Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Also known as: Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Japan) 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 entrance of Dracula's castle is 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 exiting the cave, the grate opens, allowing this little area to be re-entered without further glitching.

In the Saturn version, 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.

To do: See if the "Edge Travel" glitch can grant access to the inverted version - it is at least possible in the PSP version, but that version seems to introduce more glitches so it may behave differently. Also see if the inverted grate can be opened this way.

Debug Room

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

Debug Room Japanese voice track

"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."

Unused Richter Animations

Darkening.
Some of these were later used in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, such as the kicking animation.

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

Unused Items

A flashing treasure chest 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 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

A Redbook Audio track that can be played directly from the game disk. It begins with a warning about playing the data track, 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

Supposed to be a hidden song you could get the Half-Fairy Familiar to sing, but said familiar was removed from international releases. Additionally, it will only play through normal means in the Japanese "The Best" re-release; it is locked out of other versions (except the Saturn release, which required the exclusive item "Lyrics Card").

Silence

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

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 Dialogue

Unused Ending

A series of unused dialogue found among the game's sound files which seem to be part of an unfinished ending. It suggests that Maria could have intervened during the Richter fight and saved Richter herself, but would have subsequently become possessed or transformed by Shaft. It seems to include both winning and losing quotes for a prospective evil Maria battle, and ends with Alucard reflecting on the apparent passing of both Richter and Maria after she makes the castle collapse. While Maria can be fought (and played as) in the later Saturn and PSP editions, it is not under the same circumstances and does not result in a new ending. This event may have been the outcome of skipping the Holy Glasses, or perhaps the Richter battle was initially timed. Regardless, no sprites were found that appear to be related to these mysterious recordings, though Yoshinori Suzuki did briefly talk about an unused set of completely alternate "Black Maria" sprites discarded in favor of a newer "light version" in the developer's notes of the Saturn version.

To do: See if there is an equivalent (or even extended dialog) inside the Japanese version. Shouldn't be too hard since there's a fan-translation out there and the people behind that may be able to tell us more.

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 (counterparts of the Faerie and Demon, respectively) in the English translated PSP version. The Nose Demon has no new abilities but the Fairy will sing normally when Alucard sits in a chair in the Japanese "The Best" re-release. The Japanese-exclusive familiars are still programmed and can be activated with certain game enhancer codes, but their cards were removed from the game and they will leave once the player changes their familiar settings.

Gargoyle Statue

While it isn't unused, the method to see it in-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 stone gargoyle statue. While he normally takes several times the normal amount of damage if hit by an enemy while petrified, he is invincible in this particular form.