Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - On this day

On this day exactly 24 years ago, PlayStation console owners in Europe finally got Castlevania, which had been glowing and burning in other markets for months earlier. The Symphony of the Night has been and remains for many ones of the best, if not the best part of the series about vampires, demons, werewolves, and other monsters.

It was the first Castlevania in which the movement moved away from the linear model, as well as the first Castlevania with some RPG elements. It was played with Alucard that could turn into a bat, a wolf, and a fog. Unlike the previous heroes of Castlevania, Alucard could use a wider arsenal of weapons.

Symphony of the Night was a 2D game at a time when more and more titles were switching to 3D. But it was precisely this that allowed the game’s creators to design an unexpected scenario by which the game would remain famous. Under certain conditions, Dracula's castle is overturned at one point, completely changing the map and becoming a new polygon for exploration.

Almost all of the following Castlevania games have retained the type of open gameplay presented in this game. However, Symphony of the Night did not sell very well despite excellent reviews. It wasn’t until months later that the game found hundreds of thousands of fans.

Symphony of the Night subsequently received a version for the PSP and then for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. From 2018, it is available for the PlayStation 4 and from 2020 on mobile platforms.