Okay so maybe we all got a little scared by what we had going on in Castlevania II, this is fair. That is an adventurous game, even a Simon’s Quest sicko like me will admit it’s not for everybody. It’s certainly not a bad idea to go back and iterate upon Castlevania 1, and that’s what this is, for the first time in the series: an iteration. I don’t think there’s really very much to actually say here.

The colors pop in wild and spectacular ways; it’s not at all uncommon to see reds and blues and greens and yellows and purples all coexisting on the screen, bright popping ones that feel like that should clash but really only add to the feverish sense of phantasmagoria that permeates this game. If Castlevania 1 is iconic by necessity and ingenuity, Dracula’s Curse feels iconic by statement, aesthetically maximalist in every way. Colors pop, enemy designs leak and groan and emote, the music is more tailor made to locations but when it rips it rips harder than anything in the series so far. This does feel like a culmination, and although this game was considered a sales disappointment that began the long death knell of Hitoshi Akamatsu’s career, there’s a palpable sense of excitement, of a team at the top of their game at the height of control over what their console could do.

While the many many levels and their branching paths and three main routes through the game are very cool and have a lot of good setpieces (in the famicom version at least, the American version sucks shit lol I will never play it ever again and happily never look back), the real stars of the show are the three new playable characters, a real bunch of fuckin freaks if I’ve ever met any. There’s Sypha the wickedly OP vampire killing church Sorceress who according to the ending scroll is in the midst of some sort of gender crisis and frankly I support you sister me too. There’s GRANT DA NASTY the biggest homie of all time who has fuckin sicko wall climbing abilities and animations along with a throwing dagger attack that makes him also absurdly useful (IF YOU PLAY THE FAMICOM VERSION WHERE HIS ATTACK WASN’T TAKEN AWAY FROM HIM FOR NO REASON HEY IDIOTS ENJOY THOSE TRUNCATED SALES IN AMERICA BECAUSE EVERYONE THINKS THE GAME IS TOO HARD), forgotten by history, turned into a Voldo in Castlevania Judgement, omitted from the cartoon based on this game, funniest name of all time, love this guy. The best one though is Alucard, you can’t dethrone him he’s such a fuckin doofus in this game, not yet a sexy Ayami Kojima painting, here he is a full on Hammer Horror ass Christopher Lee ass fake Dracula ass widow’s peak ass loser with awful attacks and a mostly useless power compared to his peers, mostly just kind of a bad version of stuff the other each do better, but he can do both at once. His ending is two bros dudes rocking on the corpse of his dad but he’s a little sad about it because you did kill his dad after all, he’s great. I love each and every one of them and most of all I love the very cute little handshake animation that plays when you accept them into your party.

Dracula’s Curse doesn’t do much that is genuinely fantastically new but it doesn’t really need to; what it offers instead is a hyper stylish, more polished, version of a game I already liked with more stages to choose from and the best Dracula sprite they’re probably ever going to have, calling it now (it’s his second phase where he is a clump of blood-vomiting heads that rot into dead skulls as you whittle his health down, sick as fuck bro). It’s a game that could be skating by on aesthetic charm, it has plenty, and maybe it's not as cohesive a package as either of its console predecessors, but it nails the fundamentals too and SOMETIMES that’s all I need y’know.

PREVIOUSLY: THE ADVENTURE

NEXT TIME: BELMONT'S REVENGE

After the mis-step that was Simon's Quest, Konami decided to return to the original formula for the next mainline entry in the series, which was definitely a good choice overall in my opinion. As such, it led to the release of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the final game in the series for the NES, and, if you are asking me, the best game of the original trilogy. Of course, not everything about it is perfect, but as the next step for the series, it did a phenomenal job.

The story is exactly what you would expect it to be, except this time with a new Belmont, the graphics and artstyle are both very good, the music is once again an absolute banger, especially Beginning, the control is basically the same as the original game, so no need to go into that, the gameplay is fun, treacherous, and satisfying yet again, the bosses are challenging in just the right way, and the weapons, as always, are fun to use.

Not to mention, the new additions that this game implements improve its quality much further, such as multiple pathways to explore, giving a lot of replay value, and not to mention, the addition of three new playable characters, consisting of Sypha, Grant, and Alucard. All three of them are very fun to play as and mess around with, with Sypha in particular being my favorite of the three to control, with her spells helping out A LOT in tight situations. Not to mention, you even get multiple endings depending on who you finish the game with, giving even more replay value!

However, with that being said, this game is not perfect. This game is HARD AS HELL, easily the hardest game from the original trilogy, and it will push you to your limits. Yes, it is entirely doable, but you need to bring your A-game to it, and that could turn people away, paired with the same control scheme as always. It didn't turn me away, obviously, but it could do so for a general audience.

Not to mention, another aspect that holds this game back is STAIRS. These have been a thing for all of the games so far, but I swear, there are stairs EVERYWHERE in this game, and trust me, it gets pretty annoying having to constantly walk up and down these while dealing with the shit this game throws at you.

Overall, despite those small gripes, this is an absolutely fantastic way to end off the original NES trilogy, and definitely a must-play for any fan of the Castlevania franchise.

Game #50

I had shelved this game for a while and did not realize how close I was to Dracula, so beating it after just 2 stages came as a bit of a surprise.

It's definitely the hardest out of the original trilogy, with some annoying parts like what felt like an increase of fighting on stairs and an incredibly poorly placed checkpoint on the Dracula boss battle. If you're playing on original hardware, good luck with the second one especially.

Still, there are branching paths and multiple characters to recruit, increasing the replay value and adding depth, while still retaining that Castlevania 1 formula.
There is quite a bit of room for experimentation and coming up with different strategies on the fly is a must.
The improved graphics and soundtrack were also pretty good.

Overall, I'd say this game falls into the category of games I appreciate more than I like. It's by no means a bad game. I had fun with it in quite a few places, I get the reasoning behind most of the design decisions and how important it is to gaming history, but it's not exactly my type of game.

I don't have any opinions to share about Castlevania II: Simon's Quest that isn't shared between the hundreds of thousands of other people who have already thrown their two cents in over the years. It's a very ambitious game encumbered by baffling design choices, the poster child of "Player's Guide games." That said, I did beat it once without a guide, it is doable, not that I'd recommend you spend several hours in your inventory trying every item on every halfway notable landmark until something happens.

What am I trying to say with all of this? Hell if I know, I'm a terrible critic, probably something about how Draculavania 3: Castle's Curse is a great game because it came out after freaking Simon's Quest.

That's not fair, I don't mean to diminish how good Castlevania III is in a vacuum, it's just that it tastes that much sweeter coming off the heels of Simon's Quest, like the first bite of real food after spending ten years in the fuckin gulag sucking down slop. No, this is a proper follow up to Castlevania, one that takes the basic framework of that game and expands upon its mechanics in a way that feels like logical. The branching pathways and multiple character don't distract from what makes Castlevania work, they add to it.

Yeah, sure, there's some clunky levels, but most of the truly frustrating parts of Dracula's Curse can be subverted with the right character. The game highly encourages replays, and routing your way through subsequent runs is fun in a way that reminds me of Resident Evil. That said, I could understand if someone bounced off this game after their first blind run. There's no shame in that. Well, there's a little bit of shame. But that's ok, you like what you like, no one game is perfect for everyone. I'm not judging you. I think less of you, for sure, like I think you're weak, but don't beat yourself up over it, it's alright. You didn't unlock Alucard, I'm not sure how that's even possible, it's really quite impressive you played the game that bad, but the important thing is you played it your way. Idiot.

Hold on, what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, did you know they didn't put Grant DaNasty in the Netflix show? What a load of crap.

Remember that corridor before the Death boss fight in Castlevania 1, usually regarded as the hardest segment in the game? Yeah you do, enemies all around, hard to telegraph their movement, you had to be resourceful, every step was important, literally no room for mistakes or improvisation; it was challenging in the first game, but it felt good to beat it once you learned how it worked, at least it was just one room, right?
Now imagine that corridor, but it is now an entire game, this is Castlevania III. Yeah, technically speaking it is better than its predecessors, I mean, wow, 4 playable characters, that's awesome, and soundtrack fucking slaps! But that's where it ends, at least for me, this game isn't nowhere near as fun as Casltevania 1, I swear I tried, but it's just frustrating, facing the same reused bosses, falling in the same stairs, taking damage from the same fucking bats, even with save states this shit is annoying.
It just wasn't fun.

A bigger, more ambitious game than Castlevania 1, with a much wider variety of challenges, split paths and extra characters for a decent amount of replayability, and some truly amazing art for the NES. It's also a far worse game than Castlevania 1. It's no secret that Dracula's Curse is the most difficult of the OG trilogy, and in this case, I'd say the game suffers for it pretty harshly. There's nothing inherently wrong with the game being as tough as it is, the problem is that the ways in which it's difficult throws out a lot of the finer details of level design that made Castlevania 1 so engaging and instead repeatedly throws the player into awkward situations that don't quite feel like they were made with the intent of being able to get out unscathed even if you knew what to do.

There's a much greater focus on sections that require a more reflex heavy style of play that doesn't quite mesh with the intentionally sluggish movement of your character, with there being multiple sections that feel as intense as the axe thrower hallway in CV1 without the telegraphing that made it feel fair still. This gets particularly egregious when put up against certain obstacles like the falling block tower or the multiple sections that have the player climb up a ton of stairs while getting pelted with fireballs, using your relative lack of mobility as a way to get cheap shots in, rather than encourage a more carefully considered approach to whatever situation you find yourself in. The fact that the game is like this specifically because they were trying to make sure that people couldn't beat the entire game within a couple of days to encourage buying instead of renting leaves an especially bad taste in my mouth, because it really does compromise the experience as a whole. There's enough good here for me to have still mostly enjoyed my time with Castlevania III however, as there is a good variety of genuinely clever sections, and the music and atmosphere is fantastic as usual, I just wish it wasn't so frustrating.

Play the original Japanese release, Akumajou Densetsu. The Famicom version has some truly fantastic 8-bit music & graphical effects not in the western release. Unfortunately this wasn't possible in the international version due to a custom chip in the Famicom cartridge not available for the NES. Moreover the NES version adds some classic late 80's/early 90's Nintendo censorship (low-detail, nude pixel statues were too risqué for the time). You'll find the Famicom version to be one of the best 8-bit action platformers.

Because of a certain Vtubers malign influence (making a special punch card for people who beat Castlevanias during this month) I have returned to this lovely series. I have a pretty good grasp on CV1, a fantastic all-timer of a game, so I figured I'd take a crack at my long-held ambition of getting Castlevania 3 down. I'll try for a 1CC, I said. That will be fun. I studied up on the route, committed some strategies to memory,

And then ate shit on the second level. Well, level 3, but it's the second level. I skipped 2 because who wants Grant Nasty when we have Sypha.

Honestly, it was a great time, just incredibly hard. Stupidly hard game. Very mean. Very upsetting. I love it. I always found the Japanese version too easy and the US version too hard, so I figured that learning how to play it would make the US version more workable and I'd hit the sweet spot. I'd say that basically worked out, but the thing about Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (not Castlevania II, the one that actually deals with a curse laid by Dracula) is that oh my god it's so difficult and it's so long. There's so much game here even when I stay committed to the Sypha route only and miss, I dunno, 8 of the game's 17 levels.

The thing that studying up on the strats helps with, though, is that you have some busted options in this sucker. All of Sypha's spells are just ridiculously good. It would be out-of-line to even give them to you if the game wasn't firing back with equally out-of-line obstacles to destroy you with. If there was no password system here I think that would be a mistake, but there is, and that makes it feel okay to me.

I don't think I can like, DESCRIBE Castlevania: The Third One in a way that will add anything new, this game has been analyzed pretty thoroughly. All I can say is that I probably like the first game a smidge more but that could change if I get more in tune with this one. There's certainly a lot more of it, and it's wildly ambitious, and Alucard is in it. All points in its favor.

3 ⭐ - versão japonesa (Akumajou Densetsu)
2 ⭐ - versão americana (Castlevania III)

Enrolei pra mandar essa análise pq quis jogar as duas versões antes de escrever ela e, realmente, a melhor opção pra jogar é a versão japonesa, não tem como.
A versão americana possui uma dificuldade muito desbalanceada - e isso misturado as limitações da gameplay (que rolam bastante aqui e alí) torna a experiência de jogo um inferno!

As limitações do jogo são bem perceptíveis e impactam direto na gameplay, mas muitas dessas dá pra decorar e evitar, o problema mesmo é a confusão de comandos que rola nas escadas quando vc está tentando atacar ou usar o ataque especial - o personagem não sabe se desce, sobe, ataca, e isso é MUITO IRRITANTE!

No mais, o jogo é uma boa recuperação do estilo de gameplay do jogo 1, com ideias e melhoras muito interessantes - especialmente o sistema de personagens extras (Sypha é muito roubada, pqp). Isso tudo ajuda a dar uma personalidade única muito forte ao jogo que torna difícil não simpatizar com ele de uma forma ou outra.

It’s time to replay the American Castlevania 3. One of the hardest games of all time, a shitty bastardisation of a masterpiece…

I actually think I like this version better than Akumajou Densetsu. I’m not trying to be a contrarian or anything, i’m also not trying to act like I’m incredible at games, but upon replay, I don’t think it’s as hard as its reputation suggests. Maybe it’s the route I took (I went for Grant, but rejected Sypha) but I didn’t have too much trouble beating the game.

Not only that, I realised that Grant is INSANELY good. If you use him right, he can skip hard parts of the game with ease (6-0C, 9-04 etc.)

Also, being sent back to A-02 if you die on Dracula isn’t too bad, he’s not too hard (as long as you get the axe), especially compared to the clone. If you can beat the Japanese version, you can beat the American one.

One day, I’ll try Alucard’s path, and maybe I’ll hate it, maybe I’ll love it. But for now, it’s a fantastic game.

masterful step up from the very first game in the series giving the gameplay a lot of nuance and interesting directions

while I do think this game still suffers from it being a classicvania and therefore hard as shit and therefore its pretty useless to play this game without savestates I do believe this is such a fun fucking experience even compared to the standard of the franchise as a whole

the skeleton of the game is heavily reliant on the already awesome debut the winning formula is there trevor feels like a fucking rock to move the whip is whipping the sub weapons are sub weaponing the enemies are eneming and everything feels as classic as possible

I'm not as much as a classicvania connoisseur to tell you whats actually different in the gameflow and how the entire game feels BUT I can say that the new additions of stuff like side characters with different play styles to use and branching paths add a lot to the whole experience and throughout this is definitely a tighter experience than the somehow rudimentary ancestor

this is also the game which the netflix series adapts and while I didnt watch the series yet I can say that the grand introduction of castlevanias best character to ever exist count draculas ikemen blondie tall twunk dhampir son alucard could be regarded as the second coming of christ if you ask me without this game symphony of the night would never exist so show some respect ungrateful ass

so all in all while it still doesn't have the refinement of later classicvanias in the series it's probably the greatest installment in the original NES trilogy and its pretty insane how much of an improvement this is over its predecessor and while at this point the series is moving forward im glad the original design of "let's put flying heads and fireballs over a crumbling bridge and at the end let's put a skeleton with a whip" type of levels is still there because while I don't really condone them literally bloating a 30 mins experience to like 2 hours because I have to use savestates every second thats kind of the charm of these games they're clunky in a good natured way if you want

castlevania is a weird series to get into and as a diehard fans for all these years it's still a pretty strange trip to get back to the classicvania hellfire and skill issue of yours truly but they're always gonna be bomb nonetheless

alucard I'm free on saturday and I bought kinky leather harnesses on vinted

also the soundtrack is cum inducing

It would be easy to get the impression that I enjoy games being challenging considering my adoration for games like Dark Souls, Celeste or Rain World. My actual stance on the matter is that there is nothing inherently good about a game being difficult, but instead that a game's difficulty should be designed purposefully in a way that compliments all the other elements of that game. If a game is going to be difficult (or indeed easy), it should be so for a reason.

The reason the US release of Castlevania III was made so nightmarishly challenging was one of business. Nintendo didn't want people to be able to beat Castlevania III in the course of a weekend because then they could just rent it instead of buying it, so when the game was brought across to the West its difficulty was ratcheted up a huge amount from what was seen in the original Japanese version. The end result is something that, in its later levels, starts to feel actively malicious, that genuinely doesn't want you to ever actually complete it.

It's so sad too because the game is contextually a minor technological marvel, it feels like Castlevania III is visually pushing the NES to breaking point and just generally aesthetically the game is one of a very small handful of NES games that actually holds up nowadays. It's also just an incredibly creative game, and whilst some of its gimmicks and experimentation really don't stick the landing (the falling block tower...) it's still just so exciting to see all the ideas Castlevania III wants to bring to the table. And yet the difficulty feels so arbitrarily egregious, tainted by business cutting out checkpoints and pushing all the numbers it can against you in the pursuit of more money, and the end result is something that is on some level quite literally trying to waste your time.

An absolute gem of a platformer buried under a lot of horrible, cheap and unfair game design that must've resulted in a lot of heart attacks back in the day. Supposedly the Japanese version is without most of this bullshit and is actually a fair challenge instead, so I'll be a little more lenient...

Castlevania 3 ignores the complete misfire that was 2 and opts to improve everything from Castlevania 1 instead - and improve it sure does. Enemy variety, stage variety, length, boss fights, it's all amped up from before with the same tight controls - well, regrettably including the damn stairs.

Shaking up the mix are the companion characters, who all add a really good spin on the gameplay by encouraging different playstyles - one's more nimble with a smaller hitbox and wall climbing, one has incredibly strong magic attacks, and the other can turn into a bat at a moments notice to escape danger. Unfortunately you can only recruit one at a time, and if you turn them down you can't encounter them again - not to mention the game has 2 branching paths of different levels and bosses to the end, and one companion is exclusive to each path, encouraging replayability.

Only if you can handle it though, as this game is horrendously difficult in the english release. I don't think my blood pressure could survive a second playthrough, lest it break the sound barrier with rage.

A much grander game than the first Castlevania, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. On the positive side, the sprites are beautiful and the locations are much more varied, giving a great sense of place and adventure as you make your way through the castle and it's surroundings, and even more so because of the branching paths. The extra characters are a great addition to the game too, not just allowing for more variety, but also helping you through some of the more frustrating sections, if you know how to use them. My personal favorite is Grant because of his wall climbing. It really lets you cheat your way through some of the platforming, which has always been what I struggle with the most in these games.

The level design in this game, while mostly good, can sometimes feel like the developers got carried away. The early Castlevania games have very restricted controls compared to other (good) NES side scrollers. Now I don't necessarily mind these controls, but when you push the level design to be this crazy, you start to notice how rigid it can feel in tense situations, and it gets pretty frustrating. It doesn't help how LONG some of these levels are. If you fuck up you might have to replay a significant amount, likely multiple times.

And yet, in spite of it's absolutely crushing difficultly, which admittedly does feel a bit unfair at times, it's still well designed enough to keep you coming back for more. It pushes you to want to beat it. It BEGS to be beaten. And fuck me if it ain't satisfying to do so.

Worth mentioning that I played the Japanese version of this game. Not only does it have a unique sound chip built in to give the music more of a kick, but it's actually a bit nicer with some of the difficulty.

...still a really fucking hard game though.

The true next installment to the first game, instead of the garbage that was castlevania 2, castlevania 3 takes the gameplay from castlevania 1 and refines it, adding three other playable members to the crew as well as a branching level system, with multiple pathways and different levels to play, increasing replayability. It still suffers from NES bullshit, but to a lesser degree than the previous one...for the most part. I recommend you play the japanese version. The soundtrack in there is the stuff of legends.