In The Shmood

Over the weekend, I decided to sit down and blast through Symphony of the Night for what might be the 10th time. This, even with all of the other work I was doing, is always a refreshing change of pace from everything I might have going on; it's comfort food to me. In fact, you could probably put it in my top 5 (or maybe 10) favorite games of all time if I was forced to make a list.

I'm not going to sit here and gush over it (though it's ludicrous to me that people that like video games haven't played it), but what makes it such a great experience is how densely packed it is. Subtle and explicit throwbacks to the original Castlevania games are what usually make me smile most, but the little things like the white bird sprite in the Outer Wall --something that has no meaning to the game, but it is an animated object that is only onscreen for less than 5 seconds-- show that the development team went through an awful lot to make this the masterpiece that it was.

So packed is SotN that even I, after numerous times through it, don't even pick up on the most obvious allusions. My new favorite? How each enemy found in the Inverted Library is named for a character in the  Wizard of Oz. How I never noticed that the entire place is only populated by Lions, Scare Crows, and Tin Men baffles me. However, the one foe that isn't from the noggin of Frank L. Baum in the IL, and arguably one of the most important mobs in the game for the fact that it drops a weapon that practically breaks it in half, is the Shmoo. A Li'l Abner Shmoo, just redesigned. That goes pretty far back and fairly obscure, even for a group of very
talented game designers in Japan.

Hats off to you guys 16 years later.

Some great stuff is coming in the next few weeks, and we'll talk a little more about Symphony of the Night in the next day or two. I imagine that you're already buckled up for the thrill ride, but you know, just in case...