Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 11:28 pm
Castlevania: SotN – Entertainment Game Review
Castlevania: SotN is a Entertainment/Adventure/Action game from Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd., first launched in 3rd March 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 1,759+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Castlevania: SotN Stand Out
The iconic game from the beloved Castlevania series finally comes to mobile. This direct port of the classic console action RPG lets you jump, dash and slash your way through Dracula’s vast castle as Alucard while encountering a unique array of enemies and characters along the way.
Rediscover the world of Castlevania with one of its original groundbreaking games and renowned music and graphics.
□Features
Fully compatible with game controllers
New continue feature
Unlock achievements with hard-fought battle milestones
Available in 6 languages: English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Spanish
This Entertainment game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Castlevania: SotN is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 14th February 2025
Recent improvements include:
Fixed minor bug.
Download & Availability
Castlevania: SotN is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Castlevania: SotN on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Always was curious about this series as a kid. Now we can play it as we please! Its a really great game, super fun visuals and the gameplay is good. Totally rad game.
A masterpiece. The art, gameplay, story, and music are all top-tier. The only shortcoming is that the Inverted Castle feels slightly underwhelming; thankfully, it features entirely new monsters and bosses. The iOS port this time is also very well donecompared to the PS version, it adds Maria as a playable character, supports controllers, and has a redesigned UI. Big thumbs-up.
Its a great game but hard to play on an iPhone.
This is one of the best games for PS1 and its always been on our phone but the controls are nothing like bloodstained. Until now. They have improved the touch screen controls. Its much more playable now. Its still not as on par as running GAMMA emulator with SotN or running Delta emulator running Aria of Sorrows where the touch controls feel perfect. Please keep Improving the controls guys, and thank you.
5 stars would be there IF you could move and/or make the controls bigger. You need a controller to play this. So get yourself a PS4 controller or similar. But that definitely changes it all.
Castlevania is such a cool franchise and porting one of their best games to mobile is genius. We recommend everyone play with a controller to fix the wonkyness of touch controls but other than that this is a great way to experience one of the best castlevania games ever made. We hope Konami does this with more Castlevania titles because they would be amazing.
The game itself is awesome but ruined experience by Touch controls. Combat is impossible with touch screen controls. So we would only recommend playing using your Bluetooth Xbox or PlayStation controller and its a 5* game Also, try —Left>right>Up>Down+attack.
Gameplay is nostalgic but you die easily and its kind of hard to use controls and Im an old school long time gamer..developers need to tweet it a little and thanks for bringing this back. Incredible game.
Game itself is flawless, however there is room on the borders to move the buttons OUT of the actual game area, and enough room to have all 3 of alucards transformations be their own buttons. On a ps4/5 controller, the map is bound to right stick up/down which can be glitchy and frustrating with the map getting 'stuck' on screen, being able to rebind buttons would solve this completely. Address this, its not even hard. We could do it ourselves.
As stated, controls need work. Inputs don't read half the time.
Voices are different and audio drops.
We dont recommend this, especially to new players. SotN is one of our favorite games of all time. We only really decided to get this version so we could tear through the castle as Richter when bored on the go. Some issues unfortunately. Controls poorly. You can use a controller, but that kind of defeats the purpose of being mobile. Our experience with a ps5 controller wasnt great either. Even easy spells like Dark Metamorphosis we had issues with for some reason. For touch controls, we think letting the player drag the right thumb from the jump to the attack button could help, and a button to activate the special vertical jump like we have with Richters dash (great idea btw) would go a long way. Some audio glitching, sputtering sound. Also, this version is basically the psp port, which doesnt look as good and has inferior new voices for characters. An option to restore the original audio would be nice. We know it was only $2.99, but we would pay more for a better product. We know we sound whiny, but there is potential here. Id love to play all the old castlevania games on mobile, that would be a blast.
You wont win the Apple Design Award if you dont include: iCloud saves Broader controller support (class compliant) Universal app – incl Apple TV Missing original content from the PSX But seriously, cloud saves.
We cant seem to move and then control are trash.
The game is perfect its the trash controller thats the issue we have to tap left or right multiple times to get alucard to move causing us to get hit.
Wonderful game but absolutely terrible controls.
We bought this game because Ive always heard of it and we wanted to experience it for the first time. The first time playing, everything was great and we actually kinda love the game already. However, the second time or so, we started to experience a glitch where literally all of the audio is slowed and pitched down and sounds demonic. This happens about 50% of times we open the game. This honestly ruined the experience a bit for us and Im wondering if we could fix it somehow or at least bring it to the attention of the developers? Thank you so much.
Trust us on this, it just is. This was our first Castlevania game we ever played, and now the Castlevania series is one of our fav series, Im already collecting all the old Castlevania games. The story is great, the gameplay is great, everything about this game is just no joke, hands down great. You just have to trust us on it. This game in our opinion has zero flaws, except maybe the older 90s look if you dont like that we guess, but even if you dont like the 90s look for some reason, its still worth it to play this game. We mean the gameplay is already incredibly long, but the fact that they double the amount of gameplay by making an inverted castle with a brand new map to explore, new monsters to fight, and more, the puzzles are fun even if they are somewhat irritating at times. One of the things we love most about this is that even tho there is a leveling system, you dont have to spend time in this game grinding for stats for even a second as long as your determined, skilled, or both. Altogether great game well worth 3 dollars.
Terrible touch controls great game with a controller, we wouldnt bother with trying without a controller. This is not nostalgia talking as we never played the game when it released as we were not even born at the time.
Ill start by saying we love the Castlevania franchise to pieces, and was exited to be able to play SoTN. The only thing that Id say about it is that the controls are a bit wonky, and we wish there was an option to play the game with the other voice acting. If the controls and options for different voice acting were changed or added, this would definitely be a 5 star.
A true classic of a game. Arguably the best Castlevania game. Without this game, the term Metroidvania wouldnt have been coined. Beautiful spritework and animations and can compete with the best games even today, decades later. Gameplay and progression are addicting. Exploration is excellent and the story keeps you going. The only negative, which is specific to the mobile port, is that while the touch controls work, theyre not ideal. If you have a controller to play this with on your phone, its an easy 5/5 recommendation. We have beaten the game with touch controls as well so its not like it isnt doable, but its far more enjoyable with an actual controller.
It has a really slow start but it is pretty easy after a will.
Pls invite some artists and make it completely online update.
We recently finished our first Castlevania game on the NES. This is a great version of the original. The controls aren't even that bad and we're playing on the phone. Our only problem is the platforming jumps, but that's a get gud problem for us to work on.
IPhone SE (2020) No response at 'start' screen. Does confirm that Dualsense is connected, but after that nothing. Touchscreen not receiving input.Anyway this is one of the greatest games of all time of course… Edit: Correction, this game works. The error was on our end. Thanks.
Such an amazing game thats still enjoyable even today. However this port isnt the best for players who want to use the touch screen controls. Its simply just not made for it, you can get used to it after a while but its highly recommended to just use a controller.
The mobile controls & the game itself were a challenge at first to get used to as Ive never played this game before, but after getting the hang of it, Im having a blast. It was worth the few bucks it cost. Highly recommend.
It took us a long time to figure out the different things we could do in the game because Ive never played or had anyone around us play it but its so fun once we got the hang of it!! It was super enjoyable learning new skills and accidentally unlocking spells lol we havent finished it yet but super pleased.
We sorted by most critical reviews and they all bash the game's touch controls but anyone who knows how to pair a controller or has a backbone or similar controller attachment will be just fine. We don't see why anyone would bash a game because they did not bother to play with a controller.
This game is insanely difficult very unforgiving but thats just how games used to be we guess.
Ive played this game end to end about 3 times on mobile with the default controls. It aint that hard nooobs.
Great game love the game play the art style and combat plz put Castlevania Portrait of ruin on iOS.
We played this game years ago so it was really cool to see its on here now and for cheap so we could finally replay it after all this time, and its just as annoying and difficult as we remember (this is good). It feels the same, plays the same. Cutscenes look exactly the same lol. Uh no sound. Would really love if the sound worked. We think itd be an awesome feature to add the sound. We miss the sound. Yknow the puzzle where you need to hear the sound? Would love to do that one.
Im a 90s baby and this gem brought back so many memories for us. KONAMI, please! Please! Please! Oh please! Release RONDO OF BLOOD NEXT, PLEASE !!!! Thats another classic that should be brought here to the iPhone.
We have been playing this for several days now and love it. Just like the old SOTN we remember from PlayStation. Ive seen multiple negative comments about the on screen controls. We play with the Backbone controller on our phone and havent had any issues. The only feature we would like to have seen is a cloud save. That way we can swap between our iPhone and our iPad. We downloaded it onto our iPad but didnt want to start an entire new game.
Get yourself an Xbox series X controller, update the firmware, and get ready to game like it's 1997. This game takes us back to the best years of our childhood and it is now portable with one of the best modern controllers.
We prefer this version over the ps4 one. Anyone who says the controls are bad just have sausage fingers and should consider a diet. Port Rondo of Blood.
We remember playing the japanese version of this in 1997, we wasnt a huge castlevania fan at the time but this game was simply magical. Of all the sequels and clones that came after, this game is still the best of them all. Amazing soundtrack, for the time really good graphics that hold up better than any polygonal game of the ps1 era, a story that isnt too complicated or too simple, the random loot drops this game was highly influential and we think you will have a hard time finding anyone who has played it and doesnt love it. Play this with a backbone one controller.
This was our first RPG game and we love it. Playing the game now is just like the old good times.
If you havent played it what are u doing.
For Richter or Maria mod. The skill of maria and X(jump) was hardly order to use touch screen.Also like Alucard and Richter X.And the skill of Maria/Richter X was easy to order, not need to set a separate key.Please custom the key button for us. We really like this game, it's the best game in decades we thought.Please optimize it, and we appreciate for all of yours.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is easily one of the best games ever made. Theres a reason its half of the name Metroidvania. We dont know how well the touch controls work, we expect they would prove difficult during some encounters where you want precision. But pair an XBox, PS, or MiFi controller and youll have an amazing time. Especially good on the bigger screen of an iPad. The only issue we found during a full playthrough was missing symbols when the game tried to display diagonal arrows in explaining how to perform spells. A very minor issue. Would love to see iCloud saves so you could move between devices though. Either way? More than worth the money.
Please bring this to the Apple TV and Mac.
Love the game, needs custom controls and options. The controls make the game exponentially harder than it needs to be.
Game is fun, however playing on ipad the controls arent great & the action buttons are so small they are easy to miss which can get you killed.
Ok. Firstly, the game is great! Our only irk are the controls. Unless you have a control to use, trying to play without one is near impossible! Other than that everything plays smoothly. The continue option is kinda nice since we dont have to start over at a save point.
This game is cool and fun to play we wish we had more of the storyline , would it be possible if you guys can add the Saturn version for sotn and the rest of the other castlevania games like aria of sorrows etc.
Even though the characters dont talk much, when they do its weirdly off putting to hear different voices reading different lines than we remember from when we played it as a kid.
4 stars because this is not a direct port. We dislike Alucards, and Draculas new voice. Their original voices help make this masterpiece of a game.
SOTN is an amazing game! We love Castlevania but since moving we don't have any consoles we can play the games on :(! We adore this game, it's been ported over fairly well in our opinion (we've only had minor issues with dialogue skipping in certain areas?) but we just cannot get over the controls. We understand that it must be difficult to port a game meant for controllers over to mobile but the controls are just painful. If you can get used to them we 100% recommend trying this game out! But if they'd be an issue the game might be more difficult than it should be :(.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.5
- Size: 325.91 MB
- iOS: 9.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, ES
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Last updated: 14th February 2025 | Genre: Entertainment, Adventure | Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.