Vampire Killer (MSX) - No Death Walkthrough

A full playthrough of MSX version of the first CV game. It is very different from NES game. I like the possibility of exploring the levels and there are also many secrets hidden in the stages. The difficulty is not too high and even though you are given only one credit, it is possible to complete this game without resorting to cheats. One thing that is important to know: projectiles deal much less damage to you than collision with an enemy (which sometimes hurts really bad).
I did not try to make a shortest playthrough or something like speedrun so I made some mistakes while I played. But still I consider this to be better than some of my other attempts to complete this game.

[@Revelation_Mary]

I kid you not Richter, Dracula turned himself into a painting, funniest shit I've ever saw

[@spartakick300FF5]

Seeing this version of Castlevania for the first time feels like getting a glimpse of an alternate reality.

[@LilC1deep]

Please do elaborate as that's an interesting take.

[@rafazardly]

and it seems (if possible!) more inhumanly hard than the hard mode of the NES one...

[@marx4538]

@@rafazardly it is way harder than the harder second loop of the NES one Vampire Killer (MSX) is probably the hardest in the series

[@CrasherX2000]

An alternate reality unlike Super Castlevania 4 or Haunted Castle

[@aweirdredtoad3637]

​@CrasherX2000 Haunted Castle would be an alternate reality too, it has nothing to do with the first Castlevania minus the bosses and some of the enemies.

[@ContraBoss]

I never thought I had even an ounce of OCD in me until something deep inside of me hurt every time you allowed a candle to go un-whipped.

[@ProfessorVuubik]

Dracula is a skeleton and then turns into mist form on death to posses a painting to barf out bats at you. what.

[@raikohzx4323]

Castlevania April 20th: Dracula's Acid

[@gfl1312]

😂😂😂

[@rolandomota3243]

yeah! creep. And now Dracula in the series seems like gohan tenshin han or some anime character for geek childrens

[@adamb89]

The original Haunted Castle arcade the final boss was just this giant Dracula head that peeked in from off the left edge of the screen. After you wail on it for a while instead of dying it just like...droops. Like it half melts. It's the weirdest thing.

[@Bloodletter8]

In the arcade game he turns into a x100 sized version of his own head so, uh... yeah... that happens.

[@timm_3r]

You really could appreciate how different a game would be from one console to the next back in the day. Gave gamers a reason to try the game on all platforms.

[@davidc.8755]

😎👍💯

[@ReverendSyn]

Simon always walks like he's trying to dislodge a wedgie through walking

[@Moviefan2k4]

Primitive game animation often had a very few sprites, that were quickly switched back and forth to create the illusion of movement.

[@Bloodletter8]

The arcade version is even worse. He looks like he's trying not to shit himself the entire time. He just spends the entire night battling evil creatures and desperately looking for a toilet in this god damn castle.

[@loganthelaymancritic3250]

@@Bloodletter8 I always thought it looked like he was walking with a loaded diaper. lol

[@vguyver2]

The half point between Castlevania 1 and Castlevania 2.

[@kalajel]

Wow, the computer and NES versions were vastly different.

[@WilliamHasMelted]

Yeah, one was good

[@foxao]

Computer version(Dos Silvania ) should be dump with fire

[@METALLICARULES11]

6:46 wow...The very first version of wicked child sounds AWESOME!!!

[@digitalhazard2783]

Vampire Killer was released like 2 weeks after the first Castlevania

[@oscarjimenezgarrido7591]

@@digitalhazard2783 But they were developed simultaneously. Also, on the occidental markets Vampire Killer was launched before the NES title, which explains why many video game fans like me who were already busting joysticks in the 80s and were lucky enough to experience this as a new game remember it as The First, so to speak. Sometimes, our perspective on things are just the result of unique contextual conditions that affect the way we view and perceive objective facts.

[@battleforutopia1247]

Fighting death with a kenny rogers dracula pic in the back.....sold!

[@kennyryan4173]

lmao!

[@leonwolfen2133]

I hate how they removed that detail from the NES version leaving literal black squares instead of those paintings, here it show's how he turned from some elegant gentleman into that evil monster pictured in his master room, although maybe that was because of graphical limitations from the NES...

[@battleforutopia1247]

@@leonwolfen2133 true, I feel ya. But hey, there is plenty of newer awesome castlevanias with some great art in them. Castlevania 1 is my first favorite game for the times. Back in 89 when i watched my dad play the nes version, i got hooked ever since on the entire series. Now konami is a buttplug......wish and can't wait for another to add to this awesome series. Maybe Fromsoft could take over the franchise......i would die a happy man!

[@skeletorment]

This is one game where I can definitely say that the NES had the best version.

[@kalajel]

+War Duke I dunno man, I would've liked to see those chest and multiple paths in the NES version.

[@19Szabolcs91]

That's interesting, yeah, but the NES version just runs better. I just tried this MSX one, and the hit detection is awful compared to the NES, and the controls feel unresponsive, as well. I also dislike the inconsistent framerate. Not to mention this MSX version has no continues, making it really hard and frustrating.

[@rafaellima83]

@@19Szabolcs91 played it on emulator, heh? I know the comment was 6 years old, but the "Incosistent framerate" was a common problem with MSX emulators on Vampire Killer and Metal Gear, it didn't happen on real hardware. I Believe to this day this was corrected on emulators... still...

[@SparkyMK3]

Why wasnt this included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection? It wouldve been a cool extra feature at the least.

[@ArekTheDragon]

There are subweapons but mostly useless. For example two of them are like cross from NES version (one long and one short ranged), but if you fail to catch them you lose this subweapon. Besides these you can use dagger, holy water and hourglass, but there are very few places where I consider them to be of any use.

[@zsoltferencz5407]

Thanks for the upload man!! So many good childhood memories come into my mind when watching this!

[@LordGrim1313]

A classic and under appreciated title in the franchise. Laid the groundwork for Simon's Quest, Symphony of the Night, and the slew of Symphony clones on the GBA and DS.

[@Fall-oo6mt]

symphony clones looool

[@tailsfan109_SonicSFM_Gamer]

Just beat this sucker for the first time tonight! And I managed a no death run on it too!

[@muhanc.a.9299]

I believe wicked cool is the right way to describe this masterpiece.

[@rolandomota3243]

Auhentic gothic atmosfera. today castlevania gots an anime spirit

[@nuculaisvoidwalker5866]

That ending theme is so catchy oh my god

[@winter5361]

Not as catchy as romancia's title theme

[@nathanwygal5526]

Damn, you can get hit a lot. Castlevania is way less forgiving.

[@JoeyLamontagne]

Especially since he can fall down pits to other parts of the level instead of just dying.

[@thiccskipper1996]

Also the bosses are less bullshit in this one. Just compare the death fight in both versions

[@EuSouRCS]

The second part of the final boss is impressive even today,great graphics and art style!

[@Fiilis1]

damn that dracula painting looks scary :O

[@OrochiCr]

LOL at Death room 19:30, Picture of Leslie Nielsen Dracula!!

[@AquariusCaMousse]

I didn't knew MSX version had such an awesome ending theme! Oh, and ofc, nice gameplay dude, I've never played this episode, it doesn't seem impossible, but it sure looks difficult. Especially these keys, some of them must be a pain to find if you play this game for the first time.

[@wiz4e]

Awesome, right in to the childhood feels :)

[@loudenvier]

The MSX 1 didn't have hardware accelerated horizontal scrolling, only vertical. Games like Nemesis, Salamander, etc which implemented horizontal scrolling on the MSX were marvelous pieces of software. Vampire Killer was a MSX 2 only game, which have hardware horizontal scrolling, so it comes down to it being the first version of the game not actually an MSX limitation. It was a programmer's/designer's choice.

[@robertgijsen]

5 year old reply, but alas you're wrong. MSX1 didn't have any hardware scrolling, MSX2 had vertical scrolling and it wasn't before the MSX2+ with the V9958 it got horizontal scrolling. That was a bit too late, the MSX2 should have had that from the get go. It has a ton of great, great games, but if it had proper scrolling it would've been so much more competitive.

[@spacecoyotesmith8535]

19:44 now that's a badass move :D

[@NYKgjl10]

The OST for Vampire Hunter is so crystal clear with clarity.

[@caedavch.9883]

I always loved the End Credits/Staff Roll from the MSX Vampire Killer port.

[@johneygd]

What a great evolutionized version of the nes game with definitely brighter colors

[@lautregarsfaitdesvideos3236]

Dat legendary music

[@Hozenton]

The music is so awesome !!

[@autentyk5735]

even without scrolling it still felt like a proper Castleveniagame, unlike the C64 version. great stuff!

[@raphaelmarquez9650]

The boss battles are way more forgiving here than their NES counterparts in terms of how much damage they deal to Simon. And I wasn't expecting Dracula's painting to be his second phase, nor did I suspect seeing Drac's skeleton body underneath his cloak.

[@ninjapocalypse]

Good playthrough. The MSX version differs from the NES version a lot more than I thought. Also, props on the Lufia reference in your name. That series is so underappreciated.

[@radicalfaith360]

Nice upload, and great user name! Lufia II is one of my all-time favorites!

[@GreenTengu97]

I can't say I'm too fond of speedrunning, myself. I like to savor my games, enjoy them for all that they are. It's kinda why I don't like it when games make certain things exclusive for beating the game in a certain amount of time, like how you can't get the best ending in Super Metroid without speedrunning (Disclaimer: I LOVE Super Metroid, I just find myself frustrated by this one fact about it.)

[@jaredt2590]

I love this game. It's a lot of fun.

[@NightmareAWL]

Did anybody else notice that he whips the Fireballs and the Crow right on the Music at 8:58?

[@joblii4075]

I just realized how much the MSX version of Vampire Killer looks like a rom hack.

[@paxhumana2015]

+Joblez I , not that it's a bad thing, though, as the MSX version is the only Castlevania game of its era to be on par with its NES/Famicom counterpart in the terms of being a good game.

[@joblii4075]

Pax Humana I actually kind of like the Haunted Castle Arcade game. It wasn't bad.

[@jdaywork2693]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[@GeminiNES]

@ArekTheAbsolute thnx and are there more NES look like games on the MSX ?

[@ubiased23]

Also, you can find Gradius, Salamander, Penguin adventure available on MSX. If you want to compare the Penguin adventure on MSX against the NES version, the MSX version was far better, because of its advanced sound chip. MSX was also known as an advanced 8 bit computer. This computer was popular in Japan, Spain, Russia, and especially in the Middle East. to be more specific in the Gulf region countries, like Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

[@ciealevelpsychology4642]

Just took this game down but then it restarted at "Stage 19". Should I keep going? Does something else happen if it's beaten twice?

[@sferrazgabriel]

This is awesome. The game and the play.

[@TrueHolyRune]

So true. Should be a mantra really. This game makes me happy.

[@cant1rac]

i was an original owner of the msx back in 1984, a toshiba Hx10. MSX bombed big time, no one bought it, everyone bought the spectrum. i got slagged at school, well until they came over & saw it doing hyper sports . they were clambering to get a shot of this strange machine that could do the arcade so well. still have my HX10.. never saw any UK msx 2's back in the day & have never seen any on ebay, but i'll keep looking for a europiean or japanese import that dosent cost a few hundred......lol

[@BlackBeWhite2k7]

That's certainly an...interesting take on the dracula fight

[@Penfold8]

Does the guy that is in white sitting with a staff do anything or is it just part of the scenery? Nevermind the player finally uses him at the end.

[@glaucocf]

Fantastic.

[@JohnHassink]

So this is genuine gameplay and no TAS? In that case: holy shit. I bow to you.

[@chunmakeix]

todavía tengo el msx2 con este juego ^^ (cartucho original), me encantaba

[@user-qd9xi8ch8f]

FC版よりもMSX2版の方が画面に奥行きがあって好きです｡RPGの様にアイテムを購入出来るので良かったです｡

[@user-zy4sw9yd8l]

How I can get this game ? I used to play it when I was a kid

[@TrueHolyRune]

So much different from the one on Nintendo, but cool as heck. Would love to be able to play this.

[@AskDr.Stupid]

Damn that crystal ball drops slow!

[@benzar8]

there is no scrolling on the msx?

[@Thedesertguy75]

Very legendary music!!

[@ArekTheDragon]

@GeminiNES I don't know much about games for MSX/MSX2. Besides VK there are only two games I played - Nemesis 1&2 (aka Gradius).

[@Argonova]

What is the kneeling figure in the white robe with the staff that seems to reoccur from stage to stage? That wasn't in the NES version although it kind of looks like a similar figure in Castlevania 2 that gives you (useless) clues.

[@zerotheero]

Those were merchants.

[@nozoto]

+amrz01 Yah, merchants, trading with mermen and jumping hunchbacks around... Even one next to Dracula's room, these dudes are fearless, right? xD

[@zerotheero]

people gotta make business.

[@achmedlolol]

does anyone know how to fix blueMSX so this rom doesn't run super fast when there are no enemies on screen?

[@mydadsacop123]

Good god he whips so fast in this

[@harryhapsh8214]

Better then castlevania on dos WITH CHOPPY MUSIC AND SPRITES

[@JohnHassink]

Especially Konami titles such as Metal Gear, Contra, Goonies, Maze of Galious, Gradius, Antarctic Adventure and Green Beret/Rush 'n' Attack. Some of them differ greatly from their NES counterparts.

[@iamDMAS]

Seeing this playthrough makes me realize how slow the Castlevania protagonists from the NES series' weapons are.

[@bjmgraphics617]

Nice game. The graphics is very similar to the NES ans so is the sound. If the MSX was a console and not a PC then it might have a chance to compete with NES and Sega. A clever ad might be demonstarting its power on gaming and both NES and Sega systems went up in smoke for not having the same raw power as the MSX. Good game play.

[@marx4538]

@ladawg81 man i love the PC Engine and Saturn

[@ArekTheDragon]

@GeminiNES An old home computer.

[@CrackerBrand0000]

part with the painting was pretty sweet, even if a little anticlimactic.. didn't see it coming

[@null8bit]

tremendous play

[@baigandinel7956]

Castlevania 64 seems to borrow a bit from this one with all the requisite finding of keys.

[@GreenTengu97]

I find it rather cool that, while this game is definitely not the definitive version of the game, it's still a decent gem in it's own way.

[@bobcook7411]

It is not a gem, more like a fossilized turd.

[@Hellfireknightmare]

@GeminiNES All great Konami NES franchises borned in the MSX: Contra, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Gradius. You can download an emulator and some roms to take a look at those awesome relics of video gaming.

[@cylouthierry1564]

Yes it is! You can also buy a msx computer to test games!

[@Q80Warlock]

it is more colorful. MSX2 got more palettes to choose from than NES.

[@dorpth]

Funny seeing that Konami logo animation in 1986 that wouldn't appear on a Nintendo game until the SNES.

[@Thebluesniper477925]

The way I see vampire killer: Castlevania 1 + Simon's Quest put into a blender. Overall it does seem like a cool port for the msx tho.

[@aaanarchyrussia6140]

good run

[@henson2k]

Nice speed run

[@infinitecanadian]

How come you didn't try to get the candles?

[@gamephreak5]

@Charles Ziese Actually, I think this MSX version looks more washed out than the NES original. Also, it still surprises me that the MSX couldn't handle real-time side scrolling. I always think the MSX was more powerful...

[@TromaDogg]

I know this series very well, as I've been playing and collecting them for 20 years. Vampire Killer and the original Castlevania games are great, but they're linear with set level progression. They're nothing like the later 'Metroidvania' ones that have you learning new abilities and skills and using them to return to and re-explore earlier areas.

[@BrickNGames]

Is this game worth playing if I’ve played the NES one? Is it better or worse? Harder or easier?

[@davezanko9051]

It's different. Neither better or worse, really, just different. It's very difficult.

[@-xxrayanxx7156]

it looks better but easier

[@zephyfoxy]

Drac is just a skeleton lol. And we get a living portrait instead of the cookie monster

[@rolandomota3243]

yeah! really creep. And now Dracula in the series seems like gohan tenshin han or some anime character for childrens

[@Hakuromatsu]

Best Dracula battle in the series.

[@The_Muznick]

Metal Gear and Metal Gear: Solid Snake are msx games that had very different nes versions

[@ubiased23]

ill answer that question for you. You see MSX was the first Japanese computer was trying to make the standard for the Japanese computer market. So there are many companies made the computer with MSX compatibility. MSX is a software known as Microsoft Extended. To clarify this, Yamaha, Casio, Sony, Panasonic and toshiba all made computers with MSX software. You can play lets say Vampire killer on all of these computers. Metal Gear Solid came out on MSX first. Contra was available on MSX as well

[@lankymaccrazyhair264]

Hmm, the quality of these graphic suggest one of two things. It was either made for the MSX2, which is capable of smooth scrolling if I'm not mistaken (See Space Manbow), and for some reason... doesn't use it here. or, it was made for the MSX 1 but has graphical settings for the MSX2, like the Mega Man DOS games and their multiple graphics settings for different hardware. ...Or I guess a third possibility, where the MSX2 wasn't capable of smooth scrolling and konami found some way around that for Space Manbow

[@davezanko9051]

Officially it's for MSX2 and later, but I guess they didn't bother with the scrolling for this one as it may have been easier to program it that way. Honestly, it doesn't really make much of a difference because of the level design.

[@ValyxNEO]

Imagine if there's an alternate universe where the NES/FDS version is this and the MSX version is the NES/FDS version.

[@manfrommercury]

oh old days :(

[@marx4538]

a good game, but also brutally hard, the only game that rivals it in difficulty is Haunted Castle. whoever thought it was a good idea to make a game so focused on exploration have only 3 lives and no continues must have been really sadistic, especially given that it also has softlocks.

[@porygonlover322]

How did you get it to run at a consistent framerate?

[@CrowRiolu]

can i just say you're a flipping hero for that dark matter final fantasy mix though like i jumped a little when i saw your name here

[@porygonlover322]

Crow Riolu shit thanks lmao

[@bloodletter3400]

Lol Simons Whip sounds like a Slurpee

[@rafaellima83]

A lot actually. Many games were released on both systems.

[@TheGundamDude8045]

Its Castlevania 1 mixed in with Metal Gear MSX

[@fredbotcho9574]

MSX 2 .

[@ouchiewowow]

the original metroidvania?

[@MegaDudeman21]

its still the earliest open ended castlevania

[@z0ktwf680]

I believe the term metroidvania become popular when Symphony of the Night came out. we could say the "first Metroidvania" was this Vampire killer but more like a prototype, although Vampire Killer share something from all the Metroidvania, this mean "exploring" the maps. Vampire Killer started the no-lineal stages and more open ended level, Castlevania II Simon quest was the second try to make it like metroidvania (since now you have to do backtrack in other areas) however their mistake were to make the game too cryptic that any clue you got didnt made sense and thats why it failed, so Konami have to stick with the classic gameplay until they made Symphony of the Night

[@MegaDudeman21]

Zok Twf my point exactly, thank you

[@MegaDudeman21]

shadowshinobi06 there is not overhead traveling. its more like metroid than zelda

[@MegaDudeman21]

shadowshinobi06 the villages are the only similarity. if you compare a map of simons quest to a metroid games map. they are very similar.so i would say its 75 percent metroid and 25 percent zelda 2

[@selemanecu]

Metal Gear 1 was ported from the MSX to NES

[@moftsoft]

Seems like a lot of the challenge that the NES games introduced isn't here, with the whip delay not being very long...

[@stripedhyenuh]

Maze of Galious: Vampire Edition

[@pgnfz]

“No death walkthrough”... oh wait ...18:52

[@atendimentoconecta9419]

HAHAHAHA

[@masterboy1799]

Wait but didn’t someone else make that joke

[@pgnfz]

masterboy I don’t know

[@pgnfz]

Jeremy Bouwhuis time travelers

[@frostwitch7234]

Ok so.. if you don't have subweapons, then what's the point of hearts? If I'm missing something, by all means, tell me

[@raphaelmarquez9650]

They're for purchasing items like health potions.

[@nowonmetube]

@@raphaelmarquez9650 So it's like Simon's Quest all over again 😂😂 (yeah I know that this game came out earlier)

[@stuff5499]

actually, there are sub weapons in the game

[@zauberwuerfelgamer]

The grim reaper played too much Atari Breakout