| "You got to love the
mansions! Only in Castlevania 2 would you find spikes, poisonous water,
monsters, and people hung in a mansion. Resident Evil... eat your heart
out!"
- J.H. |
 
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| Music: |
"Bloody Tears" |
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By:
Kenichi Matsubara & S. Terishiima |
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Castlevania
II: Simon's Quest has a lot in common to that of
Super Mario
Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure
of Link. They are sequels,
classics, but most of all, they are all oddballs of their previous
counterparts. SMB2 has Mario with Luigi, Princess, and
Toad and instead of jumping on goombas and koopa troopas, they throw vegetables at
Shy Guys and Tweeters; Zelda 2 has Link in
a side-scroller/RPG instead of an overhead and it also has a
level-builder!
Castlevania 2 is now different as it delves in an
exploring world instead of going through stage to stage and your levels
gets raised plus you can buy weapons! Whoa!
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 Storyline:
5/5 |
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As Simon Belmont, hero
of the first Castlevania, you're in bad shape;
you see, before you
killed Dracula before, he bit you, so you will soon be living a more...
nocturnal lifestyle. Not good. So, how do you remedy this?
Simple! You gather Dracula's body parts, which have been scattered
across the land by Dracula's followers, use them to bring Dracula back
to life, and kill him again. I can't think of another game with a
storyline as creative and innovative like this!
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Graphics:
5/5 |
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Everything
was took up a notch in this 2nd Castlevania, it shows. You could go into
the forests and get that eerie feeling and you get the feel of clouded
trees blocking all the sunlight out. In fact, there's a forest where I
live that's a lot like this! The towns were designed good, except for the
weird reason that there's staircases that go up to more shops and houses
(I'm not sure if this existed back in the 1800's?). You got to love the
mansions! Only in Castlevania 2 would you find spikes, poisonous water,
monsters, and people hung in a mansion. Resident Evil... eat your heart
out!
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Audio:
5/5
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This is probably the
most cherished part of the game. Tunes like Bloody Tears (day theme) or
Monster Dance (night theme) can still be heard echoing in the minds of
many. The sound effects are basically recycled from the first one with a
few exceptions (the sound of Simon dying is one). The different whips all
had different sound to them which was pretty cool. The Fire Whip for
example had a "whirling" noise to it as if the whip really was
made of fire. Overall, audio rocked!
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Gameplay:
5/5
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This Castlevania was
somewhat different from it's predecessor. Instead of going stage by
stage through Dracula's castle, you're exploring the countryside,
talking to people, and adventuring through haunted mansions that hold
Dracula's missing body parts. You buy new weapons and items by collecting
hearts (instead of using them for weapons) and at night, you are
hounded by endless numbers of zombies (even in town) and normal monsters
get stronger until the sun rises again. In fact, this is the first video
game ever to feature day/night settings and having enemies change in
difficulty as a result! Also, you can use some of Dracula's parts as
weapons/items (Dracula's rib can be used as a shield for example).
When completing the
game, in order to get the best ending, you can't die and have to
finish the game as quick as possible. If you do die many times and you
take a while to finish the game, you can still beat Dracula, but the
storyline will unfold that Simon dies from his injuries shortly after
beating Dracula... this can't happen!
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Control:
3/5
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All masterpieces have
their flaws if you look hard enough. This masterpiece's flaw is the
demon known as "Jumping". The jumping is a bit awkward. You don't jump
very far, barely clearing the smallest of gaps and you have NO midair
control. Of course, this trait is featured into every single Castlevania
game on a Nintendo system, so if you're a Castlevania
fan like me then
you know this and expect this. It's not really a flaw, but instead it's
more of a nuisance.
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Fun
Factor: 3/5 |
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This game can be fun. Traveling
aimlessly, buying upgrades for your weapons, trying to find out what,
"Clues to Dracula's Curse are in Veros Woods.", means when you
go to the damn place and find nothing but skeletons... but what the
heck!
You'll fight tons of monsters, but it doesn't really matter... die, and
you'll simply be resurrected in the same spot. Run out of lives, and
you're docked all of your hearts, but otherwise continue nearly
unscathed. Also, the day turning night is pretty awesome! The music is
unforgettable and very riveting when you slash through monsters.
To add to the replay
value, Konami threw in three different endings, which was all but unheard
of at the time of the game's release
except for Metroid. What ending you receive is
determined by how many game days it takes you to complete your quest and
how many times (if any) you died.
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Frustration:
5/5
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Well, without aid from
someone else, then getting through this game is just about impossible.
The actual GAME isn't that hard, but some of the puzzles are too
difficult to figure out. I mean, sure, there's a guy that tells you if
you kneel at the base of a cliff, something neat will happen… but you
don't know which cliff, or for how long you need to kneel! I mean...
this game suffers constantly from bad engrish! Other than that, the game
is just fine. Another problem I got is the fact that there is almost no
bosses in the game! Look around. There's none, except for the Grim
Reaper who you can run away from and then there is Dracula... but that's
it!
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Overall:
4/5 |
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Despite the absence of any real bosses and a
story that just kind of throws you into the middle of a town with no idea
of what to do, this is one hell of a game. This game SHOULD be in your collection.
Simon's Quest will always be remembered for taking a step away from
the platformer game, and a step to a RPG/Adventure-type game and at the
same time it retains the
classic feel of the series.
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Related
Content:
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- Juggalo/Hulkamaniac
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