Just when you think you’ve mastered Dracula’s castle, the accursed structure turns your world upside-down. Literally. The entire castle uproots itself from the ground, flips itself 180° and leaves you high and dry on the ceiling, free to rediscover its charms all over again, this time in reverse.
Keen to break the linear trappings of previous entries, Konami elected to ape the open-ended structure of Nintendo’s Metroid series. The genius of Samus Aran’s space adventures, for the uninitiated, is that they give the illusion of freedom while the player is cleverly funnelled down specific routes in order to collect the power-ups needed to boost Samus’ agility, allowing her to delve deeper into the game world. SOTN copies this template wholesale, but the castle is so well put together that you’d struggle to notice the hand guiding you.
It isn’t just the geometry that makes your progress feel so natural – the pacing is absolutely perfect. Alucard’s metamorphosis from a lead-booted clogger to a super-agile beast capable of transforming into a wolf, bat or even a wisp of mist is so gradual and well-timed that SOTN never overwhelms, despite the layers of depth offered by the equip system – which enables you to arm Alucard with different weapons and kit him out with cloaks and headwear boasting new properties.
The more powerful Alucard grows, the more delightful he becomes to control, until you come to the realisation that duffing up Dracula can wait until you’re good and ready. Combining Alucard’s myriad abilities to uncover the entirety of the world map becomes an obsession bigger than any ideals that might have lured you to the castle in the first place, and hitting that magical 100% figure brings a deeply satisfying feeling of finality that will live with you forever – or at least until you’re staked.
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