Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action RPG developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation, released in 1997. Directed by Toru Hagihara and designed by Koji Igarashi, it transformed the linear action of the classic Castlevania series into a vast, non-linear castle to explore — and gave its name, alongside Super Metroid, to an entire genre.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was developed and published by Konami, releasing for the PlayStation in Japan in March 1997 and internationally later that year. Players control Alucard — the dhampir son of Dracula — who descends into his father's castle seeking answers after the events of Castlevania III. What he finds is a structure far larger than any map suggests.
Symphony of the Night discarded the stage-by-stage structure of its predecessors in favour of a single enormous castle, interconnected and gradually unlocked through new abilities. Alucard gains movement powers — bat transformation, mist form, wolf sprint — that open previously unreachable areas, rewarding exploration with equipment, relics, and lore. A deep RPG layer underpins everything: levels, statistics, hundreds of weapons and armour pieces, spell inputs. The castle also has an inverted mirror version, doubling the game's length for players who find the way in.
The game's influence is encoded in genre nomenclature. "Metroidvania" — the term for non-linear action games built around exploration and ability gating — combines the names of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. Koji Igarashi spent the following decade producing spiritual successors; other studios spent decades attempting to replicate the atmosphere of Dracula's castle and its melancholic, Michiru Yamane-scored soundtrack.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is ranked #48 on Rolling Stone's 2025 list of the 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time. Initially underselling in Western markets, it grew through word of mouth and later re-releases into one of the most celebrated games of the PlayStation era — and the definitive template for the metroidvania genre it helped create.