

The iOS and Android versions are based on the version found in the Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles release (has the Saturn versions familiars and items). However, it sacrifices a few of the graphical effects from the PlayStation version, particularly true transparencies. The Saturn release adds two new areas to the castle (the Underground Garden and the Haunted Path), a third playable character (Maria), and a few new remixed music tracks. Magic plays an important role, as well as secondary weapons and a large amount of "special moves" that are executed similar to advanced one-on-one fighting games.

In a separate screen, players need to equip attack weapons, shields, and other items. There is also money to be found in the game, and various accessories to buy. The hero receives experience points for defeating enemies, gains levels, and becomes more powerful.

The action-based gameplay incorporates now strong RPG elements. Unlike the previous installments of the series, the game is set in a castle which the player can explore freely with many different paths, although often items in certain areas need to be found that will allow passage to others. Symphony of the Night is a direct sequel to Rondo of Blood. Alucard, the son of Dracula, is awakened from his eternal slumber after this large shift in power and enters into the castle to find some answers and confront his father. Now, Richter has suddenly vanished, Dracula's castle has mysteriously reappeared, and Maria, now a young woman, sets off to find Richter. Because SSF is a rather literal-minded emulator, you don’t open a ROM or anything similarly straightforward instead, choose Reset from the Hardware menu after mock-inserting (that is, pointing it toward) a CD.Five years ago, Richter Belmont, the latest in the Belmont lineage and the one destined to be a Vampire Hunter, defeated Dracula in a brutal battle which nearly cost him the love of his life, Annette, and her sister, Maria. This option appears on the first tab of the Options menu (which, thankfully, is entirely in English) under ‘CD Drive’. Download the app, unzip the package, open the program, and the first thing you’ll need to do is give the emulator a CD drive to read from. If you haven’t been scared off yet, you’ll be pleased to learn that the emulator runs out of the gate almost as simply as any other.

You can download SSF from this page (click the link with the date, at the top). In the decade or so since, only one emulator, SSF, has managed to surpass this trainwreck, and most of its documentation is in Japanese. For years, the only way to accomplish it was through a butchered (and thoroughly illegal) repackaging of Sega’s own commercial emulation software, which was intended for used with a scant handful of games (and the limited scope showed). The Sega Saturn.Sega Saturn emulation is a mess.
