October Retro Community Playthrough - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

[JerryGreenwood]

I've completed everything (a week ago, I thought I made a post about it) except for beating the original Castlevania. I don't own it and I've never beaten the Grim Reaper so I don't think I'll be able to complete the entire CV challenge.

I see where you mentioned doing everything except killing Dracula several pages back. Sorry, I think it got lost in the rant.    Did you find all 13 clue books? Nice work, thanks for participating!

Yeah, I ranted, but it was a rant out of love  

Yes, all clue books. I made sense out of 12 of them. 1 of them I couldn't figure out.

[singlebanana]

I've completed everything (a week ago, I thought I made a post about it) except for beating the original Castlevania. I don't own it and I've never beaten the Grim Reaper so I don't think I'll be able to complete the entire CV challenge.

I see where you mentioned doing everything except killing Dracula several pages back. Sorry, I think it got lost in the rant.    Did you find all 13 clue books? Nice work, thanks for participating!

Yeah, I ranted, but it was a rant out of love  

Yes, all clue books. I made sense out of 12 of them. 1 of them I couldn't figure out.

Thank for so much for the clarification. I was just typing up a message to you regarding it. Nice work! We'll see if someone can overtake your new high score with a Castlevania run by the end of the month. Thanks for participating.

[bombatomba]

I've completed everything (a week ago, I thought I made a post about it) except for beating the original Castlevania. I don't own it and I've never beaten the Grim Reaper so I don't think I'll be able to complete the entire CV challenge.

I see where you mentioned doing everything except killing Dracula several pages back. Sorry, I think it got lost in the rant.    Did you find all 13 clue books? Nice work, thanks for participating!

Yeah, I ranted, but it was a rant out of love  

Yes, all clue books. I made sense out of 12 of them. 1 of them I couldn't figure out.

Thank for so much for the clarification. I was just typing up a message to you regarding it. Nice work! We'll see if someone can overtake your new high score with a Castlevania run by the end of the month. Thanks for participating.

AHH!  I've got some work to do this weekend...

[russlyman]

I still have to complete this. I got lost playing Resident Evil:Revaltions. And than Batman Origins:Blackgate came out for the 3Ds as well.

[bombatomba]

I'm bowing out.  I just can't beat Dracula's form in Castlevania I.  Since I'm refusing to use a FAQ for the hint books and also refusing to use save states to get back up the end it's just taking too much effort.  My score will have to stand as it is.

[singlebanana]

I'm bowing out.  I just can't beat Dracula's form in Castlevania I.  Since I'm refusing to use a FAQ for the hint books and also refusing to use save states to get back up the end it's just taking too much effort.  My score will have to stand as it is.

That's a tough last battle that requires quite a lot of precise jumps. Getting there with a double or triple shot of holy water is key for the 2nd form, sometimes those shots will randomly drop during that battle. At least you start right at Dracula's room, just annoying recollecting hearts each time.

[Duke.Togo]

I go for triple-shot cross on Dracula, not too bad with those since you can throw, then just whip the fireballs on the first form every time. Then just go nuts with crosses on the second form. The real drag is just the back and forth to get load up on hearts.

It's been a bit since the last time I beat it, but I have a game save on the FDS version at Dracula. Maybe I'll give it a crack if I find a few.

[bombatomba]

It's the first form that ends up kicking my tush, then when I get to the second form I don't have enough hearts to "holy-water lock" him down.  The grind isn't so bad (not after playing Castlevania II), it's just the precise jumps over Dracula's fireballs that end up getting me.  I'm going to bring my controller to work tomorrow and give it a try one more time at lunch.  You know what they say?  One hundred-fiftieth times the charm, right?

[singlebanana]

2 more days.....

[singlebanana]

Still a few more hours to knock off some of those achievements.

Let's go ahead and discuss the game a little. Thoughts? Likes/Dislikes? Surprises?

[JerryGreenwood]

I'm surprised more people haven't beat my score. I assumed someone would've beaten Castlevania. I thought all the other achievements were fairly easy, but maybe I just love this game too much.

Thoughts - Game is awesome

Likes - Everything

Dislikes - Not enough cryptic messages

Surprises - I was surprised when I looked into the Death Star and did NOT die.

EDIT - I could write more, but I think I wrote enough on page 6 or 7 

[singlebanana]

Yeah, finding the books is a fairly daunting task, that you undertook. Most of them are easily discovered in the castles by breaking bricks with the holy water, but one rarely uses the holy water in the outer world. For those of you who don't know, you can see hidden items by equipping Dracula's eye once you have it. I think that most people tend to equip the rib, which acts as a shield, and is by far the most useful of the body parts. I really wish that they would have incorporated using the body parts a little more into the game. Here is what I know about equipping the parts (please add to it if you can):

Rib - reflects fireballs
Heart - allows ferryman to take you to Brahm's Mansion
Eye - see  hidden objects in walls
Nail - allows whip to break certain walls
Ring - allows entrance into Drac's castle (but doesn't have to be equipped to enter)

Of course, I love Simon's Quest and that was the big reason I picked it for the playthrough. I think it is definitely easier than the original and part III (once you know the secrets), and this aided in my enjoyment when I was a younger gamer.

[Duke.Togo]

It's the first form that ends up kicking my tush, then when I get to the second form I don't have enough hearts to "holy-water lock" him down.  The grind isn't so bad (not after playing Castlevania II), it's just the precise jumps over Dracula's fireballs that end up getting me.  I'm going to bring my controller to work tomorrow and give it a try one more time at lunch.  You know what they say?  One hundred-fiftieth times the charm, right?

Been busy trying to get the show together, so I didn't get time to take a crack at it. If you are going the holy water route, on the first form you can time it where you jump towards Dracula and whip late so that you will hit him and also destroy all the fireballs right as they spawn. Takes some practice, but once you have the timing down you can work it easily unless he appears on top of you. When that happens turn around and just get rid of the fireballs and wait for another shot.

My thoughts:

This is the weakest entry in the NES trilogy. It tries hard to do some interesting things, but it really doesn't come together in the end. The bosses (when there are any) are weak, and the laurels make it simple to not get touched by them. The only challenge is to try to beat the game quickly in order to get the best ending.

I didn't find the need to use many of the secondary weapons, and the need to hoard hearts works against their utility. The body parts don't add compelling gameplay elements, and the rib is the only useful one. Using a shield in Castlevania feels very strange, and I'm glad that it went away for the most part.

The experience system is underdeveloped and can be completely ignored.

The music is fantastic. The traditional parts of the gameplay are solid, and fun. This game aspires to be something else, but I am really glad the team went back to tradition for Castlevania III.

[JerryGreenwood]

Yeah, finding the books is a fairly daunting task, that you undertook. Most of them are easily discovered in the castles by breaking bricks with the holy water, but one rarely uses the holy water in the outer world. For those of you who don't know, you can see hidden items by equipping Dracula's eye once you have it.

Yes, I just used the Eye the entire game. And I'm 99% sure that I've found them all in a previous playthrough because I was obsessed with the text in this game.

[JerryGreenwood]

This game aspires to be something else, but I am really glad the team went back to tradition for Castlevania III.

I agree that some parts you mentioned were poorly executed, but one could argue that it's a precursor to SoTN. I know SoTN is closer to Super Metroid, but the general theme of running around gathering items to progress is the same.

I think they just tried to make a different style of game like Nintendo did when they made Zelda II. Clearly, the biggest mistake Konami made was making the game extremely easy skill-wise. I'm pretty confident I could finish the entire game with one hand. The only hard part would be killing a slime or anything that flies.