And I mean the curse of playing this game.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest picks up a few years after the original Castlevania. Afflicted by a strange curse left on him by Dracula, Simon Belmont is told that only by reuniting the pieces of Dracula that remain can he be cured. Of course, if you didn't read a wiki or the instruction booklet, you'd never actually know that and think Simon just ended up in a puke green Hammer horror film.
If you've played Castlevania, then you've played this, although that is a bit of an insult to Castlevania. While everything was precisely designed and perfected in Castlevania so that it ran like a well-oiled, if controller-eating, machine Castlevania II brings in the joy of RPG elements in a way that absolutely does not work in the series and wouldn't until Symphony of the Night. Rather than hearts being your ammunition this time around as in the previous game, they're now currency to buy weapon upgrades and items you'll need.
And you will need to buy. You have to purchase certain items outright in order to complete the quest. Of course, being that the game is a poorly-translated mess, you have NPCs who tell you things that make no sense and things that are flat out untrue. Luckily, we have game guides and walkthroughs in this day and age to mitigate that problem, but I can't imagine how it was to be a kid in 1987, pop this into your NES, and trying to figure out what fresh hell you'd just walked into.
Weirdly enough, if it weren't for trying to translate the Lovecraftian insanity dialogue, figuring out things that the game doesn't even tell you how to do, and grinding for more hearts to buy more things, this game wouldn't really be that long at all. Enemies don't really have the same tight focus that they did in the previous game, so they aren't unique puzzles that you have to solve. While you might think this makes the game easier, it really doesn't...just very monotonous. Enemies respawn almost as soon as you move offscreen from them, which is good for grinding hearts but literally serves no other purpose besides making you annoyed.
And that's not even getting into the day-night cycle, which makes the grinding even grind-y-er. Hence the "horrible night to have a curse" bit. After watching an incredibly slow text box and getting a fade to black and then fade up to a night setting, enemies are stronger and faster...and still don't drop nearly as many hearts as you'd think they should for the effort you put into it. Calling it bullshit would be an insult to bullshit.
The original game had boss battles, one at the end of each stage. Whether it was the giant bat, the Medusa head, Death himself, or the Prince of Darkness Dracula himself, each one had a unique flair and style and strategy to take them down. Like the enemies, it was almost like a puzzle you had to solve. Here...not so much. You have three...and Dracula in particular, widely celebrated as one of the most unique and interesting boss of several other games in the series...is a complete pushover here. Simon literally peppers him with holy water and he dies.
Yawn.
So no, on the whole, Castlevania II is not a good game. While it did provide elements (such as RPG leveling and multiple endings) that would be used to far better effect in later games, it is terrible as a lone entity. Definitely give this one a miss. The only fear you're going to find in this one is a fear of boredom. Will Konami have learned its lesson by the time Castlevania III rolls around?
Well, obviously. It was a much better received entry in the series.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is brought to us by Konami, originally for the Nintendo Entertainment System but can now be found on the NES Classic and has various ports including on the PS4.
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