Castlevania SOTN: What Day The 25th Anniversary Actually Is

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022 and Konami likely has plans for the occasion, but not one that fans might like. The visuals in the game might have aged poorly, but there’s no denying that Symphony of the Night is an incredible game and well worthy of celebration. It’s considered to be one of the Metroidvania genre’s most important games, especially as it coined half of its name, alongside Metroid.

Symphony of the Night is a Metroidvania that stars Alucard, the wayward son of Dracula. Alucard must infiltrate Dracula’s Castle and discover the fate of Richter Belmont, who was tasked with stopping the lord of the undead, but has mysteriously vanished. The player must explore every inch of the castle, gathering new abilities and items, in order to gain access to new locations and slay more bosses. Once the player had conquered the castle for the first time, they were tasked with completing an upside-down version of the castle, with new hazards and foes to defeat. Symphony of the Night is one of the best games on the original PlayStation and it’s a bucket list title for any fan of gaming. The game has similarities to FF7, which is also celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022. Final Fantasy 7 and Symphony of the Night used the hardware of the PlayStation to expand the scope of their respective genres beyond what was capable on 16-bit consoles in the past, thanks to the massive (for the time) memory space available in CD-ROMs.

Symphony of the Night launched on the original PlayStation in 1997. The 25th anniversary of Symphony of the Night will take place on March 20, 2022. Fans have speculated for years about a potential remake of the game, either in HD form or a full 3D remake. Konami likely isn’t that generous, but someone close to the game might have something in store for the anniversary, even if it’s not directly related to Castlevania.

How Will Konami Celebrate The 25th Anniversary Of Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night?

It wasn’t that long ago that Konami was celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise, but it did so in a way that many fans didn’t like. Konami released Castlevania NFTs to celebrate the 35th anniversary of one of its biggest franchises, and it’s likely that Symphony of the Night will receive the same treatment, assuming the anniversary is celebrated at all. The game is already available on modern platforms, in the form of Castlevania Requiem, and the Xbox 360 port can be played on the Xbox Series X/S. The game is only missing from the Nintendo Switch, so a Castlevania Requiem port could be on the cards.

A better way for the legacy of Symphony of the Night to be celebrated would be with a new spiritual successor. Symphony of the Night assistant director/writer Koji Igarashi created a game called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which contains the best elements of the Castlevania games he developed, including Symphony of the Night. It was confirmed in 2021 that Bloodstained has a sequel in development, although nothing has been heard from it since. Konami might celebrate one of its finest games with Alucard and Dracula NFTs, but a new Bloodstained game would mean that the spirit of Symphony of the Night would still live on.

The 25th anniversary of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night will take place on March 20, 2022.

About The Author

Scott Baird
(2509 Articles Published)

See also  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer: The Massive Clue Everyone Missed

Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

More From Scott Baird