This blindfolded Castlevania: Symphony of the Night speedrun is nerve-wracking

Vampire killer

I haven’t kept up with this week’s Summer Games Done Quick super well, but each time I remember to check in on the speedrunning-for-charity livestream, I’m enthralled, whether it’s watching a player strategically fall through the Tower of Latria in Demon’s Souls or hearing someone sing Disney songs. Before I know it, I’ve just lost half an hour — and if I’m not careful, it’ll happen again.

One of the standouts so far has got to be this hour-long jaunt through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by romscout. The sprawling game is one of my favorites to watch played and exploited at a high level, even under normal circumstances, but for this run romscout clears it blindfolded with minimal vocal assistance from commentators. The archived footage is finally up on YouTube.

About halfway through the speedrun, panic strikes. He gets lost in the wrong menu while attempting to pull off the shop glitch, and doesn’t know what is happening or why. What went wrong? One of the buttons on his controller died, utterly throwing off his muscle memory. Of all the times!

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