Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
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- "Castlevania II" and "Castlevania 2" redirect here. For information on the Game Boy game "Belmont's Revenge", see Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge.
| Castlevania II: Simon's Quest | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Series | Castlevania |
| Platform(s) | Famicom Disk System, Nintendo Entertainment System, |
| Release date | JP August 28, 1987 USA December 1, 1988 EUR April 27, 1990 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | OFLC: G |
| Media | Floppy disk (FDS), 2-megabit cartridge (NES) |
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, known in Japan as Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin (ドラキュラII呪いの封印 Dorakyura Tsū: Noroi no Fūin?, lit. "Dracula II: The Accursed Seal"), is a Japanese console video game developed by Konami in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System. In 1988, it was ported to cartridge format and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe on October 19, 2007, followed by North America on October 29, 2007.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was the first game in the Castlevania series to venture away from straightforward linear gameplay, instead featuring a single continuous map and some role-playing game-like elements. The game stars Simon Belmont, the hero of the first Castlevania title, and takes place in 1698, seven years after the story of the original.
The game's English localization has been critisized for its Engrish quality. Most notably, the dialogue spoken by NPCs in the game. They would offer clues or cryptic messages, which would confuse or mislead players, because of the unclear translation.[citation needed] Current producer Koji Igarashi, revealed in an interview that all the NPCs in the Japanese version were deliberate liars,[1] which resulted in a more confusing translation.
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[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay departs from the standard platforming genre of the first Castlevania, and instead uses an exploration system, where Simon travels revisitable towns and dungeons. Some RPG aspects are throughout the game — Simon can communicate with townspeople, who will offer vague clues. He can also go to merchants who will sell items, either for fighting enemies or for traversing unreachable areas in the game. In order to pay for said items, the player must collect hearts, which are dropped by defeated enemies. In addition to the ordinary items in Simon's inventory, he can also purchase new whips in a few locations of the game. He begins with a standard Leather Whip, and can upgrade to stronger ones with each new purchase. The player can also visit a place called the Church in every town to restore their life points.
In addition, the game has an experience system also found in role-playing games. Experience points are accumulated by defeating enemies. After a sufficient amount of them has been received, Simon's level will rise and his maximum health will increase, as well as his attack and defense power. After each time he gains a new level, the required amount of experience points for the next one also increase. The maximum number of levels the player can get to is 6.
Simon's Quest has a day-to-night system, where the period of time in the game can change between daytime and nightfall. It was one of the earliest games created that used day and night periods.[citation needed] Each sequence lasts a few minutes before the next transition, and each have a prominent effect on the game and the player's encounters. During the day, the enemies outside of towns in the game are less strong and occurant. At night time, the enemies appear more often and do more damage to the player. However, when defeated, they give more hearts and experience points in compensation. The townspeople and merchants in their respective locations are no longer available to talk to during night time sequences, and are replaced by enemies called zombies.
Despite the departure from the previous game, there are elements from it that have stayed. This includes the sub-weapons, which are secondary weapons to Simon's whip, each with a different use — unlike most games in the series, they do not require the consumption of hearts, and can be used with no limitation. One of them returning from Castlevania is the Holy Water, a glass that can be thrown a space away from the player. It erupts into flames on the ground and does damage to any enemies standing near them. Some sub-weapons from the previous game do not return (such as the Axe), but there are also new ones that make their first appearance in Simon's Quest. One is the Diamond, which bounces off any walls surrounding the player, and damaging any nearby enemies before disappearing after a brief period. The Diamond would be incorporated again into later titles of the series, such as Symphony of the Night.
The goal of the game is to travel to the located mansions in the game's world, and find the body parts of Dracula's corpse. The body parts present themselves as items as well, and can be utilized to support the player in the game. For example, Dracula's Rib can be used as a shield to block any projectile attacks fired from an enemy.
There are a total of five mansions that have a body part. After finding all five of the parts, this will allow the player to clear the blockade in front of Dracula's home castle. Upon entering there, Dracula will be revived, and he will fight the player. After the player defeats him, there are three possible endings, which are received based on the time the player took to finish the game. One of the endings is a scenario where Simon dies from fatal injuries from the fight, and Dracula lives.
Although the gameplay was a departure from the action plaftorming in other Castlevania titles, the idea of exploration in Simon's Quest would be an inspiration for the PlayStation game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.[citation needed]
[edit] Storyline
According to the manual, seven years after the events of the game Castlevania, Simon Belmont visits his family's resting ground. His back is critically injured by his last encounter with Dracula in the previous game. He suddenly feels something behind him, and turns to see a young woman standing within the mist. She tells him that a curse was placed upon him by Dracula during their last battle, and that he doesn't have long to live. However, she continues to say that the curse can be undone if he resurrects Dracula himself. The woman explains Dracula's body was split into five different parts after his defeat seven years ago, and that Simon must recover these and bring them to Dracula's ruined stronghold, Castlevania. There, he must seal Dracula and defeat him. However, the unknown woman cannot guarantee that this will destroy Dracula permanently. She then disappears.[2][3]
During the game, Simon searches for the body parts of Dracula's corpse from five respective mansions. He succeeds in returning them to Castlevania, and defeats the resurrected Dracula. He recovers from the curse.
[edit] Reception
The game was reviewed negatively by the Angry Video Game Nerd, otherwise known as James Rolfe. It was his first video review. He said that, "Castlevania I and III are both great, classic Nintendo titles, but for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, the game designers obviously were not thinking straight." Among the complaints were the ten-second time delay that happens whenever a day-to-night transition occurs; the lack of in-game clues for the game's esoteric puzzles; the lack of boss monsters in the mansions; the depiction of Dracula as the Grim Reaper (a departure from the series' usual depiction of Dracula in a dark suit and cape); and the ease of the final battle (in his review, Rolfe demonstrates a strategy that allows the player to legitimately beat the boss in less than thirty seconds, without any cheat codes). On his official website, Rolfe said the video review was a 'little joke', and mostly exaggerated.[4]
[edit] Other games
In 1988, Tiger Electronics released a handheld based on Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
On November 16, 2002, it was a part of Castlevania and Contra: Konami Collector's Series in North America. Aside from a few spelling corrections in the game's text, it is a direct emulation of the original game.
[edit] In other media
- Simon's Quest was the basis for a Worlds of Power novel, a series of books with stories based on Nintendo games. It was written by Christopher Howell.
- Sacred Sorrow, a Louisville based Goth Rock band released their EP titled "A Prelude to Betrayal", which contained a track titled "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse!" Which dealt with the bands frustration with boredom and Zombies that were freed from a haunted mansion by the band, and repaid them the favor by eating the band's enemies. "The More you scream the less I hear, just as you've done me. Trust me man, I've got my friends and they'll have plenty to eat.. Go! go! Walking Dead!"
- Inspired by the game, Detroit death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder released What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse in 2001. The band later recorded a song with the same name for their 2007 release Nocturnal.
- The band Bear vs. Shark released a song titled "What a Horrible Night for a Curse" on their 2005 album Terrorhawk. This a reference to the famous quote "What a horrible night to have a curse".
- "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" is also the title of a song by Cleveland band Above This Fire.
- The band Powerglove performs a song called "Vanquish the Horrible Night" which is the band's arrangement of songs from Castlevania II and Castlevania III.
- The online riddle game Dracula's Riddle is based entirely on this game. The location names are the same and occurrences of Castlevania II items such as Silk Bag, Laurel and Garlic can be found through out the riddle. Even the name of the game has been taken from the famous Castlevania II quote: "Thirteen clues will solve Dracula's Riddle".
[edit] References
- ^ Interview with Koji Igarashi & Michiru Yamane "Actually, in the Japanese version of Castlevania 2, the townspeople were all liars. None of them really told you the truth." -- Koji Igarashi, on Simon's Quest, G Wie Gorilla, 2006
- ^ Translated excerpt from the Japanese manual of Simon's Quest. Konami. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
- ^ Scanned page from the Japanese manual of Simon's Quest. Konami. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
- ^ Nerd FAQ "Remember this is for comedy. Sure my gripes with the games stem from truth, but they are exaggerated ... It was just a quick little video I made one night when I was bored, just for a little joke" -- James Rolfe, Angry Nintendo Nerd
[edit] External links
- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest at MobyGames
- The Castlevania Dungeon: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
- The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of Simons Quest
- Lyrics to the Castlevania II inspired song
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