What's your favorite game, and why do you like it?
Posted: 02 Aug 2025, 23:15
For me, it's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
One of the progenitors of the Metroidvania genre tag! It's an incredible game, the pixel art for the time was amazing, the soundtrack is among my top favorites, and the twist in the middle of the game is phenomenal. There's a few modes to replay the game with, and abusing some fun glitches, you can literally get so overpowered that everything dies in seconds, even bosses, from your very first trip to the shopkeeper. The Richter mode is wonderful; Richter's controls are amazing and you get so much freedom in how you combat things compared to Alucard (even if it does just boil down to HYDRO STORM). The voice acting in the beginning is my favorite kind of corny (PSX and XBOX versions, they redid the VAs in later releases), and is known as a meme because of it. And I haven't even touched on the randomizer that's available. That tool alone makes runs tons more interesting! Will you get a Crissaegrim on your first drop? Or will you be stuck with a Tyrfing for ages, leading to you use unarmed because that sword ain't worth beans. The speedrunning community has potentially perfected the game at this point, and things like an Any% run are broken as much as they can be broken. The average Any% NG+ speedrun is around 14 minutes, which, given how LARGE the castle is, makes it insane to think about.
Anyways, my two cents. :>
One of the progenitors of the Metroidvania genre tag! It's an incredible game, the pixel art for the time was amazing, the soundtrack is among my top favorites, and the twist in the middle of the game is phenomenal. There's a few modes to replay the game with, and abusing some fun glitches, you can literally get so overpowered that everything dies in seconds, even bosses, from your very first trip to the shopkeeper. The Richter mode is wonderful; Richter's controls are amazing and you get so much freedom in how you combat things compared to Alucard (even if it does just boil down to HYDRO STORM). The voice acting in the beginning is my favorite kind of corny (PSX and XBOX versions, they redid the VAs in later releases), and is known as a meme because of it. And I haven't even touched on the randomizer that's available. That tool alone makes runs tons more interesting! Will you get a Crissaegrim on your first drop? Or will you be stuck with a Tyrfing for ages, leading to you use unarmed because that sword ain't worth beans. The speedrunning community has potentially perfected the game at this point, and things like an Any% run are broken as much as they can be broken. The average Any% NG+ speedrun is around 14 minutes, which, given how LARGE the castle is, makes it insane to think about.
Anyways, my two cents. :>