Castlevania Reviews - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II: How many times does Simon have to kill Dracula? C'mon, what is this, the 4th, 5th, 6th time? GEEZ!

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It's the oddity of the Nintendo trilogy, being more role playing game, where hearts are money and you buy new weapons and items in addition to finding them. And there are no candles! In this one, you must find your way to different mansions of Transylvania and find clues to Dracula's riddle and pieces of Dracula to resurrect him later in the game. Let me tell ya, the guy's a breeze to beat in this one. Use the Golden Knife and he's gone right quick. This is probably the easiest of the Castlevania games actually, the only hard parts are remembering where and when to use the pieces of Drac and finding the blocks in the floor that are actually false and will cause you to fall through. But the bosses are a breeze ( All 3 of them. ) In fact, the bosses reappear when you re-enter their room. Freakily. Okay, here's a bit of a look at some SQ stuff.

The Whips.

Leather Whip: You start with this one, as usual. Low damage. But it looks so cool on the box pictures!

Thorn Whip: The next whip up in power, costs 100 hearts. Looks like a long Leather Whip.

Chain Whip: Kind of like the second upgrade from most of the CV's. Costs 150 hearts.

Morning Star: The Vampire Killer, basically. Cost 200 hearts. Very long and good damage.

Flame Whip: Find the old guy to give your Morning Star power and presto chango you got a Flame Whip going. Great damage.

The Crystals:

White Crystal: Buy it at the very beginning of the game for 50 hearts, you need this to show you were the platform is in Brahm's mansion.

Blue Crystal: The first Crystal that will be traded to you by the Crystal trader guy. You need it to open up the Dead River. Crouch on the bank for 2 seconds.

Red Crystal: The second Crystal that will be traded to you. You need this to summon a tornado to carry to away to a whole different section of the game, all the way to the west at the edge of the mountain.

The Bosses: All 3 of em!

Carmilla: A crying mask. Just avoid the tears, jump and whip. Very simple.

Death: Grimmy's rather easy in this one. Avoid the sickles and whip. Also very simple.

Dracula: He's PITIFUL in this one! Golden Knife, fight's over fast.

Items:

Holy Water, Dagger, Sacred Fire, Diamond, Silver Dagger, Golden Knife, Holy Cross, Garlic, Laurels, Oak Stake.

There are alot of things to buy in CV 2 for different things. For example, Garlic placed in the cemetary summons a merchant who gives you the Silver Dagger. Some guy shows up and gives you the Diamond ( Rebound Stone ). And remember to stock up on Laurels for swamp areas and Oak Stakes to obtain the piece of Dracula. And Holy Water is essential to break floors and walls in the merchant's homes, and for detecting false blocks. Holy Water and Dagger are free use once you buy them, the others use up hearts.

Dracula's Pieces: Sounds like a candy! Anyhow, here they are.

The Rib, The Eye, The Heart, The Nail, The Ring. You need them for different things here and there. The Rib is a shield, the Heart you need to hold when crossing the ferryman's river to get to a different area than you would normally go to. SQ makes you think, see if you can figure out the different uses.

Miscellaneous note: The townspeople in each town talk to you, and many of them say stupid things that make no sense. One old lady in a house even says "Let's live here together. " YIKES! After a while, you can just ignore the annoying freaks! Just visit the churches to be healed and you'll be okay.

"And so you now have a brief glance at CV 2. It's almost as if it's a very old game and John was only writing what he could remember. Now, would he do that to you? Of course he would, uncommitted bastard. Now go play the game and use what knowledge we've bestowed upon you, and the rest should fall into place!"