Tall Order of Ecclesia

So I was poking around the internet, and I came across this news.

image from Wiffle GIF

I'm qualified to use that GIF. See, I'm a grunkle myself.

Anyway, someone is working on a Sega Genesis port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Technically, it's less of a straight conversion and more of an adaptation, the way Dracula X for the Super NES was a reworking of the PC Engine favorite Rondo of Blood. The designer intends to make the game a more straightforward experience, with eight linear levels for both Alucard and beastmistress Maria. You can probably also count out the absurd amount of little details from the Playstation game, like the peanuts you catch in your mouth for a small health boost or the rainbow of jewelry that bestows elemental resistance or the shield spell that gives you the force fields from Gradius.

Strangely, I'm okay with this. I don't think it's a realistic goal for one developer to smash the entire Symphony experience into a Genesis cartridge. Besides, I've been worn smooth by the concept of the Metroidvania anyway. If you want that kind of game, there's always the original Symphony of the Night... or the very similar Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night... or Axiom Verge... or its recent sequel... or Chasm... or TimeSpinners... or any one of the search action titles that I gave up on halfway through. A classic Arcade-vania is just what the creepy beak-nosed medieval doctor ordered right now.

My major concern is how it will play compared to other Castlevania games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. The developer promises the same silky smooth animation as the Playstation game, but judging from the early test footage, it's going to take a while before this adaptation is up to those high standards. On the other hand, the backgrounds are already shaping up to be incredible, as you can see from this image taken from Pigsy's Retro Game Dev Tutorials.

I think the term "dayum" applies here. Similarly impressive is that the developer has already put the boss Granfalloon on the Sega Genesis, with the corpse-amari dropping its usual payload of zombies on the player's head.

It's probably harder to appreciate in 2021, but on the Genesis, where every programming victory has to be earned with blood, sweat, tears, and profanity, an enemy of this size and with this much detail is astonishing. And it frickin' moves! Bravo, Pigsy. Special thanks to Nintendo Life for spilling the tea on this unexpected (hell, nearly unfathomable) project.