Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Remember that doorway

The map gives wandering a purpose. A gap too wide to cross or a suspicious wall can sit in memory until a later ability supplies an answer. Equipment and levels make combat forgiving enough to keep the exploration moving, sometimes at the expense of a consistent challenge. The reward is a castle that feels increasingly legible, with music and animation giving individual rooms an identity beyond their position on the map.

Mark an inaccessible route mentally and return when your movement changes. There is little need to optimise every statistic on a first visit. Exploring a room slowly is often more useful than repeatedly defeating the same nearby enemy.

A 2D castle in 1997

The Japanese PlayStation edition dates to 1997; Konami separately records a Saturn version in 1998. GameSpot’s contemporary review praised its 2D presentation and exploration. It belongs in this chapter because the arrival of polygon hardware did not exhaust the possibilities of illustrated characters and side-on movement.