Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is the North American and European title of Dracula II: The Accursed Seal (ドラキュラＩＩ呪いの封印 Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin), a Japanese console video game developed by Konami in 1987 for the Famicom Disk System. The following year it was ported to cartridge format and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

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

This game was the first game in the Castlevania series to venture away from straightforward side-scrolling gameplay, featuring some role-playing game-like elements.

Release dates

 * August 28 1987 — Famicom Disk System (Japan)
 * December, 1988 — Nintendo Entertainment System (North America)
 * April 27 1990 — Nintendo Entertainment System (Europe)
 * November 16 2002 — IBM PC Compatible / Microsoft Windows (as part of Konami Collector's Series) (North America)
 * 1988 — Tiger Electronics handheld (LCD, 2 AA Batteries, Model# 7-781)

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 he 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, Aldora, 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, Bodley, Brahms, Dover, and Laruba) throughout the land.

Once all the parts of Dracula's body were in place, Simon took them to the ancestral home of the count, Castlevania, and revived him, fighting him once again, and this time finishing him for good (or so the people thought, though Dracula would return in the 18th Century)...

Gameplay Differences From Castlevania

 * Any location can be revisited at any time.
 * All whip upgrades are permanent. It is also possible to downgrade the whip by buying a weaker version.
 * There are no candles or braziers in the game. Instead you can gain hearts by killing enemies.
 * A subweapon, once obtained, is permanently kept.
 * Double and Triple Shots do not exist.
 * Simon gains experience and can level up. However, the only discernable change is that he adds bars to his life meter.
 * The "evil meter", which shows the HP of a level's boss, is not present in this game.
 * The following subweapons from Castlevania 1 do not appear in any form: axe, stopwatch, and cross (though a cross appears as an item, you can't fight with it). Holy Water appears, but its effects had been split between two weapons.
 * There is no time limit in Simon's Quest. However, there is a timer which keeps track of how long the game has been played. This is used to determine which ending is shown.

Notes, remarks and Trivia

 * The game's controls are essentially the same as in the previous game, with the exception of a menu allowing the player to carry different weapons with him.
 * There are three different endings to the game which alter according to how much time was used in playing the game through.
 * The game is often remarked as being too easy. At worst the player loses all of his hearts, but at no point will the player have to start the game over upon dying. Also the player does not need to defeat the Grim Reaper if he can simply avoid it.
 * A book loosely based on the game was published in 1990 by Scholastic, #4 in their "Worlds of Power" series of video game adaptations.
 * The password theme of the game was also Simon's theme in the Captain N cartoon.
 * The Count's image of the American cartridge is a direct homage/reproduction of the vampire Strahd von Zarovich from Dungeons & Dragons' Ravenloft adventure.
 * Simon's appearance in this game is much more similar to his debut in Vampire Killer (the first game Konami made in the Castlevania Timeline), wearing a red armor instead of the brown, "neo-barbarian" outfit from the last game. Also, his hair-colour and skin-tone have changed.
 * The town "Ghulash" is an obvious pun on Goulash, a Hungarian dish.
 * This game is infamous for its mistranslations and some of the game hints provided by the villagers are reported to be wrong. (This is done intentionally to mislead the player.) For example, one villager says that in order to pass Deborah's Cliff, the player must hit the cliff with his head to make a hole, when actually he must crouch for about 5 seconds with the Red Crystal equipped in order to make a tornado appear.
 * Dracula looks like Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in this game.
 * One of the citizens of one of the towns said, "Don't look at the Death Star ,or you'll die.", a reference to Star Wars
 * The diamond sub-weapon eventually reappeared in Symphony of The Night as the Rebound Stone.

Quotes
"What a horrible night to have a curse" &mdash; When the sun goes down during gameplay
 * Japanese version &mdash; "And so the shiver of the night has arrived" (Soshite senritsu no yoru ga otozureta)

"The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night" &mdash; When the sun comes back up during gameplay
 * Japanese version &mdash; "The nightmarish night has ended" (Akumu no you na yoru ga aketa)

"You now prossess Dracula's Rib" &mdash; A typo of "possess"