There's so much I appreciate about how Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse iterates on the formula of the first game, after the effectively-unrelated misstep that was Castlevania II. The art direction and variety in locations is sublime, the branching paths add great replay value, and the soundtrack is full of peak retro NES bangers. But...the difficulty in this version (I've read that the original Japanese release is much more fair) is unconscionable to the point that it hampers the experience for me. The first Castlevania had the notorious fight with Death, but otherwise, it was hard but fair; each level was short enough that you didn't lose much progress when running out of lives and could clearly push farther on each successive attempt. There's no boss in Castlevania III that is as difficult as Death in the first game, but the platforming sections and enemy encounters are jacked up to a level of difficulty that is more sadistic than meaningfully challenging, especially considering how the longer levels mean that you might lose a substantial amount of progress if (and when) you run out of lives. I intend on playing the Japanese version in the future for the sake of comparison, but the only way I was able to appreciate this game without tearing my hair out was employing save states liberally in the later stages.

I was honestly surprised about how good Castlevania III was! I initially thought it was just going to be just alright like the previous entries in the series, but no, this game is pretty great!

The main thing I liked about Castlevania III was the new characters you could play as and how the game didn't restart after getting a game over. My favorite character to play as was probably Grant because of his ability to climb on walls and his increased speed and jump heights, even though he had decreased damage, defense and range. Alucard was the main character I used other than Trevor (who is just Simon Belmont), and I thought he was fun but a little less than Grant. Alucard has a ranged orb attack, and a special move that turns him into a bat which was very useful. I really only got to use Grant and Alucard, so I have no thoughts on Sypha since I didn’t unlock her.

Most of the bosses were fun, with my favorite boss being Death which was probably due to how much time I spent on the boss. I enjoyed most of the levels but there were still tedious sections, like all of the auto-scroller segments. I personally disliked majority of the enemies since they were kinda annoying to fight against (like the medusa heads).

I honestly really enjoyed this game, I may come back to replay this game sometime since I didnt get to play as Sypha. Also, I didn't realize how similar Shovel of Hope and this game were until playing it rn.

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.

Хардкорный экшен-платформер. Левелдизайн специально нацелен на то, чтобы вы как можно чаще умирали. Это не как в Дарк Соулсах, где ты должен запомнить паттерны врагов. В кастлвании Саймон тяжело управляется, его прыжки не контролируется, ты не можешь регулировать высоту прыжка, удар кнута относительно долгий(особенно если сравнивать с другими экшен-платформерами)

В этой части добавили много уровней + нелинейность их выбора. Из новинок 3 дополнительных играбельных персонажа, но одновременно с Саймоном может ходить лишь один. Боссов тоже стало чуть больше, чем в первой части, но к сожалению некоторые из них повторяются, например мумии или летучая мышь.

Hardcore action-platformer. Leveldesign is specifically aimed at making you die as often as possible. It's not like in Dark Souls where you have to memorise enemy patterns. In Castlevania Simon is hard to control, his jumps are not controlled, you can't adjust the jump height, the whip kick is relatively long(especially if you compare to other action platformers)

In this part added a lot of levels + non-linearity of their choice. From the novelties 3 additional playable characters, but only one can go with Simon at the same time. Bosses also became a bit more than in the first part, but unfortunately some of them are repeated, for example mummies or bat.

I don't usually play games this old and honestly I don't have much to say. Castlevania 3 is a solid game, with some really annoying tight jumps at times for my new generation brain. I'm fully willing to admit I'm too new age gamer-brained to really take in action-platformers like this one, but I still beat it and respect it for the time, so I can't rate it too poorly. But I absolutely would not play it again. As a stickler for playing series in chronological order, it was a needed hurdle to cross.

TL;DR: Good game, respect it, not quite for me due to its age, but I beat it anyway.

Score: 75

Is that Alucard with the contra spread gun?? A glorious return to form. After the hard to swallow pill that was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, I am ecstatic that we are back to simple level by level platforming, with cool bossfights at the end.

Castlevania III is just the first Castlevania but bigger. The game plays exactly the same as the first, but is just 2-3 times longer. There is also branching levels meaning there is a lot of room for replayability.

The biggest difference and my favourite part about the game is the ability to find different playable characters that can be super helpful for some sections. You have a guy that can climb ceilings that has a permanent ranged weapon, or as previously mentioned Alucard that has a Contra spread gun and fucking kills those annoying bats with ease. He can also turn into a bat for a limited time and trivialise some platforming sections. Depending on how you play and which characters you choose to come along with you, there is some room for emergent gameplay which is something I never thought I'd see in a NES game.

The difficulty this time around, while still not perfect, is a little more balanced than the first game due to the fact that you have many different ways to approach a scenario. The game was still challenging, but I never got too frustrated while playing as I felt like I was never locked into a single solution if I was stuck at a problem.

This is probably the best of the three from the NES trilogy, considering there is so much content packed into this little game, and it plays the best. If Simon's Quest brought your spirits down, play this one and your hopes will come back up.

After the… deviation of last time, CastleVania 3 goes back to basics and builds upon the first games more linear structure.

To get this out the way, this game is once again, brutal. And just like the first game it’s down to the stiff controls, pain in the ass enemies and bosses, though generally I think boss fights are better this time around, giving you slightly more room to breathe and having more distinguishable patterns to learn.

However this doesn’t stop the game kerb stomping you. Luckily there are some additions which can help, namely 3 other playable characters you can find and recruit by choosing optional pathways after some levels. You can only use 1 at a time, but you can switch between Trevor and whoever you pick at any point. This adds plenty of replayability and can make your life easier as most of these guys are awesome. One has smoother control, one can use devastating magic spells, the variety is great and experimentation is encouraged.

But level design is still chaotic and often not very fair, mostly due to the amount of things thrown at you while you’re climbing stairs, where you can barely defend yourself. Stages can get out of hand fast, and despite some more interesting platforming, this game is too difficult for its own good.

The music is phenomenal though, I don’t know why we’re killing Dracula again.. but hey it’s consistent. Not a bad time, just a tough one - 6.7/10

I was ready to like this one more than the original, like on a technical level this is a great NES game. But in terms of design after a certain point the game just takes a nosedive. The endurance tests expected of you in these stages and retro games in general are so unfun that Im glad the overall gaming world is moved on from this. Like the slow and tedius falling block stages and multi phase boss fights especially make dying miserable in this game. I used save states and what I lost in the respect of 40 year old married men everywhere I gained in time of my life saved. Sometimes games are more fun when you cheat!