It is certainly a divisive game, as much as I like it I can understand plainly why others do not. This is an odd game where the challenge isn't so much in the gameplay, merely in figuring out where to go and what to do. The actual gameplay is not challenging at all, the game allows you to pick up right where you left off when you die, you have unlimited lives, and there is only one possible softlock area at the very end of the game.
Excellent take on things. I also always looked at the infinite lives as Simon slowly being consumed by the curse only to slowly turn into a walking corpse 😆
I'm glad someone understands what they were going for in this game. From what I've read, most of the translation isn't _horribly_ far off from what they said in Japanese, conveying roughly the same info. Though a couple of the hint books were sadly mangled ("A flame flickers in the ring of fire" was originally a hint about the Sacred Flame being in a cave). The end of the game is a personal favorite of mine. Everyone loves a brutal final area followed by a classic multi-phase Dracula battle, but this hits completely different. It's empty. A corpse of a castle. You enter a drop much too far to climb back out of. There's truly no turning back now. The final battle itself is admittedly kind of weak when taken at face value, lacking much strategy as Dracula spins around the room firing his nails madly. I choose to view it as Dracula's deadly curse on Simon taking physical form, its full power being released in an uncontrollable, mindless wave of destruction. If Simon is strong enough he can destroy the curse as it manifests, otherwise he must simply survive the ravaging of his body and soul long enough to prevail. It's a very atmospheric game for the 80's, and even today with the right mindset.
I think that’s absolutely spot on and an excellent take on the Dracula fight. The entire final area from the town leading up to the castle just changes the entire mood completely. I always felt that the clues were almost a game of telephone in a sense . If the clues were spelled out the game would have ended as fast as u could have rented it. I almost felt like they wanted us to spread the word about the mystery’s to friends and so forth. How games today almost build on lore and a growing community attempting to solve the developers games
@@RockinKatReviewsI think a lot of it is just, people naturally start to view games differently over the years for a multitude of reasons. What was valued in 1987 isn't valued the same way in current day. Games can no longer get away with making you spend so much time figuring out how to progress. Even if they try, a walkthrough is always readily available online. And with so many great games in the world, it's a mindset of, why should I waste my time on this when I could be doing, or _playing_ something else with that time? I understand this mindset, as loads of people are busy with life. But I also feel it leads to a lot of old games getting unfairly trashed in the eyes of history. Games like Simon's Quest are classics for a reason, they just come from a different time, with a different gaming landscape in mind. There are absolutely still bad games from the era, more than can be counted, but this isn't one of them.
@ That makes a lot of sense too. I would also like to try to dig up a few numbers also. One would be how many Nes games were officially out in the US by 88 and how well the game sold in comparison to other releases that year. Whenever I try to compile any list of top games or something along the lines I always try to factor in hardware and how the game culturally impacted gaming at that time. Like with Zelda which I believe came out a year earlier I feel Simon’s Quest brought a great deal of originality to the nes so I would still rank it decently on any list.
I'll always have a fondness for the game for being the only Castlevania I could ever complete 100% clean, no cheats, no codes, no save states. Simon not only got _tremendously_ powerful weapons but an almighty defense (the Laurels), and every foe could be overcome with the right tactic. The multiple endings gave this replay value, and the time requirement for the best ending was challenging but definitely doable, which is how it should be. For the life of me I'll never understand the outrageously bitter, angry, hostile reaction to the townsfolk spewing misleading claims, random drivel, and outright lies. Seemingly _no one_ ever caught on to the truth that was, frankly, delivered with all the subtlety of an ICBM: *You cannot trust ANY of these people. It is twaddle. ALL of it. You will NEVER learn ANYTHING useful. Don't listen to them. Don't trust them. Don't try to dope out what the "correct translation" was. Don't invent interpretations. Just ignore it, EVERY WORD.* The whole _point_ was that the solutions were well-hidden, sometimes even cryptic, and the game was _not_ going to spoonfeed them to you. You had to look up guides, talk to people who knew, or just brute-force stuff one at a time until something worked. Progress in this game was _earned,_ not doled out by some random bumpkin on the street. Even in the pre-Internet age, you'd think that at some point _someone_ would've wised up to exactly what kind of game Konami was making here, but nope. (Seriously, is there anyone who still doesn't get this? I swear this is at least the third time I've posted all this stuff on a UA-cam video response.)
That’s sort of how I’ve always looked at it. Modern horror games series today build entire series around lore and playing off fan reactions. I always point at a series today like fnaf that never gives you a beginning or end to any story only leaving you with more questions. I feel a great deal of Simon’s quest charm is that the game gives you this sort of extreme game of telephone. If this game came out today it would have an entire community built around solving the clues and to be fair I believe there in their. Your told to kneel at the lake to use the blue crystal which indicates how to use the crystals outside of the mansion.. There’s also two clue for the red crystal of banging your head and also waiting at the cliff…why would u stand if you just used the blue crystal to kneel bc u can also use the red crystal on the lake by kneeling also
As long as it's not the Ubisoft formula Castlevania begs for open world. Simon's Quest: go around the map to get the parts, all non-linear but different key items in each region. Even Dracula's Curse: The first half of the game is the trek to the castle, so just make that trek an open ended experience where the player can reach the castle via any means they find.
My much older brother bought it for himself the week it came out and beat it within a week without any kind of assistance (have no idea how he did it). Being a lot younger, I was more interested in games like Commando and Contra
I still remember *the* password for this, MS60 QVCW 1VKU UFBC. Gives you everything but the golden knife iirc. I wish I knew how many hours I dumped into trying to figure this game out as a kid.
Without a shred of doubt, it was incomplete. There is no way to refute that. The "bosses" were a joke, the oak stake thing was ridiculous (and could have EASILY been leagues better), and it's crystal clear that "Dracula's Castle" was a ludicrously egregious insult to everyone who played C-Vania 1 (or even Vampire Killer). Yes, the music was wonderful, the graphics were fine, and the gameplay wasn't abysmal. But CV2 was absolutely incompetently incomplete. No exceptions.
Simon's Quest had positives and negatives. But I think the positive far outweigh the negatives. Lot of neat features in this game. I like the day and night cycle, visiting towns, collecting various items, beautiful scenery, etc. The visuals and soundtrack make-up for any drawbacks and setbacks. I feel this is the most realistic Castlevania game. We get the full Transylvania experience.
@@ashwinrebbapragada7626 I always loved the exploration too... Just the uncertainty of the unknown really creates this. atmosphere about it.. just going town to town writing down things u found out and comparing those findings with a buddy
🙏 Very much appreciated. It’s been a blast doing these and def looking forward to hearing what you think on the Castlevania series. Still hoping we get something next year from Konami especially with them reviving a lot of their IPs
The wait for soul clue is so overblown when people complain about vague clues. At that point of the game you already know you need to kneel to activate what crystals do. So when it tells you we're to go with a red crystal you know you need to kneel in that spot.
Thats how I sorta figured it out I just tried to kneel as I did by the lake… unless there was a head banging technique I over looked that would grant a secret passage through the cliff 😆
I have played and beated this videogame so many times the day and night was fun the clues you can find can help you out the fight with Dracula is a fun boss battle
I absolutely loved the game. Then again I also loved Super Mario 2 and Zelda 2 for their unique style. It’s sad that in all three cases those concepts have been avoided like the plague.
That might be the case for Zelda and (to a lesser extent) Mario, but Castlevania II’s fingerprints are all over the Metroidvania genre almost as much as the original Metroid.
Growing up if you asked me to play a Mario game more often then less It be Mario 3 but over the years I have slowly became a big Mario 2 fan and it’s now one of my favorite games to play in general.
@@RockinKatReviews same. It’s so fun to play and I have played through it numerous times vs Mario 1 and 3. It’s not only one of my favorite Mario games except for Super Mario World but it’s one of my all time favorite NES games. It’s really a masterpiece in my opinion.
@@54raynor I guess that’s true in a way. I skipped a lot of the later Castlevania games after Castlevania IV. I guess from my perspective I was thinking how 3 and 4 went back to the older formula.
@ agreed!! the mechanics were well ahead of their time.. the grab…toss and bash your way through a stage just hit differently…clobbering a hoard of enemies with a lone shy guy 😆
In 1989, I rented this game as a kid along with the first game and spent two days rotating back and forth between games. Loved them both... especially Simon's Quest's graphics and music. I didn't know the game was supposed to be "bad". This game was awesome in the late 80s!
The music for Simon’s Quest did it for me I might have been running around aimlessly with a red crystal but I was doing so jamming out to bloody tears 😆
Simons quest is my favorite castlevania, when you know what to do its just a matter of doing it without dedicating too much of your life due to absurd difficulty like many others in the series. Good graphics and great music, its awesome.
I remember when i was playing this game back in 1988 and the only way I found out was having to watch a Skip Rogers Tips & Tricks video since every kid I knew that played the game couldn't figure how to progress. This game's dialogue was so goofy, how could anyone parse this nonsense? "What a horrible night to have a curse." LOL which is now the title of a Black Dahlia Murder album. Simon's Quest barely survived being a meme game.
9:23 I figured that because i found this information from someone close by a church and that simply standing still made no sense the only action i could do would be knelling. More and more on the internet i keep seeing people who say this was hard to figure out. Did i just get a lucky guess here or was i by some weird fluke actually figuring it out the way the developers intended.
I felt the same way.. for me it was a combination of that very clue and the fact that the blue crystal would only be activated if you kneel..with each crystal in a way gaining the power of the previous one..especially with the red crystal it also activates the lake
@@ItsPaybackTime89 even when Sega went CD with the Saturn it still failed and all their stupid ram expansion cards couldn’t save them. 64 was trash as well but Nintendo has something Sega don’t “exclusives”
It had great music, atmosphere, and concept, but it felt unfinished to me. My biggest complaint is that the enemy and boss mechanics weren’t up to par with that of the previous game.
Getting the thorn whip is a waste of time and hearts. Do yourself a favor and ignore that whip. You'll get the chain whip soon enough.
love the nes trilogy there all great in their own way
Agreed!
Great story telling here love how u hit on all aspects of the game just a fun watch
🙏
I always loved Simon’s Quest just the clues were so cryptic
I think the clues for Deborah’s Cliff is what made it game breaking at the time just too confusing
I feel there was enough there to finish it to be fair you do kneel down at the lake so it kind of demonstrates how the crystal is used
Games today ,are intentionally made impossible to solve the lore I feel this was solvable if u were playing it at the time especially with the guide
@@RockmanShadowthat’s pretty accurate
If you have an emulator, try Simon's Redaction. It's a lot better than the original.
It is certainly a divisive game, as much as I like it I can understand plainly why others do not. This is an odd game where the challenge isn't so much in the gameplay, merely in figuring out where to go and what to do. The actual gameplay is not challenging at all, the game allows you to pick up right where you left off when you die, you have unlimited lives, and there is only one possible softlock area at the very end of the game.
Excellent take on things. I also always looked at the infinite lives as Simon slowly being consumed by the curse only to slowly turn into a walking corpse 😆
@@RockinKatReviews lol it would be awesome if visually simon deteriorated after using a few continues.
They need to incorporate that into the Transylvania Advenutre of Simon Quest
I'm glad someone understands what they were going for in this game. From what I've read, most of the translation isn't _horribly_ far off from what they said in Japanese, conveying roughly the same info. Though a couple of the hint books were sadly mangled ("A flame flickers in the ring of fire" was originally a hint about the Sacred Flame being in a cave).
The end of the game is a personal favorite of mine. Everyone loves a brutal final area followed by a classic multi-phase Dracula battle, but this hits completely different. It's empty. A corpse of a castle. You enter a drop much too far to climb back out of. There's truly no turning back now. The final battle itself is admittedly kind of weak when taken at face value, lacking much strategy as Dracula spins around the room firing his nails madly. I choose to view it as Dracula's deadly curse on Simon taking physical form, its full power being released in an uncontrollable, mindless wave of destruction. If Simon is strong enough he can destroy the curse as it manifests, otherwise he must simply survive the ravaging of his body and soul long enough to prevail.
It's a very atmospheric game for the 80's, and even today with the right mindset.
I think that’s absolutely spot on and an excellent take on the Dracula fight. The entire final area from the town leading up to the castle just changes the entire mood completely. I always felt that the clues were almost a game of telephone in a sense . If the clues were spelled out the game would have ended as fast as u could have rented it. I almost felt like they wanted us to spread the word about the mystery’s to friends and so forth. How games today almost build on lore and a growing community attempting to solve the developers games
@@RockinKatReviewsI think a lot of it is just, people naturally start to view games differently over the years for a multitude of reasons. What was valued in 1987 isn't valued the same way in current day. Games can no longer get away with making you spend so much time figuring out how to progress. Even if they try, a walkthrough is always readily available online. And with so many great games in the world, it's a mindset of, why should I waste my time on this when I could be doing, or _playing_ something else with that time?
I understand this mindset, as loads of people are busy with life. But I also feel it leads to a lot of old games getting unfairly trashed in the eyes of history. Games like Simon's Quest are classics for a reason, they just come from a different time, with a different gaming landscape in mind. There are absolutely still bad games from the era, more than can be counted, but this isn't one of them.
@ That makes a lot of sense too. I would also like to try to dig up a few numbers also. One would be how many Nes games were officially out in the US by 88 and how well the game sold in comparison to other releases that year. Whenever I try to compile any list of top games or something along the lines I always try to factor in hardware and how the game culturally impacted gaming at that time. Like with Zelda which I believe came out a year earlier I feel Simon’s Quest brought a great deal of originality to the nes so I would still rank it decently on any list.
I'll always have a fondness for the game for being the only Castlevania I could ever complete 100% clean, no cheats, no codes, no save states. Simon not only got _tremendously_ powerful weapons but an almighty defense (the Laurels), and every foe could be overcome with the right tactic. The multiple endings gave this replay value, and the time requirement for the best ending was challenging but definitely doable, which is how it should be.
For the life of me I'll never understand the outrageously bitter, angry, hostile reaction to the townsfolk spewing misleading claims, random drivel, and outright lies. Seemingly _no one_ ever caught on to the truth that was, frankly, delivered with all the subtlety of an ICBM: *You cannot trust ANY of these people. It is twaddle. ALL of it. You will NEVER learn ANYTHING useful. Don't listen to them. Don't trust them. Don't try to dope out what the "correct translation" was. Don't invent interpretations. Just ignore it, EVERY WORD.* The whole _point_ was that the solutions were well-hidden, sometimes even cryptic, and the game was _not_ going to spoonfeed them to you. You had to look up guides, talk to people who knew, or just brute-force stuff one at a time until something worked. Progress in this game was _earned,_ not doled out by some random bumpkin on the street. Even in the pre-Internet age, you'd think that at some point _someone_ would've wised up to exactly what kind of game Konami was making here, but nope.
(Seriously, is there anyone who still doesn't get this? I swear this is at least the third time I've posted all this stuff on a UA-cam video response.)
That’s sort of how I’ve always looked at it. Modern horror games series today build entire series around lore and playing off fan reactions. I always point at a series today like fnaf that never gives you a beginning or end to any story only leaving you with more questions. I feel a great deal of Simon’s quest charm is that the game gives you this sort of extreme game of telephone. If this game came out today it would have an entire community built around solving the clues and to be fair I believe there in their. Your told to kneel at the lake to use the blue crystal which indicates how to use the crystals outside of the mansion.. There’s also two clue for the red crystal of banging your head and also waiting at the cliff…why would u stand if you just used the blue crystal to kneel bc u can also use the red crystal on the lake by kneeling also
Konami should make a modern version of Simon quest. The idea was just too much for the nes to handle
I’m here for this!
That be a fun idea
As long as it's not the Ubisoft formula Castlevania begs for open world. Simon's Quest: go around the map to get the parts, all non-linear but different key items in each region. Even Dracula's Curse: The first half of the game is the trek to the castle, so just make that trek an open ended experience where the player can reach the castle via any means they find.
@@TheT3rr0rMask if they make it similar to ghost of Tsushima or even like FF 7 Rebirth it would be awesome. Just focus on the darker gothic themes 👌🏽
Oh man this was a memorable one it was def a Nintendo power game u couldn’t finish it without the book
Get the clues that you can use Nintendo Power!!
i did... i've seen plenty of others do it too it's not THAT hard. i've played plenty of games with harder puzzles
My much older brother bought it for himself the week it came out and beat it within a week without any kind of assistance (have no idea how he did it). Being a lot younger, I was more interested in games like Commando and Contra
I have a nes mini I have played and beat this video game a lot of times
@@Chadjessup41 how was it on the nes mini? I picked up the SNES Mini and had a blast with it.
I still remember *the* password for this, MS60 QVCW 1VKU UFBC. Gives you everything but the golden knife iirc. I wish I knew how many hours I dumped into trying to figure this game out as a kid.
This one was always confusing but loved the art style and music
The music tracks are among some of my favorites
Great one!
🙏 thanks so much !!
I love this game
Without a shred of doubt, it was incomplete. There is no way to refute that. The "bosses" were a joke, the oak stake thing was ridiculous (and could have EASILY been leagues better), and it's crystal clear that "Dracula's Castle" was a ludicrously egregious insult to everyone who played C-Vania 1 (or even Vampire Killer).
Yes, the music was wonderful, the graphics were fine, and the gameplay wasn't abysmal. But CV2 was absolutely incompetently incomplete. No exceptions.
Well done! 👏👏👏
🙏 Moving on to Dracula’s Curse 😆
Simon's Quest had positives and negatives. But I think the positive far outweigh the negatives. Lot of neat features in this game. I like the day and night cycle, visiting towns, collecting various items, beautiful scenery, etc. The visuals and soundtrack make-up for any drawbacks and setbacks. I feel this is the most realistic Castlevania game. We get the full Transylvania experience.
@@ashwinrebbapragada7626 I always loved the exploration too... Just the uncertainty of the unknown really creates this. atmosphere about it.. just going town to town writing down things u found out and comparing those findings with a buddy
I'm a simple man: your channel contains the words "Rockin'" and "Kat(s)" I automatically subscribe.
🙏 Very much appreciated. It’s been a blast doing these and def looking forward to hearing what you think on the Castlevania series. Still hoping we get something next year from Konami especially with them reviving a lot of their IPs
@@RockinKatReviews keep up the content. Looking forward to it.
I would of loved this game if only the hints was a bit easier to understand 😂
Imo, misunderstood and rushed tbh
Best cluster🤪🤪fuqk of a nes game ever.... 😎 ..... oh 🛎yeah !!
No chance of victory without a guide. This game defined cryptic.
We needed the Power…Nintendo Power!
The wait for soul clue is so overblown when people complain about vague clues. At that point of the game you already know you need to kneel to activate what crystals do. So when it tells you we're to go with a red crystal you know you need to kneel in that spot.
Thats how I sorta figured it out I just tried to kneel as I did by the lake… unless there was a head banging technique I over looked that would grant a secret passage through the cliff 😆
@@TheKonamiMan exactly! The game indicates how to use the crystals outside
I have played and beated this videogame so many times the day and night was fun the clues you can find can help you out the fight with Dracula is a fun boss battle
I absolutely loved the game. Then again I also loved Super Mario 2 and Zelda 2 for their unique style. It’s sad that in all three cases those concepts have been avoided like the plague.
That might be the case for Zelda and (to a lesser extent) Mario, but Castlevania II’s fingerprints are all over the Metroidvania genre almost as much as the original Metroid.
Growing up if you asked me to play a Mario game more often then less It be Mario 3 but over the years I have slowly became a big Mario 2 fan and it’s now one of my favorite games to play in general.
@@RockinKatReviews same. It’s so fun to play and I have played through it numerous times vs Mario 1 and 3. It’s not only one of my favorite Mario games except for Super Mario World but it’s one of my all time favorite NES games. It’s really a masterpiece in my opinion.
@@54raynor I guess that’s true in a way. I skipped a lot of the later Castlevania games after Castlevania IV. I guess from my perspective I was thinking how 3 and 4 went back to the older formula.
@ agreed!! the mechanics were well ahead of their time.. the grab…toss and bash your way through a stage just hit differently…clobbering a hoard of enemies with a lone shy guy 😆
In 1989, I rented this game as a kid along with the first game and spent two days rotating back and forth between games. Loved them both... especially Simon's Quest's graphics and music. I didn't know the game was supposed to be "bad". This game was awesome in the late 80s!
The music for Simon’s Quest did it for me I might have been running around aimlessly with a red crystal but I was doing so jamming out to bloody tears 😆
Simons quest is my favorite castlevania, when you know what to do its just a matter of doing it without dedicating too much of your life due to absurd difficulty like many others in the series. Good graphics and great music, its awesome.
It had challenges but the worst was you had to have a Nintendo power subscription to even lnow how to proceed.
I remember when i was playing this game back in 1988 and the only way I found out was having to watch a Skip Rogers Tips & Tricks video since every kid I knew that played the game couldn't figure how to progress. This game's dialogue was so goofy, how could anyone parse this nonsense? "What a horrible night to have a curse." LOL which is now the title of a Black Dahlia Murder album. Simon's Quest barely survived being a meme game.
He was a world video game champion… Gotta put some respect on Skips name 😆
Was a fine game to me. Especially since it had two endings.
9:23 I figured that because i found this information from someone close by a church and that simply standing still made no sense the only action i could do would be knelling. More and more on the internet i keep seeing people who say this was hard to figure out. Did i just get a lucky guess here or was i by some weird fluke actually figuring it out the way the developers intended.
I felt the same way.. for me it was a combination of that very clue and the fact that the blue crystal would only be activated if you kneel..with each crystal in a way gaining the power of the previous one..especially with the red crystal it also activates the lake
The only thing that’s misunderstood is Sega thinking they had a chance against Nintendo with games like this 😂
💀
Well how could they when nintendo held konami and other game studios hostage.
@ Sony did it with their first console no excuses 🤣
@@SegaHaterRick Not true. The N64 cartridges costed more than disk that's why.
@@ItsPaybackTime89 even when Sega went CD with the Saturn it still failed and all their stupid ram expansion cards couldn’t save them. 64 was trash as well but Nintendo has something Sega don’t “exclusives”
The villagers lie to you because the translation is bad lol
one villager apparently has seen the Death Star 😆
Absolute epic soundtrack of course
this game needs a remaster
probably my favorite of all time.
I don't get the thorn whip. I save the hearts to get the chain whip on the way to get the blue crystal.
It had great music, atmosphere, and concept, but it felt unfinished to me. My biggest complaint is that the enemy and boss mechanics weren’t up to par with that of the previous game.
That’s valid I would have liked to atleast had a boss fight in each of the mansions
This game is great. It's always been good.
♥️
The only Castlevania I don't like. It sucked!
Cope