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    Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

    Game » consists of 12 releases. Released Aug 28, 1987

    Simon Belmont must rid himself of a horrible curse placed upon him by Dracula in this action-adventure platformer and sequel to the original Castlevania.

    Simon's Quest is a better game than whatever else you're playing.

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    Famov

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    #1  Edited By Famov

    If someone were to say that to me yesterday, I would have told them that they were completely wrong. 
     
    If they were to say it today, I would still tell them that they were completely wrong. But you know what? Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a terrific game anyway. My friends and I decided to tackle it yesterday as a group, and this is the universal consensus we came to.
     
    It's kinda sad that the only recognition that game gets anymore is as that game that the Angry Videogame Nerd makes fun of. Why does this happen if the game is so good, an overly cynical person might ask? Any self respecting Castlevania fan knows what makes the Symphony of the Night, Castlevania III, Super Castlevanai IV, and Rondo of Blood so good, so why would this one be forgotten? And even outside of the scope of Castlevania, you have people lamenting about how underrated so many NES games are. Mother deserves more respect! Zelda II is not a black sheep! Never mind that Mother, for all of its merits, is virtually broken due to unbalanced random encounters. Zelda II, on the other hand, can be charitably described as 'difficult to get used to', as it throws the accessibility of the first game out of the window in place of poorly executed platforming and soul crushingly difficult combat. But Castlevania II has none of these problems, so why is it condemned to be forgotten?  Well, there are a few reasons for this. 
     
    First off, progressing in the game is virtually impossible without some previous knowledge of how the game works and the nature of the secrets. The most embarassing example is the part where you have to equip an item, walk to space consising of a few specific tiles, and have Simon kneel there. About five seconds later a tornado will come and warp you to the other side of the map. There's no other way to get there, and there is virtually no way to find this out within the game. 
     
    In fact, the opaqueness of this game is compounded by townfolk that give advice ranging from vaguely useful to outright incorrect information. In between you'll have women propositioning you and one man that claims to have warned you about the first Castlevania and how you were not supposed to come to his town. Not that he does anything to stop you.
     
    And yet, once you begin to get a feel for this game, progress becomes much smoother. The enemies are rarely difficult to kill, and the various whip and health upgrades you get make you a veritable tank. The dungeons are laughably short and easy, with most of them not even containing bosses.
     
    In keeping with the general spirit of the game, death is cheap and not much of a setback at all. Gameovers have you lose your money and experience, which really isn't as much of a problem as it sounds, and as previously mentioned you'll become so durable that about the only time you'll die is if you make a bad jump and fall in the water, but even the platforming is a mostly casual affair, with very few difficult jumps, if indeed there are any at all. 
     
    So what is this game? It's an impossibly archaic action RPG where the hearts that enemies drop inexplicably convert to both money and experience. It has a day/night cycle that seems to do nothing other than makes towns unavailable at night and the enemies marginally more difficult to kill (but they drop more hearts). The dungeons are surprisingly poorly guarded and the bosses are so easy to kill that its jarring. And, without some prior knowledge about the more obtuse secrets you are never going to see more than 20% of the whole game. Sounds compelling to you? It shouldn't, but then I'll remind you that this is a Castlevania game. The environments look great, the music is as good as the NES gets, and as a result you get the classic Castlevania atmosphere that people like me find so compelling. The game even seems to recognize its own weaknesses: The leisurly pace seems to be a concession that progress can be extremely difficult for reasons other than combat and survivability. In fact, if this game was as difficult as some of the other titles while keeping with the wider scope of the action RPG mechanics, it would be very nearly unplayable. "Let the platformers be platformers.", it seems to say, "We're going to let you explore the Transylvanian countryside." 
     
    Considering Halloween is upon us in two days, I really can think of no other game I'd rather be playing. Have it for the NES? Virtual Console? Dubiously legal emulators? If so then play it. If not, then get it and play it. Preferrably as soon as possible, so you can enjoy the game while in the Halloween spirit. At least this is an experimental NES game that isn't going to make you lose your faith in humanity. I can promise that.
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    Seedofpower

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    #2  Edited By Seedofpower

      No, it's not.

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    JohnnyAutoFire

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    #3  Edited By JohnnyAutoFire

    I always enjoyed Castlevania 2, but I understand there are some who didn't.  This video will probably piss you off if you're way into this game, but it's still funny.  If you're not into AVGN then look away.
     
      

      
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    JohnnyAutoFire

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    #4  Edited By JohnnyAutoFire
    @Seedofpower: AH! beat me to it.  damn.
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    Seedofpower

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    #5  Edited By Seedofpower
    @super_mario_john: Lawl.
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    JazGalaxy

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    #6  Edited By JazGalaxy

    I'm absolutely in the camp that Castelvania 2 was amazing. 
     
    The thing is... for everyone who claims that the game was impossible because of the ambiguousness of what you were supposed to do... you have to understand that we beat it. Back in those days, and I don't even know how it happened, there was a vast social network of kids and information just traveled by word of mouth and playing over at your friensds houses. There were LOTS of opaque puzzles in Zelda, Castlevaia, Mario... whatever game... that were solved by the collective resiliance and imagination of American Kids. It's exactly like the ARG philosophy now that basically says SOMEONE out there is going to figure out your insane puzzle no matter how hard or obscure it is. 
     
    What making insane puzzles did, though, was make a game that was completley alive. A modern gamer who grew up in the current eras has no idea how magical games like Castlevania 2 were because literally ANYTHING could happen. There were no rules. Secrets were everywhere. 
     
    Now you play a game for 10 hours and you're done with it.. back then you played games for hundreds of hours. You started them... you quit them... you started them again... you quit them again... That's why people like the original poster and myself just earlier this month are still starting Casltvania 2 like 25 years after it was made... 
     
    Great game. Great music. Great art. Great mood. Great world. Sure some of the puzzles could have been streamlined a bit but it's still awsome.
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    JazGalaxy

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    #7  Edited By JazGalaxy

    I also need to add that, while it's cool and "funny" to hate on games, most of James Criticisms about Castlevania 2 are arbitrary and he admits it in a few of his later videos. 
     
    Why does Simon die when he falls into water? Becuase that's the game. That's the challenge. 
     
    That's like saying "why does Mario die when goombas bump into him?" "Why does Link's sword shoot out like a raygun?" "Why is the sky blue?" 
     
    And as for the tornado... as ridiculous as it is... kneeling has always been the way invisible stuff becomes visible as set by the first game. Kneeling activated treasures and whatnot. So it has precedent.
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    Scooper

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    #8  Edited By Scooper

    Well watch AVGN's last video where he reviews the game again and does state that it is actualy a good game.

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    Al3xand3r

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    #9  Edited By Al3xand3r

    Can't people pimp their favorite games without shitting on games others enjoy these days? What the hell?

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    AgentJ

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    #10  Edited By AgentJ

    There are a lot of Castlevania games i'd rather be playing than Simon's Quest, not to say anything about the rest of gaming

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    Famov

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    #11  Edited By Famov
    @AgentJ said:
    "There are a lot of Castlevania games i'd rather be playing than Simon's Quest, not to say anything about the rest of gaming "
     
    Me too! But I've already played all (okay, most) of the other good Castlevania game. I'm just excited that this one that I skipped for so long turned out to be so good, and I'm trying to spread the love! 

    @Al3xand3r     said:
    "Can't people pimp their favorite games without shitting on games others enjoy these days? What the hell? "

    If that's directed at me, I can assure you that my thread title is facetious. 
     
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    Al3xand3r

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    #12  Edited By Al3xand3r

    I wasn't talking about the title, but about the content of your post.

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    Famov

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    #13  Edited By Famov
    @Al3xand3r said:

    "I wasn't talking about the title, but about the content of your post. "


    I have a love/hate relationship with both Mother and (in particular) Zelda II. I was just bringing up some issues that those games had that Castlevania II did not, to emphasize why I think it's so criminal that this game does not have the teeming cult fanbase that those two games in particular have. We all know how popular those two games are with a segment of the population, and I truly do think that that's a good thing. All three are flawed (in different ways), but brilliant, and so I believe that this game deserves a similar reputation to what those two had. 
     
    I'm assuming that's what you take issue with, because it seems that I've written poorly and not conveyed my thoughts properly.
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    SuperfluousMoniker

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    #14  Edited By SuperfluousMoniker

    This is probably my favorite NES Castlevania game, mostly because of the open ended quest (This is the original Metroidvania) and easier difficulty than the first and third games. Seriously, those are a couple of the hardest games ever, and 2 is no cakewalk but by comparison it's nothing. 
     
    If there were more/better boss fights and less randomness in the puzzle solving I think it would top a lot of people's lists along with Symphony of the Night.

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    Crono

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    #15  Edited By Crono

    Castlevania 2 had great music.  The gameplay was there for the most part but overall it was a terrible piece of ass due to some horrible design choices.

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    JazGalaxy

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    #16  Edited By JazGalaxy

    as a complete aside... one of the most annoying things James consistently complains about in AVGN videos is the password system and "why do passwords have to be so long". 
     
    Well... because you're essentially programming your progress into the game. If the only thing a game remembers is what level your on... yes... 5 letter passwords work fine. But if a game like Castlvania has to keep track of how much money you have, what items you have, what your health is,etc... it's going to need longer passwords.  
     
    It doesn't have a battery. It doens't REMEMBER where you were and just needs a password to validate that you actually PLAYED THE GAME. It needs you to tell it where you were, what your progress was, and what you were doing.
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    JokerClown88

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    #17  Edited By JokerClown88

      
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    JJGIANT

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    #18  Edited By JJGIANT
    @JokerClown88 said:
    "
       "

    That is frikin hilarious..kudos! 
     
    BTW I have absoloutely no say on this matter I just loved the topic title.
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    mhkjtha

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    #19  Edited By mhkjtha

    Its the only game in the castlevania series i havent had the patience to play through.
     
    OK i havent played a few of the obscure japan only releases and the second DS game but other then that ive played them all.

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    JJOR64

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    #20  Edited By JJOR64

    The game did have some good points but, there were many faults with it.

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    ShadowKing7

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    #21  Edited By ShadowKing7

    I've never played a Castlevania game before, so now that my Wii is hooked back up to the Internet again, I'm planning on buying this game on Virtual Console (and I'll probably get the first one too for a comparison).  Yeah, the game has its flaws, especially with the fact that you pretty much need an FAQ in front of you until you've played and beaten it, but it still looks like a pretty good game.  I've heard too much shit on this so I wanna see for myself.
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    Jost1

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    #22  Edited By Jost1

    It's a good game. It would be a GREAT game if it explained certain aspects better.

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