Curmudgeon GamerOut of the box, only the first of those three games is available to play. How do you unlock the other two?
To play Symphony of the Night you have to get to take Richter into Stage 3', an alternate stage reached by finishing Stage 2 in a special way. Then you have to pick up an axe subweapon which is hidden in a secret room. Then you take the axe to a particular room and use it to cut down a platform held up by vines. Then you take a set of platforms several screens across and break a tombstone to reveal an icon which unlocks Symphony of the Night.
If you die on Stage 3' after you get the axe but before you unlock the secret, you lose the axe. Tough luck, buster. Yo gotta do it again.
How to unlock the original Rondo of Blood? Get to and break that same tombstone playing as Maria, not Richter. Wait, you don't have Maria as a selectable character yet? Oh my. You did pick up the special key subweapon on Stage 2 and then unlock the prison door down in the dungeon, right? Well, that's how you get Maria. Then head off to Stage 3' and get the Rondo of Blood icon in the tombstone. That's right -- an easter egg within an easter egg!
What a load of crap. Instead of making historic games accessible to players in their original forms, Konami has hidden them so well that I'd've never found them if it weren't for GameFAQs.
Labels: castlevania, konami, psp, sony
There's a much less obtuse way to get the original Rondo; it's in a not-very-hidden hidden section of Level 4, and I got it without looking at any walkthroughs. You have to whip a wall, of course, but said wall is quite obvious ... and if you're not whipping any and all walls, you've never played CV before.
That said, I agree that the Symphony of the Night unlock is in a rather ridiculous spot. I don't appreciate that a couple of the "prime" levels require jumping into pits that would normally be bottomless.
That said, it's just Old School Level Design(tm), I suppose ...
Phil: I think I found the same place...without a walkthrough. It's just past two crushers and there is an upper level that leads nowhere, except to that icon.
Anyway, played the first two levels of the original. I love the colorful 2D artwork.
By jvm, at 30 October, 2007 23:01
Seems Wm. Bailey has a kickarse chapter about the way easter eggs have become increasingly more nuanced as their readers and writers become more comfortable speaking with one another outside of ye olde proverbial conventional channels. Not only should one not be surprised this is now the case, one should expect more.
Being surprised that Konami has hidden an easter egg within an easter egg is like expecting that you should still be able to flip the score when playing Silent Hill.
By rufbo, at 31 October, 2007 11:18
For unlocking SotN you don't have to have the axe, you can jump and use the cross powerup. Though yes, this is still ridiculous.
By Zachary, at 04 November, 2007 14:01
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