A much better step after Castlevania II. This is a real expansion on the first game, with far more content, level paths, even characters to play, adding a TON of replayability. Unfortunately, to accommodate for this, this game is also significantly harder than the first, and not in a fun challenge kind of way.

The first Castlevania felt like each screen was a puzzle specifically constructed with a solution to make it by unscathed, but this game’s more loose design due to the different possible characters overcompensated with unfair bullshit and perfect precision to scrape by.

I think it is a much more impressive game than the first, and if I decide to play it more I may end up liking it more, but the first Castlevania just feels so classic, so perfectly designed, whereas this feels like a really impressive fan game without the technical game design behind it to back it up.

This is a game that’s much easier to appreciate than enjoy. Where the original Castlevania could occasionally have some bullshit difficulty, this game swaps over to being bullshit cryptic. The problem with that is when you have a really difficult challenge in the original, it feels satisfying to overcome it and get to make some progress, and gives Dracula’s mansion the level of treachery it should. But in this game, when there’s some sort of challenge, it’s in figuring out what to do, which isn’t a fun puzzle, but trying to comprehend the poorly translated hints and even then you may not even be getting them in the right order.

The non-linearity of this game is neat, but a gimmick that feels like padding to make little jimmy spend more time on his brand new NES game. I ended up following a guide, and once you know what to do in this game, it becomes painstakingly obvious how easy this game really is. There are a grand total of 3 bosses, and all three are cake walks. In fact, the first was the hardest of the three for me. The final dungeon has this great buildup, an eerily empty mansion with gray walls and a haunting tune, and then you absolutely butcher Dracula in 3 seconds flat. It was incredibly underwhelming. The game nails atmosphere and aesthetics most of the time, but the poor translations are a blemish on that cool presentation. I mean, how do you mix up the ending text? I’m serious, the game will tell you the wrong ending, over a background that’s showing you what actually is happening. It’s all just a big confusing mess.

That’s why I say I appreciate it more than I enjoy it. The game plays fine, if on the easy side. The vague direction and bad translations are really frustrating, I can’t imagine how long it would’ve taken without a guide. The game looks and sounds great, and has some really interesting ideas, but doesn’t have the fun to back it up.