An absolute masterpiece that still holds up perfectly. Exploration, progression system and art direction remain exceptional. Saturn version has exclusive bonus content but runs slightly less smoothly than PS1. Essential.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player12+
Description
Gothic adventure where Alucard explores Dracula's vast castle. Published by Konami, released in Japan in 1998. Over 1400 rooms, two playable characters, dozens of weapons and armor, and a symphonic soundtrack by Michiru Yamane. The Saturn version features two exclusive areas and a Richter Belmont mode not found in the PlayStation release.
Akumajou Dracula X - Gekka no Yasoukyoku review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Hand-drawn sprites of rare finesse, a gothic castle teeming with detail and flickering light: the game raises pixel art to a peak of morbid elegance. The richness of the animation and the spellbinding atmosphere overflow with refinement. This graphic virtuosity, dark and sumptuous, remains an absolute of the genre.
A masterpiece by Michiru Yamane, the score blends baroque, gothic, jazz and rock into a sonic fresco of unheard-of richness, from the sublime "Dracula's Castle" to the most melancholy themes. Each room of the castle pulses with a spellbinding funereal elegance. This musical ambition, now legendary, remains an absolute peak of video games.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Roaming a castle that reveals itself room by room, earning a spell or a jump that suddenly opens sealed chambers and watching your stats climb with every find weaves an exploration that's hard to step away from. Every weapon, relic or hidden nook restarts the search. The back-and-forth can feel dense, but this metroidvania freedom remains a benchmark that still pulls you in.
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Freely exploring Alucard's immense castle, room after room, opens an adventure where every nook hides weapons, spells, relics and secret passages. Mapping the tiniest corridor, uncovering the inverted castle and aiming for 200% completion stretches the adventure well beyond the main quest. That generosity of exploration, a founder of the Metroidvania genre, explains its status as an undying classic.
Technical info
💾0,38 GB📅25/06/1998
Published by Konami
Akumajou Dracula X - Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Saturn) price, value & rarity
Complete: box, manual and disc/cart very clean. Lightly handled.
Q1 damagedQ6 completeQ10 new
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Collector interest
Japan exclusive Saturn edition of Symphony of the Night, released in June 1998 under the Akumajou Dracula X Gekka no Yasoukyoku title, adding Maria Renard as a playable character and two original zones, the Cursed Prison and the Underground Garden, absent from the PlayStation versions. That content uplift is offset by a graphical rendering below the Sony version, which makes a complete copy with obi a dual archive object for IGA collectors isolating the Saturn reading from the PlayStation canon.
Memorable bosses
Deep in a sprawling gothic castle, the guardians draw on a wildly rich bestiary: Death scything his blades, the colossal Legion swarming with the damned, or Dracula himself. Each tests your swordplay as much as your RPG-style gear management. This inventive gallery, carried by a baroque atmosphere, has marked generations of players hungry for exploration.
A cult cover
Drawn by Ayami Kojima, the illustration drapes Alucard in a gothic elegance of rare refinement, all lace, melancholy and chiaroscuro. The fine line and sepia tones evoke an antique print more than a game cover. Aristocratic and bewitching, it gave the whole series a cult visual identity.
Is Akumajou Dracula X - Gekka no Yasoukyoku still worth playing in 2026?
An enriched Saturn version of the Konami masterpiece, this Symphony of the Night offers the now legendary metroidvania gameplay with Alucard, supplemented by exclusive playable characters like Maria and Richter, additional rooms and music tracks. A few slowdowns and lesser graphical effects distinguish this port from the PlayStation version, but the extra content largely compensates. For anyone owning a Saturn or collecting Castlevania games, an absolutely essential recommendation despite the technical compromises today still truly here indeed.
