In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the player's objective is exploring Dracula's castle to defeat the self-proclaimed lord of the castle.
The game uses 2-dimensional side-scrolling gameplay. It is non-linear, but most of the castle is inaccessible until various items and abilities are collected. As the player uncovers more of the castle, a map is updated to show progress.
The player can find and use a wide variety of weapons, includes an inventory and other role-playing game elements. The main character has six attributes: hit points, magic points, strength, defense, intelligence and luck.
Defeating monsters provides experience points and will level up after reaching a predetermined amount, increasing attributes in the process.
