A competent open world RPG with level ups and upgrades in 1987, betrayed by the awful Western translation
>exploring the forests, swamps, trading towns and mansions
>cool and sometimes hidden/optional gear like the diamond or shield, with unique abilities tied to them (diamond acts like a screen-wide boomerang)
>that satisfying ultimate upgrade to the whip that turns it into a flaming flail
>multiple endings
AVGN did untold damage to this game's reputation

i had to look up which edge of which screen to kneel at with the red orb equipped

>>11812737 (OP)
There's nothing wrong with the translation. The game is just dog shit. If anything, the Western version is better since you don't have to deal with load times. In the Disk System version, loading an area takes 10 full seconds. Enemies can knock you into screen transitions the moment an area loads, so you get into situations like:
>cross screen boundary to go to next area
>wait 10 seconds for load
>immediately get hit and knocked back into screen boundary for previous area
>wait 10 seconds for load
>cross screen boundary to go to next area, again
>wait 10 seconds for load
>immediately get hit and knocked back into screen boundary for previous area, again
and so on until you've wasted a full minute just to enter the next area.

i enjoyed re-translated + map :-)

>>11812737 (OP)
It's an OK at best random NES game with the good TL. A few really mediocre castles, a bunch of mindless travel maps, and 3 completely worthless bosses. It's not worth defending even if it's not some disaster. Castlevania 1 and 3 are both lightyears better. Last thing I ever say about Simon's Quest I hope.

>>11812757
>there's nothing wrong with the Japanese clues being outright rewritten into nonsense so you literally cannot finish the game without outside information

It's a really ambitious game and deserves respect, but the execution is just okay, and the game doesn't hold a candle to Castlevania 1

>>11812798
GET THE POWER
NINTENDO POWER

>>11812737 (OP)
Castles are too easy and puzzles too cryptic, but otherwise I love the open-world Castlevania concept.

>>11812737 (OP)
I liked this game but I could never figure out how to progress the game

CV2 has some funky ideas but it's so badly designed. It's like DMC2, a lot of ideas that don't make for a good experience

Simon's Quest is one of the few games that I would love a modern remake of. A free roaming Castlevania game not limited to the castle, where you go around Transylvania hunting for Dracula's remains, visiting villages, investigating rumors, stumbling upon weird stuff in the countryside is an awesome idea, but the game itself is mediocre at best.

(and yeah I know that Order of Ecclesia sort of was a reimagined CV2, but they fucked it up with the segment level select map that kills every sense of immersion)

>>11812737 (OP)
Much better than I expected, I'd say even really good. I played the hack with the map that fixed a few things, I feel like it was too ahead of its time, I kept thinking if it was released a year later it could have implemented ideas of other games had, the whole saving and experience points didn't seem right to me in that I wasn't sure if I was exploiting the game or it was glitched and it supposed to bring you back to the start or it was not quite balanced.

>>11812737 (OP)
This game deserves a Samus Returns. An RPG-style Castlevania with Simon and his NES physics would be awesome

The game only has a single boss fight though.

>>11814753
camilla
death
dracula

>>11812737 (OP)
>Castlevania 2 is underrated

Certainly overrated on this website

>>11812757
>dog shit

This seems like a good sign to use when determining whether to read the rest of a post. Not quite on the level of "slop", but maybe about as strong an indicator as "zoomer".

>>11812839
I mean it explicitly tells you, AFTER CASTLEVANIA I WARNED YOU NOT TO RETURN.

>>11812737 (OP)
>this
I like Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 potential gameplay

I liked it. I don't care what some bald gen x fruitcake says.

>>11815225
Grim.

>>11816397
Wow. Yeah I'd say all 2-8 of the people involved in those posts could stand to be filtered out. I certainly do not agree with the bizarre claim that lazy forum posters' compulsion to bring up the shit of dogs over and over and over and over is a sign of youth, Redditing, zionism, or eceleb fandom. I just think it suggests the person is a loser who writes mostly stupid stuff.

Don't look into the death star or you will die.

>>11812737 (OP)
I wanted to like it, it looks good, it could have been fun, but at the end, it's one of those
>well it's good/interesting for an old game
but it's not really a good game that I could recommend

>>11816515
Yeah it was great back in the 80s with a group of kids crowding around the TV (and probably a little help, directly or indirectly, from Nintendo Power), but it's a hard one to recommend today to anybody not specifically interested in history

>>11812737 (OP)
Going from Castlevania to this garbage just absolutely sucked, then don't get me started on the cancer N64 version. The next best one I played was Symphony of the Night.

I guess this is a hot take but I've always loved CV2 and I've been doing a playthough around once a year for about 30 years now.
There are some games that use to be praised back in the 90s, or even the 00s, that get a lot of hate today, this being one of them. I do wonder how much of it is from people (of any age group) purely forming opinions from youtubers/steamers instead of just playing the fucking game. I always wished there was more titles like CV2 on the NES, but at least there was also Zelda 2 and Battle of Olympus.

>>11819887
> I always wished there was more titles like CV2 on the NES, but at least there was also Zelda 2 and Battle of Olympus.

Have you played Faxanadu? I'd say Getsu Fuma Den is also similar to that style in many ways (action-adventure sidescroller; though it has dungeon crawling too). Also Gargoyle's Quest 2, which is closer to Zelda 2, or Cosmo Police Galiven which is a middle ground between Zelda 2 and Metroid. Maybe Maze of Galious as well. Those are all good ones.

>>11819887
I saw avgn and egoraptor's videos on it back in the day.

Years and years later I played it for the first time, and got good first impressions despite all the shit I heard before. Good graphics, day and night cycle, RPG elements.. nice. But after a while I knew I wouldn't bother to play much more of such a time consuming game.

Maybe it would be better with a guide and a romhack to iron out some flaws.

>>11819897
>Faxanadu
Yes, don't know why I forgot that one, I've owned it since forever.
Great game, some peek Falcom jank. I guess on the note of Falcom in a way Legacy of the Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV) could be counted in this style of game too. Was probably the first game I ever had to make a map for.
>Getsu Fuma Den
Heard of it but never actually played it, does look rather cool.
On the note of Metroid, I wasn't including it since it lacks the RPG elements (that is gaining xp/levels), Goonies 2 would be in the same camp on that, but is also a great adventure platformer.

>>11819901
>Good graphics, day and night cycle, RPG elements.. nice. But after a while I knew I wouldn't bother to play much more of such a time consuming game.
Its much shorter then you're likely thinking. Really there are just 5 actual dungeons/mansions then straight to the last boss. If you actually map the game the world is not that big. Its a great game for a quick playthough once you figure out the route. But make figuring it out part of playing the game, don't follow a guide, just get some paper and make your own map, its half the fun of old games and makes the experience more personal.

>>11819914
>But make figuring it out part of playing the game, don't follow a guide, just get some paper and make your own map, its half the fun of old games and makes the experience more personal.
Might be easy for you to say, having played it ever since you were a kid..

At the very least it probably needs a fixed translation

>>11819914
Battle of Olympus doesn't really have RPG elements either that I recall

>>11819936
>At the very least it probably needs a fixed translation
...An entire generation of people were able to play and beat the game as it is. Why are you like this? Its like any fucking excuse to not play something other then just being able to say "I don't want to play it." or "Its just not my thing.". Its like this bizarre thing where you want to experience something so you don't miss out on being able to have an opinion about it socially but at the same time refuse to actually experience it.

>>11819945
Its less about getting xp from mobs but more buying your levels/increased life bar (Ambrosia) with olives.

>>11820049
>...An entire generation of
Kids with nothing better to do

I played it and didn't enjoy it enough to play more.

Everyone always says translation this, translation that. Someone give me a screenshot of text from the Japanese version that gives you a critical hint that's not in the English version. People talk this point to death, but I've never seen any evidence.

You can't justify how fucking obtuse the puzzles are, you can cry about localization all day and it still does not matter.

>>11820084
The only "puzzles" in the game are when you "pray" using the orbs. Even that barely constitutes as one.

>>11820080
Correct. There is nothing wrong with the game's translation. The bad advice from NPCs was in the original.

https://legendsoflocalization.com/articles/castlevania-ii-graveyard-duck/

>>11820080
>>11821301
The Japanese version makes it clear that some NPCs lie to you

>>11812737 (OP)
i love castlevania but you're objectively wrong
is it the worst game ever?
nah not at all
is it convoluted?
yeah it's kinda retarded convoluted with the piss poor tl.

>>11821308
You need to know Japanese to know that. And yet, even if it were translated well, the tips would still be useless. I don't know which is worse. SOTN asking you to have prior knowledge of the old games in the series or Simon Belmont's useless hints.

>>11821393
>le objectively
Kill yourself

>>11821472
it's not objectively underrated
must be an esl or something

>>11821431
The fan retranslation romhack makes it pretty obvious in context when a "false hint" is just the NPC mocking Simon. I don't know if it was that obvious in Japanese to Japanese speakers or not though.

>>11821431
Even in the original translation there are NPCs that tell you that others may lie to you anon.
Way to prove you've never actually played the game any meaningful amount.

>awful Western translation
Nope. The game was purposefully obtuse. iirc, the writer/s thought that it was unrealistic that NPCs always said shit that was true or at the very least not a hindrance so they tried to include dialogue that was purposefully wrong, misleading or outright nonsensical.
>shield
>optional
You mean the rib and nope, not optional.

I like the game, mind you, but to pretend it's underrated does an extreme disservice to the history of game making. They tried something. It didn't work. They learned from that and tried again later.

>>11821393
OP said nothing about whether it was convoluted. You write like you're drunk. OP's claim is that it's competent by 1987 standards, has some fun elements, and is (at least slightly) underrated. This is not a very strong statement and you shouldn't be bothered by it.

>>11821683
>an extreme disservice to the history of game making

Extreme?? What is with you people thinking "underrated" means "secretly extremely good" or something? If you rate the game 5.3/10 and OP rates it 5.4/10 then OP can reasonably claim it's underrated by someone. Also OP said "cool and sometimes hidden/optional", not "optional", about the shield, which is indeed somewhat hidden and arguably cool. And yes it's a shield... that you, yes, gain from a rib. For god's sake, argue about real things instead of this kind of nonsense.

>>11821683
I don't know if it should be considered purposely obtuse or not. Lots of CRPGs of the '80s had intentional false rumors that weren't there to make the game harder, they're just there to make rumors feel like rumors. The finnish guy that did the best retranslation says that the stuff that is intended to be rumor-ish is usually stated outright in Japanese with tipoffs like "some say X", "I heard that X" kind of stuff.

The stuff that people consider absolute nintendo power bait like the ruby in front of a cliff so a whirlwind carries you off is said accurately and outright.

>>11823187
*this is not an argument that it's underrated or overrated wahtever I don't care about that part of the thread just sayin'

>>11823187
>>11823191
Thank you for clarifying the subject

>>11812873
its up there for best games (at least in the top 10 or top 5), my only complaint is it didnt feel as "smooth" compared to other games, it made up for that with the design and music anyway

>>11812798
The Japanese clues were lies, anon. Those bad clues are accurate translations of villagers lying to you.

>>11812798
Try playing the game instead of parroting memes you heard online.

>>11812737 (OP)
Absolutely agree, is one of my favorite games on the Nintendo. I play though it every Halloween, and while there's a lot of things I think could've been done better or expanded upon (like towns being completley worthless at night. Would've been cool if they were merchants or something else you could only enter at night similar to the Quest for Glory games) but that's only because of how much I like it and it bugs me that it isn't that perfect.
>AVGN did untold damage to this game's reputation
In the same way the Shrek did untold damage to the western animation industry; idiots following and perpertuating something they don't understand did yes but the actual creator isn't really at fault (James still holds that he really likes Simon's Quest). But also I'm a big fan of early AVGN (and it's because of him that Simon's Quest was one of the first games I bought for my NES) so I'm a little biased.

Though as a nitpick I will say that the limited music does get a little grating if you play it all in one go. The day's fine because there's at least two tracks you'll hear but unless you go into a mansion it's just one at night. Could've had the title screen music play in cemetaries or even towns at night to spice it up a little.
Will also say that the mansions suck and are just boring and tedious.
>>11812917
>>11813695
It was actually a genuine possiblity that Simon's Quest was going to get a IV-styled remake on the Super Nintendo as part of Satellaview if I recall, one of the things I'd want to see the most out of that is the mansions esentially being miniaturized Castlevania I/III levels.

>>11812737 (OP)
Neat ideas and great music, but it's an unfinished mess that's completely boring to play and it just fizzles out.