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This is the best hack of the iconic Symphony of the Night. In addition to being able to use the items with Richter, we can also change the background music. I eagerly await the final version without any bugs.

I wanna start by saying that I absolutely commend what this hack has done on a technical level. Symphony hacks are very few and far between, so one that changes the game on a fundamental level this drastically deserves praise. It does have a few bugs/places where it could look better, but I'm honestly not going to dwell on those too much due to just how blown away I am with what's been achieved here.

What I won't offer praise to however is the optional music patch. There's so many bad loops, and questionable music choices, and areas with duplicate themes. I could say so much about this patch, but I don't want this section to take up half the review. No offense but it just baffles me how you managed to achieve something so technically impressive yet managed to fumble one of the simplest parts, it's like walking out of an operation room after performing a life saving brain surgery only to trip over your own shoe laces. The only saving grace of this patch is that it's optional, something that MANY Castlevania hackers could stand to learn from you. So if you want a positive take away from this patch, then you can at least have that.

With that out of the way, let's talk about Richter. Starting from the beginning of the game, Richter doesn't have much. He can run, he can Slide, he can punch things, and that's about it. He also doesn't have any starting gear, which is pretty weird. I saw that you could equip the whip in the readme file, but I have absolutely no idea how it's activated. I tried unequipping the core, I tried moving it to my other hand, I tried keeping both hands empty, but nothing worked. At the very least, it doesn't take long to find some stuff. You get a regular sword, a Heaven sword, and the Backflip. This is one point I'll give this hack over vanilla SotN. I was always so confused why the game even bothered giving you the Red Rust when the short sword is better in every conceivable way, it's nice having an actual reason to swap between the two weapons you're given at the start. I also love Richter's new attack animation when he's using a sword, it's just pure eye candy watching him swing it to the point where I randomly attack mid air just to watch the animation.

One thing I want to bring light to is how this game handles healing items. To put it simply, they don't work. That kinda sucks, HOWEVER this is made up for with the various tips that they give you instead. I remember playing an earlier version of this hack and was always frustrated with just how little the game actually communicates to you, so actually having something in this game that communicates genuinely helpful information in a natural way is a breath of fresh air. It's a shame there's no way for Richter to heal, but I feel this is the next best thing.

Now I feel it's important to address one of my major complaints about this mod, the combat. Now let me just say that this game's combat is fine for the most part. A step up in difficulty from the original, but perfectly manageable. The ability to freely swap between sub weapons on the fly is a godsend, and heavily encourages experimentation with how you approach situations. That being said, the Cross is unfortunately broken. It shows the wrong sprites most of the time and did some abysmal damage pretty much every time I used it, which is disappointing considering that the Cross Boomerang is one of the draws of being able to play as Richter. One positive I want to say is how most of the hearts in this game are replaced with big hearts, which makes the process of getting all your hearts back after a boss far less of a pain.

The way this hack handles weapons is also interesting. You don't have two hand slots like Alucard does unfortunately, though this hack does definitely try to make up for that. You can find various cores throughout the castle, which give you stat boosts when you equip them in your core slot. Like the big number hack, throwables are reusable and cost mana, leaving more room for experimentation with your combat options. Then there are some weapons that take some of the special moves from other weapons, which is honestly a cool concept. Things like the Fists of Tulkas Fireball, the Alucard Sword teleport, the Firebrand explosion, and the Heaven Sword flurry attack. These are really cool, but god does it just make me wish we had two hand slots even more. Not gonna take points off for that because of technical limitations, just felt like mentioning it.

My problem with the combat has nothing to do with any of what I just listed above, my issue is how this game handles bosses. These bosses have the most wildly inconsistent difficulty curb in any game I've seen. Mega Man X6 has a more consistent difficulty curb than this hack, these bosses are actually THE worst part of this hack, especially at the beginning of the game when you only have so many options on how you want to face them. These bosses go on for WAY too long and do WAY too much damage, these things are a pure endurance test. I think the problem with the bosses is best exemplified with the first two bosses you're likely to fight. Slogra and Gaibon, and Minotaur and Werewolf.

Slogra and Gaibon are an absolute nightmare of a first boss. You can't break their fireballs anymore and you don't have a shield to block them with, meaning your only option to possibly stand a chance against them is with the Backflip. The only reason I was able to defeat these two was because I spammed lightning bolt a few times at the start of the fight to take off a decent chunk of their health, leaving me with no hearts to deal with the rest of the fight. Minotaur and Werewolf are in a similar boat, only instead of near unavoidable projectile spam they just move impossibly fast. You have to burn the pattern of these two into your brain to simply stand a chance, and even then they'll just randomly screw you over anyways. And don't even get me started on this game's lack of i-frames. This has been an issue since the original SotN, but is further amplified with this boss. Minotaur can just jump on top of you and start draining hundreds of health while you're stun locked in his hitbox. These two fights are absolutely infuriating, and the fact that they're the first two you can access is almost certainly gonna turn people off from this hack, which sucks because this hack has so much good to offer. I would heavily consider either making a version of this hack designed more around SotN's vanilla balancing or just reducing the amount of health these bosses have.

Let's take a moment to talk about why I like SotN, shall we? SotN is a great game, everyone knows that, but I feel like it will always have one thing that will set it apart from every other Castlevania that came after it, its movement. I firmly believe that SotN's physics engine is pure perfection and it easily stands the test of time as the best handling Castlevania game. Alucard's movement feels like it has a certain momentum to it, and there's just a certain level of jank to it where successfully pulling off movement tricks feels so satisfying. It feels oddly natural compared to the stiffness of Harmony or the blandness of the DSVanias. Not to say any of these games were necessarily bad, but it feels as if something was lost in translation when it came to designing the movement of these games.

All that said, I would like to talk about how this game handles its movement. This hack handles movement SO GOOD, and the progression with it feels oddly satisfying as well. The route you take through the castle ends up being wildly different to the one from the original. You actually get the Blade Dash decently early, meaning quite a few areas open up. The input for it was also simplified to take out the up press from the combo, which is a godsend to people like me who are stuck playing on a keyboard. What I don't like about it however is how it uses mana, this change feels almost completely arbitrary and does nothing but slow the game down. Every time I run out of mana I end up just hitting fast forward so it fills up again, it just ends up being a needless pace breaker.

That being said, the other movement options added in this hack do so much to make Richter more fun to play. The Double Jump is a great convenience tool that ends up cutting down on having to spam the Uppercut at every ledge that's just ever so slightly out of reach. The Spin Kick might not seem useful at first, but you can effectively fly with it if you time a jump just right. It also doesn't cost any mana and has a very simple input, making it a great side grade to the Blade Dash that allows for smaller adjustments. By far the best new addition to Richter's tool kit however is the Super Blade Dash. This is like Richter's equivalent to the Wolf Charge or the Wing Smash, flying through corridors with this thing is actually some of the most fun I've ever had playing a Castlevania, and I'll always prefer it over any sort of Black Panther Hippogryph movement the Sorrow games give you. There's also a Diagonal Blade Dash, but I unfortunately didn't get much use out of it due to once again playing on a keyboard.

Exploring the castle with this new move pool feels just as good as it did with the original game, it feels like every corner is worth exploring. More often than not, whatever you find on that far off edge of the map is usually helpful. It just feels so rewarding trying to find as many new additions as possible. Also I'd like to point out how the unused rainbow chest gets used in a few areas as a reward, that was a pretty cool thing I wasn't expecting.

I suppose one concern I should absolutely bring up is a pretty nasty softlock that is unfortunately very easy to achieve. You can go through the Colosseum, make your way down through the Chapel, use the save room and completely lock yourself into the area. Can't get out above because you have no vertical mobility, and can't get out to the right because you don't have the Jewel of Open. Another thing I wanna bring up is how the Vlad relics are handled. I don't know exactly how it works, but I found two Vlad relics in the first castle and the other three from their respective bosses in the second. This leads me to believe either one of two things. Either two of the Vlad relics are hidden away in obscure locations that aren't explained very well, or these are dupes you can grab early to save yourself a few bosses in the second castle. If the ladder is correct, I think that's kinda cool, being able to control how much of the inverted castle you play through based on whether you fully explore the first. If it's the former however, then I think that's a bit concerning. It's weird having the first two Vlad relics just chilling in the first castle while the other three are completely unchanged. Again, I don't know the specifics of this, so for all I know my concerns could be irrelevant. And while we're on the topic of level design, I feel I should bring light to the absolutely obtuse way you're supposed to get to the Minotaur and Werewolf fight. The new entrance to the arena is so ridiculously easy to miss, I don't see the point in changing how you're supposed to get into the fight when it isn't even that hard. I kid you not, this is the only part of the hack I had to look up a guide for because the platform you're supposed to jump on is so difficult to notice.

My feelings on this hack are admittedly a bit mixed. On one hand it has some REALLY high highs, this hack is truly at its best when you don't have to worry about combat and can focus primarily on your movement. On the other hand this hack's roster of bosses is an absolute mess, ranging from rage inducing pains in the ass that make you want to scream obscenities at the top of your lungs, to absolute push overs that make you wonder if the people who made this game knew they were designing a late game boss. Overall though, I think this hack is good. It's got some issues, but it also shows some serious promise, especially with the various teasers of all new weapons that are coming in later versions. All in all, I can't wait to see where this hack goes in the future.

I am loving this so far. It is definitely harder than expected, but with time it gets easier as you figure things out. I do wish I could find the uppercut relic, because I'm currently having to use a backflip+backdash glitch to get anywhere. I also can't access the Minotaur + Werewolf boss fight and there is a relic behind it that I can't get.

When this gets finished it will be a great hack that gives a lot to the game for someone that has put way too many hours into it vanilla.

First of all, thank you for making and taking your time for this hack...it's really a gem in the making! I'd like to give you my honest opinions and some suggestions (that you may or may not implement, up to you) but all in all - this hack is a huge milestone in SotN romhacking!

PROS:

• Play as Richter in SotN as the main character! I was a wee child when I started dreaming this would come to life and now I'm 30something years old and I finally got to play this so...thank you very much!
• Unlocking Skills via Relics
• Some Boss AI changes - esp KarasuMan/Malphas - FINALLY you can no longer stunlock him and he's now a true boss and not a punching bag
• Thornweeds are on crack
• some Music Patches for variety of mood to play with

CONS:

• Balancing: subweapons - most Subweapons doesn't do anything useful. Even holy water, like it's 10 damage per hit and DPS is kinda slow. Currrently now the only useful subs for me is Cross and Axe. Item crashes also is kinda useless for some subs - like the Garlic spray thing...you spend 100Hearts to spray something above you and deal like...almost no damage. For others of course it can be OP like HolyWater/Cross but yeah. It can be balanced somehow. I'll give my suggestions later
• Balancing: By the Inverted Castle where Richter's damage is doubled - the enemy becomes so weak considering Richter can equip stronger whips by that time. There's only a handful of enemies that you don't one shot.
• Blade Dash: it shares the same hit-delay from the normal whip attack, making combos with it sucks now. Should be separate hit-delay or whatever it's called.
• Uppercut: without the Rising upgrade, this move is kinda useless - it's very hard to do and the jump distance is so small. Maybe make it cover more distance? Or instead of down+up+O, make it just up+O? So you'll have an option to normal uppercut with up+O, then Rising Uppercut with down+up+O. Idk if it's possible tho.
• Some Bosses: Minotaur and Werewolf - I don't get why you changed the speed of their moves...it feels so cheap and...not exciting. Their movesets on their own are already one of the best boss fights in the game. The only problem with the vanilla is that they have very low HP and die really fast before they do anything. So just bump their HP and the fight will already be Epic for Richter.
• Some Bosses: Cerberus - also this boi, when he gets cornered and do the super jump to the other corner...you can basically trap him in every corner and he can't do anything. Maybe instead of a super jump to the next corner...idk just jump to the middle. And his normal fireballs go upwards xD
• Some Bosses: Gaibon/Slogra - WHY IS THE FIRST BOSS THE HARDEST BOSS xD Problem here is Gaibon's fireballs, the whip doesn't destroy it so dodging it is pretty hard. And the damage hurts a lot. Also contact damage with Gaibon throws you out the window...and dealing a lot of damage. Unless you know how to cheese their AI, this fight is a nightmare.
• the Music Pathes! Great music selections but...they're mixed too loud. Also the track fades slowly after some time instead of looping.

I actually LOVE this hack, don't get me wrong, I'm just giving LOTS of suggestions because I'm so excited for this, and I really hope you make this game the best it can be. I actually have more suggestions listed but this might look like a feature request instead of a review so I'll stop here. Again, this hack is phenomenal! Congrats!

My dear friends, I want to start my review by congratulating the team on the excellent work you guys did. I've dreamed of playing with Richter in the main campaign since I played SOTN back in 1998, and with this Hack, you made this 42yo a happy old man.

I hope the project continues and you guys manage to refine the product further.

As for suggestions for future updates, I believe that you are generally on the right path according to the planning documented in the project's TXT, but I would like to make some suggestions. Obviously, I have no knowledge of reverse engineering and modding, so if what I said is unrealizable, please just ignore it.

Firstly, I don't know how difficult this is to implement, but if Richter could use the healing and support items, it would be wonderful.

Another thing that would be interesting if you guys manage to remove the remaing railings blocking some rooms accessible only with Myst form for Alucard, and proper populate those rooms with interesting items.

My next suggestion concerns balancing. I noticed that there are no longer any invincibility frames when you are hit, and you are rarely knocked away by smaller attacks. I would personally suggest that you review this aspect since the highest amount of damage I received in this hack was precisely in situations of being in continuous contact with the enemy body's hitbox after a blade dash, without being thrown away, and without a brief period of invincibility after a hit to try to escape. A litle nerf in damage in Slogra and Gaibon boss battle would be welcome too. Not every one of us are master level players, and "Milk Drinker" mod was, indeed, too easy. Just a little damage nerf and they are good to go.

My last suggestion, and this one I know is a little out of the box, quite likely not to be achievable, but if you have plans to bring other playable characters to the hack, I would suggest Maria, if possible, a mix of the PSP and Saturn SOTN versions (Basically her entire moveset from Saturn but with pigeons instead of fireballs as main projectiles).

Regardless of the suggestions, I must make it clear that the product is already wonderful, and I had some of my most fun hours replaying SOTN with your hack. Thank you very much for the experience!

First off, you need to know two things about this:

1) It isn't finished yet and has bugs and crashes. Read the readme file, seriously.

2) THIS ROMHACK IS HARD. LIKE, REALLY HARD.

Seriously, the first boss took me two and a half hours to beat. Each boss was rebalanced, some having new moves or abilities, and each have an increased health pool. I had to farm two Rings of Varda to beat Dracula.

Did I mention this romhack is hard?

Having said all that, I had a blast playing this. The music packs are interesting, some of the colors are really cool, and the new spin kick is fun. I highly recommend this mod if you're looking to breathe some fresh air into one of your favorite games.

Just make sure to read the readme, it has all kinds of good information about the changes to the movelist and whatnot.

Happy dying!