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Offline Belmont Stakes

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2012, 08:43:39 PM »
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Thank you for your many replies. Now if I may retort let me first say this. The reason why I posted this is to vent my frustration about this game. It is not a bad game per say but it is not all it could be (like Judgement, COD, LOI, LOS). Castlevania games are rarely almost never done without any care where they end up as pieces of shit.

1. This soundtrack is fan-fuck-tastic. If you think I hate this game listen to a revision I did of Message on youtube.
Castlevania II Message of Darkness remix     (and the stereotypical Mick Foley cheap pop for me).
2. The vibe and atmosphere are excellent and epic but the night and day transitions could be no, not faster no no more realistic. Change palletes for each area as the clock ticks from day to night to day. Again,
wasted space. Open the ROM and see how neglected this bastard child of game is. They did you wrong....wrong. You didn't
deserve it. Excuse me......got something in my eye. I really do. It's all about the possibilites not the criticism.
3. I did not want to if possible re-tread on old complaints about this game like the cryptic clues and lies and the pallette and such.
4. Holy water to break blocks is fine if you don't have to search under every rock literally. (Bites off hand for the faceplam :P).
5. Re-spawn points. Yes games like Zelda II and Ninja Gaiden I and III are too harsh in this respect. But did any of you have issue with starting over on level five of CV one when you lost to Death?
6. Slow down in the other CV games did not happen in Bionic it did but from enemies not from free
scrolling. What else do you want me to say?
7. CVIII was a bigger game than CVII and it managed to be very unique on all stages. I can think of one that incorporated elements from 3 different levels but it was unique too.
8. Just so you know my goal is more so to inspire creative thought and ideas of what could be fun in a castlevania game.
Forgive me if the aim of my post came off as harsh. That is not the desired effect I wish to achieve here.

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Stop me if you've heard this one.
A Belmont falls through a trap door into a square prison with no exits. After hitting three sides he smashes through the last one. Relieved and low on health he looks at the camera, smiles and says......"Pork chop?"
ULTIMATE FOURTH WALL BREAK!!! That just happened!!!

Offline GuyStarwind

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2012, 08:51:11 PM »
+1
While SQ is not my favorite I enjoyed it. I still haven't got the best ending though. While it has flaws it's still fun. I like how RoB starts you out in a SQ town too.


Fun fact: I thought OoE's exploration elements were going to be like SQ. I mean traveling to and fro town to town until finally you reach Castlevania at the end. Now yes that's kinda what OoE does but I mean without the ability to touch where you want to go. I mean good old fashion Belmont pimp struting. I hope that makes sense?

Offline Thunderbrand

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2012, 09:49:23 PM »
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Like any game, SQ has it's good/bad/questionable parts. But overall, the game still to this day has one of the best atmospheres of any CV ever made. The whole game from start-finish just feels forlorn, creepy and desolate.

Plus, it was innovative. SQ was very unique for it's time and opened up a lot of new things for future games in the series.
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Offline Belmont Stakes

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #18 on: June 14, 2012, 04:06:06 PM »
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When I think about it there were a lot of things in Goonies II the game that I thought would fit well in a Castlevania game and I wish they had put it in if not this game then one of the subsequent NES titles had they not decided to stop at 3. That game had vibrant graphics, fun music, interesting enemies (spiders, snakes, zombies no gangsters please) bridges to cross an occasional old person to punch for bad grammar, hey it's not real and it's all in fun. I stand by how I feel about the flaws of Simon's Quest and wish they improved on them before releasing it into population. Still I do agree from a standpoint of music, atmosphere/mood and deviated game play they had a good idea and truth be told it is closer to Castlevania the way I see it more so than many titles that came after it.

Remember my name and know this. I have Suffolk Down Syndrome.


Stop me if you've heard this one.
A Belmont falls through a trap door into a square prison with no exits. After hitting three sides he smashes through the last one. Relieved and low on health he looks at the camera, smiles and says......"Pork chop?"
ULTIMATE FOURTH WALL BREAK!!! That just happened!!!

Offline Thomas Belmont

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #19 on: June 14, 2012, 05:19:12 PM »
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I love Goonies II! In fact, I love all the big 2's. Zelda 2, Super Mario Bros. 2, Castlevania 2. It was so great being a kid in the 80's!

Offline e105beta

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #20 on: June 14, 2012, 08:02:28 PM »
-1
I love Goonies II! In fact, I love all the big 2's. Zelda 2, Super Mario Bros. 2, Castlevania 2. It was so great being a kid in the 80's!

I was with you until you said Zelda 2.

That game is definitely an acquired taste.

Offline Gaawa-chan

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #21 on: June 14, 2012, 11:28:01 PM »
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I love Goonies II! In fact, I love all the big 2's. Zelda 2, Super Mario Bros. 2, Castlevania 2. It was so great being a kid in the 80's!

Same here, except... I grew up in the 90's...

Offline shelverton.

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2012, 12:37:31 AM »
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I thought OoE's exploration elements were going to be like SQ. I mean traveling to and fro town to town until finally you reach Castlevania at the end. Now yes that's kinda what OoE does but I mean without the ability to touch where you want to go. I mean good old fashion Belmont pimp struting. I hope that makes sense?

I think OoE could've been structured more like Simon's Quest and I would've probably liked it even more. I mean, take away the map screen and instead make the levels interconnected like in SQ. Maybe put little warp points in-between levels (cause the game would've been a pain to traverse otherwise since it's a much bigger game than Simon's Quest was).

Also, some of the levels in OoE could've had entrances like the mansions in SQ where you press "up" to enter. That would've been great! And the starting town could've had exits on each side, leading to... dunno... one of the forest levels on the east side, and maybe a swamp level to the west.

Oh, and THIS: The town should've had "Silence of Daylight" playing in the background for lulz (and awesomeness).

I've actually been thinking about doing some cut'n'paste just to see how the levels in OoE could've been connected. We would obviously have to change the order in which some of the levels are played, and maybe change the level layout slightly in some places so that everything made sense.

Offline Thunderbrand

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #23 on: June 15, 2012, 12:09:45 PM »
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IMHO, LoS kinda felt Simon's Quest-ish at times with all the different locales. Just the vibe I got at times throughout the game.
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Offline Lucius J. Belmont

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #24 on: June 23, 2012, 11:54:04 PM »
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I'm probably biased because CVII was the first game I ever, -ever- played, but I really don't think there's much of a point to being hypercritical of it. I'd dearly love to see a remake that fixes the few -true- problems (like where were the bosses? I kind of dug that, with the idea of the drac-parts hidden in various deserted locales, but bosses are important to gameplay, yo) and most especially updates to Dwelling of Doom--one of the best, if not THE best, atmosphere tracks. But as to the game in its original incarnation...it's fairly common for NES games to be somewhat lacking in polishing, it seems, even enjoyable ones (Fester's Quest or Maniac Mansion anyone?). There's always something I'd like to have seen done in a more sensible way in NES offerings, but it's hardly lacking in innovation. And if you think about it, it's only following the law of second games anyway: Mario II, Zelda II, Star Tropics II...what is it with II's being weird? Though I love them. I think people tend to forget A)how arcane and bizarre NES games tended to be in those days and B) AVGN was joking in character guys. It's not actually an awful game. Just dated.

I liked OoE's CVII-ish elements, and though I haven't gotten to LoS yet I'm excited for it for that reason as well, but I'd still really love a more closely related re-do of CVII.
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Offline beingthehero

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #25 on: June 24, 2012, 10:16:23 AM »
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I guess the best thing about Simon's Quest is that it's one CV that has a perfectly flawless soundtrack. Except maybe for Dracula's battle theme, but the fight itself it structured to be very short and chaotic.

It's definitely the first "serious" Castlevania. CV1 was pretty goofy and lighthearted, more like playing through a menagerie of Halloween store decorations. That's one reason why it's such a fun game. Simon's Quest has an unparalleled dark, uncertain atmosphere to it.

In some ways Simon's Quest feels more like a sequel to Vampire Killer than what it does to CV1. VK has a slightly more serious tone than CV1.

Offline Leirbag

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #26 on: June 25, 2012, 02:34:35 AM »
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If this game had a map/compas and more helpfull dialogues it woud have been perfect.
Whip it with fire !

Offline pimp dracula

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #27 on: June 25, 2012, 04:22:16 AM »
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This is a game where you will really need a walkthrough/faq since townsfolk are useless except for the merchants.

Offline Gaawa-chan

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #28 on: June 25, 2012, 07:17:09 PM »
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This is a game where you will really need a walkthrough/faq since townsfolk are useless except for the merchants.

Everyone always says that, but it's not true.  My family sussed Simon's Quest without a guide.  Did the same with Zelda 1 and Zelda 2, both of which are very difficult to navigate without guides.  I'd argue that Zelda 2 is even more obscure with Kasuto, the Hidden Palace, etc...

People took all the townsfolk hints the wrong way.  All the hints are telling you to do is "Try doing something at this spot."  So you go to the spot and you do EVERYTHING you can do; and as far as the Deborah Cliff and such go, the game DOES tell you to kneel before places with crystals and that you need the red crystal there.  I'd argue that the only 'obscure' necessary detail is that you need to equip the heart and talk to the ferryman to get to one of the mansions.

Offline Claimh Solais

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Re: This is what is wrong with Simon's Quest.
« Reply #29 on: June 26, 2012, 12:49:58 AM »
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My only ONLY beef with Simon's Quest? It needed a more lengthy soundtrack.

The songs we got were BEAST.

But I wish, for example, each mansion had its own theme, or the underground areas had their own theme, etc.
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