Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Archives

One-a-Wednesday: From the Strategy Guide Archive–Castlevania Symphony of the Night Official Guide

March 12, 2014 By Keri Honea 1 Comment

My copy of the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night strategy guide is in terrible, terrible shape. Sadly, it came this way when I bought it from a seller on Amazon a few years ago.

I completely missed the PlayStation One era of video games, so that means I never played this beloved Castlevania game. About 3-4 years ago, Matt Green of PresstheButtons.com challenged me to a few of his favorite games, and I reciprocated. We only completed one challenge each, but one of the challenges to me was to play Symphony of the Night. After I bought it from the PSN, naturally my next step was to find a copy of the strategy guide. I knew there had to be one.

I only got to the first boss and I determined the game really wasn’t for me. I’d like to try again some day, and at least I have the guide to hold my hand.

Weekly Poll: How many games do you play at once?

August 30, 2010 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

The opinion seems to be evenly split between using guides with certain franchises and only using guides when unfortunately stuck. No need for me to create a poll to find out which guides the latter uses the most often; I’m fairly certain I already know the answer.

As for the last entry, well, I know exactly who that person is (and if you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, you know who it is, too) and I especially expected that response. What would have surprised me would have been additional votes, because surely readers of this site come here because 1) you’re a fan of guides or 2) you like my writing or possibly both!

But let’s move on to the next poll. How many games to you play at once?

I’ve been plagued with this for the last few weeks, especially since I’ve been called upon to review more games. I’ve had to stop playing Transformers: War for Cybertron due to reviewing Arc Rise Fantasia, as miserable as that game made me. I just didn’t have enough hours in the day to do both. So MattG stepped in and said that I should always make time for a game for myself and a review game, unless the two happen to coincide. Right now my review assignment is Ys Seven, and even though I really enjoy the game, it’s definitely not a “me” game I would choose.

That “me” game has been DeathSpank, which has been more fun than I thought possible. And another friend has implored me to pick back up his Castlevania challenge. So fine. I’ll play a review game, a challenge game, and a game for me. And once DeathSpank is done (possibly by tonight), I’ll be switching back and forth between Red Dead Redemption and Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Is anyone else as insane as I am or am I alone? Or do I pale in comparison to some of you?

New strategy guides: Castlevania SOTN and Transformers War for Cybertron

July 20, 2010 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I picked up one of these guides at the store and the other one arrived in the mail from an eBay seller. Can you guess which is which?

I’m actually quite pleased with the condition of the Castlevania guide. The only damage it has is what you see on the front cover. The first thing I did after examining the damage (and leaving positive feedback on eBay) was check and see everything I missed in the very beginning. I missed so much, I’m seriously thinking of starting over from scratch. I missed a major weapon, I now know how to reach certain areas I couldn’t figure out earlier, and I missed equipment and what I’m sure are important items. No wonder I had such a hard time with the first boss.

Okay, thinking over. I’m going to start over. Then I can hear about man being “a miserable pile of secrets” again.

The second guide was totally a spur of the moment purchase. I received $35 in gift certificates from Best Buy, and since I had errands to do in a Best Buy vicinity, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to stop on in and pick up something that ISN’T on my Amazon wishlist. My birthday is Saturday, so I don’t want to accidentally spoil a possible gift. It hit me that Transformers War for Cybertron released last month, and the trailer had me laughing so hard I knew I would own it eventually. I took the very last copy Best Buy had of both the game and the guide, the latter of which I had to dig for in their shoddy organization for guides. I found it tucked between a NIER guide and a guide for Spirit Tracks, so I assume someone tucked it back there for later. Too bad, sucker! MINE MINE MINE!!

I have no idea when I’m going to get to this game, but I’m just so happy to have it. And the guide. I’ve got the touch…I’ve got the powwwwwwer!

New Guide Purchase – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

July 15, 2010 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

MattG and Hembree will probably hate me for this as this game was a challenge to me, but I found and bought the original strategy guide to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. They may think this takes away from their gaming challenge, but I don’t think so. If anything else, it will make me work harder, and my beloved strategy guide site can get a piece of the gaming challenge action outside of my brief stint with Portal.

I’m about to start (tonight, hopefully!) Paper Mario RPG: The Thousand Year Door and work on that guide in between sessions of spell casting with LEGO characters. Castlevania is on my PSP, so when I travel, that will be the game of choice. I have quite a bit of travel scheduled for the next couple of months so both the challenge and the guide review will come along…eventually.

At least I can enjoy this time before September, when Birth by Sleep releases. I may disappear for quite some time then. Ah, who am I kidding. I’ll always be online to yap my trap about my gaming opinions.

That’s one reason why you all love me, right?

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