VinnyVania: Symphony of the Night - Part 06

<3

Yay!

Had an awful week and just got in from grocery shopping. This is exactly what I need right now.

what the hell? the xbox port removed the CG cutscene of the inverted castle appearing. thats dumb.

@naion: I think it's related to the original size limit for XBLA games. They had to remove the CG stuff to keep it under the limit, or so the story goes.

Alex Non-Vania-Novarro. What a kill joy!

@vinny: I'm going to guess that the actress you were thinking of is probably Cree Summer, who has a very distinctive voice, similar to that of Macy Gray. She's also in a lot of Bioware games, and she's voiced side/support characters in basically every US cartoon for the last 30 years.

I love this series so much.

@alex Instead of adding vania, we could just made you part of the Belnades clan. Alex Navarro-Belnades.

Congratulations on reaching the inverted castle Vinny! Now the real Castlevania begins!

You're so vania, you probably think this castle's about you.

VinnyVania and Alexcard

I finished playing through the game again last night, and I just realized that the reward that you get for beating the hardest boss in the game is literally a fart.

As someone who can't really participate in chat sessions because I'm at work... I like hearing Alex talk about making chat angry. It makes me feel better about not being able to participate.

It still bums me out a bit that even when MS raised the max size of xbla releases, they didn't go and patch those fmv's back in. I love the crappy looking upside down castle reveal fmv.

Thanks, Alex and Vinny, for keeping the chat's involvement to a minimum this time around. This episode was so much better than the last one.

Also, regarding the missing FMV sequences, honestly, I don't miss them. Iga even admitted that they (along with other aspects of the game) weren't finished. The castle in the FMV sequences wasn't even fully-textured. If there's ever another re-release of SotN, then I really hope that someone takes the time to create better-looking FMV sequences for it.

Well sure, but it's stupid that Richter and Alucard talk about "that castle over there" without that ever being shown to the player. I thought Vinny had somehow skipped it.

That Vinny still hasn't gotten the spirit orb is making me lose my mind

That's pretty bad, but not as bad as the ugly-as-sin pause menu they made for the Xbox port that Vinny accidentally keeps going to.

I completely forgot that this port is from the era of Xbox 360 downloadable size restrictions. Wish they had just played the PS1 version. Surely there's a PS3 in that office.

There's also the PSP version (unlockable in Dracula X Chronicles, playable on the Vita/PSTV) that has the new translation.

The real SOTN starts here?

I always thought the upside down castle just meant randomized rooms and not literally upside down.

Thanks Vinny for closing down the chat (not wanting info/spoilers)!

I think it's most fun (to watch) when players are allowed to explore and figure out stuff by themselves. Missing easter eggs, cool weapons and other cool things are natural.

Couldn't agree more!!!! I hated last episode, just following random pieces of advice was unbearable.

The beardless look actually looks good on Alex

The DXC version of SotN is too prone to freezing in certain situations. Given Vinny's penchant for uncovering bugs and glitches, I doubt that playing the DXC version would be a very good idea in this case.

I really love watching this but its kinda sad that vinny and alex have to keep telling the chat to calm down.

In honor of Shenmue's secret music when used as a CD...

Why do people like the Inverted Castle so much?

Don't get me wrong, the fact that it's there is amazing, and some of the bosses are really cool, but all of the jumps are just a little too high for a double jump, so you either have to super jump or fly, and some of the enemies are annoying just to be annoying.

It just kills me to see them walk by the relic they missed again and literally have it visible on the edge of the screen without noticing it. Also Vinny wishing the wolf could run through things after he just got that power without realizing it. I can't help it, I can't stop getting mad at video games

As someone who played the game when it first came out but also knew about the inverted Castle beforehand, I have to admit I was disappointed in it too. I was expecting a little more from it, I guess. I don't know why, but I didn't expect the environments would just be the exact same graphics as the regular castle, but upside down. I was also hoping for a lot more new music, but there was a lot less variation in music up there.

I still enjoy playing through it, and I now can appreciate what they did there, but it was a bit of a letdown for me at first.

To be fair, the game isn't very good about telling you how to use certain things. I can understand the game not telling you how to use special attacks with weapons, but they really should've added some text to explain how some of the relics work.

You may want to keep an eye on SotN Hacked. It started as a memory hack for the PlayStation version of the game, but eventually turned into a full-on remake of sorts that initially used Game Maker and is now being made in Unity. The inverted castle will supposedly be completely different in SotN Hacked.

https://sotnhacked.wordpress.com/

best gummy candy: haribo ginger-lemon

Vinny missing a lot of secrets and forgetting stuff that happened a few minutes ago is killing the completionist in me. I should probably play through SotN again just to feel better.

I'm with Alex, Peanut Butter Cups are the best.

Edit: I am, however, not with him on peppermint.

This is one of my favorite games and one of my favorite series on Giantbomb! I just want to see Vinny have fun and of course beat Dracula! Don't listen to the chat unless you get super stuck guys! GB East is the absolute best!

Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk

That is all

Candy corn is abhorrent though.

So this is the first real exposure I've had to Symphony of the Night, aside from "What is a man!", but I have only heard about the upside-down castle. Seeing it in action and seeing stuff involving the good and bad ending make this game even greater. Hot damn this is a fine videogame.

did he skip the cinematic with the inverted castle? Alucard doesnt make sense when he said "...castle over there"

The way Vinny picked up every item in the room with the alcoves you need a double jump for EXCEPT for the Spirit Orb was masterful.

Because I know I'm not the only one who went nuts realizing he couldn't remember this theme, either. Like Vinny, I just kept going back to Duck Tales. Just remember, when there's trouble-you call DW!!! Lets get dangerous...

Vinnyvania feat. Xela Orravan

I'm going to give out chips next halloween. That's a good idea.