Castlevania II: Simon's Quest -- Title, Intro
9Welcome! ... ... ...no, wait, please don't go! I know what this looks like, and it's totally NOT going to be as bad as you've likely heard! (It'll be WORSE!) ...no, no, no, no! Don't pay any attention to that parenthetical, I was just joking! (Probably!) I swear! (I ...kinda swear?!)
This is a project that's been a long time coming. If you recall, my very FIRST project for YouTube was indeed Castlevania for the NES. It's a WAY simpler game and much easier to understand and indeed a beloved treasure of the annals of gaming history. It's also brutally difficult and unforgiving except for how it's willing to let you Continue endlessly, maybe eventually chipping your way through to a happy ending for Simon Belmont.
On the other hand, Castlevania II is... anything but simple. Anyone who tries to simplify it down to a single sentence or thought is doing themselves and anyone their words reach a disservice. Heck, even rather lengthy attempts to convey an analysis or explanation of its various elements can be woefully short-sighted and spread more harmful misinformation than actually clarifying to players and potential players alike exactly WHAT the heck Castlevania II really is.
And yes, I'm indeed talking about things like simple word of mouth all the way up to some pretty high-profile cases alike. I too have been immensely entertained by the acerbic condemnations of angry video game nerds as well as somewhat more discriminating sequel-based game design analyses. I'm also more than slightly troubled by all the implications such things carry...
What I'm trying to say is that Simon's Quest is indeed a severely flawed product... but it's not some kind of abomination that deserves all the negative buzz it's garnered over the years to the point that it becomes not only acceptable, but expected that one casually deride it as soon as it's brought up, whenever or however that might be. This, I find, is not a positive, much less productive mindset for the general gaming population to have adopted... because for all its flaws, Castlevania II has quite a bit that it can teach us and demonstrates a wide variety of forward-thinking and laudable ideas at work... even if they weren't actually executed in such a fashion as to garner the praise it rightly deserves for them.
So, to be clear. I like Simon's Quest. It's not my favorite game by far to actually play, and it's not an especially deep or challenging game... and it has more than a couple obvious sources of frustration, but I believe it's more than worthy of our careful examination, if not outright respect... and at the very least, it deserves our understanding more than our derision. Anything less would be a disservice to the craft, to the trade, and to ourselves as purveyors and consumers of games in general.
...so yeah, my big Halloween celebratory bash is the equivalent of assigning you a novel that everyone hates to read but needs to write a report on it or else they'll get an F in Mrs. Terwilliger's class. You're welcome.
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Simon's Quest is... very spartan indeed when it comes to the presentation of its first impressions. I mean, the title screen looks pretty good, actually... but that's all there is. Then you get a rapid scroll to a fairly basic blurb as to what the game's actually about... and then right back to the title screen page... all with absolutely no music! Nice! (I can tell already that I'm winning hearts and minds of Internet trolls the world over!)
To expound a bit further where the game will not... the story is: a mysterious waif informs Simon that after his epic battle with Dracula one year ago, his wounds haven't healed as he is, in fact, cursed from that encounter. If he doesn't gather five body parts of his fallen undead foe, now scattered across the land, in order to resurrect and re-vanquish the Count, he will succumb and die... which is... rather gruesome. I think allowing the words "Hell House" to scroll by quickly might've actually been the kid-friendlier way to go.
This game, unlike its predecessor, uses a password system... but not one like the games that would follow. It's not exactly relevant now, but I'll probably get more into it later on, if only in passing as it becomes applicable...
I would like to point out that the music in this game is pretty strong, as is the case most often with Castlevania games in general... but... the real weakness to Simon's Quest is that there's a really small amount of it... like, as in a half dozen songs at most. One of which is this menu/password entry song! Used nowhere else! Not that it'd be super appropriate after the game got underway, so I don't know why that little extra jab was worth getting in... (I'm supposed to be on the GAME's side here! What's the matter with me?!)
Anyway, if this seems like kind of a serious cop-out of an upload for the day one week before Halloween AND on the trail of a bunch of schedule slippage... hold onto your butts. (It's a horrible night to have a curse!)