Imagine following up one of the coolest NES games of all time with literal cacadoodoo.
Another great entry in the series but play the Redaction hack for a more solid Castlevania experience.
Even with a patch to fix the translation its still just slop.
I don't really want to play this
Top liked reviews of this game are made by liars who wish to convince you that Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a good game by inventing a better game in their heads to propagate around and somehow people are buying into it.
Actually try playing this game and watch as all the analytical dialogue you've experienced around this disappear in a heartbeat. And also go play a good Castlevania game.
Actually try playing this game and watch as all the analytical dialogue you've experienced around this disappear in a heartbeat. And also go play a good Castlevania game.
The game really deserves its bad reputation. I can kind of appreciate that the developers tried to break new ground and change things, but my gosh, it backfired. The navigation is an absolute horror, I never had the slightest idea where I had to go and what I had to do to get ahead. There are "hints" from NPCs but they are either super cryptic, mistranslated or INTENTIONALLY mislead you...are you kidding me :D The dungeons/mansions are an absolute joke, no variety, neither visually nor mechanically. There are exactly 3 boss fights, the first of which (against Death, one of the most powerful enemies in all other parts) is even optional. All 3 fights are super easy, just stand around and shoot until the boss falls, even Dracula himself only has one phase and can be defeated this way. Yes, what else can I say, an absolute disgrace and disappointment on all levels, the music is partly ok, but it feels like it only consists of 3 songs... you really don't need to have played this game.^^
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 went in to this thinking it would be awful due to AVGN but surprisingly this game is good. It's not great but it's still a solid time.
Some enemies can be really annoying like the slimes especially with the placement of them, and the bosses are way too easy including Dracula.
I found some of the items to be pretty good and found myself often using the Flame Whip, Holy Water and Laurels.
The day to night transitions aren't really that bad, and while I appreciate them trying to make a more exploration based game, the cryptic puzzles are just annoying.
Overall it's a good game, not great but still fun
62/100
Some enemies can be really annoying like the slimes especially with the placement of them, and the bosses are way too easy including Dracula.
I found some of the items to be pretty good and found myself often using the Flame Whip, Holy Water and Laurels.
The day to night transitions aren't really that bad, and while I appreciate them trying to make a more exploration based game, the cryptic puzzles are just annoying.
Overall it's a good game, not great but still fun
62/100
There's no denying that Castlevania II is an ambitious sequel, trading the linear platforming of the original game for a prototypical open world RPG formula, complete with leveling, inventory management, and a binary day-night cycle that directly impacts exploration. Whatever goodwill that this game gains from its ambition, it squanders with its cryptic, nonsensical progression driven by badly-translated dialogue and clue books, the latter of which are mainly hidden in unassuming blocks of walls and floors. I can understand why this game has garnered cult appreciation over the years, but I also imagine that this is one of those games that would have been a lot more impactful for someone growing up in the 80s with no internet and a limited game library — hunting down the next step in the arbitrary sequence of progression in Castlevania II would be more engaging if it were a cooperative effort with your friends, trying to brainstorm solutions from Nintendo Power hints or by combing through every square inch of the map with every item. Completing this game without a guide in a reasonable amount of time, however, is a fool's errand; I sincerely doubt anybody has ever been able to figure out the tornado puzzle themselves unless by pure accident. In a world where there are thousands upon thousands of games to play, I struggle to find a reason to put up with Castlevania II's obscurities and lack of respect for the player's time.
The soundtrack is absolutely great, though, arguably even better than the first game. I doubt I'll ever replay this, but I will have the original rendition of "Bloody Tears" stuck in my head for weeks to come.
The soundtrack is absolutely great, though, arguably even better than the first game. I doubt I'll ever replay this, but I will have the original rendition of "Bloody Tears" stuck in my head for weeks to come.
It has its merits, like the music is pretty great, and there's nothing wrong with the graphics. But the flaws are way too significant to ignore. Cryptic as hell. I have no idea how someone would be able to beat this without a guide back in '87. Also, the bosses are pushovers.
A lot of negative things have been said about this game, so I've avoided playing it for years.
I'm always willing to defend weird exploration/puzzle titles such as Zelda II or La-Mulana, but Castlevania II doesn't even begin to compare.
Aside from some groovy tunes the game struggles to be exciting in any way. Enemies are dumb, graphics aren't great, and exploration feels like a chore.
The best thing I can say about this game is that its ending is quite unique. Final stage being an empty ruined Castlevania is an inspired choice, but getting there requires going through some of the most tedious tasks I've ever seen in a video game.
If I were to sum up why you shouldn't play this game in one sentence: there are fake floors that look no different from real ones everywhere.
I'm always willing to defend weird exploration/puzzle titles such as Zelda II or La-Mulana, but Castlevania II doesn't even begin to compare.
Aside from some groovy tunes the game struggles to be exciting in any way. Enemies are dumb, graphics aren't great, and exploration feels like a chore.
The best thing I can say about this game is that its ending is quite unique. Final stage being an empty ruined Castlevania is an inspired choice, but getting there requires going through some of the most tedious tasks I've ever seen in a video game.
If I were to sum up why you shouldn't play this game in one sentence: there are fake floors that look no different from real ones everywhere.
i was expecting this game to be a lot worse than it actually was. i think for early castlevania this game is a pretty cool idea just really really poorly executed. the main drawback of the game is how cryptic it is to actually understand so in the modern day if you havent figured out where to go by wandering around and trying random shit then a guide is the way to go for when you get stuck. as far as the actual castlevania gameplay goes its just kinda eh. i think the idea of picking up the sub weapons as you go and some of the dracula items having unique properties like the rib giving you the shield are actually pretty cool, the movement in this game is a little different from castlevania 1 but still feels good, and the level up system as you keep playing is neat to have but underutilized. as far as the platforming and combat stuff goes though its just very average and copy-paste. none of the enemies are particularly that difficult to fight including the bosses and even if you do get killed the game will probably just drop you right where you just were, even if you game over, so death just doesnt really even matter. the areas to platform through arent all too unique. every town, forest, and mansion all just have the same feel except sometimes they have poison swamps and blocks actually dont exist that you fall through, but these are just inconveniences that usually wont kill you, you just gotta take like 10 seconds to walk back to where you were. as a castlevania entry i think this game is just offensively bland compared to other entries in the series, there are much worse games ive played so far like dracula x and circle of the moon
Tem algumas coisas bem interessantes pra época, mesmo que sejam mal executadas, mas ainda é divertido. Joguei seguindo um guia e jogar jogo antigo assim tem uma vibe bem legal (e me poupou o estresse).
I don't think this game is quite as bad as everyone else seems to. It's definitely not very well designed, but the gameplay is fun enough. Please use a guide though.
It was fun, but also quite confusing at times because of the backtracking you had to do. The game doesn't really tell you what to do apart from the NPCs (who were either lying or talking nonsense most of the time). I did use a guide after some time, which a lot of people recommended using because of how the game is, so at least I knew what to do overall. It was also significantly easier than Castlevania 1, having only 3 bosses that were all pretty cheeseable with Sacred Flame or Golden Dagger. Overall, an okay game that would've been better had it stuck with what made the first one great.
2.5/5 stars
2.5/5 stars
following up castlevania must have been a daunting task, and i understand why the team at konami made the decisions they did; unfortunately i feel this is just a less interesting version of konami's own getsu fuma den.
there's tons of cool stuff here, arguably a better soundtrack than the first game despite its sparsity, but compared to CV1 the presentation is really lacking. i lovelovelove simon's red armor look but the absence of color in every sprite palette is totally egregious and makes everything kind of blend together.. i think some areas look very cool (the endgame town is a great moment) but there's a total of maybe 5-6 unique screen types in the whole game recolored haphazardly to represent what is supposedly the transylvanian countryside and iunno, i just wasn't able to buy it. the first game's castle had both scale and tangibility, yet in spite being an outright bigger map and longer playtime CV2 feels so much smaller!
the things in simon's quest that people talk about the most (secret floors, day/night cycle, hearts as currency AND ammo) didn't end up really bothering me this time around, in fact i think they're some of the things that really work for this game and help make it unique. the base gameplay is pretty damn good but it'd have to be since it's the same combat and platforming as CV1, though the selection of subweapons is really bad (no axe or boomerang? THREE knives???)
maybe this game's biggest step down from the first is that it's... not hard? a few enemies have some tricky patterns and can sap health (the SLIMES oh my GOD) but with very few exceptions you will never get set back THAT far, unless you're trying to get the morningstar (game overs here put you in the exact same place you died, just with no hearts). even the mansions are kind of a cakewalk, it's hard NOT to have enough money to buy the oak stake! and oh my god the bosses are such a JOKE and there's THREE of them you don't have to even look up the dracula trick to know it's the most obvious course of action!! am i stepping into the shadows of the hell house or the shadows of weenie hut jr??!!??!!??
anyway i know my rating is kind of high given everything i've said but i really think this game is not bad, it's just not very interesting. i'm definitely not getting the transcendent experience others get out of it, but that's fine, it's still kind of a fun curiosity and i'm glad it exists.
(writing this at 2am sorry if it is a mess!)
there's tons of cool stuff here, arguably a better soundtrack than the first game despite its sparsity, but compared to CV1 the presentation is really lacking. i lovelovelove simon's red armor look but the absence of color in every sprite palette is totally egregious and makes everything kind of blend together.. i think some areas look very cool (the endgame town is a great moment) but there's a total of maybe 5-6 unique screen types in the whole game recolored haphazardly to represent what is supposedly the transylvanian countryside and iunno, i just wasn't able to buy it. the first game's castle had both scale and tangibility, yet in spite being an outright bigger map and longer playtime CV2 feels so much smaller!
the things in simon's quest that people talk about the most (secret floors, day/night cycle, hearts as currency AND ammo) didn't end up really bothering me this time around, in fact i think they're some of the things that really work for this game and help make it unique. the base gameplay is pretty damn good but it'd have to be since it's the same combat and platforming as CV1, though the selection of subweapons is really bad (no axe or boomerang? THREE knives???)
maybe this game's biggest step down from the first is that it's... not hard? a few enemies have some tricky patterns and can sap health (the SLIMES oh my GOD) but with very few exceptions you will never get set back THAT far, unless you're trying to get the morningstar (game overs here put you in the exact same place you died, just with no hearts). even the mansions are kind of a cakewalk, it's hard NOT to have enough money to buy the oak stake! and oh my god the bosses are such a JOKE and there's THREE of them you don't have to even look up the dracula trick to know it's the most obvious course of action!! am i stepping into the shadows of the hell house or the shadows of weenie hut jr??!!??!!??
anyway i know my rating is kind of high given everything i've said but i really think this game is not bad, it's just not very interesting. i'm definitely not getting the transcendent experience others get out of it, but that's fine, it's still kind of a fun curiosity and i'm glad it exists.
(writing this at 2am sorry if it is a mess!)
This review contains spoilers
What a horrible night to have a curse!
If you’ve been keeping up with these reviews so far, it should be well-documented that my tolerance for shitty gameplay is directly proportional to my ability to project thematic intent onto it. Simon’s Quest is basically the final boss of that ethos, at least as far as not-very-good-but-not-quite-bad janky old NES games go.
The story in this one is that our boy Belmont didn’t do a good enough job of killing Dracula the first time, and as a result your ass is cursed and the whole land is plagued by monsters. Now it’s your Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest to go collect all of the D-Man’s body parts so you can bring him back to life and kill him again (You know, for real this time). It’s a pretty bold move to start your sequel by totally invalidating everything your player accomplished in the previous game, but it’s one Simon’s Quest really commits to, for better or for worse.
What this setup mostly means for us is that we get to explore the land outside the titular castle for a change, and it’s… pretty fuckin’ bleak. The vibrant colors of Castlevania are gone, replaced with drab, muted tones. The whole world feels like it’s in a state of decay, even Simon’s new sprite looks feeble, totally drained of life. NES palette limitations make him out to look more like a vampire than a Belmont, his hair gone jet black and his skin a pale white. It’s a nonlinear adventure game, I guess, but set on one long horizontal map that’s a total chore to traverse. At one point near the end of my playthrough, I had to spend like a full hour backtracking and grinding for hearts just to get a whip upgrade I had missed before. I slogged my way through muddy, indistinct environments and near-identical towns, constantly harangued by swarms of monsters and an oppressive day/night cycle, only ever moving in one direction at a time yet never feeling any sense of momentum. Is this really it, Simon? Is this is the world you fought so hard to save?
Misdirection is really the main obstacle in Simon’s Quest. Enemies are a joke and death has little to no consequence, so the game’s only true challenge is in deciphering it’s bullshit. Figuring out where you are or where you’re going is a crapshoot, considering the lack of a map or any distinct landmarks. Progression is most often gated by obtuse puzzles, ones the game tends to mislead you on if it even tells you about them at all. There’s people here too, but you’re not going to get much out of them. When NPCs aren’t speaking in oblique, poorly-translated riddles, they’re usually berating Simon or just outright fucking lying to him. And why wouldn’t they? You’re not a returning hero, you’re a returning failure.
Once you do find a mansion (this game’s equivalent to dungeons) you’ll find they’re not much more intuitive than the outside. Layouts are these dense labyrinths without any clear markers, usually filled to the brim with illusory trick floors. There’s five mansions total, with only two of them ending in boss fights. Most of the time you clear a stage by walking up to an orb and putting a stake in it, collecting Dracula’s heart or eyeball or whatever, and then making the long trek all the way back to the entrance. On the rare occasion you do encounter a boss, they’re so pitifully easy that it still feels like an anticlimax. The game even lets you walk right past ‘em if you want, as if even Dracula’s closest minions have caught on to how obligatory this all feels.
Once you have all of Big D’s body parts, you can start making your way to his castle. It’s a pretty pathetic journey, a straight line through abandoned towns and the only paths in the game without any enemies. Castlevania lies in ruin, a big grey pile of rubble, unguarded and unloved. You descend into the wreckage and reanimate your sworn enemy, only to find him a weak shadow of his former self, just like his castle. Just like Simon. After another easy boss fight, the game ends. Assuming you didn’t beat the game in record time, you probably got the bad ending, in which Simon is consumed by his curse and dies. Congratulations, fuck you.
So, that’s Simon’s Quest. Not a hard game to beat, but a wholly unsatisfying one. While Castlevania was brutally challenging, its sequel is brutally tedious. Gone is the deliberate action of old, replaced with lots and lots of busywork. Everything about the experience feels like a dull formality, like Simon is just going through the motions until he can finally put Dracula—and by extension, himself—to rest. Your failure to defeat evil looms over the whole journey, this constant reminder that you aren’t the hero you thought you were. It’s not the quest Simon wanted, but maybe it’s the one he deserves. Is it a good game? I don’t know. Who gives a shit? It’s certainly a potent one, and maybe that’s all you need.
If you’ve been keeping up with these reviews so far, it should be well-documented that my tolerance for shitty gameplay is directly proportional to my ability to project thematic intent onto it. Simon’s Quest is basically the final boss of that ethos, at least as far as not-very-good-but-not-quite-bad janky old NES games go.
The story in this one is that our boy Belmont didn’t do a good enough job of killing Dracula the first time, and as a result your ass is cursed and the whole land is plagued by monsters. Now it’s your Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest to go collect all of the D-Man’s body parts so you can bring him back to life and kill him again (You know, for real this time). It’s a pretty bold move to start your sequel by totally invalidating everything your player accomplished in the previous game, but it’s one Simon’s Quest really commits to, for better or for worse.
What this setup mostly means for us is that we get to explore the land outside the titular castle for a change, and it’s… pretty fuckin’ bleak. The vibrant colors of Castlevania are gone, replaced with drab, muted tones. The whole world feels like it’s in a state of decay, even Simon’s new sprite looks feeble, totally drained of life. NES palette limitations make him out to look more like a vampire than a Belmont, his hair gone jet black and his skin a pale white. It’s a nonlinear adventure game, I guess, but set on one long horizontal map that’s a total chore to traverse. At one point near the end of my playthrough, I had to spend like a full hour backtracking and grinding for hearts just to get a whip upgrade I had missed before. I slogged my way through muddy, indistinct environments and near-identical towns, constantly harangued by swarms of monsters and an oppressive day/night cycle, only ever moving in one direction at a time yet never feeling any sense of momentum. Is this really it, Simon? Is this is the world you fought so hard to save?
Misdirection is really the main obstacle in Simon’s Quest. Enemies are a joke and death has little to no consequence, so the game’s only true challenge is in deciphering it’s bullshit. Figuring out where you are or where you’re going is a crapshoot, considering the lack of a map or any distinct landmarks. Progression is most often gated by obtuse puzzles, ones the game tends to mislead you on if it even tells you about them at all. There’s people here too, but you’re not going to get much out of them. When NPCs aren’t speaking in oblique, poorly-translated riddles, they’re usually berating Simon or just outright fucking lying to him. And why wouldn’t they? You’re not a returning hero, you’re a returning failure.
Once you do find a mansion (this game’s equivalent to dungeons) you’ll find they’re not much more intuitive than the outside. Layouts are these dense labyrinths without any clear markers, usually filled to the brim with illusory trick floors. There’s five mansions total, with only two of them ending in boss fights. Most of the time you clear a stage by walking up to an orb and putting a stake in it, collecting Dracula’s heart or eyeball or whatever, and then making the long trek all the way back to the entrance. On the rare occasion you do encounter a boss, they’re so pitifully easy that it still feels like an anticlimax. The game even lets you walk right past ‘em if you want, as if even Dracula’s closest minions have caught on to how obligatory this all feels.
Once you have all of Big D’s body parts, you can start making your way to his castle. It’s a pretty pathetic journey, a straight line through abandoned towns and the only paths in the game without any enemies. Castlevania lies in ruin, a big grey pile of rubble, unguarded and unloved. You descend into the wreckage and reanimate your sworn enemy, only to find him a weak shadow of his former self, just like his castle. Just like Simon. After another easy boss fight, the game ends. Assuming you didn’t beat the game in record time, you probably got the bad ending, in which Simon is consumed by his curse and dies. Congratulations, fuck you.
So, that’s Simon’s Quest. Not a hard game to beat, but a wholly unsatisfying one. While Castlevania was brutally challenging, its sequel is brutally tedious. Gone is the deliberate action of old, replaced with lots and lots of busywork. Everything about the experience feels like a dull formality, like Simon is just going through the motions until he can finally put Dracula—and by extension, himself—to rest. Your failure to defeat evil looms over the whole journey, this constant reminder that you aren’t the hero you thought you were. It’s not the quest Simon wanted, but maybe it’s the one he deserves. Is it a good game? I don’t know. Who gives a shit? It’s certainly a potent one, and maybe that’s all you need.
Terrible, but it had great ideas
que merda é essa
The fact that this game's reputation is so bad is very surprising to me, don't get me wrong, this game is bullshit, and there's things to criticize here but what surprises me is how all of those criticisms tend to apply to critically acclaimed games of the same era. I can't sit here and pretend like games such as The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man or Metroid aren't equally as cryptic and mean with their design as this game, practically requiring a guide to not completely lose your sanity, so why this game gets so much shit for the same issues is beyond me, I'd assume it's due to nostalgia but I have none for any of these games, to me this is all new and as a newcomer this game is just as good if not better then the games previously mentioned.
Castlevania II is an extremely ambitious game for it's time, sometimes that works in it's favor, sometimes it works against it, having a day and night cycle, an open world with multiple cities and dungeons to explore, multiple items to buy and discover, secrets to uncover, if these all sound like features even modern games are obsessed with having that's because they are, and this game did all of that in 1987, did it do it perfectly? Of course not, but can you blame it? I won't, I see the developers vision here and that's worth something, and it's why I recommend at least giving it a chance, preferably using a guide, I think you'll find a lot to like and appreciate about Simon's Quest, I know I did.
Castlevania II is an extremely ambitious game for it's time, sometimes that works in it's favor, sometimes it works against it, having a day and night cycle, an open world with multiple cities and dungeons to explore, multiple items to buy and discover, secrets to uncover, if these all sound like features even modern games are obsessed with having that's because they are, and this game did all of that in 1987, did it do it perfectly? Of course not, but can you blame it? I won't, I see the developers vision here and that's worth something, and it's why I recommend at least giving it a chance, preferably using a guide, I think you'll find a lot to like and appreciate about Simon's Quest, I know I did.
Fuck it I’m a Simon’s quest defender now. People are way too hard on this game. Yes, it’s cryptic and not often clear about what you need to do next, but is it really that much worse than other games of the time period? I say not. And as a trade off for being confusing, the actual gameplay is extremely forgiving, especially compared to the first game. Honestly, this game deserves a play through just to bask in that castlevania atmosphere and listen to one of the best video songs of the era.
Is it good? No. But it's not your cookie cutter kinda bad, it's a piece of history that tries to do some very ambitious shit for '87. It doesn't really succeed with those ideas obviously but to be quite frank, I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would.
Played via the Castlevania Collection on Switch.
Castlevania 2 has some pretty impressive ideas for the time. I like the day and night cycle, I like talking to villagers, I like exploring and figuring everything out. However, I still like Castlevania 1 just slightly more.
Simon's Quest had me opening up a guide towards the end. I like the simplicity of Castlevania 1 more. And that's a personal taste preference, I fully admit that.
Castlevania II is still a solid game, I just wished I enjoyed it more.
Castlevania 2 has some pretty impressive ideas for the time. I like the day and night cycle, I like talking to villagers, I like exploring and figuring everything out. However, I still like Castlevania 1 just slightly more.
Simon's Quest had me opening up a guide towards the end. I like the simplicity of Castlevania 1 more. And that's a personal taste preference, I fully admit that.
Castlevania II is still a solid game, I just wished I enjoyed it more.
Yeah this one doesn't work
NOT an underrated classic the AVGN was right I WOULD rather have a diarhea dump in my ear
I'm good.
What prossessed these people to make such an awful game?
They took the gameplay of the first game and stretched it out into a boring "rpg". Very boring.
É bem estranho, mas esse é o meu Castlevania favorito, eu sei que ele é confuso em suas mecânicas mas ele introduziu bastante coisa legal pra época do NES, sendo inclusive quase que um molde pros Castles não lineares como o Symphony e os de GBA. Eu gosto dele, boa parte do pessoal não hahahaha.
I completed this game within the Castlevania Anniversary Collection:
Honestly this game wasnt as bad as I expected. The game has very cryptic areas, and tedious grinding, but the dungeons you go to were alright, and I like how this game had a lot of metroidvania elements.
Honestly this game wasnt as bad as I expected. The game has very cryptic areas, and tedious grinding, but the dungeons you go to were alright, and I like how this game had a lot of metroidvania elements.