Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Playthrough - "Best" Ending (No Commentary)
10Not a speedrun. My game time was 7:15:33 and to get the "good" ending you need to finish before 8 days. I made a few very small mistakes, mostly requiring backtracking, but that's about all you have room to do.
Rough cliffs notes:
*you will do almost all your grinding for exp. and hearts inside mansions, as time does not pass while you're inside. Only grind outdoors if ABSOLUTELY necessary. So when you get to each mansion, fight around and gain a level.
1) Leave town to the right, fight wolves until you get 100 hearts. Night will fall, in which case go back into town and fight the zombies until the sun comes up. You'll soon need another 150 hearts, so keep grinding. Then buy the white crystal and the holy water.
2) Again exit right, go down the steps when presented with the chance. Buy the chain whip in town for 150 hearts. You can also get the dagger for another 50, I skipped this though. Exit town to the right and head up/right and around to get the Sacred Flame. Keep going right, taking the top path, not down the stairs.
3) In this town, buy garlic one time (50 hearts) - this will give you 2 pieces which is all you need. Also exchange the white crystal for the blue one. Exit right to the graveyard. Drop a piece of garlic immediately and a guy will show up who gives you the silver knife. Backtrack to the stairs you skipped, this time descend them.
4) Enter the mansion, get the oak stake, and get Dracula's heart. Outside, backtrack left to the first mansion you passed, this time go inside. You can also do this one first if you like. Same thing, oak stake and get Dracula's rib. Backtrack to the first town, and exit left this time.
5) Equip Dracula's heart before talking to the guy on the boat. After the ride, put the rib on so you can block fireballs. Head left, and don't go in the mansion yet - keep going left and collect the diamond from the cloaked guy. The mansion is the same as usual, but you'll fight the grim reaper. Just spam the sacred flame and you should not get hit. Get Dracula's eyeball, and pick up another stake on the way out. My advice is to grind to 200 hearts before you leave.
7) Make sure you do NOT have Dracula's heart equipped, and get on the boat. Stay on it once it hits the right shore, and then go back left to a different place this time. Exit left and go down the stairs. Head left to another graveyard. Use your other garlic piece all the way at the end, and a guy will give you the silk bag. Backtrack, up the stairs, this time going left. In this town, exchange your blue crystal for a red one. Exit left.
8) When you reach this town, buy the morning star for 200 hearts. Exit left and go as far as you can. Kneel down with the red crystal equipped and a tornado will take you to the next mansion. Get Dracula's nail here.
9) When you get out, head left. Keep a low/left path and find the cloaked guy who will turn your morning star into a fire whip. Then take the path right above that so you will exit the screen bottom left. Head left across the swamps to the final mansion. Fight the Mask mini boss - just spam the golden knife, and get Dracula's ring. Before you head out, ride the platforms over the spikes to the guy who will give you 8 laurels.
10) Back outside, just head right as far as you can go, crossing swamps, down the stairs, past the town, and a graveyard. A long bridge will lead you into Dracula's castle, which has no enemies. The path is very straightforward. When Dracula appears, just spam the golden knife like usual and he will go down incredibly easy.
If you were able to do this in less than 8 days, you get the "best" ending. 8-15 days is the second best ending, and anything over 15 days will be the poor ending. It's subjective, of course. You really barely have any room for errors if you want the best ending. It will take you a few runs to get the path down. I had some notes I was looking at to keep me on track but I did have to backtrack a few times so it's okay if you make a small mistake. If you actually want to talk to the NPCs, it'll really add on a lot of time. The text moves very slow, and the translation is so bad, they say really worthless and cryptic stuff anyway.
Angry Video Game Nerd has famously called this game out pretty hard...he does exaggerate a bit, but it's funny. So if you haven't seen that episode, check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4we8iFk-fY
Some interesting reading by legends of localization:
https://legendsoflocalization.com/avgn/castlevania-ii/
My thoughts on this game...I don't have many. I did not grow up playing this one, and only played it for the first time a few years ago. I have beat it several times, and seen all the endings. I think the music is really good, but other than that, I don't find myself really thinking about it. As with a lot of older games, especially on the NES/Famicom, I feel too much anxiety playing them. They're difficult for all the wrong reasons.
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