Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night/Saturn

Maria Renard is a boss and a playable character in the Saturn version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
==General information==
Maria Renard is a playable character in the Saturn version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which was only released in Japan, as opposed to her appearance in the PlayStation version of that game, where she only appeared as a supporting, non-playable character. She is a teenage version of the original 12-year-old Maria, who was introduced into the series in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
Maria is selectable from the beginning of the game. This version of her is different than the one that would later be available in the Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles version of Symphony of the Night, which played more like her original Rondo of Blood incarnation.
Maria also needs to be fought as a boss during Alucard's quest in order to receive the Holy Glasses. However, while playing as Maria, she cannot fight against her own boss version since she cannot access the central areas of the castle.
==Maria Mode==
===Equipment===
Though the menu cannot be accessed while playing as her, Maria is equipped with the Dragon Helm, which can be inferred from the amount of damage she deals to enemies. However, it does not increase her STR nor her DEF. Like Richter, Maria has 0 DEF, is immune to all status effects, and is neutral to all attributes.
===Move set===
Maria does not have a weapon equipped. Many of her attacks involve kicking an enemy. Like Richter, all of Maria's attacks deal twice the damage in the Reverse Castle, including her sub-weapons.
===Spells===
Maria's primary spell is a chargeable energy ball which can be unleashed at the push of a button. While Maria does not use her traditional Four Holy Beasts as sub-weapons in this game, she is able to summon them through magic spells. Each beast has a different spell. These spells consume MP. Maria starts with 200 MP, which is recovered at a rate of about 5% of its maximum capacity every 3 seconds. Her MP recovery is paused while performing a Drop Kick, High Jump, or Slide or initiating or casting a spell (excluding her Energy Shot).
===Sub-weapons===
Maria is able to use the same set of sub-weapons as Alucard and Richter. While, unlike Richter, she cannot perform Item Crashes, certain sub-weapons allow her to fire several of them at once. They also tend to cost fewer Hearts than for Alucard. She starts the game with the ability to hold 999 Hearts.
===Items===
Maria is able to collect Small Hearts and Large Hearts. Most items that Alucard could collect during his quest are replaced with Small Hearts that can be repeatedly collected. Life Vessels restore all life and do increase life capacity, although this is not readily apparent from the health bar on the side of the screen. Maria starts with 200 HP and, like Richter, gains 10 HP for every Life Vessel she picks up. She should end up with 700 HP. Heart Vessels increase Hearts by 30 but do not increase Heart capacity. Gold can be collected but has no effect, as the Master Librarian ignores Maria.
There is a glitch in this version of the game that causes the two Life Vessels and the Heart Vessel initially accessible in the Entrance to reappear once if Maria picks them up before visiting another area for the first time. If she then leaves for another area (either the Alchemy Laboratory or the Marble Gallery) and comes back, she can pick them up again. This grants Maria 20 extra points of maximum HP (see "Extra Life Max Ups" on External links).
However, they can be missed if Maria leaves the Entrance without collecting them first since they will reappear only once when the area changes after leaving for the first time (the Wargs are removed, the Bloody Zombies appear, the trapdoor to the Underground Garden opens, etc.).
Alucard can't get these extra Life Vessels because he can't reach the rooms where they are initially due to the lack of certain abilities that are acquired later. He can, however, get the Heart Vessel in the room above the Death area, leave for the Alchemy Laboratory and then come back to pick it up again.
===Map exploration===
Maria can access the same rooms that Richter can. She can get past the spikes in the Catacombs and Floating Catacombs by casting the Summon Four Holy Beasts spell, which provides her invincibility frames throughout its duration.
==Boss battle==
During Alucard's quest, Maria is encountered as a boss. If he wins the battle, she will give him the Holy Glasses.
Maria is immune to Holy and Stone damage and to all status effects. She is weak to the Dark attribute. She has 15 DEF and deals damage on contact (40 ATT, Hit).
In the first half of the battle, she'll use the following attacks:
*Slide (40 ATT, Hit);
*Kick (45 ATT, Hit);
*Air-kick (45 ATT, Hit);
*Drop Kick (50 ATT, Hit);
*Knife sub-weapon (Triple Arc Throw) (50 ATT, Cut);
*Energy Shot (level 1) (60 ATT, Fire).
After she loses more than half of her HP, she will cast a spell that will summon four indestructible orbs that will surround and protect her. If Alucard hits the orbs, she'll take no damage. The orbs deal elemental damage on contact as follows:
*Red orb (25 ATT, Fire);
*Yellow orb (25 ATT, Thunder);
*Blue orb (25 ATT, Ice);
*Green orb (25 ATT, Holy).
In addition to her previous moves, she'll use the following attacks in her second phase:
*Summon Byakko (gray flames) (70 ATT, Fire);
*Guardians Knuckle (80 ATT, Hit);
*Rays (65 ATT, Holy).
Her Energy Shot will be upgraded to level 2 (65 ATT, Fire).
Alucard can deal double damage to her by equipping the Mormegil since she is weak to Dark. He can also absorb the damage from her rays and from the green orb by wearing the Gold Circlet headgear (or cut their damage by half by equipping the Holy Mail). He can halve the damage from her Energy Shot and Summon Byakko spells by equipping the Fire Mail. Soul Steal can hit her orbs to heal Alucard.
Her rays won't harm Alucard at all if he is holding a shield. Her Energy Shot can also be blocked with a shield and will miss if Alucard crouches. Summon Byakko can be avoided completely if Alucard crouches behind his shield.
Sometimes she will also back dash to evade attacks.
==Gallery==
Character Select Screen from the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night Maria.png|"Player select" screen from Symphony of the Night.
Maria in the Saturn version of SOTN.png|Maria in Symphony of the Night.
Maria riding a horse in the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night.png|Maria riding a white stallion in Symphony of the Night, as is depicted in the prelude manga.
Richter Full Map Normal Castle Saturn.png|Maria's full map (Normal Castle) from Symphony of the Night.
Richter Full Map Reverse Castle Saturn.png|Maria's full map (Reverse Castle) from Symphony of the Night.
Maria Max Percentage Saturn.png|Maria's maximum percentage, as shown on a save file from Symphony of the Night.
==See also==
*Maria Renard
**Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night
***Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night/DXC
==External links==
*Castlevania Realm
Category:Symphony of the Night Playable Characters