If someone comes up with a better route than the one I have produced here, I will be very surprised. I ran many tests and timed many different routes through the game in order to determine which is the fastest. One thing I'm especially proud of is how hard I worked to find the optimal route. This was done so there will be no confusion about the validity of this single-segment run. In fact, I don't save at all, since my memory card was intentionally full.
I stop at two save points to get my MP back, but I don't actually save and quit. I'm not unhappy with the extra few seconds taken, just that it would have looked more impressive had the trick worked. Unfortunately, that didn't happen here, so the battle lasted a few more seconds than usual. After using a Hydro Storm on Dracula's second form, if you stand just the right distance away from him, and nail him with Holy Water and the Whip, he takes a massive amount of damage, and it's possible to kill him before he ever makes a move or gets off an attack, and it just looks like Dracula just gets ruined in the worst way. I took no damage, but a trick I wanted to use didn't work out. Oddly enough, the only one I'm not pleased with is the battle against Dracula, in the intro stage. The boss fights are very quick and efficient. When I realized that I was taking unnecessary hits over fractions of seconds, I calmed down and paced myself better.
For example, trying to get an extra backdash in while closing in on an enemy, only to run into the enemy. Very few hits were taken in the run, and most of them were simply from getting carried away and trying to go too fast.
It really isn't a glitch it's a programmer's oversight, if that trick was unintended anyway. Whenever you use a potion in SOTN, you get a brief period of invincibility, and the spikes are no exception, allowing Alucard enough time to stand on the spikes unharmed, and open the sealed door. As for the Spike Breaker, it's purpose is to let you get past a supposedly impassible hallway riddled with spikes and a magically sealed door, but it's possible to fly to the door at the end of the hall with the Soul of Bat, return to normal form, and use a potion before touching the spikes on the floor. At the ten minute mark, I use a trick involving the Soul of Wolf to bounce off of a torch in the Clock Room up into Olrox's Quarters, and then I do a similar trick to get to the Soul of Bat in the Long Library. I get the Souls of Mist and Bat before the Leap Stone, and I skip the Spike Breaker armor altogether. If there's a moment in the run where it looks like I could get a Wing Smash in, yet I elect not to, it doesn't mean I just missed it it means I'm saving my MP for a tough stretch later in the game, or for MP-intensive acts, like using the Soul of Mist at a certain point. Once I get the Soul of Bat, I'll also use Wing Smashes to get past enemies and to get through a long corridor quickly. You'll find I backdash practically through the entire first castle, as it's the fastest way that Alucard can move at first. There's no reason anyone should not have this amazing game. Even now I could play SOTN and still be entertained and interested in it.
It is truly a game that I never get tired of. When I received the money in September that year, one of the first games I bought was Symphony of the Night, and it became an instant favorite of mine. In the Spring of 2005, I took second place in a massive contest on GameFAQs, earning $250. It doesn't help that I don't care for segmented runs, either. There's an old cliché gamers like to throw around about their favorite games: "I never get tired of it." Well, speedrunning will definitely put that statement to the test, because in doing runs on other games, it got to the point where I couldn't stand the thought of playing one of my favorite games anymore. Otherwise, the hardest part would probably be not getting sick of the game you're trying to speedrun.
If you don't have much speedrunning experience, I would say the hardest part is learning how to think like a speedrunner learning how to demand perfection and learning just what it takes to get it done, and what doesn't really need to be done or collected, etc. Someone once asked me what the hardest part of doing a speedrun is. Both castles are completed, there's no Crissaegrim, no Shield Rod, no glitches, and no saves. This is a full-game speedrun of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, using Alucard. Available in four versions: low quality, normal quality, and 60 fps high/insane quality. Single-segment speed run of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night done on December 25 2005.