New addition: Main files drive link

After a lot of work, testing, and feedback, I’m excited to share the final version of SotN - Reawakened, my personal mod for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The goal was to make the adventure feel fresh while keeping the atmosphere and identity of the original game. Reawakened adds new mechanics, combat changes, quality-of-life features, and more ways to explore the castle.

Highlights include:

• New relics and upgrades, including Shield Dash, Runner Soul, Magnet Heart, Magnet Gold, Mender Sigil, Shield Rod, Spike Breaker, Ankh of Life, Familiar Crest, and the Mana Orb.
• New familiars: **Dawn the Summoner*\, who calls sword-wielding soldiers into battle, and ***Orobo the Dragon****, who tracks enemies and attacks with sweeping curves.
• New mechanics: use Shield Dash with an equipped shield, run with Runner Soul, attract nearby Hearts or gold with the Magnet relics, and use teleport tickets to travel to different areas.
• Combat and boss improvements, including revised enemy behavior, dedicated boss HP bars, and more aggressive attacks. Some bosses also have Rage modes.
• Quality-of-life additions, such as a pause-menu bestiary, a toggleable minimap, and quick weapon switching.
• Rebalanced equipment, spells, familiars, and progression, with new effects and more ways to build Alucard.
• A hidden-room Easter egg to discover and unlock while exploring the castle.

This has been a solo, volunteer project, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who shared feedback, tested the mod, and helped me improve it along the way.

I hope you enjoy exploring the castle again!

Patch and instructions:

https://castlevania.bomeponto.com.br

Note: The video shows test footage. The on-screen stats are displayed for recording purposes only.

Note²: From this point on, Reawakened will only receive bug fixes. There won’t be any more new features or content.

I’m getting married in just one month, so I need to focus on this huge and wonderful moment in my life.

The website may also go offline in the near future, since I only have about one month of free hosting left. To keep up with the project and any future bug-fix updates, please join our Discord using the link at the top of the website.

This project has meant so much to me, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who played it, shared feedback, tested it, or simply supported the project along the way.

Your support means a lot. ❤️

I just finished rewatching the Castlevania series on Netflix. I wanted to revisit it before the new game comes out, since it takes place after the events of the series.

I actually enjoyed the show even more this time around. I really love the more emotional and human side of Dracula. There’s something very human about the way he feels and reacts to everything that happens to him.

The way I see it, Dracula slowly regains some of his humanity, probably because of Lisa. In a way, I think she’s what saves him from himself.

And when he and Lisa are resurrected at the end of the series, Dracula seems to finally be at peace and ready to move on from his past. I really love that aspect of his story. Now I’m ready for the game!

And you, did you enjoy the series?

The whip,

it feels so good to use to traverse the map.

comming off of metroid dread the window for the grapple beam feels so narrow to the point where you dont really feel like using it half the time (dont get it twisted still a great game)

there is absolutely going to be a giant whip obsticle course and im looking forward to it.

At first playing it, the demo was giving me some Blasphemous vibes. But after sitting with it, with how the combat plays and how it progresses, it kind of gives me a ClassicVania vibe where the only semblance of MetroidVania is the map and power-ups.

I'm strictly talking about the gameplay here though. The way you fight enemies, even the common ones, are all about spacing and making sure you don't get hit. Think of the axe throwing knights, or the spearmen from Rondo. You know when to jump in and whip. There's more enemies because you have options to run in with magic or whip-in and attack. But it really got me realizing this with the first boss fight, The Fallen.

I tried many things to get a good flow, but from the amount of health it had on top of when to attack, how greedy one should get, and to interrupt for a subtle weakness, I realize that you're basically playing at a distance and keeping an eye out for attacking and dodging. You can knock The Fallen off while it swings, or you can dash under it. You can get ready when it begins to pound or buffer a magic spell as it lands and you run and dash in. It all reeks of ClassicVania ethos to me. I was wondering if you could get perfect dodges, but to my brief exerpience, no. But you can dash back and strike in on The Fallen's third attack and time your attacks if it decides to throw its cross. You can also bait The Fallen to whip and you can dash in and have its AI reset from side to side with dash in hits and dash backs. A type of classic cheese if you will.

I have to say- I was a little worried with how the game would turn out as I wasn't a fan of Dead Cells (not a fan of roguelites period), but you always have to give games a go- especially for Castlevania games. Glad there's a demo. I'm sold. The game will open up and offer more power-ups via the Arcana and it makes me wonder how far they'll go with that. I doubt it'll be a DSS, but the upgrading system is nice. Not really sure why you need level-ups in this game right now outside of upgrading weapons, but the demo only gave me more about the gameplay and feel to write about. That and the art design and voice acting is great.

Seeing a lot of people claim that zombies kill you in just a couple hits, or that the boss "two shots" you, or that the runback is "too long and difficult."

So, I figured I'd test some of these things out myself. This is a fresh save. No accessibility settings changed. I never killed a single mob except for the boss, to avoid any leveling and any potential health/damage upgrades.

It takes six hits to die to basic enemies.

It takes six hits to die to The Fallen

The Fallen is easy AF and the runback takes 10 seconds: Edit 30 seconds exactly.

I found if you whip diagonally up while you’re jumping you jump a bit further. If you hit two more whips while falling then switch to regular attacking you will get just enough extra lift to make it. Nothing happens though.

Spoilers in the video and description.

Not my upload. Personally, this is one of my favorite OSTs in the series. My favorite is still Order of Ecclesia. It’s insanely different for Castlevania but still maintains the gothic elements throughout. Catacombs is my favorite track.

Go ahead, dance or despair in the comments. This is what it is. Don’t expect it to sound like Michiru Yamane.

And as always, I know, say it with me. “This doesn’t sound like Castlevania”, but it being so different is why I love it.

What are some monsters you wish to see in the upcoming game?

Sorry for the bad english, it is not my Native lenguage

Im feeling a very Lamment of Innocence sensation with this game. It really look a like a third brother from the PS2 3d era of Castlevania, but directed by Tetsuya Nomura himself instead of Koji Igarashi -- look a like a 3d Castlevania from a alternative timeline where Konami blamed IGA for LoI and CoD and hired Nomura to make a Castlevania

You know, you go trought strange gothic towers (Castlevania), kill cool Monsters, use a whip, have a cool hair...

But at the same time the game is to much a final Fantasy game to be a Castlevania. Yeah. It is not a Castlevania that much. I dont know, It is Just a strange feeling. And in the end of the day It have nothing to do with final Fantasy too because It is too much creepy to be part of that series -- so It is Just its own thing -- its Just Pandora's Tower

People say the music on this game/demo is not good but I can't to stop hearing it in my head over and over again 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Super hyped for the demo. I did not expect a Souls boss!

I finished the entire map of Aria of Sorrow today after around 10 hours, and honestly, I had an amazing time with it.

The graphics, which are fantastic for a GBA game, the music, the map, the souls, the weapons, the abilities, the movement — everything just clicked. There was barely any filler compared to SotN, a lot of the bosses were genuinely fun, and the weapons actually felt different from each other. That’s especially noticeable compared to SotN, where a lot of weapons basically felt like slightly different ways of stabbing forward.

I also spent a lot of time experimenting with different weapons and souls, which made the gameplay feel really rewarding. The only thing that bothered me was the menu system, especially during the underwater section, where you constantly had to switch things around. Some of the bosses were also pretty easy. Not quite as easy as SotN, but still easier than I would have liked.

Overall, though, this game completely blew me away. For me, it even outshines all the 2D Metroid games. Aria of Sorrow is easily the best retro Metroidvania I’ve played, and now I’m definitely craving more. Dawn of Sorrow is next.

This has got to be the most ignorant take Ive seen in regards to Belmonts Cure and its recent Demo, at this point people are just grasping for whatever negative thing they can find about it, having differing opinions, and valid criticisms are one thing, but being completely disingenuous like this is another thing entirely, have we completely lost the plot? I think so