This review was published on 08/03/2013.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Konami and originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It's the second game in the classic Castlevania series, a series that has grown immensely in popularity over time. This is one of the few direct sequels in the Castlevania franchise, as the games usually have little relation to each other in terms of plot. Despite being a sequel, the game plays completely different from the first one. It's a lot like Zelda II and Super Mario Bros. 2 in that respect. Unlike the first Castlevania, Castlevania II is not fondly remembered by many. In fact, most people despise this game. The massive changes that the game made didn't sit well with a lot of people. As such, Castlevania II is considered the black sheep of the NES trilogy. Having said all that, the game was critically acclaimed when it first came out. It had a massive promotion back in the day, getting on the cover of an early Nintendo Power issue. This Nintendo Power issue caused quite a stir, too, because it depicted a severed head. Anyway, Castlevania II isn't a terrible game, but it does have major problems.

In the first Castlevania, a hero by the name of Simon Belmont was summoned to deal with a nefarious foe. This foe was none other than Count Dracula, lord of vampires. Belmont journeyed into the heart of Dracula's lair, a castle located in Transylvania called Castlevania. Simon used the sacred whip passed down from his ancestors, the whip known as the Vampire Killer, to slay Dracula once and for all. After conquering many challenges within Castlevania, Belmont was victorious in his fight with the dreaded Count. Unfortunately, all was not well, because Simon was struck with a terrible curse upon defeating Dracula. This is where the story of Castlevania II begins. Simon is now on a personal quest to rid the curse from his body. When Dracula was killed, various parts of his body were severed and placed in faraway locations, in order to prevent his revival. To rid himself of the curse, Simon must collect all of Dracula's body parts and take them to the ruins of Castlevania, where he can eliminate the Count for good. In other words, Simon technically has to revive Dracula and kill him again. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but whatever. Also, I'm not exactly sure what Simon's curse does. Maybe it burns whenever he urinates? Or maybe he has a bad case of tinnitus. In any case, Castlevania II's plot is all right.

The first Castlevania was a completely linear adventure from beginning to end, but Castlevania II is the total opposite. This game is a nonlinear adventure through and through, and it's all up to you. Whereas the first Castlevania consisted of carefully designed levels to put your platform skills to the test, Castlevania II is all about exploration. It's structured similarly to a Metroid game, except it has zombies and vampires as opposed to space aliens. You could technically consider Castlevania II to be the first Metroidvania game, but that's a term that didn't get coined until much later on. Exploration in games isn't a bad thing, especially considering how good the Metroid series is, but Castlevania II doesn't do the exploratory thing very well. One of the things that made the original Castlevania so good was the top notch level design, and Castlevania II drops the ball on that one. Most of the areas in Castlevania II are just straight paths littered with enemies that are easily disposed of. Figuring out where to go in this game is also really difficult, especially without a guide. People did have Nintendo Power back then, but that's no justification. The worst case of this is a segment in the game where you need to duck near a specific wall for a period of time so that a tornado mysteriously shows up and carries you into another area. Castlevania II's attempt at expanding the series into uncharted territory is admirable, but it ultimately didn't go well.

Towns exist in Castlevania II as safe havens from the horrific dangers of the outside world. You come to these places to restore your health and buy stuff. What I don't get is why the game's currency is hearts. The first Castlevania used hearts as ammunition for sub-weapons, which was strange enough, but Castlevania II uses hearts as money, which is even stranger. These are some violent villages. Be prepared to do some grinding when you get to a new town, because there are usually expensive items you need to buy in order to progress the game. Some items are merely helpful upgrades, like more powerful whips, but a large majority of them are required to finish the game. Talking to random townsfolk will sometimes reveal hints on what to do next, but the game's script is either poorly written or poorly translated, so the hints often amount to incomprehensible nonsense. Also, I should note that the towns aren't always safe. Castlevania II is one of the first games to introduce a day and night system. Monsters generally get stronger and more plentiful at night, and towns become danger zones filled with undead creatures during the night. The day and night system is one of the cool things about the game, as it adds a nice bit of atmosphere. Towns are also pretty cool, but the grinding the game forces upon you takes away from that. A Castlevania game should never have any grinding in it.

Castles are like Castlevania II's dungeons, if we're using Zelda terminology. These are the areas that Simon must travel to in order to acquire Dracula's body parts. Design wise, castles are a lot more interesting than the rest of the game, but they still feel a bit off. Generally, your objective inside of a castle is to buy a stake from a mysterious dude who sells stakes, locate and defeat the boss, and use the stake to acquire Dracula's body part. It's pretty annoying, because the stake guy is usually in an inconvenient spot far away from where the boss is located, requiring you to do extensive backtracking. There's also the fact that you need hearts to buy a stake, which might necessitate some grinding. You lose hearts whenever you die, so you'll have to earn back what you lost if you have any hopes of making progress in this game. The good news, and I hesitate to call this good news, is that you can buy an extra stake from the stake guy before leaving the castle. This way, you'll already have a stake ready when you get to the next castle. Also, the bosses in this game are pretty bad, especially when you take into account how good the bosses were in the last Castlevania. Bosses range from stupidly hard to stupidly easy, and they all have overly simplistic attack patterns. You don't encounter very many of them, either. Dracula himself is a pushover. The castles in Castlevania II are lackluster, to say the least, and the bosses aren't any better.

Castlevania II is an ambitious game that wasn't quite able to deliver on its ambition. It does away with the careful and calculated design of the original Castlevania and instead opts to go with a veritable mess. Exploration and upgrades are cool, but poor design isn't. The constant grinding required to get through the game is a major problem, too. This isn't an RPG, after all. The game's overly cryptic nature also makes it nigh impossible to figure out your next destination, and the gibberish from the local townsfolk doesn't help. Just about the only thing this game does right is the day and night system, which was way ahead of its time. Perhaps that's Castlevania II's problem, though: it is way too ahead of its time. Castlevania didn't really perfect the exploration formula until Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation. If you can get past all of Castlevania II's quirks, then maybe you'll dig it. However, I don't think there are many people out there that are willing to put up with it, and for good reason. The NES might be capable of far worse things than Castlevania II, but it's also capable of far better things.

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