Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

**Castlevania II: Simon's Quest**, known in Japan as ***Dracula II: Seal of the Curse***, is an action/adventure platform game developed by Konami in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System. It was ported to cartridge format in 1988 and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

This is infamous for its hilariously inept translation, though the original Japanese version doesn't make much sense either, thanks to Konami's *brilliant* decision to give many of the villagers intentionally misleading dialogue.

Hit Deborah Cliff with your head to make a hole, and don't forget to visit the graveyard duck to live longer.

The game features Simon Belmont and takes place in 1698, seven years after the first game.

## Storyline

It is the year 1698, seven years after Simon Belmont originally defeated the evil Count Dracula.

After Simon delivered the final *coup de grace* to the Prince of Darkness, the Count placed a dark curse upon him that would send him to an early grave unless Simon revived him. Moreover, Dracula's minions are once again stirring throughout the land of Transylvania, ravaging throughout the many villages and terrorizing the townsfolk.

Simon takes up the legendary whip, the Vampire Killer, once again and travels throughout the land to the towns of Jova, Veros, Aljiba, Aldra, Oldon, Fetra and Ghulash to liberate the people and seek help from them as he searches for the Count's body parts which have been hidden in five different dark manors (Berkeley, Rover, Brahm's, Bodley and Laruba) throughout the land.

Once all the parts of Dracula's body were in place, Simon took them to the ruins of Dracula's Castle and burned them. Simon didn't expect, however, for Dracula's ghost due to the power of a sixth remain, Dracula's Fang, which was hidden inside the ruins. Simon fought Dracula again and this time finished him for good (or so the people thought, though Dracula would return in the 18th century).

## Gameplay

*Simon's Quest's* environment differs from the linear castle of the first game, and is instead an open-ended landscape interspersed with towns, cemeteries, manors and dungeons. The passage of time in game causes day to become night and vice versa. Enemies are stronger at night, zombies inhabit the towns, and the townspeople are nowhere to be seen as they're hiding in their houses from the monsters. New to the series are several RPG elements, such as an inventory and a leveling system which causes Simon's health to increase whenever he collects a specific amount of hearts. During the day, townspeople offer hints (though player beware: some of these 'hints' are half-truths or outright lies), and merchants sell items, such as whip upgrades, in exchange for hearts. The amount of time it takes to complete the game also affects how well Simon fares at the ending.

Sub-weapons return from *Castlevania*. Old weapons include the Dagger and Holy Water, while new ones include the bouncing Diamond and Laurels of invincibility. Dracula's remains also offer stat benefits when collected, such as an immunity to poison.

## Game mechanics

* The format for telling (game) time is DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES.
* The first nighttime cycle begins at exactly 18:00 PM and ends at day 01, 6:00 AM (game time).
* Each nighttime cycle begins at 18:00 PM and lasts until 6:00 AM the next day.
* Each daytime cycle begins at 6:00 AM and lasts 12 hours (game time).
* Game time does not pass while inside a church, while inside a building in town, or in a mansion.
* Game time does pass if you are on the outside part of a town, or while "in the wild".
* Every time you gain a level, there will be certain enemies that will not give you XP (but you will still gain hearts from them).

## Quotes

* American version - "What a horrible night to have a curse" - When the sun goes down during gameplay.
* Japanese version - "And so the shiver of the night has arrived" (ソシテ センリツノ ヨルガ オトズレタ *Soshite senritsu no yoru ga otozureta*).
* American version - "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night" - When the sun comes back up during gameplay.
* Japanese version - "The nightmarish night has ended" (アクムノヨウナ ヨルガアケタ *Akumu no you na yoru ga aketa*).
* "You now prossess Dracula's Rib" - A typo of "possess".
* "Let's live here together" - Spoken by an old woman in a house.
* "Take my daughter, please!!" - Spoken by an old man in a village.

## Endings

The game includes three different endings, determined by how long it took for the player to complete the game and how many continues were used. All three are variations of the same ending, but with different twists featured.

### Bad ending

**Complete the game in 15 days or more.**

Neither Dracula nor Simon survive the battle. Dracula's grave is shown and text appears telling the player that:
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### Normal ending

**Complete the game in 8 to 14 days.**

Simon defeats Dracula but eventually succumbs to the curse anyway. He kneels by Dracula's grave and text appears telling the player that:
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### Good ending

**Complete the game in 7 days or less.**

Simon defeats Dracula and is freed from the curse. He kneels by Dracula's grave and text appears telling the player that:
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Simon walks away from the grave, but that night Dracula's hand pushes through the dirt.

## Staff

Like several other Konami games of this era, the staff are only credited by aliases and their specific roles are not given in the game itself. What follows in the in-game credit list, accompanied by those whose full names and roles have been identified:

* Invincibility: Akamatsu (Hitoshi Akamatsu; game designer and director)
* Permanance: Iwasa
* Philosophy: Togakushi (Noriyasu Togakushi; character designer)
* Masterpiece: Kawanishi
* Sensitivity: Hatano (Yoshiaki Hatano; sound effects)
* Excellence: Terashima (Satoe Terashima; music composer)
* Ambivalence: Kuwahara (Yasuo Kuwahara; game progammer)
* Flourish: Higasa
* Warm-Heart: Matsuoka (Nobuhiro Matsuoka; game programmer)
* Admiration: Ohyama (Hideki Ohyama; character designer)
* Superiority: Murata (Kouji Murata; audio programmer and music composer)
* Synchromism: Matsubara (Kenichi Matsubara; music composer)

## Trivia

* The phrase "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night" used to signify the coming of day time was referenced by Shanoa in *Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia*, when she mentioned that she was the Sun that has come to vanquish this horrible night.
* The artwork for the game, featuring Dracula emerging on a balcony, bears a striking resemblance to the cover of the 1983 Dungeons and Dragons module entitled "Ravenloft".
* One of the manors, Brahms, is somewhat of a typo but sounds similar to "Bram", as in Bram Stoker, the author of *Dracula*.
* The phrase "What a horrible night to have a curse" used in this game to signify the coming of night time was used as the name of a Black Dahlia Murder song from the album "Nocturnal". Similarly, the open portion of the music played in the forest during day time (the infamous "Bloody Tears") was used in the With Dead Hands Rising song "A Ghost for the Broken Hearted" on their album "Behind Inquisition".
* In the MMORPG Everquest II, the zone Loping Plains is beset by a curse every night and the message "What a horrible night to have a curse" appears in the player's chat window. When day breaks, the message "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night" is also displayed in the chat window. Obviously, both are direct references to *Castlevania II: Simon's Quest*.

## Unused Enemy

An unused zombie enemy. Judging from the tileset it's stored in, it was probably supposed to appear in a mansion.

## Unused Text

These messages can be viewed in-game by accessing any dialogue with Pro Action Replay code **00007FXX** enabled, where "XX" is the given text ID.

### Ferryman

Starting at line **0xCF50** in the ROM data:

This is similar to the Ferryman's dialogue when you have the Heart equipped ("Let me show you the way"), but he never says "I'll show you the way." Nor does any other character in the game, for that matter.

### Level-Up

Starting at line **0xCCE0** in the ROM data:

It's obvious that these were meant to be displayed when Simon gains an experience level, but they're not. Further, it's not possible to go above Level 6 in the final game.

### Filler

At lines **0xCCD0**, **0xCF90**, **0xD1F0**, and **0xDC60** in the ROM data:

All four of these memory addresses contain an instance of "Nothing.", which is never displayed anywhere in the game. They're probably placeholders or memory fillers, but may also have been intended for empty rooms.

*(Source: TheAlmightyGuru, Abystus (code))*
If you use CurseEd, you can see that string "Nothing" that has included.

## Regional Differences

Here are the list of differences between the FDS and NES versions.

* The title screen was completely redone. The blood effect that would drip from the title was removed, and the title screen itself was shifted down a few pixels.
* In the FDS version, there was a save feature, whereas in the NES version it uses a password system.
* The holy water makes no sound when hitting the ground in the FDS version, whereas in the NES version it retains the sound from Castlevania.
* The loading screens that would pop up when starting a game, leaving towns, approaching a mansion, etc., were removed.
* When in front of the entrance of a mansion, the mansion theme starts playing in the FDS version. In the NES version, it plays when entering the mansion instead.
* The entire soundtrack was redone because the FDS version uses a sound chip exclusive to the Famicom Disk System.
* The level up sound effect doesn't have an echoing effect.
* The ending theme was redone to make it sound less repetitive.
* The credits were also removed in the ending.