Post by wafflerevolution on Sept 9, 2013 16:39:41 GMT
by totalgridlock
Konami are another one of those magical Japanese game development and publishing houses, responsible for any number of classic games past and present. Favourite titles from the halcyon days of the 8-bit era onward have spawn countless sequels and spin-offs, with many series still going strong. Contra, Gradius, Metal Gear, and more recently Silent Hill, Suikoden, even the embarrassingly addictive Dance Dance Revolution. And of course, Castlevania. I could pick any number of Castlevania games and wax poetic, but I chose the second outing, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Not only is it one of my favourite games to this day, one of the first NES games I played (actually, one of the first games I played period), but it dared to do something different with a successful game, as we shall see below.
Castlevania II was released as a direct sequel to the first Castlevania game way back in 1987 on the Famicom Disc System. Titled Akumajou Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin in Japan, the game was ported to the NES in North America and (eventually) Europe relatively intact; surprising for a game with so many religious references in a time when Nintendo would rather go back to selling playing cards than release a game with holy water, churches and crosses in abundance.
A random screenshot of Castlevania II will probably convince the uninformed masses that it is simply another jumping and whipping free-for-all like the first game. And while jumping and whipping do occur with assured repetitiveness, there is something more to the game. The game plays much more like an adventure title, in the vein of Metroid or something similar.
At the beginning, you are placed in a village, safe and secure during daybreak. You can take the time to talk to the villagers, all of whom have something to say, hardly any of whom have something sensible to say. You are given more or less free reign to explore an expansive game world, full of forests, swamps, caves, towns and mansions. I say free reign, but the game does have measures to prevent you from getting ahead of yourself and to steer you in the correct direction. Go the wrong way and you will quickly find yourself at a dead end or simply massacred by enemies far too strong for your puny leather whip.
Day and night feature in the game, with night bringing not only stronger and deadlier monsters to the non-populated areas, but an influx of zombies to each of the villages. At which point the villagers will hole up, lock their doors and leave you to face the music. Bloody typical. According to a number of sources, Castlevania II was the first game to feature a day and night cycle, a mainstay of many adventure and RPG games that followed.
The mansions dotted around the landscape are your goal, each one a fiendishly difficult maze full of traps and monsters. A friend of mine put it best: "This game conspires to make you paranoid". False platforms, monsters that drop from above… each step brings death. While the outside world is often a hugely bewildering wilderness, the mansions are at least little more reminiscent of the original Castlevania, only less brown. At the end of each mansion awaits a boss guarding a piece of Dracula's corpse. Collect all the pieces and you may finally face Dracula, sending him packing until the next game. Surprisingly, the bosses and Dracula himself aren't anywhere near as difficult as in other Castlevania games.
In addition to the free-roaming gameplay, a major deviation from the formula established in the first Castlevania is the attempt to introduce RPG elements. You gain and experience and levels through defeating monsters, and I suppose it makes you stronger… but quite frankly it all seems rather pointless when you can just head over to the next village, buy the next most powerful whip and kill those zombies in one strike instead of two.
When all is said and done, the game isn't actually that hard to master, especially for veterans of the first game. What makes it difficult, often frustratingly so, are the confusing and often absent clues that are supposed to tell you where to go. Though it must be partly attributed to the shoddy translation (common in those days, and not unusual today either), Castlevania II so often throws the player a big fat ball of WTF that I am simply astounded that anyone actually finished the game without the modern-day gamers crutch, namely the internet. Obviously, it must be common knowledge that kneeling down in front of a cliff face in the middle of nowhere clutching a crystal will summon a tornado to whisk you away to Oz. I mean Bodley Mansion, Romania. The ever-helpful "Hit cliff with head to make a hole" just doesn't make my neurons fire, I'm afraid. The rest of the villagers are too busy hitting on you to be of any help, either.
Yes, for all its quirks and weirdness, Castlevania II is not without a sense of humour.
M'kay.
The game makes up for all its flaws with an unmistakable charisma, aided not incidently by one of the most magnificent musical scores ever crammed onto an 8-bit cartridge. Despite being most definitely a love-it or hate-it title, Castlevania II deserves to be given a chance.
As for related games, there are too many entries in the Castlevania series to list here, and there are enough remakes, ports and Japan-only titles released on obscure platforms that to try to cover them all would be silly. Few other Castlevania titles approach the gameplay as Simon's Quest does, with most reverting to the more straight-forward whip 'n' jump recipe of the first game, and latterly even attempting a 3D action formula. There's something for everyone, with my most favourable recommendations going to Super Castlevania IV (1991, SNES), Symphony of the Night (1997, PS) and Circle of the Moon (2001, GBA)
Castlevania II, along with Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV are now available for download on the Wii Virtual Console, with Symphony of the Night popping up on XBox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
The game was also ported to the PC as part of the Konami Collector's Series, although to say this is a poor conversion is putting it mildly.
A Tiger handheld version of Castlevania II was also released. I'm not sure whether it is a direct port or whether it's a completely different game with the same title (not an unusual occurrence), as I've never personally seen one of these. Looks cool though.
And finally, until recently there was also a Castlevania movie in the works, for better or worse set to be written and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson (of Resident Evil and AVP fame). While development has been halted by the WGA strike, it'll probably turn up eventually.
In the meantime, break out your toaster, print your favourite walkthrough and go mad.
Collector's Focus (nifty idea, this):
In Europe, Castlevania II remains the easiest to find of the three original NES Castlevania games, appearing for under £5 loose on eBay.
In North America, don't expect it to cost more than $1 loose on eBay. It can also be found on Amazon for between $3.50 (used, loose) and $125 (new and sealed).
As of 5th February 2008, 2803 GameSpot users have a copy of Castlevania II in their collection.
Konami are another one of those magical Japanese game development and publishing houses, responsible for any number of classic games past and present. Favourite titles from the halcyon days of the 8-bit era onward have spawn countless sequels and spin-offs, with many series still going strong. Contra, Gradius, Metal Gear, and more recently Silent Hill, Suikoden, even the embarrassingly addictive Dance Dance Revolution. And of course, Castlevania. I could pick any number of Castlevania games and wax poetic, but I chose the second outing, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Not only is it one of my favourite games to this day, one of the first NES games I played (actually, one of the first games I played period), but it dared to do something different with a successful game, as we shall see below.
Castlevania II was released as a direct sequel to the first Castlevania game way back in 1987 on the Famicom Disc System. Titled Akumajou Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin in Japan, the game was ported to the NES in North America and (eventually) Europe relatively intact; surprising for a game with so many religious references in a time when Nintendo would rather go back to selling playing cards than release a game with holy water, churches and crosses in abundance.
A random screenshot of Castlevania II will probably convince the uninformed masses that it is simply another jumping and whipping free-for-all like the first game. And while jumping and whipping do occur with assured repetitiveness, there is something more to the game. The game plays much more like an adventure title, in the vein of Metroid or something similar.
At the beginning, you are placed in a village, safe and secure during daybreak. You can take the time to talk to the villagers, all of whom have something to say, hardly any of whom have something sensible to say. You are given more or less free reign to explore an expansive game world, full of forests, swamps, caves, towns and mansions. I say free reign, but the game does have measures to prevent you from getting ahead of yourself and to steer you in the correct direction. Go the wrong way and you will quickly find yourself at a dead end or simply massacred by enemies far too strong for your puny leather whip.
Day and night feature in the game, with night bringing not only stronger and deadlier monsters to the non-populated areas, but an influx of zombies to each of the villages. At which point the villagers will hole up, lock their doors and leave you to face the music. Bloody typical. According to a number of sources, Castlevania II was the first game to feature a day and night cycle, a mainstay of many adventure and RPG games that followed.
The mansions dotted around the landscape are your goal, each one a fiendishly difficult maze full of traps and monsters. A friend of mine put it best: "This game conspires to make you paranoid". False platforms, monsters that drop from above… each step brings death. While the outside world is often a hugely bewildering wilderness, the mansions are at least little more reminiscent of the original Castlevania, only less brown. At the end of each mansion awaits a boss guarding a piece of Dracula's corpse. Collect all the pieces and you may finally face Dracula, sending him packing until the next game. Surprisingly, the bosses and Dracula himself aren't anywhere near as difficult as in other Castlevania games.
In addition to the free-roaming gameplay, a major deviation from the formula established in the first Castlevania is the attempt to introduce RPG elements. You gain and experience and levels through defeating monsters, and I suppose it makes you stronger… but quite frankly it all seems rather pointless when you can just head over to the next village, buy the next most powerful whip and kill those zombies in one strike instead of two.
When all is said and done, the game isn't actually that hard to master, especially for veterans of the first game. What makes it difficult, often frustratingly so, are the confusing and often absent clues that are supposed to tell you where to go. Though it must be partly attributed to the shoddy translation (common in those days, and not unusual today either), Castlevania II so often throws the player a big fat ball of WTF that I am simply astounded that anyone actually finished the game without the modern-day gamers crutch, namely the internet. Obviously, it must be common knowledge that kneeling down in front of a cliff face in the middle of nowhere clutching a crystal will summon a tornado to whisk you away to Oz. I mean Bodley Mansion, Romania. The ever-helpful "Hit cliff with head to make a hole" just doesn't make my neurons fire, I'm afraid. The rest of the villagers are too busy hitting on you to be of any help, either.
Yes, for all its quirks and weirdness, Castlevania II is not without a sense of humour.
M'kay.
The game makes up for all its flaws with an unmistakable charisma, aided not incidently by one of the most magnificent musical scores ever crammed onto an 8-bit cartridge. Despite being most definitely a love-it or hate-it title, Castlevania II deserves to be given a chance.
As for related games, there are too many entries in the Castlevania series to list here, and there are enough remakes, ports and Japan-only titles released on obscure platforms that to try to cover them all would be silly. Few other Castlevania titles approach the gameplay as Simon's Quest does, with most reverting to the more straight-forward whip 'n' jump recipe of the first game, and latterly even attempting a 3D action formula. There's something for everyone, with my most favourable recommendations going to Super Castlevania IV (1991, SNES), Symphony of the Night (1997, PS) and Circle of the Moon (2001, GBA)
Castlevania II, along with Castlevania and Super Castlevania IV are now available for download on the Wii Virtual Console, with Symphony of the Night popping up on XBox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
The game was also ported to the PC as part of the Konami Collector's Series, although to say this is a poor conversion is putting it mildly.
A Tiger handheld version of Castlevania II was also released. I'm not sure whether it is a direct port or whether it's a completely different game with the same title (not an unusual occurrence), as I've never personally seen one of these. Looks cool though.
And finally, until recently there was also a Castlevania movie in the works, for better or worse set to be written and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson (of Resident Evil and AVP fame). While development has been halted by the WGA strike, it'll probably turn up eventually.
In the meantime, break out your toaster, print your favourite walkthrough and go mad.
Collector's Focus (nifty idea, this):
In Europe, Castlevania II remains the easiest to find of the three original NES Castlevania games, appearing for under £5 loose on eBay.
In North America, don't expect it to cost more than $1 loose on eBay. It can also be found on Amazon for between $3.50 (used, loose) and $125 (new and sealed).
As of 5th February 2008, 2803 GameSpot users have a copy of Castlevania II in their collection.