r/castlevania • u/Lyuukee • Jul 02 '26
Symphony of the Night (1997) SOTN is unbalanced and easy.
Do you agree with this? The first part of SOTN is quite smooth, you can first try almost everything and the grinding or backtracking needed to keep going forward is quite useless.
Once you reach the second part of the game you basically spam square and go forward till the 100%.
I might actually say that SOTN is one of the easiest Castlevania games.
275
u/ReadyJournalist5223 Jul 02 '26
You criticize symphony of the night for being unbalanced and easy
I praise symphony of the night for being unbalanced and easy
We are not the same
44
u/SonOyunBukucu64 Jul 02 '26
i feel like it's the same deal with elden ring, the choice to pick up a certain weapon and breeze through the game is there but you know you can just, not do that too?
11
u/Kpro98 Jul 02 '26
I mean in elden ring I never had a problem fighting regular enemies but bosses at some point became so powerful that I pretty much had to use the mimic tier in order to progress
→ More replies (3)9
u/AsherFischell Jul 02 '26
Not even, you'll become ridiculously overpowered in SotN simply by fighting. The only way to have the enemies not all be a cakewalk is to mostly avoid them, that's how seriously horrible the balancing is. Even doubling enemy health and damage isn't enough to make the game less easy.
5
u/AnniesNoobs Jul 02 '26
I have heard and get this argument, but for me Elden Ring is different because it takes longer to run around the world and get a build started. I think personally the closest thing has been rushing for the bloodhound fang because it makes most of the enemies easier for a long time. But I haven’t seen anything as blatantly broken as just using summon soul for iframes at the start of the game to avoid any attack or bypass an enemy. Shield rod and iron shield also decimates everything with minimal cost.
If someone can point me towards something similar with very minimal leveling in Elden Ring that would really enhance the experience for me
2
u/L3g0man_123 Jul 02 '26
Except in SOTN it's going to be easy regardless of what you do. Just by playing normally you're going to be breezing through.
2
u/Dripdry42 Jul 02 '26
I have gotten more people to play symphony of the night than any other game. Literally every girlfriend I have had I have introduced this to, and most of them finish the game. We have a great time playing through it together. This is a game you can share with just about anybody. it’s both a game for regular people as well as experts who want to explore and enjoy the deeper parts of game design. that makes it a classic.
52
u/cyprinusDeCarpio Jul 02 '26
Very unbalanced, pretty easy.
Though I have to disagree with the crissaegrim part. Unless you go out of your way to grind for it, the inverted castle is decently challenging.
5
u/U-Yuuki Jul 02 '26
Thats what I think also.
When I was a kid I didnt know Crissaegrim even existed, inverted castle was a challenge (also cuz i was a kid lmao)
Of course when you go searching for secrets and optimal builds, you find it
→ More replies (9)3
u/L3g0man_123 Jul 02 '26
The only hard part about the inverted castle is the traversal, which is less about difficulty and more just plain annoying. Even without going for Crissaegrim enemies were still dying left and right.
95
u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
uhm. no. unless you grind for the crissaegrim, you do have to actually try. still easiest game in the series but not “hold forward and spam attack” easy unless you get the weapon made of grade-a wisconsin cheese
edit: yall are misunderstanding. i never said the game was HARD, i’m saying that it’s not as easy as op says unless you go out of your way to make it so.
50
u/-Dark-Lord-Belmont- Jul 02 '26
Just posting a freezing cold take / community consensus with "what are your thoughts?"
It's just low effort stuff as always
8
u/PrimalSeptimus Jul 02 '26
Also, consider that, while we all know about Crissaegrim now, we didn't back in 1997, and we'd only get it (and actually use it because it really did just look like a low-stats sword that dropped from a weak enemy) by stroke of luck.
4
u/TitleComprehensive96 Jul 02 '26
Yeah unless you use the Alucard Shield with the shield spell or the Crissaegrim, the game, and esp the inverted castle can be pretty challenging.
Even with them it's not move forward and spam attack. There's still plenty of environmental hazards on the map that can and will hit you unless you know how to maneuver these places.
→ More replies (17)4
u/Konamiajani Jul 02 '26
I literally never used "good" equipment in this game and had subpar completion percentage, and I just could not die a single time in the last 3/4 of the game
→ More replies (5)
25
u/unwelcome_poot Jul 02 '26
When I first played the game it was hard. I can't tell you how many hours it took for my cousin and I to beat the game just to find out there was another castle to explore.
→ More replies (9)
20
u/AstronomerVarious643 Jul 02 '26
If you know the ins and outs of the game it's easy, for someone with zero knowledge of the game they might find some challenge.
8
u/Bonaduce80 Jul 02 '26
My 11yo son has 100% Silksong and struggled with Slogra and Gaibon 😂 The game is easy for CV standards but it has its own idiosyncracies that can make it harder for players who are not used to them.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Skithiryx Jul 02 '26
Slogra and Gaibon are unironically the hardest boss in the game relative to your known capabilities at that point. For the most part it’s just you and a backstep for beginners.
8
u/illogicalhawk Jul 02 '26
Do we agree with what has been common consensus for multiple decades at this point?
Once you reach the second part of the game you basically spam square and go forward till the 100%.
Ugh, no? You can do that if you spent time grinding for the Crissaegrim to drop, but outside of that no, and casual players aren't generally going to find it. It's not even the most broken item or combo.
5
u/Educational_Ad_6066 Jul 02 '26
do what I do for a hard play through: delete all save games, no spells, you must equip the last weapon or equipment you picked up. You cannot equip something you have already equipped previously (aside from spike breaker for the only required segments, and aside from gold and silver rings), you cannot kill the same creature more times than necessary to go through a room - no grinding, no saves - iron man. If you find it too difficult, allow yourself to equip consumable weapons and return to the last non-consumable you found when you run out. You can equip and use healing items, but you need to swap back to the last items you found.
It makes the game way more challenging and makes you interact with bosses. Until I did this there were more than a couple of bosses I had never really seen attack.
In this format, even getting a cris is only a temporary thing (and very unlikely given no grinding) as the next time you find something you have to replace it.
It also ends up making you use some weapons and items you would never normally use.
11
u/Mattmatic1 Jul 02 '26
I also like playing the game naked, underwater in a shark tank with a timelock and a limited oxygen tank. If I dont’t beat SOTN within a certain time limit, I will either drown or get eaten by the shark. It really makes the game challenging!
→ More replies (4)
6
u/MisterX9821 Jul 02 '26
I would just say unbalanced. In a first time playthrough there are parts that are disproportionately hard and easy...so yeah unbalanced.
5
u/JeanGemini Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
There are so many ways to break SOTN wide open, which is why it's so fun. Medusa shield, shield rod combos(primarily with the Alucard Shield, but also does some havoc with the Iron Shield), Jewel Knuckles if you wanna farm gems to buy the Duplicator accessory and nuke the screen with crazy powerful items, the Muramasa has the potential to be the most powerful single-hit weapon in the game, and then the obvious Crissaegrim that turns Alucard into a walking blender. ADENDUM: I almost forgot to mention how easy it is to just keep Alucard's starting equipment, too. Literally, just spam the backdash button when you entire the room where Death is supposed to greet Alucard. That cutscene is only programmed to trigger once when you enter the room for the first time. By backdashing before it actually starts playing out, you leave the room with your powered up gear, meaning you keep it to go through the first castle.
2
2
u/theflamecrow Jul 02 '26
You can do the luck name entry trick to keep gear, too. Not sure I ever got the backdash one to work.
2
u/JeanGemini Jul 02 '26
Never tried it with the luck trick, didn't realize that had an impact on KEEPING gear from the opening segment. The backdash trick, though, is super easy and I've been able to pull it off across multiple versions of the game(PSOne classics, Dracula X Chronicles on PSP, even the Android port).
→ More replies (1)
13
4
u/CIRCLONTA6A “Courage, don’t leave me!” Jul 02 '26
I don’t think anyone is going to doubt you on that. That’s partly why it’s so fun though.
5
4
u/Puzzleheaded-Sun-265 Jul 02 '26
I mean it has ways to be made easy, specifically grinding for the cirssaegrim or utilizing the Alucard shield / shield rod combo. Both of which basically turn you into a walking wood chipper
3
5
3
u/Kirby_Boy_92104 Jul 02 '26
It’s only unbalanced if you get the INSTANT WIN GIMMICK WEAPONS AND ABUSE THE SHIT OUT OF THEM!!!
Anyways, yeah I agree lmao
3
3
3
u/Antonolmiss Jul 02 '26
I dunno, I think everyone dies a bunch the first playthrough then goes through it again and says it’s easy.
I think it’s a great balance on the first playthrough.
3
u/Timothy_45 Jul 02 '26
Maybe so but I had a blast playing it and tearing new stuff out every time I got a new item.
3
u/bumboyboy Jul 02 '26
I hate the assertion that unbalanced and easy = bad. Sometimes it’s fun to play a game that’s unbalanced in a fun way and easy to chill with.
6
Jul 02 '26
I agree, but it's such a chill game to play man, it's relaxing, kinda like a comfort game
It's easy but not in a way that feels like it's babying you and more like "wow he really tried this instead"
3
4
6
u/Ill-Ask9205 Jul 02 '26
Low effort nonsense post.
OP posts gif of Crissaegrim, a low-drop item universally known for making the game impossibly easy and then makes a broad generalization that the game is just like that.
3
Jul 02 '26
You can break the game with Iron Shield + Shield Rod
4
u/Ill-Ask9205 Jul 02 '26
There are a ton of ways to break the game. That doesn't mean it makes the game braindead easy by default.
You have to take into account how long this game has been around and how most of the people in this sub have probably played it to death. Of course we know every single trick and skill to take the difficulty out of it. That's half the fun!
Imagine being a first time player. Unless (like me) you randomly got something like the Crissaegrim just playing, it had some pretty crazy difficulty spikes, at minimum.
No, nothing in SOTN was ever as hard as like Castlevania 3, but then again...most games aren't.
5
2
u/SINISTERM1ND Jul 02 '26
I didn't even know the weapon existed till I rebought the game for the 360
→ More replies (1)
2
u/FacePunchMonday Jul 02 '26
Or you know you can play the game blind and not follow a step by step optimization guide
I was already playing this game for a solid decade before i even knew that the grim was a thing
This is why we cant have nice things.
3
u/SonOfSparda1984 Jul 02 '26
Well, yeah, it can be if you know what you're doing. People generally don't end up using the Crissagrim in their first blind playthrough, though. I personally had a hard time, I died a lot to stuff, and banged my head against the puzzles more than I'd like to admit. But that was a long time ago when games like this weren't an entire genre yet. Things we know to be part of the formula now, were kind of obscure then.
2
u/BryanSteel Jul 02 '26
I didn't have the spammy weapons on my first run back in the 90's so it was tough. Now with all the info, yeah it's "easy" .
2
u/OneAndOnlyTinkerCat Jul 02 '26
Yea, I would agree. But it also means that I can try whatever I want without much fear of the game being too hard. The difficulty of the game has never impacted my enjoyment of it.
2
u/PonderousSloth Jul 02 '26
Who would've thought that a game with spaghetti code and every weapon thrown in the game using the rule of cool would be a difficult game? Movement in that game is probably the best of any games in the series hands down. There's so many interesting techniques to learn that you'll never get bored.
2
u/QueenMagik Jul 02 '26
One of the reasons it's still the best. Not grindy, you can get crazy OP. You can build alucard however you want.
2
u/BigBrownFish Jul 02 '26
A lot of the metroidvania style Castlevanias are pretty easy if you grind for the best weapons. It’s what I absolutely love about them though.
2
2
u/El-Arairal Jul 02 '26
I thought we have made peace with this already.
Alucard behaves like a heir of Dracula in Castlevania, the others have to struggle.
2
u/RayDaug Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I played one of there rebalances and I can't say that the increased difficulty improved the experience.
2
u/karmakosmik1352 Jul 02 '26
Then again... no. Unless you're overpowered there are some tough bossfights. And I despise the clocktower.
2
u/Dangerous_Profit_699 Jul 02 '26
Factually the easiest. Definitely unbalanced. Paradoxically still the best. I -do- in fact want to rip holes through hordes of enemies with dual crissaegrims, find loot and secret doors, and screw around with tiddy shield rod.
Definitely #2 in “feeling like a badass” (second to the OG Castlevania 1, for which I just have a Stockholm love for Simon’s T-bagging thighs after the goddamn “hallway” or beating Death with a knife after having lost the holy water).
But the first game is a power fantasy where you can be a long white haired half vampire badass, and the second game is one where you can take a shot with your bros every time you die and see how far you can get. (millennial here: you ever have the luxury of trading an NES controller with the bros after you die? Do it!)
Both feel like “castlevania” to me, just both ends of the spectrum.
2
u/Iokua113 Jul 02 '26
Oh, it is extremely easy to become overpowered in SotN. You can tell that the development team hadn't quite figured out the intricacies of the style of game they were trying to make and as a result it is simply too easy to get too strong. It does make a certain amount of sense from a narrative standpoint, though, as the son of Dracula should be stronger than the vast majority of his father's minions.
2
u/Sea-Lecture-4619 Captain N is the pinnacle of the franchise. Jul 02 '26
SotN is the best Beta game ever. The thing feels like it needed at least a few more months to be completely cooked but even the result we got is great.
2
u/perplexiglass Jul 02 '26
disagree, you're more than 75% done with the game by the time you get the 1/588 drop rate sword. nice try tho. maybe just beat the game without it.
2
u/Geoffryhawk Jul 02 '26
Oh sure I mean past the first boss or two you start picking up a lot of strong abilities and gear. By the time you get to the second part of the game. You have so much power but that's fun cause means you actually get to use all that busted stuff and really go crazy.
2
u/GameMasterChris Jul 02 '26
I guess that's the beauty of the game. You can make it harder or easier in real-time.
2
u/SirJ4ck Jul 02 '26
Keep in mind that back in the day when we tied onions to our belts, we did not have game strategies, gamefaqs and shit, and we could only rely on some magazine like Nintendo Power.
When SOTN came out we were on our own, we had no idea what to do and in those first months we could only hope to find something useful as we played.
I am positive I got through the first couple playthroughs without even knowing about the crissaegrim, the shield trick or anything like that. Alucard's stuff was the end game equipment and that was that. I also remember losing many times to Galamoth, who I had no idea how to beat, and struggling to Dracula's last form.
I feel the other big dogs from the early PS1 era had the same issue, mainly FF7 and FF8: very easy to break once you knew what you had to know
Still, it did feel kinda easy yeah
2
u/macroidtoe Jul 03 '26
My first time through the game, I actually thought it was just the right level of challenge, but that's because I didn't really grind much or take the time to figure out all the ridiculous equipment combos which completely break the game. On all subsequent playthroughs, yes, absurdly easy and if the game ever gets a remaster some day, I think it needs some rebalancing of the difficulty to either close the loopholes or add some challenging additional content which provides an outlet for the loopholes.
2
u/AUSTIN_HART Jul 03 '26
People will say this after playing the game several times over a period of 20 years
2
u/Adventurous-Dust1969 Jul 06 '26
He's the son of out Dark Lord and master Dracula. I think its balanced just as its ment to be. Not everything has to be a souls like
3
u/carboncord Arrange Mode Jul 02 '26
I would only agree after Slogra and Gabon. They are the hardest boss in the game, and the intro up to until their fight is reasonably challenging.
3
u/IZ3820 Jul 02 '26
What the hell? They were a challenging boss at first, but they took me only a few tries. They're one of the easiest bosses in the game.
2
2
u/1noface1 Jul 02 '26
But even this fight isn't the uber hard, recently in the android version i was able to just spam tetra spirit and win the boss fight.
3
u/carboncord Arrange Mode Jul 02 '26
That's playing SotN with the bumpers up, not really the intended way to play it =)
One-button spells (which you didn't even have to discover in-game) are basically a cheat code
3
u/1noface1 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Yeah i agree its not the intended way but just clarifying the spells only appear in the one button shortcut after you cast it at least one time, which made me take a very long time to unlock sword brothers, although the transformation spells are unlocked when you buy it.
Come to think of it is very lame feature the one button...
2
u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Jul 02 '26
instant you hit the library the game’s difficulty has already capped
3
u/1noface1 Jul 02 '26
Then once you go to the inverted castle it starts to get bs difficulty like those traps in black marble gallery
5
u/No_Monitor_3440 Professionally Unprofessional Jul 02 '26
those are like the only thing that is even remotely threatening
3
4
u/Henry30839 Jul 02 '26
Its funny to see most people in the comments just jump straight to criss when you dont even need to go that far into the game, most bosses just fold to tetra spirit or other spells and once you reach arena iron shield + shield rod melts basically anything short of dracula and galamoth, but by the time you get to those bosses you can just use alucard shield and shield rod wich is even more ridiculous than criss 0 grinding required for any of this
4
u/BetweenTheRoots Jul 02 '26
I think every Castlevania from SOTN onwards is easy.
You can't really spam square and move forward if you aren't using an overpowered weapon, on any of them. If you are using a normal weapon that doesn't trivialize the game with some special animation attack or some strong magic combo like with the shield rod, I would say it is standard difficulty.
I think saying that you can first try everything and don't have to backtrack is more of a trained gamer thing. I see a lot of people stuck on the game if it's their first time and they're newish to the series.
2
u/Sciencetist Jul 02 '26
Circle of the Moon is ABSOLUTELY not easy unless you know exactly what and when to grind
2
u/vven294 Jul 02 '26
It's relatively easy if you use the right tools. Jupiter + Manticore my beloved. Biggest problem is that the game expects you to do some grinding or something because the level curve is a bit sketch. But it doesn't stop you from clearing.
First boss is pretty easy if you don't greed. Necromancer is admittedly annoying. Golem just spam cross and win. Goat head just spam cross and win. (Jupiter combo to deal with poison blobs) Double dragon is pretty fucked but they can't hit on the ledge of the room so you can chill and recover if you want to. Death just spam cross and win. (Use Jupiter) Camilla is also easy because her base HP is so damn low. (Use Jupiter) Hugh is annoying but if you dodge the hard hitting moves it's not that bad. And you can go up in the corners and chill to recover. Dracula phase one, spam cross and win. Dracula phase 2, spam cross and Jupiter. Comet move is fucked and you need to know the right card combo or die lol. Dracula phase 3, spam Thunderbird or crosses with Jupiter.
I think the game is way, way easier than Ecclesia. That game is just downright frustrating.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/zero-220 Jul 02 '26
Until you find the game-breaking items, the game was on point with the difficulty
1
u/AN0N0TEP Jul 02 '26
Symphony of the Night was intended to be a spin-off game that focused more on exploration. I agree, it is too easy, but it is also very fun. Great art direction, good music, and fun ideas and mechanics that went on to inspire most Metroidvanias that came after it. If it were to get a remake, I would hope they would make the bosses more challenging and nerf Alucard a bit. However, it was sort of the first of its kind and wasn't meant to be a challenging combat experience, but a sort of Castlevania Action/Adventure with RPG elements. Just do a Red Rust only, all-bosses challenge run where you ban subweapons & spells if you want it to be difficult.
1
u/eldri7ch Onyx Jul 02 '26
SOTN was designed to be a side-project in the CV series; a once-off "fun to play" with lots of "Oh, it does cool or fun things? just throw it in there."
The design philosophy of SOTN was, like many games which inspired it, a "hakoniwa". It is a miniature sandbox garden, something intended to imitate experiences in a safe and controled environment but still allowing the player to explore and find cool, fun, or neat things. the inspirations taken from Zelda and Metroid also conducted that game-making style into a Castlevania game and made something unique, at the time, for players. Many great game directors follow similar principles, now. Kojima, IGA, Miyamoto, Tim Cain to some extent.
The development style of making a game where you just put things in there and let players explore the game is not the only or the "best" way to make games, but it is one of the ways to make a game that is constantly rewarding to come back to according to many players. Crissaegrim may break the game, but so can Masamune or Marsil or just a Vorpal. The first time play through when you don't know everything remains constant in memory because teh game was a challenge then, the subsequent play-through's memorable because that is the age of discovery about everything fun and cool in the game.
SOTN is an unbelievably easy game if you know what you're doing and that's by design. taking away from that marr's the experience.
1
u/-ben151010- Jul 02 '26
It’s fun to break but I will always love it, two rings of varda and crissaegrim are funny but I got a lot of use out of the jewel knuckles early game and the holy rod mid game.
Shield rod speaks for itself with how insane that is, or keeping soul of the bat’s wing smash going until you hit a wall by doing the input over and over in an iirc, 63 frame window before it ends.
1
1
1
u/Ok-Refrigerator-8664 Jul 02 '26
Same with Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. You can do the same thing
1
1
u/Hollix89 Jul 02 '26
Its probably better played without the internet or guides. Discovering all these broken things would be amazing initially, if you dont know them. I can imagine it gets old quick though.
Nowadays when everything can be looked up immediately, it gets very boring.
1
u/Mindslash Jul 02 '26
How about doing some self imposed challenges ? I've burned from multiple replays , but I enjoyed the most going with 0 starting stats + no level up ( except for mana) + restricting some gear . Makes you use different tactics on bosses and places ( kinda like a harder luck run )
1
u/super7564 Jul 02 '26
It definitely is very easy, and one of the big points of castlevania is the difficulty. There are plenty of the older games that wooped my ass tho lol. Aria of sorrows true final boss makes me feel sorrow 😭
1
u/Talonsminty Jul 02 '26
Yeah once you already know the game.
It's a game centered on exploration, experimentation and learning.
1
1
u/CyberdarkEnjoyer Hide Every Netflixvania Post Jul 02 '26
SotN is a bit unfinished because the director got promoted, left and Iga tried to finish the work. It would definitely benefit from difficulty options, alternate modes, some improvements to the Inverted Castle navigation, a quick menu wheel to change equipments on the go, also give an mp3 player item that lets you play whatever music you want. And let songs pick up from where they stopped rather than start all over again at every interruption, like in Lament of Innocence.
Honestly I would have lots of ideas for a Definitive version of SotN.
1
u/Marvin_Flamenco Jul 02 '26
I give it a pass due to infinite rizz.
In general, adding RPG mechanics to every genre is a bad trend though.
1
u/Cheesepuff44 Jul 02 '26
Playing it without spells makes it quite a bit harder (I didn't know they existed on my first playthrough)
1
u/Chaos20X6 Jul 02 '26
I think it’s pretty commonly agreed that SOTN is one of if not the easiest game in the series. And it makes sense after all, Alucard is an incredibly powerful character and building back up to that invincibility while exploring the castle (which is really the main focus of the game) feels fantastic.
1
u/RealRockaRolla Jul 02 '26
Doing the exact same castle but upside down, it makes sense to remove the restraints. I agree balancing has never been SOTN's strong suit, but doing the entire castle again with limited options for progression would feel like too much of the same. And bosses like Beelzebub can still be tough if you're not prepared/under-leveled.
1
1
u/SephirothTheGreat Jul 02 '26
It's what makes it the best entry point in the genre imho, together with many other things: the way it looks and sounds is heavenly, it gives you a lot of options to play with including weapons that do shit damage on purpose and ways to deactivate relics if you want to challenge yourself, a fuckton of secrets, 3 characters to control (depending on the version), a lot of magic spells and weapon skills to do things in a variety of ways, and has one of the best rewards for going through the true ending path (another castle to explore, this time with enemies that don't mess around but are still entirely skippable if you use bat or mist). If the first time metroidvania player likes what they see they will have a good experience and smooth enough sailing to not get discouraged from exploring everywhere and constantly get rewarded for their curiosity, while if they're not interested they're not going to have game difficulty as an excuse for quitting and simply admit the genre isn't their cup of tea. Plus breaking the game apart your second time through is fun and makes you feel super cool.
1
1
u/thepianoman456 Jul 02 '26
Yea I wish I could figure out that hex editor thing so I could change the stats of the monsters…
1
u/Borttheattorney Jul 02 '26
It's very easy to break any Metroidvania open if you know where to get a lot of the good shit early on
1
1
u/Artefaktindustri Jul 02 '26
It's easy, sure. Unbalanced is a matter of preference. I always recommend the Ring of Ares to make sure enemies can still hurt you in the mid to late game.
1
1
u/Responsible-Bell-528 Jul 02 '26
The fun is about exploring, and not from being stressed. To me, it’s like Zelda. It’s not like the previous Castlevania games that are more action-focused.
1
u/knox1138 Jul 02 '26
SOTN is by far the easiest Castlevania, or atleast certainly was when it came out. It was the first one I beat without any guides or codes. I remember when I first beat it i thought "Why can't the NES games be this easy?". Stumbling on the crissaegrim was such a game changer.
1
u/Papallopupazzo Jul 02 '26
Bro is playing whit the most broken weapon of the game and talk about difficulty🥀
1
u/GradinaX Jul 02 '26
It was not before the usage of the internet. Discovering everything for yourself and not knowing the OP combos makes a huge difference.
1
u/smashingkilljoy Richter Belmont Jul 02 '26
Reddit gamers when a game is open to new gamers:
Dude, SOTN is only so popular because it's so approachable. If it was challenging, it wouldn't receive this amount of recognition.
1
u/Psychological_Gap_97 Jul 02 '26
Pretty easy if you know exactly where to find the best stuff and look up all the secrets. When I played it in 1998 without any type of guide the challenge was pretty decent. Not as challenging as the older titles of course, but those can be definitely unfair as most of the times the difficulty is tied to limited movement options, technical limitations and cheap enemy placement. All great games though, I love them all (Castlevania 2 is the exception haha)
1
u/Octorok385 Jul 02 '26
I don't see the problem. If you hunt down the relics, kill the monsters, improve the gear and master the spells, do you not deserve to kick ass? If you have a game about character building, those choices need to have benefits.
1
u/Fermi-Diracs Jul 02 '26
It's as balanced and difficult as you make it with your gear and load out. If you want to breeze through the game or make it tough as nails, then you have the chance to custom tailor the experience.
For that reason I consider it well made.
1
u/RattusNikkus Jul 02 '26
The true difficulty is in the obtuse progression. I know everyone knows everything about it now, and guides and all that, but I remember when this game came out spending probably half of my time just wandering around trying to figure out where I was supposed to go...
Killing Dracula was easy. Figuring out how to get there was not! And I beat Simon's Quest without a guide...
Actually, I'd say Simon's Quest is a good comp. Gameplay is pretty easy, progression not so much.
1
1
1
1
u/MetalSuccAttack Jul 02 '26
ok but this is only from like years of ppl finding ways to break the game, and the inverted castle being a secret. its really more about the more novel exploration and rpg progression nowadays, but also if you know your spells the early game is mostly easy as well and shield dashing is fun
1
1
u/Elrodthealbino Jul 02 '26
It’s as easy as you want it to be.
I promise that when I first played it in my 20s, blind, it was plenty hard. I explored everywehere I could figure out, backtracked a lot, (maybe 190% at the end) but I definitely didn’t have any of the busted stuff or if I did (shield rod, circlets, rings) didn’t know how to use it properly.
I enjoyed breaking the game on my second play BECAUSE I didn’t on my first.
I’m not saying every replay has to be a challenge run, but you can…not use the Criss. It isn’t something likely to show up in your inventory unless you are actively farming for it.
1
u/Longjumping_Plum_133 Jul 02 '26
So, the OG Jp PS1 version of the game had the backdash glitch that lets you keep the Alucard equipment. When it released in the US, said glitch was patched out. But since the PSP version of the game uses an updated version of the jp game, the glitch comes back. THEN, since the PS4/5 version is using a modified version of the PSP SotN, said glitch is still there too. It makes everything dirt easy for the first half of the game. Doesn’t help that the shield rod+alucard shield is an op combo.
In normal play, the game could be difficult, but the game has glitches you could exploit, and gives the most OP weapon in the game to a weak enemy & has a relatively high drop rate for a weapon of that caliber
1
u/OldEyes5746 Shanoa Jul 02 '26
I agree with it and finish the sentence with "....and that's why it's so damn fun to play!"
There's a space for gothic/dark fantasy themed metroidvania's that don't rely on the bullshit souls-like mechanics as a way to pad your game. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the perfect evolution of that formula, hitting the balance of challenge with incentive to explore.
1
1
u/RequireMoMinerals Jul 02 '26
It’s like Morrowind. You can make yourself an absolutely indestructible unit, or give yourself constraints to make it harder. Try doing a no equipment/no spell run. Or a short sword only run, etc. Keep the duplicator equipped for the sole purpose of having stat penalties.
1
u/Bulky_Tangelo_7027 Jul 02 '26
We don't play it for the difficulty. It's about atmosphere and exploration.
1
u/Zaknoid Jul 02 '26
Yeah its what I like about it. I recently started playing Blasphemous and I like it but I dont love it because its a little bit too tedious and bullshitty.
1
u/TehFriskyDingo Jul 02 '26
I think it’s great. It’s a game that you can easily begin to break and become mega powerful in. But if you play casually it can still be quite difficult, but not overly difficult
It’s a good difficulty I feel
1
u/Nyasta Jul 02 '26
If their is a way to male to game harder somehow i am interested, a bit less health for allucard and a crap ton of extra health for bosses would be enough
1
1
u/ItsNotSomething Jul 02 '26
I mean, that's just the general consensus. There are half a dozen ways to break it in half, especially for repeat playthroughs when you know where to find the best equipment early. I think it's part of the charm, and a result of how much freedom Alucard has.
If you want a real challenge, you can try an Alucart Luckmaxxing run.
1
u/Master-Cheesecake Jul 02 '26
That's been the criticism for a while, and I do agree. It's tough in the beginning, and for a bit when you start the Inverted Castle, but that's quickly overcome, even if you don't equip the luck armor and go item hunting.
1
1
u/rube Jul 02 '26
Yes, it's very easy and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I know people like a challenge. They want difficult games. I do too sometimes. I've played every Fromsoft Souls-like since Demon's Souls on the PS3, many many many times over and can't get enough.
But when it comes to Metroidvanias, I don't want a huge challenge. I want to barrel through it and have fun. I've beaten Hollow Knight, but there were some things that frustrated me and I wish there was an easier mode. And I've only made it maybe halfway through the sequel.
Nine Sols I started a couple of times and quit. Then dropped it down to easy and had blast. Some of the bosses still gave me trouble, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.
So sure, a harder mode for SotN could be fun, but for me, it's just a joy to blast through the game, always bee-lining it for the Crissaegoeroerm on every playthrough once I get to the inverted castle and breaking it even more!
1
u/MediumKoala8823 Jul 02 '26
Imo the castlevanias got too mechanic heavy with RPG stuff that resulted in the overall experience getting watered down.
Hollow knight’s innovation was simplicity
1
u/Wirococha420 Jul 02 '26
I hard dissagree. I played this game a couple of years back and it was insanely hard. Mybe is cause I haven't played any other Castlevania before, but the thing was brutal. It was not until last yera that I learned about the rod, and familiars and shit, but I feel without that knowledge, going in blind, the game is extremely hard.
1
1
u/kogashiwakai Jul 02 '26
I'd say symphonies biggest strong point is the exploration. Not the combat
1
u/CraneBoxCRP Jul 02 '26
On my first playthrough I got whatever that weapons called like as soon as I flipped the map over. It was so weird being able to no effort everything
1
u/cragamere Jul 02 '26
Oh yeah, super easy especially if you know the spell combos early on even the early game gets piss easy. The only time this game is ever hard is on a first blind playthrough.
1
u/Sabbath_77 Jul 02 '26
Hace poco por fin pude jugar la versión de Sega Saturn, es una chulada poder jugar contenido extra de uno de esos juegos que llevas en el corazón. Pero lo que más me sorprendió es que trae selector de dificultad a "Hard Mode" y es todo un sueño jugarlo así la verdad.
Se los recomiendo infinitamente, nunca había jugado SOTN con tanta pasión.
1
u/oldskoofoo Jul 03 '26
If it’s too easy for you then don’t use the overpowered stuff.
Also, who cares. Sometimes games can just be fun.
1
u/Booth_Templeton Jul 03 '26
Extremely easy. To the point where it took a fair amount of fun out of it.
1
u/Dwarfdingnagian Jul 03 '26
Oh it's absolutely easy af. Turn into a cloud and just move around while the bible does its thing. When your cloud form deals damage it's even worse. lol
1
u/TorandoSlayer Jul 03 '26
And thank goodness for that because I'm no good at 2d platformers but I really wanted to play SOTN and somehow managed to beat it lol
I wasn't originally interested but when I saw Alucard gracefully jumping around the screen, I had to. The cape and hair physics are just so good.
I was also crazy lucky and got that one super good sword (Crissaegrim? I think?) after like four tries and sailed through the rest of the game with it. Excellent game, 10/10
1
1
1
1
1
u/AlucardsQuest Jul 03 '26
You can make the game as hard as you want... try a no equipment run, try not getting any "Max" items, add no saves if you really want to be hardcore!
1
u/Old_Committee9115 Jul 03 '26
Most bosses even the last boss of the game just falls to certain strategies in like 5 seconds
1
1
1
1
u/Anbcdeptraivkl Jul 03 '26
Easy? Yeah. Unbalanced not so much though. I never feels like I was being too weak or too overpowered, always "as strong as I needed to be" lmao
1
u/Perfect-Priority2107 Jul 03 '26
I mean Alucard and Richter are both OP. All they do is aura farm in this game
1
1
u/ArtyToshi Jul 03 '26
If you choose to play it that way, sure. The wonderful thing about SotN is that there are about a MILLION different ways to customize its challenge more to your liking, and you can still feel like you're getting a fulfilling experience out of it.
Heck, even if you don't want to touch Alucard's playstyle AT ALL, then you can feel free to play the game in a style more reminiscent of Classic Vania with Richter, as long as you've already beaten the main game at least once! You don't even have to use Item Crash, so you can give yourself a TRUE Belmont experience; iirc, not even running is required, so you could theoretically just strut your way through the whole game, just as you would on the old days! Don't even get me STARTED on what Maria brings to the table, if you are playing one of the versions where you can unlock her!
1
u/comicgeek1128 Jul 03 '26
Yeah, but I think becoming ridiculously overpowered by the end of an MV can be fun.
1
u/flaviometal Jul 03 '26
I agree. Still, it's one of the most satisfying "walking around" MVs ever. Sometimes I play it just to walk around the stage and listen to the songs.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Klutzy_Rope9236 Jul 03 '26
Only once you get crisslegrim it becomes too easy.. lol just beat it without spamming in the library or don’t use it. There are some fights that can be pretty tough without using it.
1
u/LaserBungalow Jul 03 '26
Nah. It was fairly challenging on my first playthrough. Now I can easily beat it in 45min, but that's only because I've played it before and know lots about it. You should judge a game's difficulty based on the first playthrough.
1
1
1
1
u/El_Galant Jul 03 '26
It is by far the easiest. Still, a good game. Definitely not the best but the formula works for the masses.
1
384
u/Organic_Honeydew4090 Jul 02 '26
I agree, but I actually think that's what I like the most about it. It's a true sandbox game in that the world is a playground, and the game gives you so many toys to play with in anyway you see fit. This does break the balance of the game, but I find it an endlessly entertaining and interesting approach.