​

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SotN) was an important turning point, not only for the Castlevania franchise, but for gaming as a whole, as it was the game that cemented the definition of "Metroidvania" into the minds of several gamers as a specific term to explain a particular genre or play-style for games that delve into exploration and items inside a set map.

For SotN, the game saw its initial PlayStation release back in 1997, and just after a year, in 1998, the game saw a port to the Sega Saturn, but this port stands out from all of the other versions of Symphony of the Night due to its included bonus and features. However, the Saturn port was released only in Japan, never seeing the light of day outside of the region and never getting any localization outside of the territory, leaving many Castlevania fans without the added content from the elusive port, which not even re-releases of the game got, given how they were all based on the PlayStation releases for the US and Europe.

Despite the added content, the port had its own set of drawbacks. The transparency effects that the game heavily relies on were instead changed to dithering, the game suffered from awful loading times, making it slower to progress through compared to the PS version, the in-game sprites saw a size reduction, and other small things gave it a less polished status, even with the newly added content.

However, in 2024, that all changed, and thanks to the hacking expertise of Meduza Team, west players can now experience this title with all of its bonus content in full English, and with a lot of quality of life elements added into it, to make it the best version of the title to date.

This hack, titled "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Ultimate" focuses on being the most complete and advanced version of the beloved title, with the following quality of life features:

• Fully translation into English
• Restoration of translucency of many objects
• Direct access to the global map
• Finalization of the global map
• Restoration of the original proportions of some sprites
• Removing horizontal black bars of the screen
• Skipping videos and dialogues
• Access to Richter's alternate costume
• Reduced loading time
• Support for 4MB expansion card
• Bug fixes
• Hard Mode

The hack is available for download right now, in the YouTube video's description, and it's currently in version 1.0, but we can expect a bugfix release later on since some people have started giving feedback to the team.

Meduza Team's Forum

 

[Marc_LFD]

It was only released in Japan. You can read for more information here:

https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night/Saturn

Yep, no wonder I never knew about it and I use a website that has ISOs with romhacks already applied.

 

[Evilengine]

What's the best version then ? I was about to start the PSP version before that but the aspect ratio is putting me off a bit (if it was on real hardware it wouldn't be an issue), what a shame after all this time there's not a true ultimate version
EDIT : Forgot there was the PS4 version. From what I've seen it's basically a direct port of the PSP version, what a stupid idea to not have it on PC and Switch

My personal favorite is the regular US release on Playstation. The fan translated japanese version of the PS game is also good, has some small diferences. https://www.romhacking.net/games/1070/
The PSP, X360, PS3, PS4 and Android versions are ok, too if you use one of these systems mainly but I always prefered the classic SD 240p CRT resolution over HDMI based systems on LCD.
The saturn version is very exotic because it had differences in Richter/Maria, certain game areas and helpers and some more, I guess here is a list:
https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night/Saturn


I always hoped for a version, that brings together the gimmicks of the Saturn and combines it with the playability of the PS, the map screen is a good example, on PS it's open instantly and shuts down the same. On saturn it takes a few seconds to open and close and it had to be opened from the menu. In a game, where you constantly watch the map, it was a bit lame and you completely lose the time, that the running shoes give.. ^^

Btw, there is also a Symphony of the Night decomp project, so I hope, it will be finished and ported to switch, PC, etc.
https://github.com/Xeeynamo/sotn-decomp

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

What's the best version then ? I was about to start the PSP version before that but the aspect ratio is putting me off a bit (if it was on real hardware it wouldn't be an issue), what a shame after all this time there's not a true ultimate version
EDIT : Forgot there was the PS4 version. From what I've seen it's basically a direct port of the PSP version, what a stupid idea to not have it on PC and Switch

I would say the PS1 version because of the Sword Familiar Glitch that isn't in the PSP version. The two familiars thats in the PSP version doesn't make it worth it tbh.

 

[Marc_LFD]

There's also a demake Genesis version that's WIP and it looks pretty interesting.



Pretty awesome what the retro communities are doing these days.

 

[Evilengine]

Not to forget the Tiger.com version

edit: or whatever that fricking thing is called.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Not to forget the Tiger.com version

edit: or whatever that fricking thing is called.

Game Boy was bad to look at, but that looks even worse.

 

[Evilengine]

This is also cool, slightly different than the decomp project, and still getting updates:
https://sotnhacked.freeforums.net/

 

[Rune]

It had a Saturn release? News to me.

Just goes to show the Saturn could have had a bigger catalog in the West, but it didn't so it's up to fans to translate it to English.

The Saturn version had the most content, which has never been ported to any other re-release of the game. It had an extra playable character, more areas on the map, which had its own exclusive enemies, etc.
The main issue was that the game on the Saturn had technical difficulties that other versions of the game didnt have. Such as longer loading screens, slow downs, the scaling of the sprites, the lack of sprite transparancies, and of course the fact that it was never released in English.
Most of these issues seem to be either fixed or improve on in this patch. Which now arguably makes this the best version of the game to play.

This is also cool, slightly different than the decomp project, and still getting updates:
https://sotnhacked.freeforums.net/

Ive been following this project for a while now. Theres even a little demo of it released.
I admire the work and the intentions behind it but I dont think this is ever going to be completed, at least to a satisfactory standard.
The project is basically being done by one person who's carrying the entire workload (besides the sprite work which he's having to pay someone to create for him). And he's been working on this for a long time while having shown very little progress (unless of course he's done things behind the scenes we dont know about).
But more importantly to me personally, the game doesnt feel the same when I played the demo. Which I guess I should've expected since hes recreating the game from the ground up by himself. But for a game that has a strong nostalgic attachment to people, it doesnt feel right when you play a remake that has physics and gameplay that come off totally different from the original.

 

[Izual Urashima]

Sega Saturn shiro !

 

[Blasingame]

This is cool, the fact that the developers enhanced the performance of the game utilizing a cache on the 4MB is anything short of amazing.

For me, I feel like this hack is up there with things like Mega Man X3 Project Zero, SNES slowdown fixes, Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition, Atomiswave ports to Dreamcast. Developers that seemingly finding clever ways to use a particular software with hardware limitation.

With the comment "Princess Crown when?"

 

[TripleSMoon]

Forgot there was the PS4 version. From what I've seen it's basically a direct port of the PSP version, what a stupid idea to not have it on PC and Switch

I believe the reason for this is that the PS4 version is using the PS4's hidden internal PSP emulator (the same one Parappa uses), which made it a pretty easy direct port, with minimal changes. And because it's Konami, they weren't going to put any effort into emulating it or properly porting it onto other platforms that didn't already have that.

Now granted, they did put it on mobile a few years back, so I guess they're willing to put some effort in, but Konami loves mobile, so I guess that's why they did it there.

 

[retrospect]

How come after applying the patch and making the first .bin file larger, the offset for the second .bin file in the .cue file isn't adjusted? Did I misunderstand multisession CDs?

 

[Marc_LFD]

Sega Lord X made a video about this if interested:

 

[raxadian]

How come after applying the patch and making the first .bin file larger, the offset for the second .bin file in the .cue file isn't adjusted? Did I misunderstand multisession CDs?

You may need to make a new cue file or edit the one you have. Or like download the thing already patched from somewhere I won't link but is basically some kind of web archive.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Time to bust the modded Saturn out, aw yeah!

 

[nine0nine]

anyone had success with the saturn tribute emulator on the switch?

 

[NeoGranzon]

I have Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no yasokyoku for Playstation and how much i've played it and i would like a version for Nintendo Switch like they did for the GameBoy Advance ones or the one for PS Vita.

 

[DarthDub]

Is there a reason why some files were deleted after patching? I haven't tested the hack yet but it concerns me a bit.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Is there a reason why some files were deleted after patching? I haven't tested the hack yet but it concerns me a bit.

Which files got deleted?

 

[dh3lix-pooch]

Startet a new Alucard run on Saturn Core with my MisterFPGA. This hack is f brilliant! Strongly suggested to give it a try!

Post automatically merged: Jan 8, 2024

Is there a reason why some files were deleted after patching? I haven't tested the hack yet but it concerns me a bit.

It is deleting the patchfiles. Unusual but not to bad either.