Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a 2D action-adventure game developed and published by Konami in 1997. Its Japanese title is Akumajo Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku (????????X ?????? ,Akumajo Dorakyura Ekkusu: Gekka no Yasokyoku?, lit. "Devil's Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight"). It is the 13th installment of the Castlevania series, the first installment released for the PlayStation and is a direct sequel to Akumajo Dracula X Chi no Rondo.
Symphony of the Night was an important milestone of the Castlevania series. It steered the series away from the standard level-by-level platforming formula of older titles and introduced a new style of open-ended gameplay mixed with RPG-like elements that would be emulated by most of its successors. A similar, earlier form of this type of gameplay existed in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The development of these features can be attributed to Koji Igarashi, the game's director and one of the team's newest members. Igarashi, a noted fan of 2D games, was instrumental in refining the game's control scheme. He also established an official Castlevania canon, in an attempt to tie up several loose ends in the series' time line during Symphony of the Night. Other notable staff include character designer Ayami Kojima and composer Michiru Yamane.
In 1998, Symphony of the Night was ported to the Sega Saturn by Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya only in Japan with some extra features..
In 2006, Konami announced an Xbox 360 port of the PlayStation version of the game to be distributed via Xbox Live Arcade. The port was handled by Backbone Entertainment. It was the first Xbox Live Arcade title to exceed the 50 MB restriction placed upon Xbox Live Arcade games (The limit has since been increased to 350 MB). The exception was made for Symphony of the Night to "ensure that the gameplay experience is the best it can be". Symphony of the Night for Xbox Live Arcade was released on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.
