Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, known in Japan as Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin, is an action-adventure RPG developed by Konami. It was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987 and ported to NES cartridge in 1988. Set seven years after the first Castlevania, vampire hunter Simon Belmont suffers a fatal curse left by Count Dracula. To lift the curse, Simon must travel across Transylvania, explore five haunted mansions to retrieve Dracula’s five scattered body parts, then bring them back to Castle Dracula and burn the remains to destroy the vampire lord forever. Unlike the linear platforming of the first game, it features an open world and dynamic day-night cycle. Villagers trade and talk with Simon by day; at night, towns shut down and enemies grow much stronger. It introduces RPG mechanics: gain experience from monsters to raise max HP and defense. Hearts are no longer merely sub-weapon ammo, but also currency to buy supplies. Players can upgrade their whip and use garlic, holy water and wooden stakes to solve puzzles and defeat bosses. There are three different endings determined by how fast you finish the quest. It is an important early experimental title for the Metroidvania genre, famous for cryptic clues and haunting 8-bit soundtrack.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.