Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the originator of the "Metroidvania" games in this long-running series. What is a game? A miserable little pile of secrets (that the programmers never expected you to find in the code)!

Small Cave
There's a small hatch in the ground at the entrance gate of the castle, which never opens at any point in the game. There is something beneath it, however, and while it's not terribly interesting, it's possible to reach it via glitches. All this hidden area consists of is a small vertical cave with a save room at the end, which is graphically glitched if you're playing as Alucard but looks fine if you're playing as Richter. In either case, the save point functions as it should. Upon exiting the cave, the hatch opens, allowing this little area to be reentered without further glitching. There's no actual purpose to this area beyond adding an extra .3% to your map exploration total.

To open the hatch at the beginning of the game, use these GameShark codes: Note that the hatch can only be opened at the beginning of the game, as the map is later changed to include other entities and the hatch will no longer work.

This little cave also exists in the inverted castle. It's identical, except upside-down, has a reddish palette, and the hatch does not open upon trying to exit.

In the Sega Saturn version, the hatch opens normally. The cave beneath has been modified: The water is no longer present, the exit has been moved about twice as far down, and breakable light posts have been added on some ledges. The save room has been replaced by a load room, which leads to the Underground Garden, an area exclusive to the Saturn version.

Debug Area
A debug area can be entered from the title screen with the following GameShark codes: It consists of the room seen in the screenshot, a load room missing its angel statue entities to the left of it, and eight interconnected double-width rooms to the right of it. Tiles are randomly placed in the small starting room to make a floor and ceiling, and four tiles are placed in each of the eight large rooms. Exiting the left side of the load room or the bottom left exit of the large rooms will return the player to the starting room. The map location of the debug area in relation to the rest of the castle can be found here.

"Hi, I'm Joji Yanami. I'm not a young man anymore. I've done this job for a long time. Eyup. I've done a lot of stupid roles. Man, though, this year has been so hot, I could die. It's way too much... I'm an old man, you see. I can't do anything anymore. It's exhausting. Someone save me, please. It's already September. I think something will come of all this, maybe. Old age is old age. Maybe not, though. Yeah. Well, that's all. See you, then."

This track plays upon entering the starting room of the debug area. It is actually one of the interviews present in the Japanese version, which cannot be accessed normally in the English versions.

Test Areas
There are five test areas. They all consist of the first room from the Marble Gallery repeated thirteen times.

Richter Sprites
Palettes for several alternate color schemes are loaded when playing as or fighting Richter. The green and gray schemes are very similar to the palettes used in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood when he is cursed.

Unused animation of Richter doing some sort of spin jump. This was later used for his double jump in the Nintendo DS game Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, where he is an unlockable playable character.

Richter doing a spin kick. He later acquired this move in Portrait of Ruin.

Richter doing a sweep kick. Was later used as part of his hidden combo move in Portrait of Ruin.

Another powerup sort of move of Richter doing punches at the air. It's similar to the animation he uses when powering up his whip and subweapons during the battle against him, but not the same.

A frame of Richter's stair climbing animation from Rondo of Blood and Dracula X. This was likely included by accident, since only a single frame is present, and this game treats stairs like ramps.

Unused frames meant for use in the super jump special move. The last four sprites seem to be for after the landing. These are used in Portrait of Ruin, the first four frames for his super jump and the last three for when he's dismissed when playing as Maria.

Frames of Richter getting hit and rolling. These are used in Rondo of Blood and Dracula X when he takes damage from certain enemies, such as the Behemoth. They are utilized in Portrait of Ruin as a landing animation when falling from a great height.



These frames seem to show Richter taking elemental damage such as electricity and being frozen in a block of ice. The first frame is used with an electrical overlay when Richter takes damage from certain enemies and obstacles in the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, hinting at a possible intended use. Despite numerous palettes being loaded into VRAM when playing as Richter, none of them seem to fit the frozen sprite properly. The frozen sprite can actually be seen in-game by glitching Richter into the Lord Dracula battle; it uses his standard palette.

Tileset
An unused purplish marble tileset. The arrows and element symbols on some of the tiles imply they would have been used for debugging purposes, but a different tileset is used in the debug area.

Unused Items
This flashing treasure chest is mixed in with the other "money" objects, and can be made to appear when candles are slashed. It gives you $5,000 when picked up; more than any other item in the game. It's a mystery as to why it was left unused, as it works perfectly, and it's not as though there weren't places to put it. To change the item when smashing candles holding the Bibuti sub-weapon to this, use this GameShark code:.

There is a turkey in the game as an inventory item, but one can also be made to appear when candles are slashed, although it does nothing. Traditionally, meat restores some or all of your energy in Castlevania games, so this is likely a leftover from an early stage of development. To change the item when smashing candles holding the Bibuti sub-weapon to this, use this GameShark code:.

"No!" with a dark cross in the background. Can be equipped in Alucard's right hand and protects him from holy attacks.

Dracula Castle Remix
A Redbook Audio track that can be played directly from the game disc. It begins with a warning about playing the data track, then shifts into a remix of the Dracula's Castle theme. This track is not actually used in the game, and is just a small bonus.

Nocturne
This song is unused in the initial Japanese releases and the English releases. It was intended to be sung by the Sprite familiar, which is the case in the Japanese 1.2 release.

It is possible to enable the Sprite familiar to sing in the North American version by using GameShark codes. First enable the Sprite familiar using the GameShark code in Removed Familiars section below. Then enable the following codes and sit down in a chair in the Long Library:

Silence
This short song is present in the sound test, but it's not actually used anywhere.

Unknown Song
This strange lullaby-like song is one of only two tracks in the game that aren't streamed. It also isn't used anywhere.

Unused Text
Greater Demon Found amongst the monster names. Would obviously be a counterpart to the Lesser Demon - this may have even been intended for the Lesser Demon fought as a boss in the Long Library, since that one has slightly different abilities than the ones used as common monsters in the Necromancy Laboratory.

Title Screen and Menus
The Konami logo sequence was changed for the English versions. The original sequence had the red and orange logo "walk" across the Konami text with a silly sound effect. The English version is more elaborate, having rocks rise out of the ground, which fall over to reveal the Konami text. Both sequences end with the logo zooming in from the background, which then fades to white.

The Japanese version is titled Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku, literally Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight. Its title logo allows a little more of the background graphic to be seen, and the "press start button" text is positioned a little higher on the screen. The background is also a lighter shade of gray.

The logo on the loading screen was also changed, of course.

As is usually the case in PlayStation games, the button mappings were changed for the western releases. Confirm was changed from Circle to X, cancel from X to Triangle, and the button to sort weapons in the inventory from Triangle to Square. The buttons used during actual gameplay are unchanged.

The Japanese version grays out inaccessible options in the main menu, while the English versions black them out. The kill count is labeled "BEAT" in the Japanese version.

The Japanese version uses text to denote directions that need to be held in certain spells. Red arrows are used instead in the English versions. The color of the selection box used in this menu was also changed from red to yellow, likely to make the red arrows easier to see.

Intro
The "journey back to 1792..." text before the opening FMV has a subtitle in the Japanese version.

While the intro text was always in English, parts of it were rewritten for the Western releases. The intro is narrated in the Japanese version.

The Japanese version shows a Dracula X graphic after the intro text. The English versions replaced this with a Castlevania graphic.

Area Names
All of the graphics used for introducing areas in the normal castle have an English subtitle of the area name in the Japanese version. Some of these names were still changed for the English releases, however.

The English releases of the game also replaced these graphics and the effects used when they appear and fade away. The Japanese version uses two different effects depending on the area: One where the graphic "rolls" to the front of the screen, then to the back, and another where it's drawn from one side and fades to the other. The former style is only used for the Alchemy Laboratory and Abandoned Mine. The English version always has the graphic fade in, then disintegrate to the sides.

Game Over
In the Japanese version, getting a game over at certain points in the story will result in a voice over from one of the characters replacing the standard game over music. These lines were translated into English, but aren't actually played.


 * Maria: Die after speaking with Maria in the Royal Chapel, but before finding Richter in the Colosseum.
 * Succubus: Die against the succubus.
 * Richter: Die against Richter.
 * Death: Die against Death.

The Japanese game over screen has the text "Let us go out the evening for pleasure. The night is still young." In the English versions, "the evening" was changed to "this evening". The colors of the screen were also changed slightly.

Removed Familiars


Two familiars were removed from the English versions on the PlayStation - they are counterparts to the Faerie and Demon, but have different voice actors. Their names were not translated on the familiar list, but the cards that activate them call them the Sprite (or Pixie, in its description) and Nosedevil. The English PSP version retranslated them as the Fairy and Nose Demon. The Nosedevil has no new abilities, but the Sprite will sing when Alucard sits in a chair in the Japanese "The Best" rerelease, the Saturn version when the lyrics card has been obtained, and the PSP Dracula X Chronicles version.

The programming for these familiars is still present in the English PlayStation versions and can be activated with GameShark codes, but their cards were removed from the game and they will leave once the player changes their familiar settings. To enable the Japanese familiars in the North American version using a GameShark, first make sure no familiars are enabled on your save file, then use either of these codes:

Their relics may have to have been acquired first to enable them. This can only be done by using a GameShark code to acquire all relics. But the all relics code must be off when using the code to enable a familiar, meaning you must first use the all relics code, save, restart the game, disable all familiars, save, then restart the game again with the familiar enable code entered.

The removal of these familiars resulted in some items getting slightly rearranged for the English releases. The Nosedevil Card was found in the hidden area where the holy sword is in the Colosseum. Notably, the only way to get the holy sword in the Japanese version is to have a Vandal Sword drop one on death. The Sprite Card was found in the hidden area where the Sword Card is in Olrox's Quarters. The Sword Card wasn't originally hidden, being placed in a normal room in Olrox's Quarters where a common garnet is found now. (The English screenshots on the left are taken from the E3 version, which uses the same item placements as the Japanese version.)

Interviews/Sound Test
After exploring 196% or more of the castle maps and completing the game, a new option will become available in the Master Librarian's menu.



In the Japanese version, there are eight interviews with the voice actors.



In the English versions, a sound test takes the place of these interviews. All of the game's music tracks can be played, with the exception of the Redbook Audio track, Nocturne, and the unknown song.

European
This piracy warning screen is shown before the Konami logo sequence in the European version. The TIM for it is present in the North American and Japanese 1.2 versions, but it's never displayed.

Text Updates
Several items' descriptions were updated to be consistent with the rest of the descriptions.

Most notably, the only case of Ralph's name not being localized in the English version was fixed in the time attack menu.

While spelled correctly elsewhere, several monster names were originally misspelled in the strings used by the Faerie Scroll relic and enemy list. Strangely, a new typo, Wrym, was added in the European version despite being spelled correctly in the North American version. The Minotaurus boss (brown) and common Minotaur enemies (purplish) were made to share a string in the European version, since the boss is called Minotaur everywhere else.

Japanese 1.2
This is the version used for the "The Best" and "PSOne Books" rereleases.


 * Richter's flame whip, activated by pressing Triangle without a subweapon equipped, has been changed from holy to fire elemental. The flame whip has no advantages over the normal whip in the other versions.
 * The Sprite familiar can sing the previously unused Nocturne song in this version. Simply have Alucard sit in a chair until she sits on his shoulder, then wait a while longer and she'll begin singing.

Gargoyle Statue
This is not unused, but it occurs very rarely. Whenever Alucard is petrified, there's a slight chance he'll turn into a gargoyle statue instead of his normal petrified form. While he normally takes several times the normal amount of damage if hit by an enemy while petrified, he is invulnerable to enemy attacks in this form.