Man, Alucard sucks in this game, he'll never be good in any Castlevania game if this is what he's like.
In all seriousness, god damn, what a game. It's just a better Castlevania 1 with a lot of replay value, and I enjoyed it a lot. Tied with Super 4 as my favorite game in the series.
In all seriousness, god damn, what a game. It's just a better Castlevania 1 with a lot of replay value, and I enjoyed it a lot. Tied with Super 4 as my favorite game in the series.
Esse daqui é um pouco mais fácil. O que eu amei nesse jogo é que dá pra jogar com outros personagens, até então isso não podia nos jogos anteriores.
what an outstanding NES game, might be my all time favorite on the system that i’ve played so far. great action with 4 unique playable characters, all with really fun playstyles and cool abilities. the level design is really great, and i think the branching routes are great for replayability.
for me though what elevates this game is its stellar presentation. the spritework is fantastic, with great character and monster designs, clearly portraying movement and actions. the environments are richly detailed with superb color usage, and its shocking how varied and readable the different levels are for an 8-Bit game. i played the japanese version through the castlevania anniversary collection, and the 3 additional sound channels allotted to the famicom via the japanese cartridge take already fantastic compositions and fill it in with rich and wonderful sounding chiptune instrumentation.
overall, a tough as nails, really fun, and very pretty adventure through the countryside to defeat dracula. well worth your time!
for me though what elevates this game is its stellar presentation. the spritework is fantastic, with great character and monster designs, clearly portraying movement and actions. the environments are richly detailed with superb color usage, and its shocking how varied and readable the different levels are for an 8-Bit game. i played the japanese version through the castlevania anniversary collection, and the 3 additional sound channels allotted to the famicom via the japanese cartridge take already fantastic compositions and fill it in with rich and wonderful sounding chiptune instrumentation.
overall, a tough as nails, really fun, and very pretty adventure through the countryside to defeat dracula. well worth your time!
Trevor should've just taken the elevator instead of climbing all those stairs
One of the best ever made.
Classicvania em seu ápice. Level Design criativo, gameplay divertida (por mais que os controles respondam estranho muitas vezes) e ter 4 personagens com gameplay diferentes incentiva tanto o fator replay como as possibilidades de passar pelas fases com a devida estratégia.
E claro, não preciso dizer como a trilha sonora de um Castlevania é formidável em conjunto a sua atmosfera singular. Um dos meus platformers favoritos, sem dúvida.
E claro, não preciso dizer como a trilha sonora de um Castlevania é formidável em conjunto a sua atmosfera singular. Um dos meus platformers favoritos, sem dúvida.
Cool Castlevania, the path choice mechanic is really cool.
Uma evolução considerável do primeiro jogo da franquia, usando mais da tridimensionalidade para diversificar os desafios, e utilizando um sistema de progressão menos linear, tornando a experiência menos repetitiva. Além de que a adição de Alucard, Grant e Sypha proporcionaram uma diversidade considerável na gameplay.
No entanto, o jogo ainda mantém as escadas que te fazem cair, tirando uma vida, além de momentos em que tomar dano é inevitável sem ter a subweapon correta equipada, já que alguns inimigos ficam posicionados em cima de escadas.
No entanto, o jogo ainda mantém as escadas que te fazem cair, tirando uma vida, além de momentos em que tomar dano é inevitável sem ter a subweapon correta equipada, já que alguns inimigos ficam posicionados em cima de escadas.
If you can get past the insane difficulty, you're in for a good time. The atmosphere is far more impressive than the first game due to a badass soundtrack and detailed spritework. I would've awarded this a 3☆ ranking if it weren't for how amazing I felt when I finally beat it. An excellent example of a good "NES hard" experience.
I recommend using save states to practice tricky sections.
I recommend using save states to practice tricky sections.
I been playing the Castlevania series in order of release, Draculas Curse is most def the hardest, but IMO it’s the best of the first 3, Castlevania IV is next in my list. Have patience when playing this, it’s def not easy but its def worth your while. Ill be honest and say that I played it on the Switch and was able to save in difficult areas, but this did not mean it made it easier and I still found it challenging to beat the last boss lol, I could only imagine how it must of felt back in the day (I was never into Castlevania when I owned an NES and I missed out). Overall, the game did studder a bit with the frame rate, but this may be more in areas where there was a lot going on in the level (like moving gears, etc.)
A mecânica de personagens foi inovadora e deu um toque legal pro jogo comparado aos outros. Não é um dos meus favoritos mas ainda sim é muito bom
A lot like 1, this game has aged terribly and sadly. Suffers greatly from being an NES game needing to make it self unreasonably hard just to squeeze more playtime out.
Good at times, absolutely awful at other times idk if I’ll pick this one back up
Best NES Castlevania. Play the Japanese version, its easier. :p
one of THE hardest games i've ever played and yet one of the most satisfying and rewarding ones too. the classicvania genre would get better and better after this, but Dracula's Curse was the necessary next step for Castlevania to evolve.
CHRIST this game is difficult. its much more beautiful than the first, but christ the second half of the game is just hell.
Uno de los mejores Castlevania por el diseño de niveles, musica, historia y personajes.
Feels like a bigger & better version of the original. Stages are more difficult this time round with bosses being a bit easier which I preferred. Combat is still satisfying, level design is still tight & the stairs are still awkward.
El Magnus Opus de la saga en NES, espectacular de principio a fin, todos los personajes son muy entrañables y los distintos caminos que se pueden tomar se hace muy rejugable, sin olvidar que tiene la mejor banda sonora de los tres primeros. Es necesario pasarselo 5 veces para sacar su 100%.
A much better step after Castlevania II. This is a real expansion on the first game, with far more content, level paths, even characters to play, adding a TON of replayability. Unfortunately, to accommodate for this, this game is also significantly harder than the first, and not in a fun challenge kind of way.
The first Castlevania felt like each screen was a puzzle specifically constructed with a solution to make it by unscathed, but this game’s more loose design due to the different possible characters overcompensated with unfair bullshit and perfect precision to scrape by.
I think it is a much more impressive game than the first, and if I decide to play it more I may end up liking it more, but the first Castlevania just feels so classic, so perfectly designed, whereas this feels like a really impressive fan game without the technical game design behind it to back it up.
The first Castlevania felt like each screen was a puzzle specifically constructed with a solution to make it by unscathed, but this game’s more loose design due to the different possible characters overcompensated with unfair bullshit and perfect precision to scrape by.
I think it is a much more impressive game than the first, and if I decide to play it more I may end up liking it more, but the first Castlevania just feels so classic, so perfectly designed, whereas this feels like a really impressive fan game without the technical game design behind it to back it up.
Best NES game in my opinion
(Side note: played the Japanese version, generally considered the easier and better region between the two, and went for the Alucard route which is considered the hardest I think? Unsure on that one)
I find it so hard to rank this game. On one hand, it does everything the original Castlevania does, but better (except the soundtrack -- I prefer the original's a tiny bit). Multiple playable characters, more interesting settings and creative level design, more interesting creature designs and much more fun bosses. But... there's Block 7. Block 7. I swear, Konami hired a different team to design this one level. It would already be the longest level in the game with a whopping SEVEN stages with two bosses and no, you don't get a checkpoint after the first one stupid, go back to the beginning if you die. Oh and also here's the most annoying enemy in the game that's like the flying Medusa heads on crack. Not satisfied? Well let's throw in a section where you get to wait for blocks to fall for a full minute. Oh wait, you can skip that with Alucard? Okay, too easy, throw in another one but this time you can't skip it and it's three times as long!
Block 7 is so bad, so poorly designed, so unfun, that it was the breaking point. I didn't use any save states anywhere in the first game and was determined to do the same here, but I couldn't. I couldn't suffer through that one horrible level anymore. I put a save state at the beginning of the last stage and eventually cleared it, and it was the best decision I made. I didn't cheat anywhere else, but I sure am glad I did. But that level's existence is more than enough to place this solidly in the 7/10 range. Good game, so close to great with so many fantastic moments and easily some of my favorite levels and bosses on the NES. But man. They really could have been fine without Block 7 in the game at all.
I find it so hard to rank this game. On one hand, it does everything the original Castlevania does, but better (except the soundtrack -- I prefer the original's a tiny bit). Multiple playable characters, more interesting settings and creative level design, more interesting creature designs and much more fun bosses. But... there's Block 7. Block 7. I swear, Konami hired a different team to design this one level. It would already be the longest level in the game with a whopping SEVEN stages with two bosses and no, you don't get a checkpoint after the first one stupid, go back to the beginning if you die. Oh and also here's the most annoying enemy in the game that's like the flying Medusa heads on crack. Not satisfied? Well let's throw in a section where you get to wait for blocks to fall for a full minute. Oh wait, you can skip that with Alucard? Okay, too easy, throw in another one but this time you can't skip it and it's three times as long!
Block 7 is so bad, so poorly designed, so unfun, that it was the breaking point. I didn't use any save states anywhere in the first game and was determined to do the same here, but I couldn't. I couldn't suffer through that one horrible level anymore. I put a save state at the beginning of the last stage and eventually cleared it, and it was the best decision I made. I didn't cheat anywhere else, but I sure am glad I did. But that level's existence is more than enough to place this solidly in the 7/10 range. Good game, so close to great with so many fantastic moments and easily some of my favorite levels and bosses on the NES. But man. They really could have been fine without Block 7 in the game at all.
I was really deciding between a 4 or a 4.5, but i feel the more frustrating moments of the game (9-04) hold it back. Anyhow, its a fantastic game. I played through nearly all of the stages, and beat the game once with Sypha and once with Alucard, just wanted to add that in
Not quite as decisive a statement as the original Castlevania nor as bold a shakeup as Simon’s Quest, but it gets by on the merits of just being a damn good one-of-these. You ever play Dracula’s Curse? It’s a damn good one-of-these! Konami went back to basics for round 3, ditching all the weird RPG bullshit of the previous entry and returning to the tough, side-scrolling action of the first game. It’s basically Castlevania I but with more levels, more options and more polish, and that ain’t a bad thing.
The big selling point this go-around is that you can take multiple different routes and multiple different characters on your way to Big Bad Vlad’s Magic Funhouse. There’s Trevor of course, our default hero and resident Belmont. There’s also Sypha Belnades, a magic user who dresses like Emperor Palpatine so kids in the 80s wouldn’t find out they’re playing as—GASP!—a girl! Alucard makes his first appearance, still a few centuries away from becoming an anime pretty boy and instead rockin’ a Spirit Halloween cloak and Wolverine hair (no notes, I love him). And last but CERTAINLY not least is Grant mothafuckin DaNasty, which is the character route I decided to go with.
Grant’s getting a whole paragraph because eat shit, it’s my Backloggd page. Grant fucking rocks, he’s like a pirate that Dracula turned into a monster for reasons that are never explained. Even after you free him of his Dracula’s Curse, he still walks like a hunched-over gremlin and clings to walls like Spider-Man, the little freak! He’s way faster and more maneuverable than Trevor and in the Famicom version (which is the one I played) he can even use throwing knives as his default attack. After 2 games of stiff Belmont controls you have NO IDEA how satisfying it was to be able to control my jump mid-air or use a projectile without worrying about heart consumption. My friends were disappointed that I didn’t pick Sypha but honestly, fuck ‘em! I know they’re probably reading this and I hope they do! I have no regrets, dudes rock!!! Grant rules and we should all be so lucky to have a DaNasty in our lives. Apparently he’s the only party member that didn’t make it into the Netflix adaptation, so I guess just add that to the already-extensive list of Warren Ellis’ crimes.
Levels are really good, for the most part. The stages are a lot more complex than Castlevania I, with more aggressive enemy placement and a greater emphasis on platforming setpieces. Crumbling bridges, swinging pendulums, vertical auto-scrolling sections, it’s cool shit. Level themes are also a lot of fun, with plenty of decaying churches and haunted pirate ships. Maybe the only thing I really didn’t like was the over-reliance on stairs as a stage hazard. They’re spaced out well enough that it never outright ruins a level, but I just can’t get used to the weird way stairs work in classicvanias. Every time I got to a section with lots of stairs, Trevor starts doing his best John Wick Chapter 4 reenactment and a-down into the abyss I go.
Stairs notwithstanding, I thought this was generally a much less difficult game than peak Castlevania I. It’s certainly not easy, but the addition of alternate characters to play as really evens the playing field, giving you lots of options for how you want to handle things. The difficulty just feels a lot more consistent, it’s a tough but very evenly-paced adventure. There is a trade-off though: that increased flexibility does come at the cost of some of that slow, deliberate gameplay that made the first game so methodically compelling. I pretty much always played as Grant once I got him, so there wasn’t a need to plan as precisely as I would with a Belmont. It’s not really a design choice I can fault, or even one I necessarily dislike, but it is one I noticed. They’re two very similar games, but I’m definitely getting very different things out of each. Ignore all of this if you played the US version, I hear your balls get ROCKED in that one lmao.
On a purely visual level, this is an unequivocal huge improvement. It honestly might be the prettiest game I’ve seen on the system?? I had to keep reminding myself that these graphics actually ran on real hardware and it isn’t like a Shovel Knight style approximation of NES/FDS aesthetics using modern tech. Each stage is so rich with color and detail, and the excitement to see what the next one might look like was a consistent motivator to keep me going. Just an absolutely stunning game.
The music on the other hand I’m…less enthusiastic about. The Famicom Disk System had an enhanced sound chip which is cool and all, but these tunes just aren’t that great imo. Aside from the returning Castlevania I tracks and maybe 1-2 others, I can’t say any of these songs stick out in my mind as particularly memorable. It’s a real shame, since the rockin’ jams have remained a key part of Castlevania’s identity as a series thus far, even in a black sheep like Simon’s Quest. I’m told this soundtrack is a fan-favorite, but I really just don’t hear it. It’s not a bad OST, but it is a really forgettable one. Kinda underwhelming, won’t lie.
Grievances aside, I did really like Dracula’s Curse. It’s admittedly not quite as exciting as its predecessors, but it’s hard to fault it for that. It could never be as elegantly simple as Castlevania nor as esoterically interesting as Simon’s Quest, and it’s not trying to be. What Dracula’s Curse does accomplish is being a very consistent, very fun, very polished game. It’s definitely the first one of these to feel like it’s playing it safe, but it’s also the first one of these to feel this great to play. It just might be the best of the NES trilogy, even if it’s also definitely the least interesting. Take from that what you will!
The big selling point this go-around is that you can take multiple different routes and multiple different characters on your way to Big Bad Vlad’s Magic Funhouse. There’s Trevor of course, our default hero and resident Belmont. There’s also Sypha Belnades, a magic user who dresses like Emperor Palpatine so kids in the 80s wouldn’t find out they’re playing as—GASP!—a girl! Alucard makes his first appearance, still a few centuries away from becoming an anime pretty boy and instead rockin’ a Spirit Halloween cloak and Wolverine hair (no notes, I love him). And last but CERTAINLY not least is Grant mothafuckin DaNasty, which is the character route I decided to go with.
Grant’s getting a whole paragraph because eat shit, it’s my Backloggd page. Grant fucking rocks, he’s like a pirate that Dracula turned into a monster for reasons that are never explained. Even after you free him of his Dracula’s Curse, he still walks like a hunched-over gremlin and clings to walls like Spider-Man, the little freak! He’s way faster and more maneuverable than Trevor and in the Famicom version (which is the one I played) he can even use throwing knives as his default attack. After 2 games of stiff Belmont controls you have NO IDEA how satisfying it was to be able to control my jump mid-air or use a projectile without worrying about heart consumption. My friends were disappointed that I didn’t pick Sypha but honestly, fuck ‘em! I know they’re probably reading this and I hope they do! I have no regrets, dudes rock!!! Grant rules and we should all be so lucky to have a DaNasty in our lives. Apparently he’s the only party member that didn’t make it into the Netflix adaptation, so I guess just add that to the already-extensive list of Warren Ellis’ crimes.
Levels are really good, for the most part. The stages are a lot more complex than Castlevania I, with more aggressive enemy placement and a greater emphasis on platforming setpieces. Crumbling bridges, swinging pendulums, vertical auto-scrolling sections, it’s cool shit. Level themes are also a lot of fun, with plenty of decaying churches and haunted pirate ships. Maybe the only thing I really didn’t like was the over-reliance on stairs as a stage hazard. They’re spaced out well enough that it never outright ruins a level, but I just can’t get used to the weird way stairs work in classicvanias. Every time I got to a section with lots of stairs, Trevor starts doing his best John Wick Chapter 4 reenactment and a-down into the abyss I go.
Stairs notwithstanding, I thought this was generally a much less difficult game than peak Castlevania I. It’s certainly not easy, but the addition of alternate characters to play as really evens the playing field, giving you lots of options for how you want to handle things. The difficulty just feels a lot more consistent, it’s a tough but very evenly-paced adventure. There is a trade-off though: that increased flexibility does come at the cost of some of that slow, deliberate gameplay that made the first game so methodically compelling. I pretty much always played as Grant once I got him, so there wasn’t a need to plan as precisely as I would with a Belmont. It’s not really a design choice I can fault, or even one I necessarily dislike, but it is one I noticed. They’re two very similar games, but I’m definitely getting very different things out of each. Ignore all of this if you played the US version, I hear your balls get ROCKED in that one lmao.
On a purely visual level, this is an unequivocal huge improvement. It honestly might be the prettiest game I’ve seen on the system?? I had to keep reminding myself that these graphics actually ran on real hardware and it isn’t like a Shovel Knight style approximation of NES/FDS aesthetics using modern tech. Each stage is so rich with color and detail, and the excitement to see what the next one might look like was a consistent motivator to keep me going. Just an absolutely stunning game.
The music on the other hand I’m…less enthusiastic about. The Famicom Disk System had an enhanced sound chip which is cool and all, but these tunes just aren’t that great imo. Aside from the returning Castlevania I tracks and maybe 1-2 others, I can’t say any of these songs stick out in my mind as particularly memorable. It’s a real shame, since the rockin’ jams have remained a key part of Castlevania’s identity as a series thus far, even in a black sheep like Simon’s Quest. I’m told this soundtrack is a fan-favorite, but I really just don’t hear it. It’s not a bad OST, but it is a really forgettable one. Kinda underwhelming, won’t lie.
Grievances aside, I did really like Dracula’s Curse. It’s admittedly not quite as exciting as its predecessors, but it’s hard to fault it for that. It could never be as elegantly simple as Castlevania nor as esoterically interesting as Simon’s Quest, and it’s not trying to be. What Dracula’s Curse does accomplish is being a very consistent, very fun, very polished game. It’s definitely the first one of these to feel like it’s playing it safe, but it’s also the first one of these to feel this great to play. It just might be the best of the NES trilogy, even if it’s also definitely the least interesting. Take from that what you will!
The Famicom version is better. The audio downgrade is noticeable and the difficulty increase is completely unwarranted. Localizers shouldn't be messing with the game difficulty. Play that version instead.
Though I've been playing this game many years later and having watched the Castlevania TV show, I was able to recognise the majority of the characters showcased here. Apart from Grant though, but maybe he'll be in the new series?
Anyway, they don't have issues with translation in this one and go back to a more linear style, however, you still get to make choices in where you go which leads to ending up with a different companion and in the case of Sypha, she becomes your romantic character in it.
It was a lot of fun, but I don't particularly remember much different in regards to the mechanics of the game, however, to really get my interest.
Gameplay + Stream
Anyway, they don't have issues with translation in this one and go back to a more linear style, however, you still get to make choices in where you go which leads to ending up with a different companion and in the case of Sypha, she becomes your romantic character in it.
It was a lot of fun, but I don't particularly remember much different in regards to the mechanics of the game, however, to really get my interest.
Gameplay + Stream
- Too many stairs
Jogo incrível, bastante diverso e divertido em alguns momentos, porém aqui está o problema, ele é muito difícil, e isso dificulta bastante aproveitá-lo. Se for jogar, recomendo a versão japonesa, eu fiz o erro de pegar a dos EUA pra jogar e tomei uma coça.
Graphics and music are great here, both the NES and FDS versions are extremely impressive for their hardware. Same goes for the character variety and amount of stages/environments though impressive doesn't necessarily mean good in that case -- losing the six-stage, linear, minimal downtime arcade structure of the first game robs some of the impetus to play in my view. Playing CV1 over and over for a 1cc, whip only level clear, beating bosses w/o abusing holywater, etc is rewarding. In CV3, I have little interest in even starting to route a stage order or character path towards a 1cc, let alone seriously attempting one. So now that I've seen all the stages (which is still more content than most NES action/platformers, mind), not really much bringing me back to this one. Oh well, October is over anyway.
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
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