In 1997, Konami came out with the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the original PlayStation. It was a unique game for a bunch of reasons: first, it was a 2D game in 1997, when 3D seemed like it'd take over entirely. Second, it's less like the Castlevania games that came before it, playing more like Super Metroid or Zelda II than a straightforward action game. Third, it's got cost-effective voice acting, to put it charitably. A lot of games did back then, and it's part of why they're still good today.

Since Dracula came up in the shoutbox, I guess it's as good of a time as any to thank tonight's sponsor: Natural gas!


No, wait. I mean, with the intro to Symphony of the Night:


What is a man?! A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!!

Oh yes! Quite a classic moment... one that inspired some excellent memes as well.

I'm still yet to finish a Castlevania game, believe it or not.

Quite! I wanted to reference this in the shoutbox, but I didn't know if you'd seen it or not.

Which Castlevania games have you played, then? I think the only ones I ever beat were Metroidvanias like Symphony and the DS games... the NES games get pretty difficult

I've only played the original NES Castlevania. I didn't get extremely far!

Though I did beat this game.