THE UPSIDE-DOWN - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) - Livestream: Part 3
3Now let me tell you all about how my life got flip-turned...\n\n\n--------------------\n\nHelp us keep Octotiggy going! Support us on Patreon to see our new videos before anyone else! - https://www.patreon.com/octotiggy\n\nIf you just want to help us out and see your name pop up in the livestream, you can always head on over to our direct donation page. We really appreciate your generosity! - https://youtube.streamlabs.com/octotiggy\n\nOctotiggy on Discord - https://discord.gg/gfJSGS8\nOctotiggy on Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/Octotiggy\nOctotiggy on Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/octotiggy/profile\nOctotiggy on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Octotiggy\nOctotiggy on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/octotiggy/\nOctotiggy on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Octotiggy/\n\n--------------------\n\n\nCastlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, with Koji Igarashi acting as assistant director. It is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, taking place four years later. It features Dracula's dhampir son Alucard (returning from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) as the protagonist, rising from his slumber to explore Dracula's castle which resurfaced after Richter Belmont vanished. Its design marks a break from previous entries in the series, re-introducing the exploration, nonlinear level design, and role-playing elements first experimented with in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.\n\nSymphony of the Night is considered one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made, praising its gameplay, soundtrack, and visuals, and gained a cult following. It is also considered a pioneer of the Metroidvania genre alongside Super Metroid, inspiring numerous exploration-based action-adventure games, and would have a lasting impact on the Castlevania series, with subsequent mainline entries adopting its gameplay model. However, sales upon release were extremely low, until it eventually graduated from word-to-mouth, becoming a sleeper hit, where it sold over 900,000 units in the United States and Japan. The game would later be re-released on several platforms, with later revisions containing improvements.\n\nCastlevania: Symphony of the Night received wide critical acclaim at the time of its release. Critics lauded the massive, free-to-explore game world with its numerous secrets to uncover, and praised the game for integrating role-playing elements without compromising the series' basic gameplay. Multiple critics also made mention of the ingeniously designed enemies and the story's many plot twists. GameSpot hailed it as "easily one of the best games ever released and a true testament to the fact that 2D gaming is not dead by any stretch of the imagination." Computer and Video Games commented, "This may be old-skool style, but it feels like the freshest thing of the year." Next Generation stated that "Symphony of the Night has classic written all over it" and called it "spectacular" for a 2D side-scrolling platformer in the age of 32- and 64-bit games. GamePro gave it a perfect 5.0 out of 5 in all four categories (graphics, sound, control, and fun factor), calling it "one of the best games of the year."\n\nThe game has developed a large cult following and copies of the original PlayStation version are considered collector's items. It demonstrated the continued popularity of 2D games during the fifth generation of video game consoles in the 32-bit era, which saw rapid advancements in 3D gaming.\n\nWikipedia contributors. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. October 23, 2023, 22:39 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night&oldid=1181577894.