The Morning Light has Vanquished the Horrible Night!
GAMEPLAY ~
Unlike the original Castlevania, Simon's Quest takes you on just that, a Quest. So dropped in the stationary path Simon walked before, presented now is a free roaming adventure set in front of him in Romania! All the same elements are present from the first game except the jumping is improved and you can carry several sub-weapons at a time accessed in an optional window thanks to the start button, but two can be used at a time. Both a regular sub-weapon (Holy Water, Dagger, ect.) and a "Dracula artifact' which presents you with a slew of different choices from a shield to... whatever the other artifacts do.
Than there is the last update to the original and that is all the RPG elements presented within. Yes, Simon goes up levels depending on the enemy slain and as he is promoted his health will raise as well! So basically it's more modeled after Legend of Zelda 2 than the original Castlevania. But done so much better! CV2 took what it needed from CV1 and placed a nice twist in there for good luck!
STORY ~
Simon is cursed after his original confrontation with Dracula and to overcome his curse he must collect the divided Dracula parts and re awaken the Vampire Lord to put him away once and for all!
GRAPHICS ~
The first things to mention is the Night / Day transition and Simon's sprite design. The transition of night and day is done nicely and when night falls the enemies get harder to vanquish. The only problem with the transition is the dialogue box which acts as a loading time. True something had to be done, but it really didn't feel necessary at all, especially after the first 5 or 6 times you gotta read it! An Simon now has greater coloring sporting a nice Red, Black and White suit which does him more justice than the Black and Brown thing he wore in CV1.
The backgrounds are as detailed as the original title, except for the Towns and Manors. The Towns sport a nice grey brick outline with accompanied doors that mostly lead to miss information or a dead end. The Manors feel the same way, with floating moving platforms (and those back ground images that look like footing) and the same grey outline based for each level. The enemies look nice and are fluid and alot of them are reused with no change in color pallet, unless it’s nightfall.
Overall, not as impressive as CV1 by any means, but everything has to start somewhere!
SOUND ~
Castlevania 2 sports a few tracks that, like the original title, have become staples in the Castlevania franchise. The most notable tracks is Bloody tears which is the most frequently remixed track out of any Castlevania score. An is, just like the original, superior to the Famicon Disc system which housed the original one. The SFX do have a sprucing up and are used in a more ranged situation. The game sadly only has around 8 tracks and you'll get to know them real well, but at least it varied and is one of my favorite game soundtracks from the NES era.
REPLAYABILITY ~
This is where CV2 outdoes the original. CV2 offers you 3 different endings acquired by completing the game in a certain stretch of time. One ending Simon lives and Dracula dies. In another both die, in the last option Simon perishes and Dracula lives on. All depending on your time! There is more to experience as well! From whip upgrades that are permanent to the leveling system to the free-roaming aspect which lets you tackle any Manor at any time given the appropriate crystal is in hand!
The one downside is... the PASSWORD SYSTEM! How I hate it and this game was one of the more difficult writes since The Magic of Scheherazade was released! Why couldn't there be a battery inside, just to humor me! But I won't let that get me down! I might just go play it now!
OVERALL ~
As mentioned some games need to take a step beyond what was original imagined for its future. An thanks to Castlevania 2 re-imagining of the Vania engine (and an additional thanks goes towards the Metroid franchise) all of the GBA / DS Vania titles as well as Symphony of the Night have a debt of gratitude for taking so much heat to forge ahead!
break out the emulator and give Castlevania: Simon's Quest a whirl!