Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)

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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: Playstation Released in JP: March 20, 1997 Released in US: October 2, 1997 Released in EU: November 1997 This game has unused areas. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article

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)!

Unused Areas

Small Cave

Well no wonder it was closed off.

Near the very entrance of Dracula's castle exists a small grate, which never opens at any point in the game. There is something down there, 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 tunnel with a save point at the end, which is bizarrely 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. Also, when when exiting the cave, the grate opens, allowing this little area to be re-entered without further glitching.

In the Sega Saturn port of Symphony of the Night, this path can be accessed normally, and leads to the Underground Gardens, an area exclusive to that port. It seems the developers started to include it in the PSX version as well, but ran out of time, and simply sealed it away. As it stands, there's no actual purpose to this area beyond adding an extra .3% to your map exploration total.

This little hallway also exists in the inverted castle, although there is no known way short of using a cheat device to access it. It's identical, except upside-down, has a reddish palette, and the grate does not open upon trying to exit.

Debug Room

A debug room can be found by entering the GameShark codes 80097918 0040 and 800974A0 0040.

Debug Room Japanese voice track

"My name is Yamami Jyouji, I'm no longer young, and have been doing this stupid job for a long time. The temperature this year is always high, and I just can't stand it. Ah, I'm getting older and don't know what to do in the future, I want to call for your help or waiting for death. Maybe I would feel better as September is nearby. An old guy is always an old guy, I can't think of how to deal with it. Yeah, that's all, goodbye."

Unused Richter Animations

Darkening. Some unused Richter animations have been found. Some are later used in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, such as the kicking animation.

These animations seem to show Richter taking elemental damage such as electricity and being frozen in a block of ice.

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.

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.

Unused Music

Dracula Castle Remix

This is a Redbook Audio track that can be played directly from the game disk. It begins with a warning about playing the data track and then segues into a remix of the Dracula Castle theme. This track is not actually used in the game and is just a little bonus.

Nocturne

In the Japanese "The Best" re-release version of the game, this was a secret song that you could get the Sprite Familiar to sing. It was removed from the American version.

Silence

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

Unknown Song

This strange lullaby-like song is one of the few tracks in the game that isn't streamed. It also isn't used anywhere.

Unused Dialogue

Unused Ending

A series of unused dialogue can be found among the games sound files which seem to be part of a unused ending. It involves Richter and Maria dying when the castle collapses. It also suggests that Maria could have intervened during the Richter fight somehow and she would have subsequently been possessed or transformed by Shaft.

Regional Differences

Unused Familiars

Two familiars are available in the japanese version but not in the US version. They are called Fairy and Nose Demon in the English translated PSP version. The Nose Demon has no new abilities but the Fairy will sing when Alucard sits in a chair in the Japanese "The Best" re-release.

Oddities

Gargoyle Statue

This is not unused, but the method to show the sprite in the game is extremely obscure. After gaining the double jump relic, if you are turned into stone while performing a double jump, Alucard will turn into a huge gargoyle statue. While he normally takes several times the normal amount of damage if hit by an enemy while petrified, he is invincible to enemy attacks in his stone gargoyle form.