Symphony of the Night gets whip-smart commentary from Igarashi himself

Koji Igarashi isn't just asking people to choose between swords and whips these days. The former Castlevania producer appears in the latest episode of Double Fine's "Devs Play" series, seated beside DF senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis for an extensive playthrough and discussion of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The conversation swings from the grand design concerns around Symphony of the Night's famous false ending to technical details of how the team got away with using brightness adjustments to spruce up their old-school 16-color tiles. As Igarashi recounts these development details nearly two decades after the fact, remember they would go on to influence just about every game where you collect equipment, double back, and fill out a map - outside of Metroid, anyway.

If you're at all interested in the craft behind one of the best games ever, carve out two hours this weekend and enjoy.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.