/vr/ - Retro Games

It's a meme. Simon's Quest is good. It's inferior to Faxanadu, but it's good.

>>3570184
With the original translation there are certain things like kneeling with the crystal that are ridiculous to expect people to figure out on their own. I had to ask a guy in my class and he only knew because of Nintendo Power.

All that said, it's my favorite classicvania, among my favorite NES games and pretty much always has been. Opinions are never universal.

>>3570184
It's really boring. Zelda II and Mario II were different, but they were still a lot of fun. Simon's Quest is just a chore. It's not very difficult, it's padded out to all hell, graphically-speaking it looks pretty bad, and with so few challenges or any real sense of urgency there's not much point in playing it. The soundtrack is pretty great though.

>>3570192
I'd take CV2 over Mario 2 any day.

>>3570184

The only thing good about the game is the soundtrack. Contrarians and nostalgiafags will defend it despite all the flaws.

>>3570221
>I don't like that game so everyone that disagrees with me is a contrarian and nostalgia fag
>I will defend my opinion as if it is objective truth

I miss the days when people actually discussed things.

>Konami has buried Gradius, Contra, Suikoden, Silent Hill, and Castlevania
>Will bury MGS soon after Survive

Why do they have to control so many great franchises...why Konami? ;_;

Retro-hating on this game seems like it only popped up recently (last few years, since AVGN) I don't recall anyone bitching about this game back in the day. It seems like a game that people don't like as a matter not being easy to retro-tour and just beat the game to say you beat it. Same shit with Zelda II, because when you're playing a game just to see it you don't want to spend time exploring every nook and cranny and talking to the town yokels who may have something useful to say to someone stuck at just the right spot.

>>3570254
>I don't recall anyone bitching about this game back in the day.

I'm one of the biggest CV2 fans on this board, but you must have a terrible memory. I've never even watched an AVGN video and I can tell you from first hand memory the game was getting shit long before youtube existed.

>>3570254
People are either following the Zelda cycle for everything anymore or are associate all other games in a franchise with the subjective best entry (in this case probably SotN) and think "Well all the other games aren't SotN, so they must not be good.".

Welcome to the world anymore.

>>3570257
>the game was getting shit long before youtube existed.
The CV2 AVGN video is older than Youtube though.

>>3570305
I know that's probably trolling, but may as well ask. Was he really doing videos pre-youtube? Did he used to have a site like Toasty Frog or something?

>>3570192
>No sense of urgency
But if you beat it in a certain amount of time you get different endings

>>3570312
He made them on VHS.

>>3570184
The game only has two other bosses, and they are both extremely simple to defeat as well. The basic enemies, enemy placement, and level design in general are also thoroughly unremarkable outside of the mansions, and the mansions are generally pretty small.

Grinding for hearts to buy items you need in order to progress also gets old fast.

I like the game, but it's not very good. The hate is justified.

>>3570312
I remember before youtube when I seen his first two videos someone uploaded them to nothingtoxic.

if you play the romhack that fixes all the problems its actually a fantastic game

>>3570184
The slow gameplay isn't conducive to an open world exploration game.

>>3570254
>Retro-hating on this game seems like it only popped up recently (last few years, since AVGN)

It had a lot of hate from day 1. At the time of it's release everyone relied on the nintendo power guide to get anywhere, but the guide didn't include the kneeling tornado hint. That came in a later issue. Most casual gamers without access to the publications fucking raged at that game.

The in-game hints are 50/50 lies or often meaningless even if they really are sincere.

Ferryman:
>"Rumor has it, the ferry man at the Dead River loves garlic."
False. The real hint is this one (which doesn't even mention the ferryman, and there is no indication if he is cursed):
>"Destroy the Curse with Dracula's Heart."

Same as fucking Deborah cliff. Fake hint:
>"An old gypsy holds a diamond in front of Deborah Cliff."
Real hint (sort of):
>"Hit Deborah Cliff with your head to make a hole."
>"Wait for a soul with a red crystal on Deborah Cliff."

When we played it back in the day we knew enough to equip the red crystal, but we did everything possible to try and make a hole in the cliff side and got nowhere. We thought you had to use the diamond (which was an actual item mentioned in the hint). This was infuriating.

tl;dr

The game was mostly disliked at launch. It sat gathering dust at the local rental stores for much of it's life. During the prime of the NES this was one of the most hated games on the schoolyard and had nothing but bad word of mouth.

>>3570394
I'm >>3570189 and I don't remember it being that bad. It wasn't a popular game, sure but I wouldn't call it one of the most hated, or even hated in general. But different people had different experiences. I happened to get help on the part I was stuck and loved the game otherwise.

aaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssss

>>3570415

In 1988 nintendo was still enforcing strict quality control and there were not that many terrible games up to this point.

There were absolute dogshit games that came later, of course, but at this point in the NES history castelvania 2 was one of the biggest let downs for the console to date.

I like Cv2 a lot. its a good game. It was popular here where it came out, and was often rented out at BB.

It did have a bad translation.

Dislike it all you want, thats fine, but the hate memewagon is coolest

>>3570221
thanks for stating that your opinions are worthless, glad thats out of the way.


>>3570192
How was it padded out? There was no real backtracking you had to (except for that one mansion), and every place you went was for a key item for the game.

Also, the sense of urgency is getting the best ending. How else is it supposed to add urgency - a time limit? Its more about exploration.

>>3570369
>Grinding for hearts to buy items you need in order to progress also gets old fast.

How is it different from any other game where you have to grind for $$ ? Or any game that requires grinding at all? Its not even that much.


>>3570381
Good point.

>>3570456
>but at this point in the NES history castelvania 2 was one of the biggest let downs for the console to date.

Again all I'm saying is that was your impression and that I had a different one. Partly it's that it was a more interesting game for me than the first one and I liked it better personally. But also I just don't remember a lot of hate for it back then. I know the guy who told me how to progress liked it, we spent many lunch hours shooting the shit over it.

>>3570184
It would be way better if you didn't have to stop to grind stuff.
It's not that it's particularly poorly designed or anything, it's that it's tedious. You spend a shitton of time not really playing onwards. That's what makes the game a lot less fun.

>>3570559
You really never need to grind in that game. In fact it's designed against it, you can only get so much xp in any one zone so you have to keep moving. Just because there's xp doesn't mean you need to max it. Just play, it's not a super hard game anyways.

>>3570569
Not the XP, the hearts. You need those.

When I first played this, Symphony of the Night didn't exist yet cause it was 1987~1988.

>people pretending that nobody hated simon's quest until avgn

There's a reason why they went back to 1's gameplay in 3 and never tried anything like Simon's Quest until the ps1.

>>3570394
>Same as fucking Deborah cliff. Fake hint:
>"An old gypsy holds a diamond in front of Deborah Cliff."
But that's not a fake hint. You do get the crystal from a person at Deborah Cliff. It's just in another place also called Deborah Cliff.

>>3570607
And then there's also a reason that that PS1 game was so much more popular than any of the other ones that they moved the entire franchise in that direction.

>>3570690
>SotN
Fan Translation > Official English Release
TRUFAX.

>>3570724
DIE MONSTER!

>>3570724
>Disagreeing with Jeremy Blaustein's localization

It's not his fault that they got some wackos off the street to record lines in a bathroom

>>3570189
The original Japanese text is just as cryptic as the English translation

>>3570474
>How is it different from any other game where you have to grind for $$ ?

It's not, and those games suck too.

>>3570184
The problem I have with CV2 is it's nearly impossible to beat without a guide but it's ridiculously easy with a guide.

Great ideas.
Best atmosphere in the series.
Wish it had gotten the X68000/Chronicles/ReBirth treatment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0xSEi4PLSY

>>3570609

Was that a localization error that labeled both cliffs in the game Deborah Cliff?

>>3570474
>How is it different from any other game where you have to grind for $$ ? Or any game that requires grinding at all? Its not even that much.

A flaw doesn't stop existing just because it's shared with some other games. Mandatory grinding is always bullshit and it kills the pacing.

>It did have a bad translation.

The translation has a few issues, but it isn't actually as bad as most people assume. Some of the more bizarre and cryptic bits of dialogue (like finding the graveyard duck to live longer) are also in the Japanese version of the game, and Japanese players are equally puzzled by them.

>>3570192
This. It's just a dull game. The level design and enemy placement aren't that compelling, and finding out what to do is more tedious than satisfying even with the better translation.

I'm looking forward to playing it in Japanese so I can finally see for myself whether it's all a big American maymay or a legit complaint.

>>3570205
Understandable. Jarring differences appeal to some over others, and I say that as a Zelda II apologist.

>>3570313
There's the problem, the endings seem to be screwed up. If you take too long, you actually get the best ending. The 1st ending meanwhile is the middle ending, and the 2nd ending is the worst ending. So, it's actually more beneficial to take your time.

>>3570474
Grinding for levels and whips in the first place was padding, not to mention most of the trap-based level design. Castle design itself is extremely poor and uninteresting, and bosses are a joke. All those secrets exist to pad it out by making it more cryptic than it needs to be too, and just artificially extending its length. So, it's a game without any real challenges or anything particularly interesting going on, and as a result just becomes a slog as it goes on because it's all essentially the same. Comparing it to CV1, you don't have that amazing level design or those iconic boss battles. I do like the foundation it set for the Metroidvanias, and it was even more ahead of its time than those in some ways. I do like what it tried to do, but I wouldn't say it was a particularly good game, all things considered.

And as I explained to the anon above, the endings are mixed around, and don't mean a whole lot anyway if you're not even interested in the story in the first place.

>>3570184
It only really suffers from shitty dialouge and some annoying stuff like the day/night switch.

Super 1337 hacker and turbojew Bisqwit has made a re-translation of the game and changed a few other annoyances.

http://bisqwit.iki.fi/cv2fin/

>>3571138
To me it only seems screwed up because the "good" ending has Dracula's hand comong out of the grave. However, we all know that Dracula comes back a million more times, so the "good" ending should just be the one where Simon lives.

>>3570184
Horrible structure, confusing in general.

>>3570184
Had some cryptic bullshit to it that would necessitate having Nintendo Power or finding a guide/FAQ. Some argue it's because of shitty translation.

Boss battles feel like an afterthought, like they weren't properly finished and thrown in at the last minute. There's only a couple of them too.

Level design can be very boring at times (in my opinion).
It also just has a bunch of not quite good small design choices.

Overall though, I think it's a very interesting game, it's large in scope, the music is great, and the idea of travelling the countryside and collecting the artifacts, I think is really cool and interesting, some flaws I'm willing to forgive, others not.

>>3570205
I'm the opposite, I feel SMB2 is way more exciting to play than CV2.

>>3570254
>and talking to the town yokels who may have something useful to say
But almost everything they say is bullshit

>>3570312
His website, cinemassacre, existed before Youtube. He started in 2004

>>3570737
>It's not his fault

For some reason I heard it in Dracula's voice.
>It was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh.

>>3571010
No, they're supposed to be the same cliff just higher up/lower down the river.

>>3570252
Dont forget about twinbee

>>3570184
It's a meme, because Egoraptor has ADHD. Which would be fine, if only he decided to stay away from slow paced games instead of shitting on them.
>>3570221
I'd say problem is that it aged badly. Like, back then it was a revolutionary mix of an adventure game, RPG and a metroidvania. It's just nowadays we want our RPGs without grinding, our puzzles to be less headbangingly cryptic, and our metroidvanias to have maps. But if you can get past that, it's a good game, much more atmospheric than 99% of NES catalogue.

>>3575037
Well said...