The original Castlevania is one of the few Nintendo games my older brother really got into. Lord knows why - it's a damn punishing game. After playing it over and over, he finally confronted Dracula at the end, and bested him. My younger brother and I cheered! And then the dying Dracula morphed into a giant monster and killed my older brother. He never played many video games after that.
I wasn't crazy about the original Castlevania, but I played a lot of its sequel, Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest. I never beat it. I don't think I even got that far. But for a short time I was obsessed with it. I've always had a fondness for 2D scrolling RPG's... I don't know why as there haven't been that many great ones until lately with Hollow Knight and games like it. But for some reason, games like Castlevania 2 and Zelda 2 always captured my imagination.
The game is more of an RPG than the first Castlevania, but nothing as complex as we see today. You can earn money and buy items, and there's a day and night cycle which affects the enemies that attack you. There are towns to explore that are safe compared to the rest of the game.
I would play this again, maybe. It's certainly not very well regarded... it's very difficult and a bit obtuse. The later Castlevania games get all the attention. But this was definitely an important stepping stone.
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