And I thought the original Castlevania was exhausting...
Simon's Quest has some interesting ideas mushed into a very passionate sequel that was too big for its own good. After a linear platformer, making a story-focused open-world adventure that absolutely refuses to tell you what you need to do unless you look up a guide is an interesting choice, to say the least.
Let's say you wanted to give the players a world to explore, with a city full of secrets, interactable NPCs, stores, monsters, hidden pathways, and a day & night cycle that serves a purpose. I mean, it wouldn't be the first game that requires you to grind to explore it, and it wouldn't be the last. But why on earth would you hide the good ending behind a very short amount of completion time :D
I already lost the good ending before I realized it was an open world that required a lot of backtracking, and a comprehensive guide to actually find the items you're looking for. After the second Dracula piece, I'm calling it quits. I, unfortunately, don't have the patience to follow a walkthrough for this game, especially after it told me to go back to the starter town after all this. A linear, everchanging experience was good for Castlevania but this may not be my thing, sorry.
On a good note: The music is once again a banger, having a currency & upgrade system is a good idea, cities and NPCs also work well (and would work even better if it was linear), combat is less challenging but still fun, especially because it doesn't make you wanna kill yourself. There's a good game underneath all my pet peeves, and I would love to pick it back up when I have the patience for it.
Simon's Quest has some interesting ideas mushed into a very passionate sequel that was too big for its own good. After a linear platformer, making a story-focused open-world adventure that absolutely refuses to tell you what you need to do unless you look up a guide is an interesting choice, to say the least.
Let's say you wanted to give the players a world to explore, with a city full of secrets, interactable NPCs, stores, monsters, hidden pathways, and a day & night cycle that serves a purpose. I mean, it wouldn't be the first game that requires you to grind to explore it, and it wouldn't be the last. But why on earth would you hide the good ending behind a very short amount of completion time :D
I already lost the good ending before I realized it was an open world that required a lot of backtracking, and a comprehensive guide to actually find the items you're looking for. After the second Dracula piece, I'm calling it quits. I, unfortunately, don't have the patience to follow a walkthrough for this game, especially after it told me to go back to the starter town after all this. A linear, everchanging experience was good for Castlevania but this may not be my thing, sorry.
On a good note: The music is once again a banger, having a currency & upgrade system is a good idea, cities and NPCs also work well (and would work even better if it was linear), combat is less challenging but still fun, especially because it doesn't make you wanna kill yourself. There's a good game underneath all my pet peeves, and I would love to pick it back up when I have the patience for it.
I'd heard for years that this was "the bad one". It's just different from the Castlevanias that preceded or followed it. You can actually see the blueprints of the genre that the series would eventually take on starting with SotN; Simon's Quest has a nonlinear critical path across a map that you're gradually able to access more of as you obtain progression items (although exactly what has opened up to you is rarely very clear, unfortunately). While I didn't really gel with the maze that is trying to "solve" this game, I could absolutely picture someone who owned its original release really resonating with it, mapping out each area and puzzling out where to go.
The cryptic hints are apparently only somewhat less cryptic in the Japanese release, and a proper translation would only help so much; I will grant the game's detractors that much.
The cryptic hints are apparently only somewhat less cryptic in the Japanese release, and a proper translation would only help so much; I will grant the game's detractors that much.