01 Boasting the torso of a woman, three dog heads
where a waist should be, and moray eels for limbs, the
Underground Caverns’ Scylla is a stern test.
02 The monsters all have their own bespoke death
animations, and witnessing them all is a treat.Powerful blade Crissaegrim is tricky to come across;
only Schmoos in the Forbidden Library occasionally
drop them. It can be swung while walking, slashes
four times per attack, and has a huge hitbox. It’s also
one-handed, so can be dual-wielded, making Alucard
basically invincible. Undoubtedly broken – and
subsequently brilliant.
CLASSIC WEAPON
That final boss battle was your lot, right? Wrong.
If you had the Holy Glasses equipped during the
fight and attacked the device controlling Richter,
an entirely new, inverted version of the already
massive castle would unlock. A gasp-worthy
revelation – and a whole other half of the
game to enjoy.
CLASSIC MOMENT
02
B
ack in 1997 when polygons
were the new black, PS1
seemed destined to close
the door on 2D. Not so. In
walked Castlevania: Symphony of the
Night to reinvent the side-scrolling
platformer, introducing RPG elements
and sprawling, non-linear level design...
all while remaining stubbornly two-
dimensional. Its sumptuous, fluidly-
animated 32-bit sprites are ageless- much like vampire prince protagonist
Alucard, in fact.
A mysterious tale unfolded to an
iconic Gothic score, gory special moves
pulled off with dual-wielded weapons
and D-pad combos. And what a variety
of monsters there was – all that
glorious new compact disc space meant
an unprecedented amount to battle and
explore through. Secrets, shapeshifting,
flying ghost skeletons – the list goes
on. And when players reached the “end”
of Konami’s quest, it became all too
clear that Symphony of the Night was
much, much more than it appeared.
Like most masterpieces, it didn’t fly
off shelves initially. Once the world
started to realise its significance,
Konami’s immortal creation stepped
out from the shadows. Exemplifying the
thrill of watching your character grow
that all the great action RPGs boast, it
remains an eternal classic.