2-7-2001...

Fellow Castlevania freaks...

There are a lot of whiners out there b!+ching about Symphony of the Night's soundtrack NOT having any of the original tunes (I used to be one of them). This is simply NOT true. You see, I did some experimenting, and this what I found: Marble Gallery and Tower of Mist are both a remix of Beginning. Finale Toccata is a remix of the tune that played in Castlevania's ruins in CV2 for the NES. Tragic Prince is also a remix of Bloody Tears(either that one or Beginning). I was a little skeptical at first about what Kurt Kalata said about the Prologue tune and Dracula's Castle being a remix of Oppossing Bloodlines, so I listened to them closely, and I found that he was right. All that and Dance of Illusions and Blood Relations(as you all now), SOTN is not without the classics. I haven't found Vampire Killer and I don't think it's even in the game. But I suspect Dance of Gold and maybe even Lost Painting, to be remixes of old tunes (Vampire Killer?).

In other SOTN music-related stuff. I found a weird coincidence between Symphony and the movie What Dreams May Come. As we all know, the music that plays in the reverse cathedral (Anti-Chapel)is called "Lost Painting" (why? Beats the hell outta me!). In the latter half of What Dreams May Come, Robin Williams' character made it all the way to Hell, to rescue his wife. She was trapped in an inverted cathedral. When they met, she didn't recognize him, she believed that she was still alive and she was "living" in a completely trashed version of their house on Earth (which was standing on the church's ceiling) and she was complaining about her lost paintings (she was a painter, I swear she used those exact words). And her paintings were indeed gone. Weird. WDMC was based on a novel and the film came out in '98, SOTN came out in '97 (I think). So, who knows?

3-8-2001
->Great news! A CastleVania Anthology exists for PlayStation!!! Sort of. In the inverted castle, you'll face the 5 bosses, modified, of CastleVania 1. You'll have to capture Dracula's 5 body parts to open up the clock, that's CastleVania 2. You battle Trevor and friends in the Coliseum, from CV3, Gaibon and Slogra, the two devil knights of Death, seem to appear before Death himself in the Cave, like those two did in Super CastleVania 4, though not in the same order! From Bloodlines...who cares about Bloodlines, anyway? From Dracula X, it's Richter! If you got your Symphony, you have an anthology!<-

Well, you were right about those things, but here are more:
The first castle also has it's own share of stuff from other CV games, take for example the ruined-flooded Greco-Roman city ruins that are found in other games. There missing from this game right? Somewhat not, there are pillars in the area where you fight Scylla and her wyrm in the Underground Caverns, along with the floor, which seem to suggest that in here, a temple like the ones seen in the background of CV3 ,4 and DX for the SNES, once stood here. Also, in Stage 5' of SNES DX. The final room where you fight that water serpent thingie, looks kinda like a colosseum. Plus, there are statues of fish in these level which has water coming out of their mouths and as you should know, in the room where there is a lone Grave Keeper, there is a water fountain and the water comes from the mouth of a fish statue. The Colosseum has lots of "references" to Dracula X, including Richter, the bull creature, Paranthropus, Lypuston and the Minatour.

Well, I and a few others care about Bloodlines. Both games have 2 male characters to play as, one is feminine looking with long hair, a cape and a sharp weapon(s) and the other looks manly, cool and uses the Vampire Killer. In Stage 5, Versailles Palace, you walk across a water fountain with statues on it, when you walk through it, the water turns into blood and there is a large blue building in the background and it is nightime. Well, the same thing can be said, the EXACT same thing, of the courtyard area in Olrox's Quarters. Except that there are several blue buildings instead of one. One of Alucard's weapons is a Javelin similar to Eric's, except that it's a use weapon and you need the Duplicator or several more Javelins to keep using it.

Now look at this. The castle entrance halls were exactly the same on the first CV and Bloodlines but in no other game except SOTN: First you enter a long hall with windows and red curtains, then a bi-story area where below is the Merman room and above is a normal room with a large structure separating the left and right sides, if you hit the structure on the left side, a pot roast comes out. After this area, comes another long hall with windows on it.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/entrance.htm

Go there to see what I am talking about.

Also the fact that (that I am aware of) the Castle Keep is both partly ruined in Symphony as well as Bloodlines. On Bloodlines, the long window-lined hall doesn't even have a ceiling. In here, although is on a different part of the stage, it is also just as ruined.

The cathedral-like areas of Stage 5 in Bloodlines remind me of the Royal Chapel. The 2 vertical shafts(no pun intended), the one with all those green eye things and the other one with the scrolling stairway with the Bone Pillars and flying skeleton thingies. Also, the next room kinda reminds of the first areas of Olrox's Quarters that you first see when you first make it there.

I heard once that there was an upside-down room in Stage 6 of Bloodlines. If this is indeed true then just think of the implications! I played it and I indeed made it into an "inverted" room but I do not know if it was a glitch or not(although the characters were invisible and my up-and-down controls reversed). If there is such a room, then all we need is the Leaning Tower of Pisa and were in business. Although, the Leaning Tower and Colosseum are BOTH in Italy...maybe am just being crazy. As for the German munitions factory, we have the Clock Tower. Well, at least the chamber below the clock room itself. I don't know why but it reminds me a lot to the gear-filled areas in the Munitions Factory in Bloodlines.

The fact that there are good guys (Alucard, Richter and Maria), bad guys (Shaft, Slogra, Gaibon, etc), both bosses and normal baddies, tons of sprites from other games is enough to make it a kind of anthology. Permit me to explain, Mortal Kombat Trilogy has all of the characters-sprites from the 3 previous MK games. Not to mention music and stages too. That is why I compared SOTN to MKT.

Compare the Clock Tower in Symphony to the one in Rondo of Blood. Go to the above website and be astounded. The "Final Stage" is suppossed to be the ending of Rondo. "Listen" to the webmaster compare the 2. Hell, even the dialogue is the same(or so a've read). So(along with the full Richter game), I guess it's like 2 games in one. Sort of.

The original Trevor sprite from CV3 makes a cameo appeareance in this game. When Alucard and Maria first meet in the Royal Chapel, Maria mentions Richter and a thought bubble with his image comes out of her head and disseapears. Then Alucard asks: "Of the Belmont Clan?". And a thought bubble with the original 8-bit Trevor Belmont on it appears from his head and then it disseapears. Neat.

That I am aware of, the first CV is the only other game in the series which features a bluish Underground Caverns/Ground Water Vein, complete with bats and fish creatures, as being part/under the castle itself. And to make it even more as the original, it is located after/below in the 3rd area/level of the castle that you first visit, in SOTN's case, it is the Marble Gallery! Plus, when you enter level 4 in the first CV, you drop down a long vertical shaft into the caves. Well, you do the exact same thing in SOTN.

On a lot of games (including the first CV), in the stairway area of the Keep, you get to see the Clock Tower in there too with the clock itself on the left side of the tower. SOTN is no exception, except that unlike the other games, the tower is part of the background and you don't come from it...oh wait, you do!

Is it just me or does the first area (the one with the collapsing bridges) of the Clock Tower and the ruined area on the Castle Keep with the statues, a lot like the 3rd and 4th levels of the first CV?! With hunchback-carrying birds and all!? I guess not.

It's funny how in the 2nd castle, when your looking for Drac's body parts, the remix of that CV2 tune is playing in the background...

Correct me if i'm wrong but here are the bosses for whom you get Drac's parts: Death, Frankenstein, Medusa, the Mummy and Darkwing Bat. Hmmm, a possible reference/homage to the original, first 2 Castlevanias?

Although this has nothing to do with what am talking about in this e-mail, but I think that the Abandoned Mine tune is a remix of the below tune from Block 3-2 in SCV4 (Note: Walls of Sadness it's a title I felt like giving this tune because I see that it fits perfectly with the mood of the song). Heavenly Doorway(there's nothing heavenly about this tune), I believe it may be a remix of the opening story tune of SCV4. Either that one or the one in Stage 5 from SCV4(but I doubt it, here said tune is aptly re-titled Fear because it perfectly expresses that nasty feeling). Tragic Prince may also be a remix of Simon Belmont's Theme. That song kicks ass.

Countess Elizabeth Bartley is in SOTN! And so in almost every other CV game. Hey, she not only turns into Medusa in Bloodlines, but at the end they credit her as MEDUSA instead of her real name. But seriously, Bloodlines is the first game in the saga that features a robotic creature(Armor Battler and Gear Steamer or something), well SOTN features another robotic baddie: The nasty-ass Tin Man!

It always seems that on whatever game they are, they are always together! As you know already and as you mentioned, Slogra, Gaibon and Death hanging out in the reverse Abandoned Mine and in SCV4. Well, what few know is that they also appear in the same room as Death in the castle entrance! After facing off with Death(using Alucard, with Richter, Grimmy isn't even in the game),go to the Alchemy Laboratory, after you see the first Blood Skeleton, go back to the castle entrance on the "room" where you first met Death. Slogra and Gaibon will be there maxin' and chillin'. Once you damaged one or the 2 of them enough, Gaibon will pick Slogra up and leave, headed towards the Alchemy Lab. I dunno but the vertical shaft that goes after the "room" where you first meet Grimmy, kinda looks like the lower half of the long vertical shaft that goes before you first fight Slogra on SCV4. I mean, the bricks and the walls on each side are the same color, or at least to me they are.

Which is the only other CV game that features a church and a library on the castle? (That i'm aware of) Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood! 'Nuff Said!

Speaking of which, those large fields with trees that can be seen from the Royal Chapel's towers, remind me a lot to the large fields of woods found on the background of Block 2-2 in SCV4. They look a lot alike.

Those stain-glassed windows on the narrow hallways of the Alchemy Lab remind me to the stain-glass windows on the castle entrance in Dracula X for the SNES.

Some might b!+ch about the fact that you can't visit the outside world on this game at all. Not true at all! The flying-out-of-the-castle-cathedral-as-a-bat trick really does work. I know because I tried it on both castles and it worked on the 2 of them. Sometimes the background behind the big trees would go all black and it would look like it is nightime. You must be careful that you don't fall on the bottom of the screen outside the Anti-Chapel, when the background is black. I did and I couldn't escape. I had to quit the game in order to escape. This trick really does elevate your score higher than 200.6. The one where Richter goes outside the castle at the beginning also works. But it sucks because the trees are all gone and all you see is a long patch of grass, plus you can't get back inside so you have to quit the game in order to leave. This doesn't have anything to do with what were discussing here but it's cool none the less.

It's funny how the Outer Wall is mostly composed of red bricks. Reminds me of that level in CV3(sinking tower with red bricks)and the 2nd level in CV2.

3-12-2001
I forgot to mention that SOTN is also like CV3 in the way that you get to play as Alucard _and_ a whip-toting Belmont. And what I meant by 2 different games is that you get to play the Alucard game and the Richter game, and since this game has baddies from both Dracula X and CV3, um, it's probably pretty obvious. Plus, if you choose it, (although it's probably a pretty stupid thing to do) you can always use the Hellfire spell as your ONLY means of defending yourselves and gaining exp. points by killing baddies. Just like in CV3. And it's also cool to note that Richter gets to fight an Evil Alucard in the game too. And not to mention the Fakes in the Rev. Colosseum, which is kinda like the Doppelganger thingie at the end of CV3.

There's probably a million other similarities in this game to the other ones in the series. In the end, am not trying to "turn" SOTN into a real anthology of the series. It's just that it has so much stuff from all the other different (not to mention cool) CV games, that it reminds me so much to MK Trilogy. But you know, here's a great idea for you hackers out there. I once played a hacked version of Super Mario All-Stars which contained Super Mario World on it. So, I thought that it would be cool if someone made a ROM which contained (perhaps enhanced) ROMs of CV1, 2, 3, 4, Dracula X and Bloodlines. Their could be a screen that lets you choose which game you want to play. Just like in All-Stars. But if your only going to do it for an emulator (unlike an exe.program that a've seen a lot before...but then again I don't know much about this kinda stuff, I only know how to make it work and play the games), you can do it with only the first 3 CVs for a NES emulator.

4-4-2001

Take a look at the pic. It's from an area at the last stage of Dracula X for the SNES. In the Marble Gallery, there's a section similar to this place. But there are statues of naked women on each side instead of pillars and entrances to other areas. No baddies (but in the other castle, there are Medusa Heads, which can also be found on this section of Stage 7), and of course, no gaps. Instead of a gap, there's a ramp that goes up in SOTN. The spikes are gone and they have been replaced by statues of topless and winged women with their breasts hanging down.

The collapsing bridges area of the Clock Tower in SOTN is very similar to the first area of the last stage in CV1. Especially the beginning and end of this part(the entrance to the gear tower).

I did not explain how to do the trick of getting out of the castle in SOTN, because I assumed everybody knew it already. How moronic of me! Instead of typing it all. Here's a link to the source that tought me how to do this: http://www.959.com/dc/pijai/castlevania/210.1%25.htm

Although I do not know how to make it to the area that's below the chapel's corridor and to the right of the tallest tower. I did made it through the rest on both castles.

4-5-2001

Enclosed here, I give you the area in SCV4 that is similar (at least to me), to the room that goes after you first meet Death in SOTN. The bricks in the wall and the ledges are similar or the same color. Like I said, I find it somewhat ironic that area in SOTN, in shape and color, it's a lot like this one. Coupled with the fact that on the area next door, it's a place that you can meet Death, Gaibon and Slogra. Is this a secret reference to SCV4 or is Joey V. a raving lunatic? Plus, look at the purple-ish bricks on the higher half. Reminds me a lot to the purple wallpaper in some parts of the Castle Entrance...maybe am just nuts.

And for even more look-alike sprites, look at the forest in the background of the Entrance. Looks a lot like the trees way in the back on the entrance to the castle in SCV4.

4-8-2001
I've got some more info now concerning SOTN. Ever wonder how was it that the Sunken City of Poltergeists/Atlantis Shrine met it's demise? The answer may or may not lie in the 2 castles' churches in the room where you fight the Hippogryph/Medusa. That's a fascinating and a disturbing portrait in the back. Hmmmm...so I guess those temples do make an appeareance in this game.

The Skull Knight is in SOTN and not just the Game Over screen. That thing might just have been a bull. Although I have never seen a bull with sharp teeth before. Anyway, kill the Minatour and see what happens. It's the Skull Knight! But with no armor, shield and sword. He disseapears into nothing in a sec.

I'm not implying anything, but I wonder what the hell is that odd thing on the bottom of the Outer Wall? Kinda looks like some kind of boat to me.

When I was playing with Richter a while ago I noticed something kinda cool. When I made it to the area in the Castle Entrance where you find the door to the Alchemy Lab. I decided to take right to the Marble Gallery with the flying trick. When I made it there, I realised the red part of the Gallery is a lot like the 2nd level in CV1.

The Hellfire Beast (demon with a mohawked-horse's head in the Catacombs) has a power which is exactly to Dracula in CV3. He can make a pillar of flame rise up from the ground on the spot where your standing.

Here's a way you can pretend to be playing Circle of Blood in Symphony. Don't concentrate on completing the 2 castles. Just concentrate in making it to Shaft. You'll see what I mean as Richter can come and go as he pleases through the magically sealed doors and with that flying trick that he can do (down, up and jump).

Other ways to have fun with the Man In Blue are as follows:

Try to complete one or both castles under a certain amount of time. Use a wrist watch or something. Pretend that Shaft kidnapped some people for human sacrifice and hid them on certain areas of the 2 castles. Like, the hidden rooms in the clock tower, the confession room in the chapel or the cave to the right of the merman room, like the other side of the wall which you have to go all the way through Underground Caverns in order to make it there, for example. And to make it more interesting, do it under a certain amount of time before Shaft sacrifices them in order to resurrect Dracula.

Try to complete certain areas of the castles without getting hit just once.

Also try to see how far you can go without saving the game (you can do this too with Alucard). Who wants to play a stupid drinking game? Drinking games suck 'cause they make you wanna pee and the drinks get warm. Plus, you always have to end up re-filling the cups. I invented a new and simpler way to do it. I based this on a TV show that we have here in Puerto Rico called Super Xclusivo. It's a gossip show, whenever La Comay is going to begin with some new gossip she yells: ¡EXCLUSIVO! ¡SUPER EXCLUSIVO!. So, here's my idea. Pick something, anything. For example, whenever I see an uncensored statue or baddie(male or female), see blood or a religious/pagan symbol. I yell out EXCLUSIVO(or at least in my mind so as not to annoy the neighbors and my folks). Actually, I have never done it but I plan to do so with my cousins(the game, not "it", you filthy-minded perverts). Anyway, you can pick some other silly phrase like "there's one now" or yell out BLOOD or NUDITY(for example). You can also scream. Although I would suggest to do it in your mind as not to annoy those around you. If your playing with your friends, try not to be too loud. You can rate each other to see how good you've done. Like, if you missed a statue or some blood and didn't say anything most of the time, you could get a D or C. Maybe an A if you did perfect.