“What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.”
“Die, monster. You don’t belong in this world!”
Early on during a playthrough of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the gamer is presented with that exact exchange in absurdly over-the-top voiceovers.
The moment is memorable for its ridiculousness, and has by now, of course, been turned into various Internet memes.
The dialogue, however, serves as a helpful guide for what is to come.
“What is a man?” is hinting at the ambiguous nature of our protagonist, the anti-hero son of Dracula himself.
“A miserable little pile of secrets.” explains the nature or perhaps selling point of the game itself.
“Die, monster.” is the definition of Castlevania games in their purest form.
And “You don’t belong in this world!” provides foreshadowing for the game’s biggest twist.
Like the best James Bond stunts or the coolest action sequences in a Star Wars movie, the excitement here is explained before it is shown.
Was that intentional?
Who knows?
But the end result is the same: the game builds anticipation and sets expectations at the outset, and then delivers upon those promises in spectacular fashion.
(We also got a really goofy bit of dialogue out of the deal.)
This game, Symphony of the Night, is going to give you a traditional 2D Castlevania experience with a new, exciting lead character, a ton of hidden secrets amidst a sprawling space to explore, and a massive plot twist halfway through.
Once properly warned in the game’s prologue, the gamer is free to let the whole experience just wash over them.
And what an experience it is.
Continue reading Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 25)“Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” at a glance:
Genre: Exploring platformer
Released: 1997
Platform: PlayStation
EGM’s “12th Best Console Game of All Time”