During the NES era, the sophomore slump ran rampant like the black plague. Many iconic series that debuted during the 8-bit era were once young and impressionable, and what do the youthful do when they are at this age? They experiment. Nintendo dabbled in changing the formula with both the Mario and Zelda series, first party titles for their first home system that cemented Nintendo as gaming mainstays. Nintendo decided to follow their two new juggernaut IPs by making sequels that deviated entirely from what made the first titles overnight sensations. Nowadays, this bold move would’ve resulted in gamers sending mail bombs to Nintendo’s PO box. At the time, the now iconic franchises and the young gamers were impressionable enough where radical change didn’t bat an eye. Only in retrospect through better solidifying the DNA of these franchises were these NES sequels maligned and ostracized from the “canon” of exemplary titles. Nintendo weren’t the only developer during this era that unceremoniously pulled the rug out from under gamers. Third-party developers that also released their landmark titles on the NES also followed suit with odd, second-year experimentation. Namely, when Capcom followed up their fast-paced, horror-inspired 2D platformer Castlevania. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest is a sequel that is spoken in the same breath as the other less-than-savory sequels in the NES library for changing up the Castlevania formula that won so many over only a year prior. All of these sequels were seen in a poor light decades on, but Castlevania had the added misfortune of being the first review of the Angry Video Game Nerd; the early Youtube sensation whose reviews kept the forgotten mistakes of gaming’s past in the collective consciousness for my generation. Upon finally playing through Castlevania II, I can clearly see why James Rolfe would’ve picked this game as the pilot for an internet series whose premise was to slander awful examples from this bygone era of gaming.
Castlevania II is a controversial, experimental sequel that shares more common ground with Zelda II rather than another game masquerading as Castlevania like in the case of Super Mario Bros. 2. It's still a direct sequel that takes place after the events of the first game. Dracula no longer reigns over the land after both he and his castle have been smote, but Simon must retract a curse that Dracula has put on him. Simon must scrounge the land and find pieces of Dracula’s body and immolate them together to permanently extinguish the dark vampire lord and save himself. Castlevania II at least shares the same ominous, foggy atmosphere established in the first game, but that’s not the point of contention that separates itself from its predecessor. Castlevania II sees the 2D platformer gameplay of the series in the vein of a quasi-RPG. Rather than climbing the stories of Dracula’s tower, Simon traverses the grounds of the land that Dracula used to cast a shadow over. He’ll visit the various towns and the ghoulish grounds that surround them, looking for the pieces of Dracula’s body to then destroy them. This premise does not sound like it lends to the fast-paced action of the first game, and that’s because it doesn’t. Castlevania II takes things down a notch with calmer gameplay. Castlevania II’s approach is somewhat of an ambiguous blend of a 2D platformer with primitive Metroidvania and action RPG elements sprinkled into the design. Hearts are now currency instead of ammunition which is used to buy a plethora of items throughout the various towns Simon comes across. NPCs are scattered about and will give Simon clues about how to progress, but these hints are incredibly vague and rife with typos. This game was the first to feature an extensive guide in Nintendo Power detailing what to do. Gamers in 1987 probably would’ve been hopelessly lost without it. The occasional moments of cryptic bullshit found in many NES games are one thing, but Castlevania II seems to revel in this to a great degree.
The emphasis on exploration means that the combat in Castlevania has been subdued exponentially. The frustration of being launched back ten feet from every damage hit has been mitigated entirely. The enemies in Castlevania II are set pieces for the foreground of the land, standing around minding their own businesses rather than savagely trying to decimate Simon Belmont. The enemies have collectively lost their luster, and it’s a shame because the game supplies Simon with more than enough firepower. Most of the purchasable items in Castlevania II are tools to use against the various creatures that roam around. Simon’s trademark whip only had one upgrade in the first game, but now the purchasable additions will grant Simon a stocky fire whip. The same can be said for the dagger, which can also be upgraded to a golden knife that pierces defenses. Laurels will grant Simon a brief window of invincibility, Dracula’s rib will deflect projectiles, and Simon can go buck wild with the unlimited use of the holy water item. These upgrades are nice, but they would’ve been more appreciated in the first game. I’d be willing to bet that most players of the first game would’ve given their left nut to have had at least one of these to help them on their journey up to Dracula. The only bit of challenge Simon’s Quest offers is the occasional spacious platforms, but I’d argue that the player has to make a pinpoint, accurate leap here due to bad game design more than anything else.
Both the quasi-RPG elements and the subdued action gameplay make Castlevania II boring as hell: the biggest cardinal sin across all forms of art and entertainment. As much as I groaned and gritted my teeth at some of the challenges presented in the first Castlevania, I started to yearn for high-octane difficulty when playing Castlevania II. The hybrid that Konami concocted does not make for an invigorating game. Diminishing the action-intensive gameplay present in the first Castlevania has made the sequel a facile experience. Whether it be having to traverse through the mundane towns or take down the lethargic enemies, Castlevania II doesn’t offer much in terms of providing the player with a substantial experience. To add insult to injury, this mundane game also pads the experience with tons of grating tedium. The infamous quote from this game, “what a horrible night to have a curse,” refers to a recurring moment in Simon’s Quest when the day changes to night. The irritating factor revolving around these shifts is not due to the abrupt nature of the jarring textboxes or the languid pace at which the text is presented.
Day and night in Simon’s Quest are as different as…well, day and night. Daytime is the only time when any of the NPCs are out and about along with their various wares. During the night, all of these NPCs shelter themselves from the ghouls that run rampant throughout each town and look and move like 8-bit Scooby-Doo villains. Because of this, none of the NPCs vital to progression are available, including the church, which lets the player fully heal. Nighttime in Simon’s Quest is a giant inconvenience, and its purpose seems to be a giant, forced grinding session. Like with every other point of difficulty, the consequence of dying has also been substantially neutered. The punishment for getting a game over is the player losing all of their currency. It doesn’t sound too harsh until one realizes how acquiring currency is a huge point of progression in this game, and the game forces the player to undergo this process of grinding for their money back. The process is a grueling excursion made even more tedious because it plays on one of my biggest pet peeves in gaming. Each moment when the message of “the morning sun has vanquished the horrible night” was a sheer blessing. A “Sun’s Song” type of manual time transformation would’ve mitigated the tedium drastically.
Between the towns and hostile wildlands are the mansions, gothic manors that house Dracula’s assorted parts. The mansions take yet another apparent influence from Zelda II as they seem to be modeled after the temples of that game. However, these mansions are no Zelda dungeons. Unlike the intricate, labyrinthian designs that the Zelda franchise is known for, the mansions in Simon’s Quest attempt to capture the same tone as something from Zelda falling flat. Each mansion's look is as cookie-cutter as the towns, and their designs boil down to two simple objectives. Simon must come across an orb with a body part somewhere, but the only way he can crack the orbs open is to purchase an oak stake from a merchant in the mansion. Each mansion provides two obvious paths with one leading to the merchant and the other leading to the orb. Traversing through every one of these mansions made me feel as if I was simply picking up something from the store, a simple chore with a clear objective with little to no inconvenience in the process. If I’m sincerely comparing an aspect of a video game with a dull aspect of reality, then this game has a serious problem.
Some of these mansions have the occasional boss battle, and these encounters are just as underwhelming as the gothic estates that house them. The first Castlevania offered some of the most difficult boss fights on the NES. I still have something of a gaming PTSD against both Dracula and the Grim Reaper from facing them in the first game. In Simon’s Quest, these horrifyingly challenging bosses are reduced to being so trivial that it’s hilarious. Something about The Grim Reaper, a boss that practically brought me to red-faced, frustrated tears moving at a snail’s pace with infrequent scythe swings, is almost therapeutic. The same can be said for Dracula, who can be defeated in seconds by spamming the holy water here. The only other boss is a gray, floating mask named Carmilla, who does not deviate from the pattern of pushovers intended to be menacing, end-level foes. The even funnier aspect about the overall nonchalant boss encounters is that they can be bypassed entirely (except for Dracula). The player can simply walk on by and use the oak stake to grab the item and leave. I would be bewildered by the fact that none of the developers caught this, but then I remember all of the other careless factors in this game and begin to draw my cynical conclusions.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest sucks, and I wish I was being glib with an ironic pun. No, Castlevania II is, unfortunately, a dark stain on the legacy of the Castlevania franchise. Initially, I thought this negative reputation was as undeserved as that of other sophomore sequels on the NES, but it is more deserving of being maligned than the others. I am now hard-pressed to say that Castlevania II's radical direction away from the format of the first game was an experimental move because the word “experimentation” implies that the developers tried. From what I can tell, they could not have bothered to give a shit about the design, combat, or any other aspect of this game, and the general laziness shows through all of these lackluster elements. I will defend the legacies of both American Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II, but Castlevania II deserves every bit of criticism it gets.
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Attributed: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
Castlevania II is a controversial, experimental sequel that shares more common ground with Zelda II rather than another game masquerading as Castlevania like in the case of Super Mario Bros. 2. It's still a direct sequel that takes place after the events of the first game. Dracula no longer reigns over the land after both he and his castle have been smote, but Simon must retract a curse that Dracula has put on him. Simon must scrounge the land and find pieces of Dracula’s body and immolate them together to permanently extinguish the dark vampire lord and save himself. Castlevania II at least shares the same ominous, foggy atmosphere established in the first game, but that’s not the point of contention that separates itself from its predecessor. Castlevania II sees the 2D platformer gameplay of the series in the vein of a quasi-RPG. Rather than climbing the stories of Dracula’s tower, Simon traverses the grounds of the land that Dracula used to cast a shadow over. He’ll visit the various towns and the ghoulish grounds that surround them, looking for the pieces of Dracula’s body to then destroy them. This premise does not sound like it lends to the fast-paced action of the first game, and that’s because it doesn’t. Castlevania II takes things down a notch with calmer gameplay. Castlevania II’s approach is somewhat of an ambiguous blend of a 2D platformer with primitive Metroidvania and action RPG elements sprinkled into the design. Hearts are now currency instead of ammunition which is used to buy a plethora of items throughout the various towns Simon comes across. NPCs are scattered about and will give Simon clues about how to progress, but these hints are incredibly vague and rife with typos. This game was the first to feature an extensive guide in Nintendo Power detailing what to do. Gamers in 1987 probably would’ve been hopelessly lost without it. The occasional moments of cryptic bullshit found in many NES games are one thing, but Castlevania II seems to revel in this to a great degree.
The emphasis on exploration means that the combat in Castlevania has been subdued exponentially. The frustration of being launched back ten feet from every damage hit has been mitigated entirely. The enemies in Castlevania II are set pieces for the foreground of the land, standing around minding their own businesses rather than savagely trying to decimate Simon Belmont. The enemies have collectively lost their luster, and it’s a shame because the game supplies Simon with more than enough firepower. Most of the purchasable items in Castlevania II are tools to use against the various creatures that roam around. Simon’s trademark whip only had one upgrade in the first game, but now the purchasable additions will grant Simon a stocky fire whip. The same can be said for the dagger, which can also be upgraded to a golden knife that pierces defenses. Laurels will grant Simon a brief window of invincibility, Dracula’s rib will deflect projectiles, and Simon can go buck wild with the unlimited use of the holy water item. These upgrades are nice, but they would’ve been more appreciated in the first game. I’d be willing to bet that most players of the first game would’ve given their left nut to have had at least one of these to help them on their journey up to Dracula. The only bit of challenge Simon’s Quest offers is the occasional spacious platforms, but I’d argue that the player has to make a pinpoint, accurate leap here due to bad game design more than anything else.
Both the quasi-RPG elements and the subdued action gameplay make Castlevania II boring as hell: the biggest cardinal sin across all forms of art and entertainment. As much as I groaned and gritted my teeth at some of the challenges presented in the first Castlevania, I started to yearn for high-octane difficulty when playing Castlevania II. The hybrid that Konami concocted does not make for an invigorating game. Diminishing the action-intensive gameplay present in the first Castlevania has made the sequel a facile experience. Whether it be having to traverse through the mundane towns or take down the lethargic enemies, Castlevania II doesn’t offer much in terms of providing the player with a substantial experience. To add insult to injury, this mundane game also pads the experience with tons of grating tedium. The infamous quote from this game, “what a horrible night to have a curse,” refers to a recurring moment in Simon’s Quest when the day changes to night. The irritating factor revolving around these shifts is not due to the abrupt nature of the jarring textboxes or the languid pace at which the text is presented.
Day and night in Simon’s Quest are as different as…well, day and night. Daytime is the only time when any of the NPCs are out and about along with their various wares. During the night, all of these NPCs shelter themselves from the ghouls that run rampant throughout each town and look and move like 8-bit Scooby-Doo villains. Because of this, none of the NPCs vital to progression are available, including the church, which lets the player fully heal. Nighttime in Simon’s Quest is a giant inconvenience, and its purpose seems to be a giant, forced grinding session. Like with every other point of difficulty, the consequence of dying has also been substantially neutered. The punishment for getting a game over is the player losing all of their currency. It doesn’t sound too harsh until one realizes how acquiring currency is a huge point of progression in this game, and the game forces the player to undergo this process of grinding for their money back. The process is a grueling excursion made even more tedious because it plays on one of my biggest pet peeves in gaming. Each moment when the message of “the morning sun has vanquished the horrible night” was a sheer blessing. A “Sun’s Song” type of manual time transformation would’ve mitigated the tedium drastically.
Between the towns and hostile wildlands are the mansions, gothic manors that house Dracula’s assorted parts. The mansions take yet another apparent influence from Zelda II as they seem to be modeled after the temples of that game. However, these mansions are no Zelda dungeons. Unlike the intricate, labyrinthian designs that the Zelda franchise is known for, the mansions in Simon’s Quest attempt to capture the same tone as something from Zelda falling flat. Each mansion's look is as cookie-cutter as the towns, and their designs boil down to two simple objectives. Simon must come across an orb with a body part somewhere, but the only way he can crack the orbs open is to purchase an oak stake from a merchant in the mansion. Each mansion provides two obvious paths with one leading to the merchant and the other leading to the orb. Traversing through every one of these mansions made me feel as if I was simply picking up something from the store, a simple chore with a clear objective with little to no inconvenience in the process. If I’m sincerely comparing an aspect of a video game with a dull aspect of reality, then this game has a serious problem.
Some of these mansions have the occasional boss battle, and these encounters are just as underwhelming as the gothic estates that house them. The first Castlevania offered some of the most difficult boss fights on the NES. I still have something of a gaming PTSD against both Dracula and the Grim Reaper from facing them in the first game. In Simon’s Quest, these horrifyingly challenging bosses are reduced to being so trivial that it’s hilarious. Something about The Grim Reaper, a boss that practically brought me to red-faced, frustrated tears moving at a snail’s pace with infrequent scythe swings, is almost therapeutic. The same can be said for Dracula, who can be defeated in seconds by spamming the holy water here. The only other boss is a gray, floating mask named Carmilla, who does not deviate from the pattern of pushovers intended to be menacing, end-level foes. The even funnier aspect about the overall nonchalant boss encounters is that they can be bypassed entirely (except for Dracula). The player can simply walk on by and use the oak stake to grab the item and leave. I would be bewildered by the fact that none of the developers caught this, but then I remember all of the other careless factors in this game and begin to draw my cynical conclusions.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest sucks, and I wish I was being glib with an ironic pun. No, Castlevania II is, unfortunately, a dark stain on the legacy of the Castlevania franchise. Initially, I thought this negative reputation was as undeserved as that of other sophomore sequels on the NES, but it is more deserving of being maligned than the others. I am now hard-pressed to say that Castlevania II's radical direction away from the format of the first game was an experimental move because the word “experimentation” implies that the developers tried. From what I can tell, they could not have bothered to give a shit about the design, combat, or any other aspect of this game, and the general laziness shows through all of these lackluster elements. I will defend the legacies of both American Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II, but Castlevania II deserves every bit of criticism it gets.
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Attributed: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com