Topic: At least one or two ways that CVII is harder than CV or CVIII.

[Belmont Stakes]

I noticed that there are a couple of game play mechanics in CV II that the first game does not have. These things actually make the game tougher and in some cases cheaper than the first.

1 If you get hit on stairs in Simon's Quest you fall rather than blink for a couple of seconds after taking damage.  This can be particularly cheap if you fall off of the steps onto an enemy, spikes on into water.

2. The screen transitions are do not affect your movement from one room to another.  In the first game if you come to the castle entrance, any door, the stairs coming out of the cave in level 4, the entrance to the clock tower or Dracula's keep its basically a screen and position reset.
Where as Simon's Quest lost vertical screen transitions as in going up the steps and into another area, conversely if you jump at the end of an area such as going into the portion of Vero's Woods before Berkley Mansion you may end up in the water. Again cheap.
     
So although the idea of making the second game less unfair shows up in regards to enemies and re-spawn points, with these two things they still manage to make it somewhat annoying. Especially when you lose all of your lives, hearts and experience points.

[Super Waffle]

It's more difficult in the "completely obtuse and expecting you to complete the entire game through trial and error with no real direction / logical solution to the game's puzzles" way.

Yeah, if I just equip this magical rock out of like four other possible magic rocks and kneel in front of a mountain for 5 seconds, a tornado will appear and teleport me to the next part of the map. And if I throw garlic down in one particular spot in one particular graveyard, a ghost will sell me a dagger. That makes total sense.

[Belmont Stakes]

Well I was more referring to the game physics movement and jumping and sech. However, yeah all of those translation issues, cryptic clues, false leads, false floors, poor enemy placements and ten second delays (ahem Ninja Gaiden) do leave one with a sour taste on the pallet. Hopefully someone will do a hack that fixes all the other stuff that Almighty guru's work started or maybe a home brew.   

[son_the_vampire]

CVII is one game i just cannot bring myself to play again. I cant think of one thing i enjoyed more, comparing it to CV or CVIII should not be allowed.

On topic:
I think this game is loads easier than the others. I mean jumping over platforms and using the whip guarantees you a hit on an enemy.

[zangetsu468]

I think CV II is cheaper than other games, but not easier. Even if you didn't level up at all (which the game is designed to have you do so) it's easier than CV III.

[Belmont Stakes]

The issue with leveling up is having to grind for hearts which is only truly practical in the 5 mansions as time has stopped. If you hit Gargoyles they yield the biggest hearts (worth 6 currency and 5 experience points) making getting to 256 much easier and the morning star. But unlike in CV or CVIII you don't get multiple hearts say from a snake dragon heads from the wall as their are none. There are only the bone pillar/skeledragon hybrid found in the Sadam Woods(4 hearts) and no mansion enemies yield those hearts. They needed a banking system in this game. Well at least now there are save states and SRAM hacks. So much missed potential.

[zangetsu468]

If you're inside a mansion in CVII does time spent in there affect the ending, since technically no 'time' in the CVII world passes?

[X]

If you're inside a mansion in CVII does time spent in there affect the ending, since technically no 'time' in the CVII world passes?

It in fact does not effect the ending. When inside a mansion take a look at the time record in the items inventory menu. You will see the time at say- 01:12:01. Wait for a while and then go back into the menu and it will still say- 01:12:01. This will tell you that the clock has stopped inside the mansions. This is the perfect opportunity to gather Exp points and hearts for shopping.

[zangetsu468]

Thanks. I realised the time stamp stopped but I wasn't sure if say under 3 hours meant that the game kept counting separately to this.

That's a pretty awesome mechanic, and now I understand why they implemented this.
However, if you go into certain mansions at night (maybe only Braham's) the moving blocks are invisible, so you'd have to time getting there during the day.

[X]

The blocks only become invisible when you de-select the crystal item. As far as I'm aware of I've never seen the day/night cycle effect invisible blocks.

[Crying Freeman]

CVII does have the cheap things you mentioned, but besides that the game's "retro challenge" comes in the form of "where tf do I go!?" moments. Such a shame because besides that, the game is extremely great. I know most people can't stand the pauses for the night and day transitions, but it's not THAT big a deal, just over exaggerated by AVGN, who uses exaggerated complaints for comedy.

I don't want to go off topic, but if CVII gave you an idea of what to do instead of assuming you'll have a walkthrough of some form, I'm sure people would adore the game like they do 1 and 3. The RPG elements are handled great by not being very complex (good for balancing it with the action), the OST, graphics, and horror atmosphere are all fantastic.

It's not unfairly reviewed like Zelda 2 is, because Zelda 2 is simply hated for being different while CVII is criticized for good reasons like the ones stated above (I still don't understand people just saying "It's not ZELDA!!" seriously, doesn't make it bad, it's a great game)

[zangetsu468]

The blocks only become invisible when you de-select the crystal item. As far as I'm aware of I've never seen the day/night cycle effect invisible blocks.

Hmm I will look into this sometime. Looks like the white crystal has a purpose after all.

[X]

Hmm I will look into this sometime. Looks like the white crystal has a purpose after all.

It's about the only thing the white crystal does really. As for the blue and red crystals? Well the do what they do as well as what the white crystal does.

[Belmont Stakes]

CVII does have the cheap things you mentioned, but besides that the game's "retro challenge" comes in the form of "where tf do I go!?" moments. Such a shame because besides that, the game is extremely great. I know most people can't stand the pauses for the night and day transitions, but it's not THAT big a deal, just over exaggerated by AVGN, who uses exaggerated complaints for comedy.

I don't want to go off topic, but if CVII gave you an idea of what to do instead of assuming you'll have a walkthrough of some form, I'm sure people would adore the game like they do 1 and 3. The RPG elements are handled great by not being very complex (good for balancing it with the action), the OST, graphics, and horror atmosphere are all fantastic.

It's not unfairly reviewed like Zelda 2 is, because Zelda 2 is simply hated for being different while CVII is criticized for good reasons like the ones stated above (I still don't understand people just saying "It's not ZELDA!!" seriously, doesn't make it bad, it's a great game)

Zelda II was a classic and spawned the inspiration for a very underrated game called the Battle of Olympus. It was very much a knock off of Link but had CV type stairs and other elements that gave it unique character. Those games could have served as an template for Simon's Quest to emulate. CVII has a lot of brilliant ideas but it's incomplete, too easy platform wise and forced many a player to get Nintendo Power subscriptions. It is not no where near a bad game. Day and night transitions were started because of this. But come on, people complained about the first games difficulty without looking up holy water spamming techniques. Tell me was it easy to spam Drac's ghost with the water and a triple shot of blood mixed espresso? If so how much easier would that have been with the flame if the first games platform mechanics and brutal boss fights were left in tact for numero dos? The second game had the easiest end boss in gaming history.

[Crying Freeman]

Zelda II was a classic and spawned the inspiration for a very underrated game called the Battle of Olympus. It was very much a knock off of Link but had CV type stairs and other elements that gave it unique character. Those games could have served as an template for Simon's Quest to emulate. CVII has a lot of brilliant ideas but it's incomplete, too easy platform wise and forced many a player to get Nintendo Power subscriptions. It is not no where near a bad game. Day and night transitions were started because of this. But come on, people complained about the first games difficulty without looking up holy water spamming techniques. Tell me was it easy to spam Drac's ghost with the water and a triple shot of blood mixed espresso? If so how much easier would that have been with the flame if the first games platform mechanics and brutal boss fights were left in tact for numero dos? The second game had the easiest end boss in gaming history.

Definitely flaws in the game, no arguing that. It was an ambitious game for the time, especially compared to CV1. Changing genre completely for the sequel is something to be commended, but it can also lose some of what made the original so great (the platforming and boss difficulty as you mentioned). You go from a tiny and simple game to a GIANT and COMPLICATED game, so there's obviously gonna be some issues.

CV1 is really the only game that I'd say is almost literally perfectly designed, where the devs thought of every little consideration for balancing, the 1 thing they ignored was the holy water spamming, which tbh is an unfair advantage to the player in a game that seems to put the player and challenge evenly against each other. Sounds like I'm treating the game as a human opponent XD but it's true.

CVII seemingly tries to balance out the player's growing strength with the "where tf do I go" moments and parts like crossing the swamp. I know it's an RPG so things are gonna be different, and leveling up + getting new items in CVII is one of the most satisfying game progressions to me personally (I have a love for NES platforming RPGs for this reason).

BTW, I played Olympus on an emulator years ago and quit early on. I'll definitely give it another try if it's in the same vein as ZeldaII and CVII