Retro Glitch: Symphony of the Night Pt. II

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Welcome to Retro Glitch, a retrospective of the gaming industry’s most shining moments prior to the advent of DLC, micro transactions and online multiplayer. In this entry we’ll be taking an in depths look at the process and circumstances that led to Konami’s masterpiece Castlevania: Symphony of the Night; as well as its narrative, themes, characters and aftermath.

Year of the Ox

A memorable event in gaming, marking the first appearance or footage of games such Metal Gear Solid and Ocarina of Time 

The year was 1997, the third Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 was being held in Atlanta, Duke Nukem Forever would begin its infamous climb towards development and the Pokémon anime would induce seizures in children across Japan. But most memorably would be the release of three games GoldenEye 007 a first person shooter, Final Fantasy VII a JRPG and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night a side scrolling action game. Each one is considered to have revolutionized their respective fields; although Symphony of the Night did this by actually changing very little. Out of the three games it was the only one to be presented in 2-D. Castlevania already had a winning formula and Konami knew this; they just thought they would have to translate it into 3-D. With Symphony expected to be the final 2-D Castlevania game, the development team set themselves the task of giving it the swan song the series deserved.

The secret to success 

The production of the game was led by Toru Hagihara acting as the director and Koji Igarashi as the assistant director. Igarashi is said to have had the greatest creative influence behind the game, performing duties as both one of the programmers and the writer. Igarashi began working for Konami in 1989 straight out of college. His first project was for the company’s Educational Software Department, although the title he worked on never saw a release. Igarashi’s first game to be released was Detana!! TwinBee an arcade shoot-‘em-up well received by gamers.  His other works included the arcade shooter classic Gradius II and Tokimeki Memorial a popular dating simulator; so popular in fact he was asked to do a sequel. Having no desire to do so he felt his expertise would be better utilised on another project.

Koji Igarashi

Igarashi transferred to the Castlevania development team, he was immediately set to work on Symphony of the Night. Back then the game was intended to act as a supplementary story to the main series; or a gaiden as they’re more commonly known in Japan. But the narrative presented by Igarashi allowed it to extend one game while standing out as its own entry in to the main compendium. His approach was simple; if the Castlevania series had been a success up until this point then it wasn’t broken, and if it wasn’t broken it didn’t need to be fixed. Instead Igarashi and the team focused on breaking the barriers that were set by previous games; such as its linear progression, and by improving its flaws like replay value. Symphony changed to a non-linear game play; which would require players to back track throughout the castle and learn unique skills in order to explore its entirety. The game itself could be played through with a variety of characters and even held a secret at the end that almost doubled its play time length. It broke some conventions such as having a non-Belmont save the day, and implementing an RPG aspect allowing for the player to level up their character and assets. His input and vision helped shape the structure of Symphony of the Night and subsequently as a result the rest of the Castlevania series; to which he has since acted as the overall architect to. 

Tranquil yet terrifying artwork by Ayami Kojima

Igarashi wasn’t the only series favourite to get their start in Symphony of the Night; next time we’ll be taking a look at the woman who crafted the unique visual identity of the series, Ayami Kojima. Her tragically beautiful acrylic portraits paint the iconic imagery only a game like Symphony of the Night can live up to.     

Written by Silas Grayson