After beating the evil Count Dracula back in Catlevania, the
last thing Simon Belmond wanted to do is yet another quest. Unfortunately for
him he finds that he has been cursed by Dracula and has to destroy the Counts
five remaining body parts if he wants to be free. With only the words of a
friendly spirit, Simon must now travel across the vast Transylvanian
countryside, visiting towns and gathering items for his quest. Along the way
you'll chat to locals, stock up on vampire slaying goodies and raise your
levels. Each part of the Count you recover also gives you some new powers and
if you're lucky you might just survive long enough for the final showdown.
Castlevania was an excellent game and it's no surprise that
Konami decided to do a sequel. What is surprising is that they chose to make
quite a few changes to the format and Castlevania II now plays much more like a
role playing game than a platform title. The majority of the game is still that
platform jumping ghoul slaying action that made the original such a hit but
this time around instead of stages you have one big area to travel around and
play through. This can be quite daunting and some areas also cannot be accesses
without first solving some puzzles and getting the correct items. Towns are
dotted along the way with churches to heal you and shops to stock up on garlic
and holy water. You can also chat to the villagers for some handy clues,
although some of them seem to like leading you down false paths. The English translation also appears to be quite dodgy which can make puzzle solving almost impossible at times.
The graphics hasn't improved that much over the original but
some interesting new ideas has been incorporated. The most noticeable is that
since large parts of the game takes place in the countryside and swamps you now
have a day/night cycle to contend with. During daylight you can visit the towns
and talk to villagers but during the night the monsters are out in full force
and are even more powerful. The cycles are quite fast and it's sometimes
annoying to wait around towns for morning before you can be healed or buy
items. It also means that Simon never sleeps during his epic quest, a part of
his cures perhaps? There are loads of locations but the main areas to look out
for are the mansions where the body parts are stored. I found myself stuck way
too often for my liking just because I couldn't find a location or couldn't
unravel a cryptic clue.
The game is much easier than the original and even new
players should have no problem getting into it. You can continue as much as you
like and you even restart from the same spot that you died. The only penalty is
that you lose all the hearts and experience you've collected but this is hardly
a problem. The game also has passwords if you choose not to continue so the
emphasis has switched from challenging arcade reflexes to more cerebral
challenges. If you like the original though you'll still have fun with this one
but if you like your platform games as a straightforward test of your reflexes
you might want to reconsider.
The music is the usual excellent stuff from Konami and lives
up to the great legacy of the original. The same spooky tunes and haunting
melodies are present and there are quite a few memorable tracks. Sound effects
are nothing special but in light of the excellent music this can be overlooked.
The controls are exactly the same as the original with the same problems that
the original had. You still get knocked backwards when touched by enemies so
plummeting down bottomless pits is still a regular occurrence. The fact that
you can continue eases the burden considerable though. Controls can
occasionally still feel a bit stiff especially while jumping but if you are a
fan of Castlevania you should be used to it by now.
With the new gameplay elements Castlevania can at times get
a bit boring most noticeable when you stroll around not able to find the next
path. The basic gameplay isn't that difficult but some of the more obscure
puzzles will have you stumped. The gameplay at times feels a lot like Metroid
and thus suffers from the same problems that such nonlinear gameplay
emphasizes. If you're up to a huge quest though then give Castlevania II a try
by all means just don't expect to breeze through it on your reflexes alone.
Gripping gameplay and cool elements makes it a classic despite some of its more
annoying features.
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