Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

"Change Isn't Always Bad. Sometimes, It's Even A Good Thing"

The Story
After his encounter with Dracula, Simon was hit with a curse. The curse would slowly take over Simon's body, kill him, and take over Transylvania. The only way to stop the curse is for Simon to go around Transylvania collecting Dracula's pieces and fight the count all over again.

Graphics
8/10 - Simon and the townsfolk look good, if faceless. Zombies look like women in green cloaks, werewolves look like the one from ActRaiser, knights look like they're trying to slap you with a giant fork. The colors are a wee bit dull, but since it's that kind of environment I'm not going too harsh on it.

Sound
10/10 - Great! Bloody Tears is one of my favorite video game tunes and I also like the music for the mansions. The sound effects are also good and not annoying. You also have a nice variety of whipping, shattering glass, words typing out, fireballs, and ''fwooshing'' from the Flame Whip.

Control
5/10 The one thing I never liked about Castlevania was the jumping. First, your character jumps worse than Mega Man. Second, you have no control over your character mid-air. OK, you can do that with Grant in Castlevania 3. Let's stick to the Belmonts. Another annoying Control trait is that you press Up+Attack to use a special item. If you're trying to use, say, Holy Water on an enemy that's at the bottom of the stairs you're trying to go down, you'll probably turn around and toss the special item the other way. Simon moves a bit slow, but not too noticeable. The whip takes a second to actually whip, but the response is well. The controls are average.

Gameplay
8/10 - Not much like the original Castlevania where you just side-scrolled and platformed, whipping stuff. This game is an adventure game kind of like Zelda only side-scrolling (I've never played Zelda 2, but I hear it's like this). Solve some puzzles and buy some goods. By the way, when you buy something you get to keep it either forever or until you replace it. Some items consume a heart or two. Some items I don't bother getting. You then travel to a mansion, go through it, solving puzzles of fakes walls and floors until you get to the body part of Dracula. Sometimes the puzzles are a pain to solve because of translation errors, but overall I enjoyed how this game played.

Challenge
6/10 - The hardest part of the game is figuring it out. The translators didn't exactly do a perfect job, and unless you get an FAQ the game will require a lot of your free time. But one you know where to go and what to do, the game's a piece of cake. First time I played through, I bombed. I was stuck with the Thorn Whip because I couldn't save enough hearts. I quit that game and started a new one. I skipped the Thorn Whip altogether and went straight for the Chain Whip and tore through the game. Konami conveniently put in these things called ''Laurels'' which make you invincible for about 5 or 6 seconds. Dracula's pathetic. It's possible to kill him before he even moves.

Replay
7/10 - There are multiple endings to draw you back to do better, but once you get them all that reason's kind of obsolete. I found the game to be quite fun, which also brought me back to it a few times.

Pros and Cons
Good Points:
- Awesome music.
- Multiple endings.
- I can actually do this one!

Bad Points:
- Translation errors
- A bit too easy once you know what to do.

Should I Get It?
Yes.

Overall
OK, the translators didn't do a good job. Some of the things they tell you are misleading. A good walkthrough should help.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/02, Updated 10/17/02