By Joseph "Skull Vault" Walter
Completely revolutionizing the mechanics of the franchise and helping to pioneer a new genre in the process, Symphony is legendarily excellent, but my favorite elements aren't the RPG stats and diverse equipment, nor is it exploring the sprawling castle and enjoying the enchantingly potent atmosphere (despite how phenomenal it is.)
Instead, it's the weird stuff.
The shoes that stretch your sprite by one-pixel. Summoning a cow by using the Leather Shield and Shield Rod. Sitting in chairs. Hearing a confession while in the chapel.
All of these them are obscure, strange and fit right in with the game's dreamlike tone.
However, Symphony's weirdest sequence doesn't require any button combinations, hidden chambers or the farming disembodied heads. All you need to do is die.
As you'll see below, Symphony of the Night's "Game Over" screen is at once creepy and inexplicably bizarre. In other words, it's totally worth discussing!
That's all well and good, but none of it is what makes this Game Over creepy, weird or worthy of praise.
Nope; it's the message scrawled on the bottom of the screen: "Let us go out this evening for pleasure. The night is still young."
.... what?
Is the game... proposing a course of action for me? Is it offering me advice? Is it saying that I should stop playing and go out? Why is it worded so strangely? Why is it vaguely threatening? Why did someone feel that this should be included in the Game Over? Did that someone feel so strongly about whatever they were trying to convey that they fought tooth and nail to have it included? Maybe this is actually spoken by Dracula, and he's telling his fellow vampires that, with the defeat of Alucard, they should go out of the castle and go on a bloodsucking rampage.
I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but I do know that without the strange touch of including this message, this Game Over screen would feel as barren as the landscape it portrays.
It's such a delightfully odd choice, and I'm happy they made it.
Oh, and one more fun fact: in college, this phrase was my go-to code to let people know we should go out and get drunk. The night was still young, after all!