Castlevania SOTN
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) is a game initially released for PlayStation 1 in 1997.
Links
decomp project: https://github.com/xeeynamo/sotn-decomp
progress page: https://sotn.xee.dev/
Versions
On PlayStation 1 there are 8 known versions of the game:
- jp10: The very first release back in 1997 Feb 20
- jp11: Mostly bugfixes, released in 1997 Mar 6
- usproto: English prototype showcased at the E3 with the build date of 1997 Jun 17
- us: Released in US the 1997 Sep 1, the version currently in decompilation
- eu: Released in Europe the 1997 Sep 30
- hk: Released in Asia the 1997 Nov 30
- jp12: The last official iteration of the game, released in 1998 Jan 23
- hd: PlayStation 1 build found in Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles for PSP with a build date of 2006 Oct 22
Some internal files (eg. ST/MAD/MAD.BIN) are compiled and linked with an even earlier release of jp10, indicating older builds were at some point available.
Game structure
The game heavily uses overlays. The main executable is just a thin abstraction layer between the game engine and the hardware. The game engine is found in the overlay DRA.BIN, which connects to the stage overlays found in the ST/ folder. Various other overlays are loaded depending from the situation in the game and they are found in the BIN/ and SERVANT/ folders.