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I got this game in 2nd grade circa 1990. It was the first Castlevania I ever played and thus I had no comparison to the first one. I enjoyed it, but like many got stuck not knowing to kneel at the cliff. A friend at school told me about it, and gave me a password I remember to this day: CTMV W26K R5KN SIBK.

Commenting for the Algorythm.

I remember the first time I played through this game. Killing the golem, thinking I'd kill a vampire lord....only the get knocked out and wake up to an entire new age, now with miniguns and rocket launchers. Like, I literally couldn't ask for more. It was my first time even seeing VTM, then bloodlines hit and me and my friends were absolutely obsessed.

watching this game play is hitting the nostalgia so hard

Your argument is flawed from the get-go. The game doesn't suck because AVGN said so. Due to bad translations and being back in the 80s/90s with no internet, no one could beat it.

I loved Simon’s quest. I rented it or borrowed it from friends many times. The only problem I know is that I found out years later there was no way I would have figured it out on my own because of the bad translations

Everyone around me I was a kid and Simon's Quest came out all loved it, this "Castlevania 2 Sucks" rhetoric really only gained traction after The Nerd put up that video.

I think the good ole metrovania (not a typo) is just kind of the platonic ideal of conventional game elements and design. Platforming? Check. Exploration? Check. Combat? Check. Puzzles? Check. Though games have evolved over time to be able to have literally none of these elements they still, and I think to some degree will always, kind of form an ur bedrock of the medium. Even if future generations wind up viewing them as primitive and childish things to build a medium upon. Though, honestly, I kind of doubt humanity will ever outgrow the enjoyment of recreational violence 😅 So long as our monkey brains enjoy exploring new lands, finding unexpected things and hitting back at the things that would do us harm, then the metrovania will always have a welcome place. I do wish more folks would try to make fully 3d ones though. The core design principles carry over.

there are more rare titles than this one. aside Rule of Rose, there also is the similar rare and now similar expenisve to get Kuon, also a great old classic horror survival game with two shrine priestesses investigating an old historic japanese mansion etc

This series has such a truly amazing story I always felt they should at least make books or something. A long time ago I watched the "Legacy of Kain: The movie" or similarly named videos that basically just combine all the cutscenes. Since very little of story value happens outside the cutscenes, this actually covers them pretty well. Better than I got from the games themselves in fact (I've played each one of them, but honestly never beat any...) Of course these games are plagued by what so many other incredibly well storied games: the combat. It gets so tedious so quickly... Especially Blood Omen 2 (which is a true shame because that's the one that put everything together into an incredible -- albeit still kind of open -- end.) The writing and the voice acting in this game series though... I have no words. On the original game, I don't know how well the GOG package works out, but the game used to have SERIOUS troubles on computers not of the era. I would generally say if you wanted to play the game today it would likely be better to seek out the PS1 version unless they've found ways to fix a lot of those issues. (I can't remember what all the issues were. Missing videos, audio cutting out, that kind of thing I think? It has been a LONG time since I last played it...)

I ran across this game entirely by chance way back in the day. I just can't even put into words how I felt about it. I'll say more than anything else it succeeded in making me uncomfortable which, really, feels like kind of the point. It definitely wanders a bit into the territory of "art" more than actual game. The bullying in particular... yeah... If only it hadn't been for the combat. And yeah, OMG the music... That one theme with the violins and piano... I missed some of the symbolism. Was great to see it here and find out what I missed.

Glad to see more people appreciating this game. For me it was positively mind-blowing when it came out. I never quite beat it, sad to say, but I enjoyed a lot about its designs and choices. To me the concept that Wonderland represented her inner psyche in particular was truly neat to see fleshed out. I tried going back with a recent remaster that came out that makes it run better on modern systems and I do have to admit it didn't age well. The biggest problem for me though was an issue even then. The fighting is just so much GRIND. Every enemy takes so much to actually kill... Otherwise I loved every moment of it, but ultimately that tedium was what kept me from beating it. Every other aspect of this game was something truly special though. Not much ever came close to comparing in its presentation both then and really even today.

39:00 - 39:20 And just like that, you lost virtually all of your credibility. I guess next you’ll be making a video about why you think it’s really cool for Hamas to be trying to exterminate all of the Jews?

Clive Barker definitely deserves more praise. Such an underrated horror icon.

A injustice game

This game would have been awesome if it wasnt for N64's awful clunky controller

I never hated this game, played it from beginning to end, had the nintendo power magazine too. Which i truly regret losing, that issue is crazy expensive now.

re: physical media with games: For action / kinetic games with straightforward mechanics the game should teach you to play itself. Doom Eternal is a great example of this. It plays VERY different to other doom games and if you try to play it like an older title you lose. Over and over. And when you "get" what it wants you to do? Hell yeah! More complex games with deep world building systems, economies and miles of interactions? A manuel would be fantastic. It's like playing basketball vs D&D. You can pretty much pick up the rules of basketball playing with your firends. Yes you make mistakes but it's a kinetic, social sport. D&D is also a social game- but not one you can 'bumble' through and pick up the rules via trial and error. And in fact part of the fun is the text, world, etc.

This is my favourite Castlevania game. The soundtrack is unmatched. I love the atmosphere, and gameplay believe it or not.

I do want to say, I actually saw a lot of hate for Castlevania 2 and Zelda 2 in retro communities even before it all became popularized by AVGN and the like. I think a huge part of it might have just been the whole "sequel dared to be radically different from the original" aspect in particular. From there people go in already kind of looking for faults and then they latch into things like the translation issues and etc because they're looking for those faults. And to be fair, some of these things were very real faults. Of course, we didn't have all the answers conveniently on the Internet and most of us couldn't really afford to call in those hotlines or buy all the magazines, so we had to figure out stuff like the Deborah cliff issue the hard way. (And oh boy was it the hard way in that case.) A lot of people just didn't have the patience I suppose. But your conclusion at the end really sums up how I felt about it. Given the limitations of the hardware, design principles, and budgets, the game delivered something really amazing for its time. It broke a lot of molds and gave us exactly what you describe: the feeling of an epic adventure across the landscape, exploring and solving puzzles in addition to the action. (Speaking of, I wonder if some of the hate just simply arose from the fact that it wasn't all action.) It always felt so weird seeing Symphony of the Night lifted to such a high pedestal while this game and Zelda 2, meanwhile, get dunked on as among the most horrible NES games ever (meanwhile Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with its issues like broken hitboxes and horribly punishing penalties and Silver Surfer with its... well, everything exist.) Symphony of the Night literally is just the Simon's Quest formula redone and better made. It maybe deserves a lower pedestal, but it definitely deserves a pedestal and one that predates SotN. Still, I'm fairly certain a lot of the hate I saw for these games wasn't influenced by Internet memes and such. A lot of what I first saw predated all that. I admit I can't speak for when the game came out though. We didn't really talk gaming in school around here. Much of what I saw was on the Internet in retro-gaming circles which were a lot more vague back then, but it definitely predates AVGN. I think more likely even he must have been influenced by that. As you say, it may be somewhat memetic, but I think that it likely does predate Internet memes more to just a lot of people simply not liking it and complaining to others, many of which maybe never actually tried it and the complainers simply being more outspoken (especially in an era where in many circles offline you just simply did not talk about games for your own sake. If someone said it sucked, I sure wasn't about to get into a big debate about it with them as a kid...) But nothing I ever read or watched ever changed my mind. For me this game was truly an epic experience in its time. Games have changed since then and modern games can deliver the same formula better, but when this came out there was nothing quite like it other than Metroid (and even it felt less like a true journey.)

I absolutely loved Simon’s Quest as a kid.

After watching this video, I got a bit curious and found out that they ported Alice to Xbox 360 as free DLC for Madness Returns. Never played these games but this video got me interested, so I’ve now got both downloaded for play on my Series X through backwards compatibility. Pretty excited to try these games out.

Metroidvania is way better a name than search action, even if not as apparent.

just picked up this game sealed never got to play so now im debating to open it lol

As a kid my friends and I loved playing this game, and as an adult looking back it's far far superior to the first game in content and replay value. You're just underlining that games 'journalism' has always been disconnected

2nd

Simon's Quest was my FAVORITE game. And I am an actual gamer from that era. I love AVGN but always disagreed with him on that one.

Why does this guy sound like Shannon from Home Movies?🤔

It was such a good game. Just completed it!

45:59 understandable reaction

who is johnny (I don't see any credits)? his VO was great!

I want to make a hemebrew Castlevania game but mu funds are limited so instead of a Castle story will play in a studio . Safe to say playtime will not be very long.

I always LOVED this game. The atmosphere, graphics, music, expansive world. Never understood the hate.

I was honestly surprised how much I enjoyed it, I just got the platinum trophy a couple weeks ago, it’s definitely not perfect, but I thoroughly enjoyed it

Good video, but you didn't have to bring politics at the 39:00 mark. Unnecessary and now the video is really dated.

41:20 I mean, isn't this ALSO something that is only possible in the medium of video games? The theoretical ability to completely customize your challenge, even if it was not initially intended like that? I'm not saying you should now play on Larvae and disregard the original vision with the handcrafted challenge, but there IS value in this addition, simply because the intended experience is still there and can be enjoyed alongside it.

8:00 In medias res is also know to the layman as "Record Scratch - Freeze Frame".

Don't mind me I'm just here for my bi-monthly viewing of the VTMB love letter.

NORCO is beside the Wadjet Eye games and Oxenfree, the TOP 3 CREATIVE clickNpoint/adventure game in the last 20 years .. or maybe ever!!! A real masterpiece and classic! A lot of RPG games make the failure, or lack the value, to give the user the control, how/who your character(s) really is - psychologically, historically ... this lack is just an outcome of a superficial and imprecise society ... But NORCO - and RagnarRox - proof, we are not lost folks ... keep the revolution going!!! educate - consolidate - reOrganize!!!

I would actually love a remaster or even total remake of this game. The master design is so unique too

Another great video! I finished Aconcagua just recently, thanks to emulation and the hack comunity. All I can say is I that had a very good time with it!

People: Castlevania I was genuis because it was so innovative and groundbreaking! The Same People: Castlevania II innovates too damn much! What made them think that that was a good idea?!

This game is the best game on the console, I love Ocarina of time and goldeneye and many of the other smash hits on it but this game stands at the top, the story and game play feel like an old Castlevsnia in 3D, the hunting, the vampire fights, the day night sequence, it’s just so good.

AVGN was reviewing it as someone that has played the game a million times nitpicking, he talks about that. His review started the negative hype. The game in my opinion is the best game on the console and the one I want to play when I plug in the nes. The difficulty comes from trying to achieve all the objectives in the time limit so you don’t die and not from the trek itself like the first game which is a masterpiece albeit a little too hard.

I really trust your opinion and this game's themes and gameplay seemed like something i would really enjoy, but after playing for hours i just didnt have fun. The beginning is painfully slow, but i kept going through because i hoped that it would get really good, but every single dialogue is so cryptic that at one point i felt like i had nothing engaging going on. I knew nothing of the characters, the world or how i would execute any of my motivations, and every character i would talk to just pretended to be so deep and mysterious that i just had nothing to grab on to... also i saved so much money to get the revolver just to not have any good use for it and that pissed me off a little

Anyone else encounter NO enemies at night when you don't take the injections ? I gave it a whirl and decided to not use any buffs this run through, and the nights are... Peaceful! Its weird and i wanna know if anyone else has encountered this or?? I know nights are random so .

Simons Quest has always been one of my favorite NES games. Along with Zelda 2

I owned the cartridge as a kid and still like the game. lol it just has a handful of flaws and issues.

The Diablo track hit me in the feels and transported me back to freshman year of high school. Now I really want to play it...

I think Mayu also was present and trying to help Mio, the butterflies are guiding Kei.