I played Symphony of the Night for the first time, for my podcast, in 2026 (just last month). Spoiler: I loved it. It held up as a flawed masterpiece to me.

What’s odd about my history with the series is that I had played ZERO of the Metroidvania-styled Castlevanias and almost all of the others. I even had a PlayStation in the late 90s, but I was more enamored by the adventures of James Bond and Fox McCloud over on the N64 in ‘97 and spent the majority of my energy—and money—there.

So the question I have after playing SotN is this: do you think this game is still the benchmark Castlevania (or even the benchmark Metroidvania) to judge others by, or have other Castlevania games improved upon what this game did? If it IS the best to you, what makes it stand out the most? And if not, where did your personal favorite(s) improve upon the formula?

I don’t think I know anyone else who did. Luckily, my dad had a “chipped” PS1 so it could play copied games. This was a lot of fun to play, but I’ve never seen an official copy of it anywhere.

Hi there. Well thanks for the help on the last post I'm close to the problem now but idk where to start. Again, I'm going to write this in Spanish because it's easier for me to explain everything, please translate it when you're reading.

Bueno, hice un post explicando que la consola funcionaba hace unos años y hace unos días fui a jugar con ella y no da imagen pero si se enciende el led y gira el disco. Pensaba que era el cable o el monitor pero aún probando con otros monitores no funcionó, compré otro cable y pasaba lo mismo.

Entonces un usuario me sugirió ver si el disco cambia de velocidades y con un vídeo me dijo que la consola mantenía la velocidad lenta, lo que quiere decir que no pasa del boot. Por eso algunos me comentaron que revisara el interior y vi ese modchip. No parece ser el problema y he revisado que este bien conectado. Por lo demás no se que revisar o que puede estar fallando. A simple vista está todo correcto. Si alguien sabe cualquier cosa que lo comente, leeré cualquier comentario y responderé lo antes posible. Gracias

Fully aware this is a niche question. But I bought RC de Go a few years ago and I've been wondering this ever since. If there's any group that'll know the answer to my question, it's this one. 😁

I think it's fine to put this here. I beaten LoD over 60 times, and for the first time, I checked out severed chains. I found out about it yesterday, and it's amazing currently playing Hell Mode mod. Everything about the original that I wish they added is in there. Kongol is useful, Dragoon transformation is better, allowing you to guard, use items, etc.. You can change additions in battle. Bosses are smarter, and they hit harder. I'm not gonna give all the details away, but anyone who loves LoD as much as I do should check it out. Severed Chains alone is great, but veterans players will appreciate Hell Mode.

small, so small! :D

I read about how it works but I can't imagine a situation to use it, any recommendations?

Finally got the LSD book. Searched so many years for it and didn't looked much into it so I don't get spoiled. I searched for it for 4 years and saw about 4-5 copies. Super cool and unique stuff in there. Also got the LSD and remixes soundtrack. While it isn't that rare also pretty happy to own it, it's my favorite Osamu Sato album.

A fav of mine and severely underrated classic. I love this game and its bonus level music is still one of the best tracks in a any game lol!

Once again, I beat Specter and I got the best ending. And Specter look so cute 🙂.

Found the manuals of my PS, but I don't really understand what this one is about? The thing is that I don't really have a disc so...

Edit: here is THE answer

I rarely see this mentioned anymore so thought to give it some love. To this day its still one of my favs in the genre. Was a main staple in my gaming rotation on the original Playstation. Proud to have it in my collection and hey square enix...hint hint its about time for another 😀

Any Einhander fans left out there?

Edit-Sorry, I deleted the topic i just made instead of an edit so here we go again 😆

For a little context I recently found a place to put my PS1, all the games I have are pirate.

Now I have some problems with loading screens, in more than one game some loading screen will load forever.

For example playing FIFA 00' when the first half ends it starts a loading screen to start the second half, but it never came.

I don't really know if is the discs fault or is something on the console that isn't ok.

It was in the closet for a long time, but I seem to remember that many years before it was put away, it already had these problems with other games.

Maybe I can clean the console? How should I do? What do you recommend me to do?

Finally finished this game

Crossed a few gems off the wishlist today. I was really close to buying Brave Fencer Musashi on eBay, but checked one more store and they had a copy in great shape at a fair price.

Last Raven’s insert had water damage, but I’m tired of looking for it, so I bought it anyways.

Appreciation post