I once again prossess Dracula's rib! - Castlevania Chronicles II: Simon's Quest

Game Link: castlevania-ch...
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Edited by: / guarascia
Intro By: / leemounseysmith
Skelematt art by: / donwoka
#spookygames #castlevaniaremake #mattmcmuscles

[@SteelBallRun1890]

Simon's greatest enemy, Mermen and water.

[@oldfan4049]

Simon Mattew Belmont))

[@sablebranwen2539]

The thing about Simon's Quest is that it's not just poorly translated; it's an extremely obtuse and vague game, even when you know what the text is supposed to mean. So the fact these heroes took the time and effort to turn Simon's Quest into a decipherable experience is amazing.

[@JohannesBee]

Between this and the Call of Cthulhu video on the main channel yesterday, we're really carrying the fishman theme

[@luliby2309]

This looks cool, but some of the choices are odd. I think they made the bridge section with the fishmen actually harder than in the original. Once you know what you're doing, it isn't bad. Here it seems like it's often bad. XD I think they also removed the day/night cycle and the leveling system? It doesn't look like daytime ever changed nor did you level up until you beat the boss. So it's a bespoke level up based on game milestone progression? The Cerberus statues are also an interesting choice. It makes the game less open, but it also helps to focus where you should be going in an infamously obtuse game.

[@phoenixlich]

People dismiss Gabriel and Lords of Shadow but that game outsold all other Castlevania games combined at the time. I thought it was very fun and atmospheric, enjoyed Captain Picard narrating, and one of the very very few games of that generation i bought the DLC for to get the true complete ending.

[@AaronBowers-pp7ib]

I think you should do a top 5 or top 10 best fan Castlevania games! I know you’ve played a handful, but a top list would be great!!!

[@qurn]

I swear in all other castlevania games the fishmen can't pop up directly under you, only a bit in front or behind.

[@ignatz20xx]

This was a great game. The developer of this is now working on Castlevania Chronicles III; it's basically a remake of Castlevania III.

[@CaptJABRONIE]

That guitar was sexy as heck. I don't know if it was very Castlevania but it I'm here for it

[@TheDufflebagGang]

I'd say it's fairly in line with a lot of older tracks. Good stuff, regardless though, yeah.

[@kadosho02]

Look up Dracula Battle Perfect Selection It is a full 🎸 rock out soundtrack with all of the classics Performed by Kukeiha Club (Konami's Sound Team)

[@stillcantbesilencedevennow]

I cant POSSIBLY put into words how frustrating it is to recire someone a riddle and all they say is "uh yeah, ok."

[@LemonTheKing900]

Uh yeah, ok.

[@somerandolad]

Some might think that's a typo, but us AVGN fans will know what it is.

[@nunyabusiness9013]

It was a meme two decades before AVGN made his video.

[@mehlessmidori602]

"Appear... app- APPAER?! Did anyone proof readthis shit?!"

[@asilver50]

​@nunyabusiness9013 not true. No one at all knew about video games before him. He created video games and movie reviews. He also created youtube and the moon.

[@BenOlsberg1995]

This looks like a really well done recreation of Castlevania 2. Impressive, to say the least. Hell, they even deliberately put in a typo where the word "possess" would logically go. That's an affectionate homage to the source material.

[@Faction.Paradox]

You know.... a Nocturne themed game would be nice...or a new search action game... or a new stage based game.... or finally tackle 1999. What I'm saying is please Konami do something we're starving over here!

[@junibug6790]

Konami: "Sorry, we can't hear you over all these yakuza-run pachinko-halls we've completely sold our souls to!"

[@arashi86]

We're gonna starve, then. Because Konami ain't doing anything with Castlevania.

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

I was surprised with amount of creativity liberty’s they took in the first season of nocturne. No Dracula, but Richter is fighting Elizabeth Bathory.

[@KionKamon]

@@bearerofbadnews1375they took lots of creativity in the first Castlevania series on Netflix too.

[@Frankenbird]

Search action?

[@Sabeythang]

I'm one of those freaks who absolutely LOVES vanilla Simon's Quest; I was enamored with it as a lad, especially 100%ing it, and I had a worn down Nintendo Power covering it as well as several hand-drawn maps long since lost to time. And I have to wonder what kind of culture would have sprung up if AVGN hadn't made his review bashing it, since he didn't really mean it out-of-character. Would its reputation be better? Would all these fan attempts at "fixing" it have cropped up?

[@placeholderplaceholder3448]

The most major mod, the retranslation, mostly exists because the creator was making a Finnish translation of Simon's Quest and went down the rabbit hole of how awful the English translation is, and it started out as that and the rebalancing fixes were done as an afterthought. A majority of the game's bad reputation online before AVGN, had to do with how cryptic it was, which was the result of a ton of hints straight up not being legible in English. In the Japanese dialogue there was also a verbal cue NPCs would use when giving false hints, which were still a thing, just all marked with phrases such as "I had heard", or "It has been said that". AVGN wasn't ahead of the curve because a lot of mainstream gaming magazines ALSO were bashing Simon's Quest at the time. AVGN mostly reflected and amplified existing opinions about games, I can't think of many games that he actually changed the discourse on. Unlike people such as Spoony who have permanently changed the discourse on several FInal Fantasy games to this day, and also admitted he thought he was too harsh when discussing 8 and 10 later. Nowadays it's a joke in the FF community that people have made hating 8 or 10 or 13 their entire personality. 13 at least does actually have some design problems, it's still overhated, but 8 and 10 mostly suffered from poor localization issues. Most of 10's cheesiness is a direct result of terrible VA direction and doesn't even reflect the skill of the actors. 10 has a major balance overhaul only present in the EU version for god-knows-what reason, and 8's tutorial is so poorly explained that you need guides to basically understand the mechanics, but also a ton of the story is super poorly translated, like the "sorceresses" are all actually supposed to be called "witches" because there's a ton of witch-related imagery. Back to Simon's Quest. In Japan, Simon's Quest had a better reputation, as a cult classic, the Famitsu score wasn't great. But, Symphony of the Night was actually IGA specifically experimenting with ideas he thought of for a hypothetical Simon's Quest successor, that evolved into it's own game. But more importantly, it wasn't actually particularly new of a game format. There's a lot of Japanese-only games themed around puzzle-solving and exploration similar to Simon's Quest, like Xanadu for the PC-88 or the original PC-88 version of Hydelide, the latter of which is ALSO more widely known because of an AVGN and later ProJared review about it's notoriously bad NES port (fans of the original HATE the NES port, for good reasons). Simon's Quest was one of the first of these to be on the NES, but games like Tower of Druaga have an undeniable influence on it. In fact, the director of Simon's Quest himself was inspired by another Konami game that had been worked on in the company, named The Maze of Galious, which never got a US release, only an EU release on the MSX. He actually said as much when asked if he was inspired by Metroid, oddly enough. That being said, the La-Mulana series is extremely inspired by all of those games, so if you want a very Simon's Quest-esque game, La-Mulana is amazing.

[@Sabeythang]

Oh, don't you worry, I bought the La-Mulana physical double pack ages ago.@@placeholderplaceholder3448

[@punishederic4761]

in between watching this video I went to the grocery store and picked up some ribs with my brother. I am eagerly awaiting the 3 hour long cooking prossess of rib.

[@cruisinobscurae3274]

Damn thanks for promoting this, I had no idea it was out.

[@MissAshley42]

You know what? You're not alone in that music association, Matt. Captain N's Simon owns that tune, now and forever.

[@laughingseal2282]

Holy shit, this looks great for a fangame.

[@darkknightnate]

I'd love a cool fan remake of the NES Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th games in this same type of style!

[@fivespot83s24]

I'm reminded that my favorite thing in the world is watching Liam and Matt play Castlevanias.

[@Syntox]

I will never understand how the people at DIC got the character for Simon Belmont from the original Castlevania games

[@beesforbreakfast]

I know a little about working in licensed properties, and in my experience: you take hilariously minimal information, wash it down with a big pull of breakfast whisky, and do your job as best you can

[@sofiaciel7599]

hearing the "laurel" voice clip from the laurel/yanny meme gave me war flashbacks

[@JustinJTime]

This video should have been titled "Matt Vs. The Fish Men" 😆

[@MrRaheninm]

Funny trivia the design of the armor of Gabriel in Lords of Shadow is based ib simon s quest is testament of the top tier art in that game that one can reconize that from a pixel art

[@ROTTERDXM]

Really good use of the SC4 tilesets... gotta give props

[@bluespaceman7937]

The fact Konami has not made something like this is such a wasted opportunity.

[@Alufear]

I would have changed the candles in the woods to fireflies or something but we sort of hand-wave the candle placement in this series, it's fine.

[@riemaennchen]

I almost expected the entire video to take place in that one River area.^^

[@alexofthecolossus2468]

While this is an admirable effort for a fangame, possible hot-take: Personally, I feel that the music choices leave a lot to be desired. The songs themselves aren't bad, but ALL HARD ROCK EVERYWHERE AND AT ALL TIMES kills the atmosphere for me. Also, it baffles me that they have an actual Simon Belmont model for the prologue, only to have the sprite to Gabriel. The animation on it is nice, but why is it the completely wrong Belmont? Most of the backgrounds are really nice, so it's strange that the very first town is so low effort. If the assets/tile sets are taken from different sources, then that makes sense.

[@zZaxOo]

daamn that music is fucking killing it! whoever was in the studio was on fire 🔥

[@felipeaguena5289]

0:27 You're right Matt, it does pisses me off 😂

[@HeinerGunnar]

The Giant Nose/Triple H joke tickled me good

[@brunoberserk8010]

nice video Matt , if you want to play another castlevania fangame , i would recommend the lecarde chronicles games , especially the second one , the first one is kinda hard , they are excellent fangames made by Migami , the same guy that also Wallachia : reign of dracula , a castlevania/contra like game

[@sofiaciel7599]

coming back to this, it's been a while since i last saw it, but i would hope that the developer of this fan game fixed some of the issues I'd seen with it. He didn't fix the early bridge area, which is a shame, it's a major difficulty spike for so early into the game. i'm sure someone will say "skill issue" tho. I remember that a Metroidvania speedrunner was pretty unhappy with a few of the boss fights, 'cause the bosses would have like 3-4 seconds of invulnerability between hits. in particular he hated the Frankenstein's Monster boss, which he cited as THE low point, up until he got to Dracula anyway. in general, though it's certainly accurate to Simon's Quest, the boss battles seem pretty "meh." they're either reliant on cheap levels of invulnerability between hits, health regeneration to tank your attacks, or they have an attack that does several magnitudes more damage than anything else in the game.

[@Dat_Dude_Dizzle]

i loved this game i hope they make another one lol the music was on point

[@1903tx]

damn the music in this is rad

[@bquinn5891]

It looks like the whip animation was taken from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

[@Teradyne87]

With the updated graphics, I'm actually surprised with how similar Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on the DS was to this game. I guess the Simon's Quest formula worked eventually. I had a good time with Order of Ecclesia.

[@Endocrom]

♪ Trick or treat, treat or trick ♪ Wish a vampire would suck my- blood

[@exiledPostman]

The music around 10:00 sounds really familiar, maybe it's Buckethead?

[@Livin-86]

This looks & sounds great. A lot of the assets look like they're from Super Castlevania 4 or Symphony of the Night, which I don't mind at all 😄 I definitely want to play this

[@jdaywork2693]

Fantastic video editing! Skillshare? Theere are those who possess and those who PROsess!

[@sonofatwitch82]

OH WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE

[@stillcantbesilencedevennow]

Gabriel was alright. I enjoyed his fighting style too. Dayum shame about his sequel. I was SO hyped for it, as the first one was one of my all time faborite CV games. I still play it from time to time.

[@Kramdaddy]

You hate to see a skeleton cry.

[@SpaghettyLuvsU]

Kinda nuts you got as far as the second mansion entrance without Holy Water

[@v3n0mbrasil]

14:24 "I assume I can go in here..."

[@kamenrangerzeo8251]

I got admit Matt that this title to your video here really fooled me cuz I thought for certain that this version of Castlevania was real. And I'm saying to myself when did this ever came out? But on a related note did you ever see the new Netflix Castlevania Nocturne show yet? And if so what did you think of it.

[@hadoken80]

Amazing music!

[@JamesKB777]

Actually Simon's Quest is one of the only games that allows so much improvements.

[@FilmAcolyteReturns]

I wanted to play this one but I was afraid the download wasn’t safe. People kept saying they were getting antivirus alerts on it.

[@galmorzu]

I don't see the link to the game in the description, but I'd love to try this version out. Took a bit to find the download since some of the links from earlier this year are down.

[@Massiveillusion14]

There were only three bosses in Castlevania 2. Death, Dracula, and I think Shaft?

[@alsoviperlicious]

loool there are 9 different "woods" there's more to gaming than forests! Like poison swamps and deep underwater levels, a natural choice and longtime crowd favorite.

[@oldfan4049]

Wait, so...where's "the link in the discription"? o0

[@DanielZ5]

Well gabriel belmont is no Soleiyu belmont but thats neither here nor there🤷

[@abyssalwolf]

Moar!

[@graymars1097]

AVGN ruined this game. the original, even with it's straight up weird, wrong & cryptic translation, is a great game that definitely worth a playthrough, absolutely. Specially, nowadays, with the internet & all the guide & walkthroughs online. Remake is great though.

[@SBJ_Tube]

Was there an issue providing the link to the game, or did you forget?

[@adamfrazer5150]

Fans of The Minibosses, unite ! (Or just stay where you are and shout "Hey!")

[@richarddrazkowski3197]

Play Castlevania Simon's quest rebitten. It's so much better. And the guy that made it did Castlevania 3 revitalized as well. I promise you will not be disappointed

[@orphen241]

Is this fan made? Or did I miss a release.

[@gilga3554]

I still want Captain N on Smash. XD

[@emilysong2000]

Those annoying fishmen would make anyone want to to hit Deborah Cliff with their head in frustration!

[@johnmarcus8864]

Genuinely tried this game , had massive glitches and wierdness with jumps and landing on shit. Said Fuck it! Not worth my time..

[@xyanide1986]

prossess... PROSSESS????

[@LordQuadros]

It's an admirable effort, but really, you're gonna remake Castlevania 2 and not use Bloody Tears? One of the objectively best things about the original game?

[@Average_Brad]

Anyone else get the impression Mr. Matty here is the hardest working skeleton on the youtubes? That is if you can call what he does "work". :P

[@Mr.Faust3]

“This game sucks”

[@SpeedTiberius]

Nerds Woods

[@raydenlord]

This doesn’t look good at all. They stripped away the game’s identity and turned it in to generic trash.

[@georgelawhead3128]

The original is better.

[@flophouseplays]

it really isn't

[@georgelawhead3128]

@@flophouseplaysok let's break this down, there is no day and night cycles, the music doesn't work with Castlevania, the towns are designed bad and has no charm the original Simon's quest has.