Castlevania: Symphony of the Night^[a] is an action role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.^[3] It was directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, with Koji Igarashi acting as assistant director. It is a direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, taking place four years later. It features Dracula’s dhampir son Alucard (returning from Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse) as the protagonist, rising from his slumber to explore Dracula’s castle which resurfaced after Richter Belmont vanished.^[4] Its design marks a break from previous entries in the series, re-introducing the exploration, nonlinear level design, and role-playing elements first experimented with in Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest.^[5]

Symphony of the Night is considered one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made, praising its gameplay, soundtrack, and visuals, and gained a cult following. It is also considered a pioneer of the Metroidvania genre alongside Super Metroid, inspiring numerous exploration-based action-adventure games, and would have a lasting impact on the Castlevania series, with subsequent mainline entries adopting its gameplay model. However, sales upon released were extremely low, until it eventually graduated from word-to-mouth, becoming a sleeper hit, where it sold over 900,000 units in the United States and Japan. The game would later be re-released on several platforms, with later revisions containing improvements.