Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
System: NES
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1988
Country: USA

Castlevania II was, obviously, the follow up to the surprisingly popular Castlevania. Looking back, while Simon’s Quest held that popularity initially, it added many elements to the series that turned off some gamers. The irony would be that, years later, these elements would come back into play in the newer generation of Castlevania titles.

Many people view Simon’s Quest as a bad game or at the very least a weak addition to the series. A hiccup in the lineage, so to speak. The game clearly didn’t hold up in comparison to the rest of the series, but not all was terrible A lot of it was, yeah, but there were some redeeming qualities within this title. For one, many Castlevania elements that made the newer games so much fun were started here, and the game was incredibly ambitious for the time frame. It was certainly a different game, but most sequels at the time usually had very little stylistic or gameplay elements in common with their predecessor, it was just a trend that seemed to be popular in the late 80s to early 90s. Look at the second games in the Super Mario Bros (on the American side), Zelda, and Final Fantasy series. They were all huge departures from the original popular game, and most were met with mixed reactions at best. Some just moved on and ignored the experiment. Konami seemed to use the sequel curse as an attempt to push the envelope even further, and many of those experiments are what lead to the series becoming so great. Although, at the time you really couldn’t call them enhancements.

The story was one of the biggest improvements. After slaying the vampire king, a curse was put upon Simon Belmont, his family, and the entire civilian population. So now, in order to lift this cursed curse, Simon must recover every piece of Dracula’s body and destroy him once and for all (or until they make more games). This was a steady departure from the normal “BAD GUY BAD, GOOD GUY KILL HIM” mix and match plotlines of the norm and really adds to the dark, foreboding feeling that lords over the game.

The gameplay has also only changed slightly at its core. You are still jumping and whipping everything in your path, occasionally stopping to throw other weapons at them that are really half useless compared to your mighty whip. The additions to the game are the RPG elements. Simon’s Quest is not a linear one, on the surface, but as you play you will realize you really only have two directions. It isn’t possible to get lost or stuck in any area except for a few, and those areas you can get stuck at are more of a “Wait, why the fuck should I have known that?” thing. Like when you reach an impassable stone wall, all you have to do is equip the right crystal and crouch in front of it, than a FUCKING TORNADO will come and carry you over the mountain.

Oh, yeah, I should have known that! It was right in front of me! I often forget the power of friendly, helpful, tornadoes.

Wait, you mean I drop this garlic here and I get a new item? Thank god the townspeople all hinted at this and I didn’t just find it out randomly! How could I miss it?!?! So obvious!

Moments like that, along with the newly added RPG elements, definitely work to make Castlevania II the black sheep of the trilogy. The townspeople are of no help to your quest, they just blather random non-sequiturs without giving you a clue as to where you should be going or adding to the plot. The secondary weapons are still pretty useless after you power up your whip to its max, and the pacing of the game is just excruciating. It feels like it takes days and weeks to beat simply because of how boring it is. I don’t understand how they could make it so boring without changing the action mechanics, but they did. I don’t even think I need to mention the frustrating night/day mechanic. WHAT A TERRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE! Yeah it is, let me just-.. WHAT A TERRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE! Ok, I just need to get into this st-… WHAT A TERRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE! Come the fuck on, I need to-… WHAT A TERRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE! Fuck this, I’m going to go play Mega Man. Ugh.

On the positive side, the graphics and music for the game were both spectacular. The music was always a strong point, but the improvement in the graphics is very surprising. The backgrounds, character sprites, and even the strange 8-bit animations are all great. Sometimes the color pallet can be a little bit strange, but those cases are really only limited to two different “levels”. The addition of multiple endings based on your time of completion is also a pretty cool thing, although most people at the time were not used to this idea and would just call it a day after they got the bad ending because of the slow pace of the game and backtracking. Of course, these endings should add to the replay value, but the game is so excruciating at times that, most likely, you will just accept your ending and youtube the other two.

Eventually all these new features would work out for the series, just not for a decade or so. Simon’s Quest was a bit too ambitious for the time and fell flat on the fang.

All would be redeemed shortly, however.

Score: 52