After playing hell divers 2 there no way in hell I'll be going back to hell divers 1. You can say the same thing with Rondo of blood. 10 times out of 10 times if I had to choose one or the other I'd pick Sotn. If you like Rondo there's nothing wrong with that and that okay.
I've heard Rondo of Blood is better.....
Never played it though
Ahh IGN .... Spreading ignorant reviews since 1997