Man, Castlevania II was weird. Like, cool atmosphere, but also really confusing! You wander this town, talk to people who mostly lie, and the whole "day turning into night" thing is stressful. It's got this old-school charm...if you have a lot of patience.
As the angry man said 20 years ago, this game sucks.
Simon do be questing tho
i mean yeah its better than the first game but holy shit the bosses suck
This game's a mess, but the "Bloody Tears" is a masterpiece. Everything else? Forgettable. Without a guide, you're doomed. Day/night cycle's wonky, bosses suck, dungeons are a nightmare. Stick to the soundtrack and steer clear.
I used a guide so its mostly fine, still not very good
Zerei com guia e gostei.
NES sequels are either drastic improvements over the first game, or just an entirely different experience that creates an entire subgenre of video games (but aren't very good)
Um jogo que tentou adaptar a série, adicionando um aspecto mais RPG pra coisa. Ele é repleto de ideias interessantes, assim como de ideias horríveis...
No geral ele acaba perdido entre os primeiros Castlevanias justamente por esse estilo diferenciado que não se resume apenas a seguir em frente matando monstros, mas sim conversar com várias pessoas, recolhendo rumores que podem ou não ser verdade e explorar o mapa, fazendo e refazendo caminhos, para ir atrás desses rumores e prosseguir no jogo. Claro que essa mudança radical de gameplay acaba sendo bem incômoda para quem esperava algo similar ao seu antecessor.
Mas dizer que, no geral, eu gostei da base esquisita que montaram pra ele. Mas confesso que joguei usando um Walkthrough, pq ficar andando pra lá e pra cá, testando cada rumor, tendo que procurar cada passagem secreta/parede falsa ou bloco falso no cenário escondendo um NPC ou um livro de informação é simplesmente de foder!
No geral ele acaba perdido entre os primeiros Castlevanias justamente por esse estilo diferenciado que não se resume apenas a seguir em frente matando monstros, mas sim conversar com várias pessoas, recolhendo rumores que podem ou não ser verdade e explorar o mapa, fazendo e refazendo caminhos, para ir atrás desses rumores e prosseguir no jogo. Claro que essa mudança radical de gameplay acaba sendo bem incômoda para quem esperava algo similar ao seu antecessor.
Mas dizer que, no geral, eu gostei da base esquisita que montaram pra ele. Mas confesso que joguei usando um Walkthrough, pq ficar andando pra lá e pra cá, testando cada rumor, tendo que procurar cada passagem secreta/parede falsa ou bloco falso no cenário escondendo um NPC ou um livro de informação é simplesmente de foder!
This is an extremely influential game, Konamis first attempt at the metroidvania concept they would define later.… but this is clearly a first attempt because Simons Quest is.. honestly awful.
Okay I like the sprite work and the music is banging, but this game is literally next to impossible to play without a guide. Despite the open ended level design, the game doesn’t feel the need to give you any real guidance, a map, area names, item descriptions, or anything that could potentially help you figure out where to go.
The aim is to “prossess” the 5 pieces of Dracula and kill him again in Castlevania. The world isn’t huge but many areas will require certain items to progress, and even then you need to know how to actually use them, like crouching by a wall with an item equipped so a small tornado will carry you to the other side? What’s the correlation?
The actual dungeons are simpler, but still expect you to defy logic and walk through walls.
It’s not as hard as the first game in terms of enemies, but combat is pretty braindead, I didn’t like the sub weapons because they cost hearts to use.. which are also currency needed to get better weapons…
The game has a day and night system which can literally lock you out of progression, and serves very little purpose… yeah this game sucks, don’t play this unless your as curious as me - 2/10
Okay I like the sprite work and the music is banging, but this game is literally next to impossible to play without a guide. Despite the open ended level design, the game doesn’t feel the need to give you any real guidance, a map, area names, item descriptions, or anything that could potentially help you figure out where to go.
The aim is to “prossess” the 5 pieces of Dracula and kill him again in Castlevania. The world isn’t huge but many areas will require certain items to progress, and even then you need to know how to actually use them, like crouching by a wall with an item equipped so a small tornado will carry you to the other side? What’s the correlation?
The actual dungeons are simpler, but still expect you to defy logic and walk through walls.
It’s not as hard as the first game in terms of enemies, but combat is pretty braindead, I didn’t like the sub weapons because they cost hearts to use.. which are also currency needed to get better weapons…
The game has a day and night system which can literally lock you out of progression, and serves very little purpose… yeah this game sucks, don’t play this unless your as curious as me - 2/10
music owns but the game doesn't
What I love about the late 80s in video gaming history is that almost so many sequels to now established franchises were some major departure from the original title. Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros., Zelda, along with Castlevania of course.
I hated this game the first few times I played it. I cut my teeth with the franchise on Symphony of the Night, then went back and played some of other early games, and by the time I tried this it felt different and wrong. A few decades of playing unending iterative sequels makes the heart grow fond for different and wrong.
To start, there's actually quite a bit that carries over from the first game and Vampire Killer: The gameplay controls are virtually identical, the music is still amazing, and the general presentation is still the grim medieval setting. Gone are the eponymous castle, and all but two bosses.
The game reverts to the non-linear style of Vampire Killer as it sends you on a quest to collect Dracula's bits, which in and of themselves act as item upgrades. It also introduced a day/night cycle as well as multiple endings depending on how long it took you to resurrect and kill Vlad again.
While I really do now like that the game tried different things instead of throwing you right back into another castle, it did stumble with the lack of bosses, some bad English translations, and stages that by the nature of the game scenario felt more repetitive than those of the linear first game. I still think it's laudable that they veered off the easy path and a title worth playing if you've enjoyed other games in the franchise.
I hated this game the first few times I played it. I cut my teeth with the franchise on Symphony of the Night, then went back and played some of other early games, and by the time I tried this it felt different and wrong. A few decades of playing unending iterative sequels makes the heart grow fond for different and wrong.
To start, there's actually quite a bit that carries over from the first game and Vampire Killer: The gameplay controls are virtually identical, the music is still amazing, and the general presentation is still the grim medieval setting. Gone are the eponymous castle, and all but two bosses.
The game reverts to the non-linear style of Vampire Killer as it sends you on a quest to collect Dracula's bits, which in and of themselves act as item upgrades. It also introduced a day/night cycle as well as multiple endings depending on how long it took you to resurrect and kill Vlad again.
While I really do now like that the game tried different things instead of throwing you right back into another castle, it did stumble with the lack of bosses, some bad English translations, and stages that by the nature of the game scenario felt more repetitive than those of the linear first game. I still think it's laudable that they veered off the easy path and a title worth playing if you've enjoyed other games in the franchise.
My first experience with this game comes from hearing people online bashing this game. Particularly, a video saying that besides Castlevania 64, this game was the worst in the franchise. After beating Castlevania 1, I was a bit worried about playing this game considering what I’ve heard. I am happy to say that not only did this game exceed expectations, this game turned out to be a fantastic experience. Although not perfect, this game was extremely good and worth playing.
Taking a completely different approach from the first game, Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest is more of a RPG, with leveling systems, a day and night cycle, more than one ending, NPC’s, merchants, and needing key items to progress in the game. The game is essentially a very long, straight horizontal line but the game cleverly adds sub routes and requires backtracking to unlock and use key items to get farther in the story. You upgrade your whip, collect sub weapons that you can choose through a menu, there are several optional sub weapons you may not even encounter in your first play through, although the only one truly required to progress is in the first town to buy. You talk to NPC’s to get hints on where to go and what to do, but please just use a guide, the biggest flaw of this game is the bad translations that actually make the game extremely hard if you don’t know what you are doing, in particular the puzzle with the red crystal and cliff has such a bad translation of you followed what the NPC says, you will not progress the story. This game focuses more on backtracking, level grinding, some dungeon crawling, and atmosphere more than a gauntlet of boss battles compared to the first game.
The graphical improvement from Castlevania 1 and 2 is astounding. The backgrounds are gorgeous and high quality given the time, they hold up perfectly. The enemy designs work really well, Dracula himself has a fantastic design. Unlike a lot of games from this era of gaming, the items in game actually look like what they are, you don’t have to really guess what each one is based on look. The UI is very clean, any information you need is in the pause menu which cleans up the screen. The only thing you see is your health when playing, it really declutters the screen and lets you enjoy all the visuals this game has to offer.
The game handles well; I played through the anniversary collection on Steam, the game control wise doesn’t suffer, you can adjust the controls in the collection since the collection itself seems to have swapped buttons, but for a nearly 40 year old game, it holds up well. The game sound also holds up well, the 8-bit music sounds great and doesn’t get old, in game sounds fit well and are pleasing to the ear. Overall the age of this game does nothing to hinder the experience in the modern time.
The combat is well fleshed out; once you get a few items, the combat is pretty versatile. Pairing your sub weapons with your whip feels really good and not forced in the system. Running the flame whip with sacred flames feels like you are the terminator sent back to medieval times to hunt Dracula. I also enjoy that the game does not tell you everything and lets you figure out what weapons and items do and if the cost hearts. This game heavily rewards experimentation and thinking outside the box.
If I were to have complaints about the game, the translation, as previously mentioned, is the biggest flaw of the game. I cannot stress enough, use a guide. I would also say that the two boss fights before Dracula are too easy. Also the ring item does nothing, which is lame.
I am very happy to say the Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest is a fantastic game, one I will revisit, and is far better than its perception given to it in the modern time (the game upon release was reviewed positively, and held that perception until the AVGN review, the timing of the review and how early internet content sharing was, tanked the games image). This game is worth seeing past its flaws and has aged gracefully.
Taking a completely different approach from the first game, Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest is more of a RPG, with leveling systems, a day and night cycle, more than one ending, NPC’s, merchants, and needing key items to progress in the game. The game is essentially a very long, straight horizontal line but the game cleverly adds sub routes and requires backtracking to unlock and use key items to get farther in the story. You upgrade your whip, collect sub weapons that you can choose through a menu, there are several optional sub weapons you may not even encounter in your first play through, although the only one truly required to progress is in the first town to buy. You talk to NPC’s to get hints on where to go and what to do, but please just use a guide, the biggest flaw of this game is the bad translations that actually make the game extremely hard if you don’t know what you are doing, in particular the puzzle with the red crystal and cliff has such a bad translation of you followed what the NPC says, you will not progress the story. This game focuses more on backtracking, level grinding, some dungeon crawling, and atmosphere more than a gauntlet of boss battles compared to the first game.
The graphical improvement from Castlevania 1 and 2 is astounding. The backgrounds are gorgeous and high quality given the time, they hold up perfectly. The enemy designs work really well, Dracula himself has a fantastic design. Unlike a lot of games from this era of gaming, the items in game actually look like what they are, you don’t have to really guess what each one is based on look. The UI is very clean, any information you need is in the pause menu which cleans up the screen. The only thing you see is your health when playing, it really declutters the screen and lets you enjoy all the visuals this game has to offer.
The game handles well; I played through the anniversary collection on Steam, the game control wise doesn’t suffer, you can adjust the controls in the collection since the collection itself seems to have swapped buttons, but for a nearly 40 year old game, it holds up well. The game sound also holds up well, the 8-bit music sounds great and doesn’t get old, in game sounds fit well and are pleasing to the ear. Overall the age of this game does nothing to hinder the experience in the modern time.
The combat is well fleshed out; once you get a few items, the combat is pretty versatile. Pairing your sub weapons with your whip feels really good and not forced in the system. Running the flame whip with sacred flames feels like you are the terminator sent back to medieval times to hunt Dracula. I also enjoy that the game does not tell you everything and lets you figure out what weapons and items do and if the cost hearts. This game heavily rewards experimentation and thinking outside the box.
If I were to have complaints about the game, the translation, as previously mentioned, is the biggest flaw of the game. I cannot stress enough, use a guide. I would also say that the two boss fights before Dracula are too easy. Also the ring item does nothing, which is lame.
I am very happy to say the Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest is a fantastic game, one I will revisit, and is far better than its perception given to it in the modern time (the game upon release was reviewed positively, and held that perception until the AVGN review, the timing of the review and how early internet content sharing was, tanked the games image). This game is worth seeing past its flaws and has aged gracefully.
I'm not doing this, I value the remains of my sanity.