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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

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

Yet Princess Crown doesn't have an english translation...

 

[DeMoN]

How well can this run on the Switch emu?

 

[Marc_LFD]

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.

 

[Cris1997XX]

Not gonna lie, I hate how slow the text movement is. And all of the voiced sound effects are still in Japanese

 

[ShadowOne333]

Not gonna lie, I hate how slow the text movement is. And all of the voiced sound effects are still in Japanese

Yeah I'm not fond of the text movement inside the textboxes.
Actually the font itself seems a bit off to me, I don't recall SotN's textbox font being like that.

My only gripes right now with the current version are:

• How the textbox text is output into the box
• Textbox font
• Title screen (An option to have the proper "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" would be nice)

 

[SDA]

I knew about this Saturn version for long, since there is one hack for it on ROMhacking.net.

Plus, the Japanese PlayStation version was already translated in 2007, so I think that the English script should have been ported over to this version as well.

 

[machomuu]

Yeah I'm not fond of the text movement inside the textboxes.
Actually the font itself seems a bit off to me, I don't recall SotN's textbox font being like that.

My only gripes right now with the current version are:

• How the textbox text is output into the box
• Textbox font
• Title screen (An option to have the proper "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" would be nice)

Taking the biggest shot in the dark and thinking it's probably them accounting for japanese which went character by character (less characters overall to say more, pretty common). SOTN had the textboxes scroll down when they had too much to say for one box, this doesn't.

Worth keeping in mind though that this is a re-localization of Dracula X from the looks of it, not a copy and paste of SotN. Personally that they use a font more befitting Castlevania's aesthetic and the fact that they call the game was it is, I think, is generally more appealing overall. Though I will kind of agree that a separate font might be good in case people have trouble reading it, purely as an accessibility option.

This rocks though, don't see a lot of efforts like this these days for games that already have available localizations.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Taking the biggest shot in the dark and thinking it's probably them accounting for japanese which went character by character (less characters overall to say more, pretty common). SOTN had the textboxes scroll down when they had too much to say for one box, this doesn't.

Worth keeping in mind though that this is a re-localization of Dracula X from the looks of it, not a copy and paste of SotN. Personally that they use a font more befitting Castlevania's aesthetic and the fact that they call the game was it is, I think, is generally more appealing overall. Though I will kind of agree that a separate font might be good in case people have trouble reading it, purely as an accessibility option.

This rocks though, don't see a lot of efforts like this these days for games that already have available localizations.

Yeah it makes sense. Though the option for a different font would be welcomed, since it's a bit distracting that almost everything else uses the standard font and only the textbox uses that one.

The font and the title screen would make it perfect for me, hope they consider adding that as options.

 

[Evilengine]

Really cool! I played every version of this game and finished the Saturn version in japanese. The running shoes are the best part of this version and nice to see, that the map is easier to open and the sprites are corrected plus all the other improvements. I like the font, it is different but looks actually pretty alright to me.
The hard mode sounds good too, is it similar to the HardType mod from the PS version?

 

[ShadowOne333]

Really cool! I played every version of this game and finished the Saturn version in japanese. The running shoes are the best of this version and nice to see, that the map is easier to open and the sprites are corrected plus all the other improvements. I like the font, it is different but looks actually pretty alright to me.
The hard mode sounds good too, is it similar to the HardType mod from the PS version?

From what I've read, the Hard mode here modifies the enemies to have 2x HP.

 

[LightBeam]

If it's the best version of SoTN, I might play this one now that I have finished Rondo of Blood

 

[Evilengine]

If it's the best version of SoTN, I might play this one now that I have finished Rondo of Blood

I wouldn't say it is/was the best version. The bonus areas are alright but don't change the overall awesomeness too much. Some things made it always fall behind. For a real fan of the game it is a must play, though.

 

[Maximo101]

Love SoTN... Wasted HOURS and hours on this game across lots of platforms. Still play the ps4 coversion. That and Ghosts 'n Goblins...

 

[retrospect]

Very nice.

The patched file wouldn't load for me, so I converted it using an old version of Nero and it's great now. Onto the backlog it goes.

EDIT: Oh nevermind, it crashed.

 

[raxadian]

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.

A lot of Saturn games did get released in Europe but of course not as many as in Japan.

Unfortunately the Playstation just was so much cheaper that the Saturn and actually more powerful hardware wise.

 

[Marc_LFD]

A lot of Saturn games did get released in Europe but of course not as many as in Japan.

Unfortunately the Playstation just was so much cheaper that the Saturn and actually more powerful hardware wise.

The problem with PAL games back then is that they were slowed down due to the 50Hz issue, but now it can be forced to 60Hz if the emulator permits it.

Moreover, I always liked more the Saturn PAL covers than the JPN/USA ones, same goes for the DC covers and cases.

 

[spotanjo3]

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.

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

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

 

[LightBeam]

I wouldn't say it is/was the best version. The bonus areas are alright but don't change the overall awesomeness too much. Some things made it always fall behind. For a real fan of the game it is a must play, though.

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

 

[zerofalcon]

Good that now its completely translated to english. I was using the previous 1.5 extended patch but this is way better. Been using it with the saturn HOS emu, repatched the cue-bin and no issues so far (apart from the horrendous input lag from the emulator).