Castlevania Symphony of the Night was originally designed for the PS1 and ported, poorly,
to the Sega Saturn. Known for it's 2D prowess, there is no excuse for the slowdown and lack of
transparency in the Saturn version. The Playstation original also cleverly disquises load times by loading
as your character walks across a small transitionary room. The Saturn version has these rooms, but
does not load while you walk through them, instead it makes you both walk across the room, and wait
five-ten seconds for the load screen to go away afterwards. This is another indication that
Konami simply didn't put the time into the Saturn version, as other Saturn 2D games have virtually
zero load time.
The PS1 game runs with less slowdown and true transparent
special effects over the Saturn game, while the Saturn game features better audio, the ability
to play through the whole game as Richter Belmont or Maria Renard, without the character building
and item searching aspects, and at least two new zones, one of which is right below Alucard after
the castle door shuts in the beginning sequence (See In Game shots).