About a month ago I was sifting through my various collections. While I don't really collect soundtracks as much as games anymore the two interests obviously intertwine to a certain degree and this was made pretty clear when I hit upon my *pile* of Castlevania stuff. I had a small handful of Castlevania soundtracks (Best 2, SotN, CoD and the LoI sampler) but the one that really struck me at that moment was SotN. I started to think about it and... and it really hit me that I was kind of tried with this one. Actually, I'm was a little tired of CoD as well but since it seems to be out of print I didn't think it was a good idea to get rid of it. I liked CoD (game and soundtrack) despite the fact it wasn't of the highest quality but I don't know if those feelings are as strong as they once were.

Anyway, when I'm honest there really is only one track on Symphony that gets regular play from me and that's "Requiem of the Gods" which is kind of an odd pick for me since I'm not the biggest fan of orchestration or choir singing. Still, that tracks just TOTALLY nails it when I listen to it.

As for the other tracks, I LOVED "Festival of the Servents" at one point but I'm so over it as it feels kind of shallow now. Then there's "Woodcarving Palteeta" and "The Final Tocatta" which I could go the rest of my life without hearing at this point. "Woodcarving" is completely appropriate in-game but outside of it I just have no interest and anyone who has played the second half of the game knows why I'm sick of Tocatta.

The boss themes work great in-game as well but I always skip over "Black Feast" and "Evil Banquet" elsewhere.

I know this probably all seems like complaining but in a certain sense I didn't feel much regret letting my copy of the soundtrack go. I mean it is a good score but I don't really want to listen to it outside the scope of the game anymore. Does anyone else feel/felt that way or let the soundtrack go for similar reasons?

Additionally, this whole scenario really reminds me of how I feel about Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack. When I played through the game I was very impressed... but once I got the score on an actual CD and separated it from the game things just didn't work out so well beyond Simon's Theme. It's just so textured that it's not the kind of thing I want to hear outside of its original context.

I was never quite taken in with it. I think it has good variety and a small number of standout tracks (Dracula's Castle being the most notable and long-standing), but I think it was a bigger deal when it came because of the audio quality than the actual music, making the improvements more skindeed than actual substance. Give me most of the pre-SOTN Castlevania soundtracks anyday, there's nothing on this one that can hang with Bloody Tears, Heart of Fire, Wicked Child, Bloodlines, Aquarious, Mad Forest and Co.

Also, have never been a huge fan of Yamane. I have always found her to be among the most overrated VGM composers on the scene. Even the Genesis Bloodlines soundtrack, I found little to get excited about.

I still enjoy SotN's soundtrack, but it's more enjoyable for me when some of the tunes come up on shuffle as opposed to sitting down and listening to the whole album front-to-back. "Crystal Teardrops", "Wood Carving Partita", "Tower of Evil Mist", "Lost Paintings"... those songs will always be special. Getting through the whole disc is tedious sometimes, and I think that if I hadn't played the game so much I wouldn't have such an affinity for these tunes.

Totally. I just can't jive with other Yamane stuff for long. It just feels like something's missing from a lot of her compositions, and other albums I've heard have been even harder to get through in one sitting than SotN.

Pretty much this.

I consider Bloodlines and CV4 to be pure bliss, while SotN has tracks that I skip. I would have a higher opinion of the SotN soundtrack if it looped the tracks and included the extra songs from the Saturn version (and I recall the Shop theme is missing). I still need to more closely analyze LoI and CoD but they have numerous songs that are exceptional.

What I like the most about Bloodlines and CV4 is the sound quality, of the synth. I just love the way the Mega Drive and SFC sound.