Game 47: Star Ocean: The Second Story

Star Ocean: The Second Story is an action RPG for the original PlayStation. The game allows the player to make many choices along the way, from what characters will be in your party to how difficult the secret final boss will be. Star Ocean is known for its fun and varied gameplay and its absolutely atrocious, but hilarious voice acting. It was released in the United States back in 1999 but since the first Star Ocean was never released outside of Japan, I'm not really sure how Enix expected it to performed. The game follows the story of two intergalactic strangers and their impact on the future of multiple planets. Let's get into the beginning of that story, as Star Ocean: The Second Story's first hour is about to begin.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the hour begins. First up I have to select my sound system, stereo I suppose. Vibration on. Next I have to select my character, either the blonde Claude Kenni or the blue haired Rena Lanford. It's time to mix things up, I choose Rena.
01 - Battle mode set to Standard, have to hold the square button to move around in combat. Interesting. A cutscene starts, we're zooming in on a lush, green planet. Lightning crackles as what looks like a worm hole appears above a forest. Hey, there's a village in the distance, and it's not on fire, yet.

03 - I'm now looking at the in-game graphics. Rena, our heroine, runs out of a house with her mom chasing after her. The graphics seem really zoomed out, everyone seems tiny.

04 - They're still talking, something about the Sorcery Globe landing and causing weird stuff. An earthquake has recently hit and is causing animals to become violent. Rena runs off anyway. Rena's mother gets a [...] dialogue box above her head.

05 - I now have control over Rena and I open a few treasure chests near her. Some armor, 200 Fol (money), and a resurrection bottle. Oh sweet, my equipment was updated automatically when I grabbed the armor.
06 - Some birds fly overhead in a pretty cool effect. Everyone in this town has funny looking hair. I try to leave the village but Rena tells me that's not the way to Shingo Forest.

07 - I head out the south exit and the camera changes view, it's not almost horizontal with the ground. I save my game at the purple save point.

08 - Rena is now in the forest, no world map necessary.

09 - I just got ambushed by a giant ape! Luckily Claude arrived and was able to save me. He got to fight in a battle but since he's not my main character, I didn't get to do anything. Lame. Rena doesn't understand how Claude killed the ape (he used a laser gun). And his clothes are weird too.
11 - Rena runs off and then waits for Claude, he catches up a moment later and they talk about running away from each other. I like the different camera views we get in this game. The sprites look good against the static backgrounds.

12 - The music so far has been pretty typical of an RPG. But Claude was talking during the battle, forgot to mention that before. The two officially introduce each other and Rena starts sweating. Claude doesn't know where he is.

13 - They're walking back to the village together, Claude explains he's from Earth. Rena has never heard of "Urth." Haha. Rena calls her village Arlia.

15 - After some more chatting, we enter Arlia to chat some more. There sure are a lot of [...] emoticon moments. Claude asks to be shown around.
16 - We enter the church. Rena talks for a moment, I hope there aren't many buildings here. I guide the pair over to Rena's house but Rena says she has to clean up first. Sounds like fun.

17 - Rena tells her mom that The Warrior has arrived and has come to save them. She says he had a Sword of Light, which was his laser gun.

19 - Claude entered the house but Rena told him to get out again. Blah blah blah, just get on with it! Maybe I should have been Claude, at least I would have been able to fight. Right after Claude leaves Rena's mom tells me to invite him back in. Now I have to go find Cloud, I mean Claude, again.

21 - Haven't found Claude yet. But I did steal some Strawberry Jam from a chest in some kids' house.
23 - Still haven't located the loser, even though I think I've looked in every building. Oh neat, reflections in the water.

24 - Lame, I had to leave the second village area, and then come back again. There he is just wandering around. I run back to Rena's house. Wow, Rena's mom made a feast while we were gone. But I'd rather fight a monster right now than eat.

26 - One hour later... our heroes are bushed and ready for bed. But not together.

27 - Time to tell the mayor what's happening, his name is Regis. They talk about The Warrior and the Sword of Light for a minute.
29 - I bring the mayor back to Rena's house. Oh no, Rena's mom has told Claude about The Warrior.

30 - Claude and Regis talk at the kitchen table. There sure is a heck of a lot of talking in this game.

32 - Since Claude won't fess up to being The Warrior of Light, the townsfolk think this might be a case of mistaken identity. I really have no idea though.

33 - The screen switches to a view of outer space and Regis tells Claude the news of a meteorite hitting a town and causing crazy stuff to happen. Much violence and demonizing ensued. They call the meteorite, The Sorcery Globe. Quite the odd name.
36 - More [...] emoticons. Regis decides Claude is not The Warrior. Rena doesn't like that idea. She walks out of the house. Oh, that means I've walked out of the house.

37 - I'm now in Rena's room, I raid her treasure chest. I get a Blackberry! Wonder if I get a connection way out here. I take Rena to the mayor's house to look for Claude, he's upstairs but the mayor won't let me up there.

39 - With no where else to go I head to the forest. Back at the scene of the ape crime, Rena asks her father what she should do. Her father?

40 - A sepia-toned flashback! Rena is in her room and wanders out into the hallway. She can hear Regis and her mom talking about the death of her father.
42 - Turns out Rena is not really anyone's daughter... The game returns to the forest where Claude approaches. [...]

44 - Wow, this is boring. Rena asks Claude to leave again after they talk about him not being The Warrior.

45 - Running back to the village, Rena encounters Alen, a mysterious man with a red cape. Woah, Alen is ready to marry Rena!

47 - The preparations are complete for their marriage ceremony! Rena has no idea what's going on though. Some guards approach and the music beat tempos up.
48 - Sounds like Alen might be under the influence of the evil Sorcery Globe. The village gathers where Alen announces his master plan and demands the old people to let him through with Rena. More [...] emoticons.

50 - Heh, we're now in Alen's bedroom. He tells Rena not to try and escape, but of course, we will. I regain control after about five minutes.

52 - That's weird, I'm allowed to run around the house as much as I want. The front door is locked though. Rena enters a room and mutters, "there must be a way out." This is my key out of here, folks! A statue glistens.

53 - Wow, let's make it more obvious. The statue moves a bookcase revealing some stairs down. I am in the Silva Drift, looks like some underground caves.
54 - There's a guy lying on the ground, it's Mr. Bossman! He describes Alen's crazy moods and that I must escape quickly.

55 - I save and head deeper into the cave.

56 - Oh my gosh. Fixty-six minutes into the game I get into my first battle. And it's against two giant rabbits! I take them down with my punches! Pretty sweet!
57 - Next I take out three guys with swords with my fists of fury! Battles are random encounters, so beware if you don't like that.

59 - It's easy to miss these rabbits as they hop around and the battles are real time enough that you have to time things correctly. I find a sign that says, "Danger! To Dragon's Nest!" Awesome. Oh, but she won't go any further. Lame.

60 - Just fought five sword guards, all they did was wander around the battlefield as I picked them off one by one. Well, that's the end of the first hour of Star Ocean: The Second Story.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 3
Star Ocean: The Second Story's first hour is simply overrun with story. And sadly, while this tale has its moments, it's dragged along at such a slow pace it is nearly unbearable. Star Ocean is trying to introduce way too much too early and the characters, especially Rena, were injected with way too much emotion that doesn't work in video games. She's constantly running away from the situation, slowing the introduction of the massive plot to a snail's pace. And while the wall of text is more than I can handle, the emoticons such as [...] that slowly appear over the characters' heads is the last straw. Just give me the basics and let's move on with the game. Story elements can be told along the way.

Graphics and Sound: 8
I really liked the look of this game. The graphics were lush, lots of greenery and bright colors in and around the village. The environments became a little drab when I reached the cave but the textures were still very well done. The characters sprites looked awesome and the accompanying animations were excellent. There were even some really cool particle effects during battle, if only I was able to see more of them. I didn't hear much music besides the game's village theme and the battle music, but what I heard was good enough. And Star Ocean's classic voice acting makes its debut, but since they're only utilized during battle, I once again didn't get to hear much.

Gameplay: 2
Star Ocean 2 has the action on the wrong side of the first hour. RPGs like Final Fantasy VII and even Skies of Arcadia throw you into the action first, and then let it cool down as the plot is introduced. Maybe if I had played as Claude I would have felt a little bit more satisfaction, but one battle does not an action packed first hour make. There's a whole lot of pressing X to progress the text box, and you can't even walk around on your own very much. The only battles I fought were so fast-paced and short I know I didn't experience everything they have to offer. This is a disappointment.

Fun Factor: 1
Not fun at all. I don't know what else to say. There's essentially no redeemdable value in Star Ocean: The Second Story's first hour.

Minutes to Action: 56

Overall: 1
Well, Star Ocean has achieved a first hour score lower than any other game I have ever reviewed. Through a sheer combination of almost no gameplay, nearly zero fun, and the game almost taking its one and only hour to get to anything that even remotely resembles excitement, we have a score of one. Maybe one day I will discover a game that actually has a worse first hour and give it a zero, but right now, Star Ocean: The Second Story is the lowest of the low. I will admit, I have beaten this game before and enjoyed it immensely, but this is simply not how you start out a game. Let this be a warning to all game writers out there.

Game 11: Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII is the fanboy's dream come true. Not only is it the best-selling Final Fantasy game (at 9.5 million copies sold), it has one of the longest Wikipedia entries known to man (at 92 kilobytes and over 7,000 words). This is the result of the rabid fanboyism behind the 10 year old game that Square-Enix has only realized recently that it can milk to death with anime, spinoffs, and pretending there is no remake in the works. I'm personally not a huge fan of the game, I'm more of a fan of the even numbered entries in the series, but I've played through it at least twice and have traveled through the very fun opening Midgar hours many, many times.

Final Fantasy VII celebrated its 10 year anniversary in the U.S. on September 7th, so it seems like an appropriate time to review its first hour. I have fond memories of a very enjoyable first hour, so let's hope that it lives up to my memories. Here's to another 2,500 words!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - A sea of stars rotates in our view, after a few moments a woman's face materializes. She's got huge green eyes and huge brown bangs. She's staring right into me!

01 - The camera pulls back as the music begins. The woman is holding a few flowers and walking in a grimy alleyway. The camera continues pulling back further and further and we get eventually get a view of the entire city of Midgar. Steaming reactors line the metropolis while spotlights search. The music reaches its peak and Final Fantasy VII splashes across the screen.
02 - We begin seeing flashes of a train powering by, it docks at a station and the cutscene makes a near seamless transition to the game's real time game engine. The music increases in tempo and a group of people jump off the train and take out the guards just standing there. Spiky hair blonde guy hops off and I gain control.

03 - My first battle, and the action begins! Spiky is known as EX-SOLDIER (their caps, not mine). The characters look a lot different in battle compared to when I was walking around. Spiky is taller and skinnier, though he's still wearing that ugly purple jumpsuit. Battle system uses the active battle gauges like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. After the first, easy battle I level up, though all the post battle information is presented on its own screen (a good idea).

04 - I meet up with a large black man with literal guns for arms. Scary! They're all members of AVALANCHE (...), apparently a mercenary group. I name spiky Cloud, as in cumulus.

05 - We're heading for the north Mako reactor, I name the large man Barretheading to north mako reactor, name big black guy Barret, as in the bastardized pronunciation of the soft round cap.

06 - The environments here are large and the camera angles are wide. This is very different than nearly all previous Squaresoft RPGs which usually featured a direct top-down view or slightly isometric. Even though the backgrounds transition when entering a battle (not to mention the character models), they still match the environments we just left. I kill a parrot.

07 - Barret joins my party and we learn a little about Cloud's past when he was in SOLDIER (hence the EX-SOLDIER).

08 - We head down an elevator and the characters chat. This would be the moment where Square's RPG's main characters become whiny and emo (though not necessarily totally unlikable).
12 - I reach my first save point and save the game. My next battle is a back attack, where my characters were surprised in battle and the bad guys get the first hits.

14 - I reach the reactor core or something and Cloud has a freak out moment. The first of many. I am totally surprised when a boss jumps out at me. It's a giant metallic scorpion. Not sure how it maneuvers down here as there are many tight walkways.

15 - Cloud gets his limit break, basically a special move that is activated by getting whacked enough in battle. It does massive damage! This is the first Final Fantasy game featuring limit breaks, a tradition that has continued on through Final Fantasy XII. Though technically Final Fantasy VI had something sort of like limits, but your characters had to be so incredibly weakened and you had to be really lucky... so I don't count that.
16 - The scorpion puts his tail up and Barret warns me not to attack him while he's like this. Well, too late as I've already queued up an attack for Cloud. I get nailed with a tail laser.

17 - Barret gets his limit break: Big Shot. I start casting Bolt magic with Cloud and we defeat the guard. Barret gets a new gun arm!

18 - A 10 minute timer appears and starts counting down! Oh no. I do not think I will make it.
20 - Jessie gets his foot stuck while chilling on a grate. I save his life and then he jumps over me. Jerk.

21 - I get in the elevator to go up, I guess Jessie couldn't wait the whole three seconds for us.

22 - I accidentally go back down...

23 - And back up again! I make it out of the complex with plenty of time to spare, and then it blows spectacularly! We get a cool aerial shot of the city with the reactor going up in flames.
24 - We blow our way onto a burning street and decide to rendevous at Sector 8 train station. That means nothing to me. Anyways, I'm back on my own.

25 - The flower girl from the opening cutscene approaches me and wants me to buy a flower. Okay, like a portion of the city just blew up and sh'es still carrying her flowers. Well, I hit on her a bit and buy a flower, it was cheap.

26 - Shinra soldiers approach me and tell me to stop or they'll kill me. I decide to fight as I have a big sword and well, guns don't do any real damage in RPGs. Cloud gets his limit break again and I have to waste it on a wussy little soldier.

27 - The soldiers keep surrounding me and I keep on fighting!

29 - With no where else to turn, Cloud hops onto a moving train. This is a pretty sweet scene but honestly Cloud looks like total crap compared to the backgrounds. Giant polygons!
30 - Cloud randomly lands on the correct train and surprises everyone inside by jumping through the open door. Barret starts swearing and getting all fake upset and stuff. We move to the next train as a group.

31 - I'm thinking that maybe Jessie is a girl? She wants to clean my face, and she has a spiky chest (similar to Cloud's rear end). We head into the next compartment and Barret's presence causes the riders to scatter.

33 - Jessie invites me to look at her Midgar... I mean a map of Midgar. She explains the security checks and how we're using fake IDs. This will no doubt come into play.
35 - We get a nice sweeping shot of Midgar and the giant plate that everyone in the slums lives under. Everyone gets off the last train and Cloud follows. Cloud sure likes to take big jumps everywhere.

37 - Barret is planning another attack, but then he runs into a bar and starts firing his arm gun, scaring everyone again.
38 - I talk to a woman and she tells me that lots of innocents died in the explosion. Dang... when do I get paid again? I direct Cloud into the bar and a girl yells "Papa!" at me.

39 - A woman in a white t-shirt approaches me, I name her Tifa, as in... well, I don't know. Just don't Google Image Search her. Sickos. Tifa knows me from my childhood and I give her the flower (instead of to the little girl). Seems like Cloud is starting his harem.

40 - I have a drink. Is it really not juice? Impressive. Turns out that the girl's dad is actually Barret, not me. Thank God. Nearly everyone heads downstairs on their pinball elevator.

41 - I sit with Tifa first at the bar, she offers me a hard drink, I accept. This ain't no Harvest Moon grape juice.

42 - I head downstairs. Jessie is watching the explosion on TV. Turns out she made the bomb from instructions on her computer! Dang terrorists and their ability to use the internet. The fat guy tells me that we're hitting Sector 5's reactor tomorrow. Why are you telling this guy anything? He's totally going to be the guy to spill the beans.

44 - Barret and Cloud argue for a bit and Cloud heads upstairs. Tifa asks me to join AVALANCHE for good, we'll see.

45 - Tifa and Cloud share a flashback, geez the characters are really ugly looking! Someone should have told Square not to put their giant polygons right in the front of the screen. Mini Cloud and Tifa are sitting on a well and talking about their futures. Cloud says he wants to join SOLDIER, just like Sephiroth. Cloud makes a promise to be Tifa's hero whenever she's in trouble. A shooting star seals the promise.
48 - Back in real time, Cloud says he can't keep the promise. Barret pays me 1500 gil for the mission and Cloud says he'll do the next one too, but for more pay.

49 - I wake up in the basement, I guess the mission is today!

50 - Barret asks for a magic tutorial, magic in this game is called materia. Materia is like round orbs that you stick in your weapons and armor. Just try to imagine that in real life.
53 - I enter a tough looking shop area and above that is Beginner's Hall. A guy offers me a ton of knowledge on the gameplay system, but there's no time for boring stuff like that.

54 - A little kid uses a limit break on another kid! Hahaha! I finally get to save again and get an All Materia from a dude.

57 - We head out of town and back to the train station.

58 - On the train now, I learn we can't use our fakes anymore for some unexplained reason, so we're going to have to jump off the train before the security checkpoint.

59 - Tifa and me get in close, hopefully my purple jumpsuit can protect me from Tifa's spikes. Unsurprisingly, the security alarm goes off, ruining the moment. We gotta run now!

60 - We run from car to car past a bunch of scared passengers. I only have limited time to get from one car to another. There's also like two naked men sitting on one car, but I won't get into that today. Barret, Tifa, and Cloud all jump out of the fast moving train, and that's the end of the first hour of Final Fantasy VII.
Now for some ratings out of 10.

Story: 9
Final Fantasy VII presents us with some compelling plot elements pretty early on. We've got AVALANCHE, SOLDIER, and Shinra, a smattering of semi-interesting characters, and a great opening sequence that actually seems to concern the overall plot. The main character Cloud is a little angsty, but I suppose that leaves plenty of room for development. Barret is a big, scary, swearing man; and Tifa is your childhood friend you've probably wanted to sleep with for years but never got up the courage to get out of the friend zone. The setting is a smog-filled city in an eternal night, and Cloud and his fellow mercenaries (terrorists?) want to help out and get paid. It's typical dystopian but it's done interestingly enough that it's still fresh. And of course blowing up things is always fun.
Graphics and Sound: 7
The game's brutally ugly polygonal characters have not aged well. Though the backgrounds are generally pretty beautiful, this just creates a bigger contrast between pre-rendered backgrounds and six polygon character models. The music is classic Final Fantasy so it's pretty good. Nothing incredibly memorable early on though. The sound effects are standard RPG affair, not too much advance in this area.
Gameplay: 5
Console RPGs have both evolved quite a bit since Final Fantasy VII, and at the same time, have barely changed at all, at least from Square. The battle system is basically Final Fantasy VI minus a character plus limit breaks, and there's really not enough time to mess around with the new materia system. The 3D environments can also make walking around and exploring difficult if not obnoxious at times, especially since this was before the analog stick was available to developers. The gameplay is just average, neither bad nor good in the first hour.
Fun Factor: 8
I really appreciate being thrown into an exciting story right away, and Final Fantasy VII pulls this off with flying colors. Not often is your first activity in a game blowing up a large reactor and then hitting the bar. The battles are okay, but they could be more exciting. The playable characters have so much HP (~300) and get his for so little (~10) that it's almost impossible to die. I know that this game is like My First RPG for a lot of people so maybe making it overly difficult wouldn't have been the best idea. The game's pace also slows down a lot after the initial sequence but it's story time so it's necessary.
Minutes to Action: 3
Overall: 9
Hard to give Final Fantasy VII's first hour even an above average score when it does everything I ask for: an explosive opening, interesting setting and characters, and involvement in a decent plot early on. Squaresoft succeeded on all accounts and gave the gaming world an RPG unlike any other at the time. I suppose that's why there are so many fanboys (not to mention the dreaminess of Cloud and Sephiroth). The character models look like crap these days but back in 1997 I suppose they were gorgeous, but I don't really remember as I was playing the equally polygonal Star Fox 64 at the time. Either way, Final Fantasy VII's first hour is very solid and very fun, I can't quite say that the rest of the game lives up to the beginning, but that's for someone else to decide. The first hour at least, is good.

Game 9: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Symphony of the Night is known by Castlevania fans as the definitive game in the series. I personally see it as the turning point from when the series went from tired and mediocre to awesome and addictive. The catch is, I had never played Symphony of the Night! I own every single portable Castlevania released for the GBA and DS (and 100% them all), but I have never played the pivotal game, until now. Did Konami have any idea what they had when they released this game (probably not)? Does the experience live up to the hype? Well, a Night virgin is about to find out.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select File Select from the "Select Your Destiny" menu and start a new game! Already I'm pumped, but it seemed like the obvious choice (my other destinies were Name change, File copy, and File delete). I enter my name in Gothic letters and an FMV starts. aven't seen one of these truly awful looking PSX-era videos in a while! How were we ever excited for this? It looks like something I could do in Maya in an hour and I've only ever used that program once. Anyways, I have to remember this was a different time period... Either way, the castle design is horrid. There's this tower just sort of hanging off another tower with a little plank to keep it connected. What sort of evil dark lord would even bother with that?
02 - I finally get control of a guy, he looks sort of familiar to someone I've used before. The game says its the "Final Stage: Bloodlines." I like these openings, where they just throw you into the fire with some random character and tell you to go at it. Turns out I'm playing as Richter Belmont, one of the extra characters in Portrait of Ruin for the DS. He was pretty awesome in that game as he was super fast and could just zoom around the castle, very fun. I run up and of course, encounter Dracula.

03 - The dialogue is pretty nasty, probably just a rushed translation. I start whipping Dracula as there's no other choice (though I am tempted to just stand there and see what happens if I get killed).

04 - After enough damage, Dracula morphs into a minotaur like beast. The best part is that the battle background becomes an awesome vortex. I like vortexes. After Dracula owns me up, a girl wanders up and shouts something completely muffled. Somehow I'm powered up.
05 - Turns out I'm invincible and I quickly destroy Dracula! Now that was a short game.

06 - Some boring text starts scrolling explaining how Richter beat Dracula and then four years later he disappeared. Now Maria (also in Portrait of Ruin) is going to look for him. Turns out, Dracula's castle suddenly appears even though it only comes around once every 100 years. That's pretty lucky for Maria considering Richter was just hanging out in the castle four years ago.

07 - There's some info about Alucard, this game's main character. Alucard has a cursed bloodline and wants to purge it.

08 - All of a sudden, a white haired guy (Alucard) is hauling through a forest. He's even outrunning owls! Then he jumps really far and lands just as the castle gates are closing. I have a feeling I will never be able to run that fast, or jump that far ever again. Turns out Alucard uses a sword, I miss the whip.

09 - I kill a wolf and then enter the dark castle. I kill another wolf (these are rather large wolves too - and they die in one hit too) and this one drops $25! Score! All of a sudden some zombies start coming out of the ground and I slice them back to earth.

11 - Another vortex in the background and then Death materializes. It seems like Death and Alucard know each other pretty well.
12 - The idiot steals all my stuff (ala Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger on the Blackbird, etc.). Now I can only punch. Lame.

13 - I quickly get a short sword from a skeleton and arrive at my first save point. Sweet 3D casket!

14 - I find a Cube of Zoe, no idea what it does. I check the Relic screen and it causes items to materialize. But didn't I just pick up a sword? Anyways, I enter the mysterious CD room, and then the Alchemy Laboratory. For those unfamiliar with Castlevania games, the castle is usually broken up into different areas, but the names don't matter because you usually only see them once ever.

15 - Okay, I've just encountered some red skeletons. These enemies seem to be exactly the same thing as the Dry Bones in Super Mario Bros. 3. You attack them, they collapse, and then a few moments later stand up and start walking again. It's even the exact same sound effect!

18 - Boss time! The boss is made up of two ugly beasts - one is a flying guy and picks up the other. This makes them super vulnerable to my sword.

19 - This was a harder battle than I thought. One of the uglies started shooting tons of fireballs at me but I managed to take them down with a few hit points left.
20 - I get a life max up and move on. I start killing human looking bad guys in a very, very bloody matter. Kind of disturbing.

22 - I enter Marble Gallery, the next area I suppose. I have no real direction, just sort of wandering around. For the record, my favorite sub-weapon in the Castlevania series is the cross and then the ax. Since I have the ax, I'm sticking with it, but the game keeps trying to take it away! In every other candlestick there's another lame sub-weapon including this really weird diamond laser thing that bounces around. That might be useful in a tight area, but most bosses are in wide open rooms.

25 - I battle a bad guy with a huge swinging ball and chain. I end up getting knocked behind and kill him easily, but slowly. Too bad he wasn't a boss.

27 - Sucker! I die. There's this crazy jumping guy that shoots a ton of fireballs at me and eventually cornered me and threw like a Sonic Boom at me Guile-style. That one attack did 45 damage, I barely have twice that. I don't think I was supposed to come this way...
28 - I reload my game, feels like I lost a lot of time. Anyways, this time I go a different way from the save point and start beating up midgets. They're hard to hit but it's satisfying.

29 - I meet up with Maria and we chat. Obviously this was the way I was supposed to come before.

31 - I run into a magically sealed door, it's glowing blue. Too bad I can't mark the castle map and note this magic door for later (something you can do in Portrait of Ruin). I run into a woman attached by the torso to a lizard's tail. Creepy!

33 - I reach the outer wall, This means I've made it across the whole castle already, though in a relatively straight line with little movement in the Y direction.

35 - A stargate! Out of the other dimension comes a seemingly more powerful version of myself. He throws a lot of knives at me though and I'm able to take advantage of his battle pattern pretty quickly.
36 - I backtrack a bit to save, you never know.

39 - I enter the Long Library. This is confirmed by the many books on the walls. Does anyone read these besides Dracula? Maybe Death when he's not out reaping.

40 - A floating gob of jelly curses me. To uncurse myself, I have to equip the uncurse potion. Quite awkward.

42 - I find the shop! I can finally spend all my hard earned cash. The master librarian is just chilling out above a hole in the floor in the middle of Dracula's castle! This geezer is a brave man! He seems to know Alucard, maybe I missed something in the opening text? Did Alucard use to chill out here? Must be the cursed bloodline. If Alucard used to live here, why don't I already have a map of my old place? Anyways, I buy a shield and a hat, all I can afford that will help me out.
45 - I obtain a faerie scroll, it displays the enemy's name. Neato.

48 - Alucard stumbles across a teleporter and I climb in. I end up teleporting near the beginning of the castle. I suppose this may be convenient.

53 - I wander around already explored areas looking for something new. Nothing so far.

55 - I take an elevator down and get some sunglasses. Not sure if these will be useful.

56 - A cannon! Wait, what's a cannon doing in Dracula's castle? Is it used for defense? Or is it just used to blow up walls? Yes... just for blowing up walls. Are you serious? Like, you didn't even make me push the cannon into the room or anything.
58 - With seemingly nothing left to do, I venture down to where I was killed before. Due to my increased levels and equipment, I end up taking down the ball and chain baddie in only four hits!

59 - No first hour climactic boss but I get my revenge on my hopping, fire-shooting murderer! This guy went down in five hits!

60 - I enter a red door and end up back near the teleporter again, I'm not sure what the point of that whole excursion was but there's no more time to explore, time's up!
Can someone tell me why Alucard moonwalks like Michael Jackson? Now for scores out of 10.

Story: 8
Okay, I was kind of bored during the scrolling text after the first Dracula battle, so I probably missed some of the important tidbits... So maybe an eight is higher than the first hour deserves, but there were still some interesting aspects. Playing as a completely different character in the opening and just being thrown into the action is usually always fun. Especially with invincibility and the obligatory impossible-to-lose battle. I'm familiar with Richter (ironically from the newer games) so it's good to see him. Alucard is one of the more unique vampire-killers, even if he does look a little feminine (and moonwalks like a pro).
Graphics and Sound: 8
This is a gorgeous 2D game, especially for being a relatively early PSX game. There's tons of detail in the backgrounds and the sprites look really good. So good in fact, that many of the portable Castlevania DS games just ripped off the sprites from Symphony of the Night and are still reusing them today, 10 years later. Sound effects are decent, and the music is pretty good too. I know fans love the music of this game, but there wasn't a single track that really stood out.
Gameplay: 7
I love Castlevania games, mostly for their awesome gameplay. Exploring a castle, finding every single secret, and getting new moves (like the double jump!). But the first hour of Castlevania games is usually always the same, battling easy enemies and going from boss to boss. It's really later on that they pick up a lot more. Symphony of the Night isn't much different, but Alucard's moves are extremely limited. He walks slow, he has no sliding technique available, and I received no new moves within the first hour. He also doesn't use a whip which is disappointing, but they may have been the first in the series where the main character didn't use a whip?
Fun Factor: 6
Symphony of the Night starts awesome, playing as Richter against Dracula right away. But it slows down pretty quickly after that (blame the super-slow scrolling text). There's lots of exploration and killing skeletons, but it's a pretty straight-forward first hour. The fight against "Dark Alucard" was probably the highlight of the hour in terms of fun after the initial battle.
Minutes to Action: 3
Overall: 7
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is noteworthy, at least to me, as it was the beginning of the new gameplay style used in almost every Castlevania game since (this gameplay is sometimes known as Metroidvania - as the focus is on exploration and item collection much like the Metroid series). I really think some of the later iterations have been better (but that doesn't affect my final score). The first hour of Symphony of the Night is quite linear in a non-linear game, which is disappointing. There's little variety in the number of weapons available early on, and the lack of double-jump (or any other advanced ability) annoys me. The first hour of Symphony of the Night sets the tone for what is known by some people as one of the greatest games ever, I just have to assume it gets better as it goes on. Symphony of the Night's first hour is just not that remarkable.