Blog of Pawn  

When I was a kid, my mom used to periodically bring me along when visiting a friend of hers, B.J. She had a son who was never around, but had an NES and a few games that I didn’t have. Double Dribble was one and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest was the other.

Castlevania II is different in a lot of ways than Castlevania I. It looks the same, featuring a hero who wields a whip and climbs a lot of stairs. However, it focuses more on exploration, a lot more open ended than its predecessor. You have towns with villagers who give you clues. You might say it plays like an entirely side-scroller Dragon Warrior or Zelda.

I remember having fun with both Double Dribble and Simon’s Quest, but being rather frustrated with the latter. I felt like I had fully explored everything there was to do, yet somehow not making any progress. It’s hard to convey how strange that was, having seemingly fully explored a game yet having no sense of progression.

I wanted to give the game another go, but had forgotten which Castlevania it was when I chose to play Castlevania a few months ago. After going ahead and completing the first Castlevania, I decided to give this one a shot. I was curious to see if I’d fare any better this time around.

Short answer, I didn’t.

Long answer, once again I did a lot of exploring in all directions, upgrading my whip a few times and gaining a few other items. Yet I eventually found dead ends in every direction without ever feeling like I’d made real progress. Unlike the first Castlevania, I never found a single boss. I got to where I could go wherever I wanted with ease – the random monsters aren’t as hard as the first game and they don’t throw impossible combinations at you.

The clues that the townspeople give seem almost entirely worthless and/or cryptic. Clues like “You have a friend in another town.” and “Hit Deborah Cliff with your head to create a hole” What??

Finally, I resorted to a tool that wasn’t available in my youth – gamefaqs. I learned things there that magically open up this game.

Up+attack button = use item
Somehow, I never accidentally did this before resorting to gamefaqs. Ironically, I kept accidentally doing it afterwards. Why is this relevant?

You buy a wooden stake from a guy in a mansion at one point in the game. It seemed worthless before, but it turns out that to progress through the game, you use the stake on a crystal orb that I found but couldn’t figure out what to do with.

Your holy water that you buy can be used to open up hidden paths. Random empty rooms suddenly have purpose!

Remember “Hit Deborah Cliff with your head to make a hole”? There’s no sign anywhere saying where Deborah Cliff is, but it turns out that if you find a particular dead end and sit in one spot while ducking for a full 8 seconds, a tornado carries you to another area (no Zelda whistle). How the heck does a kid figure that out in an action game from the 80s??

It felt good to finally see new territory, even if I had to resort to a guide. Its simple platforming, whip-slinging fun.

Moving forward, I eventually found a town where people actually acknowledged my accomplishment from the first Castlevania (actual plot? This is madness!). Afterwords, made my way to the entrance of Dracula’s Castle. So he IS in the game!? Here I discovered a new frustration. For some reason, an obstacle lay in my path preventing my progress. Another trip to gamefaqs would reveal that I was supposed to find objects in more Mansions than what I had found. It would also reveal that some of these Mansions were before the infamous “Deborah’s Cliff”. Okay.

So I worked my way back to the place where I had been teleported. A funny thing occurred to me. I couldn’t get back. That’s right. Even gamefaqs didn’t reveal to me that there was a point of no return. Once again, this game has defeated me.

So I have to say, this game is impossible for entirely different reasons than Castlevania I. Castlevania I is known for its impossible situations and even more impossible bosses*. This game will maintain a place in my memories as the game no mortal could figure out on their own. I suppose if you rely heavily on gamefaqs you could actually finish this game and maybe still have fun with it…

This might help. I haven’t used them.

*I read that this game has bosses, but I somehow managed to not find a single one.