Castlevania retrospective: Vlad tidings | NES Works  

James Banana wrote a helluva musical score.

Terrific video mate. Really great job exploring the design and gameplay elements. Probably the most comprehensive dive into this iconic title. Thanks!

Did you capture the gameplay footage yourself? Cause if you did, you've got some serious Castlevania skills.

So at the time of release was Castlevania the best NES game? It's this or Super Mario Bros., right? This video really shows what I like about this series. In following along with all the releases in chronological order it really demonstrates how impressive Castlevania was. And Ikari Warriors being next demonstrates it further since in comparison that games looks primitive and out-of-date.

The original might be my favorite across the entire series. It’s refreshingly straightforward. Just the right amount of challenge, can be beaten in less than an hour and every track is a banger.

Pro tip, the double and triple shot for the sub-weapons also appear if you use your sub-weapon to attack candles. You can use this strategy to very quickly upgrade to a triple shot.

The original Castlevania is indeed a masterpiece. Thank you for doing an excellent job of conveying how great this game is, and how it is still a masterclass in game design.

The timing of Halloween, 2 Castlevania episodes, a new Castlevania rerelease, and the 2nd season of the Netflix show works out well

Took me a long time to beat this one, but I love it and still play thru it at least once a year

I got this game for free(I believe) on the 3DS and decided to give it a whirl to kill time while waiting for my copy of Splatoon 2 to arrive in the main. It's now one of my top five favourite games.

How is it possible that my favorite person from old one-ups podcast network has a channel dedicated to my favorite topic, the thing that might have started my path into the game industry, and youtubes algorithm has not suggested this channel to me yet. - My trust in the algorithm is lost, but thanks to this channel, my faith in humanity has been restored. Now binge all the videos in one big go.

So the "Simon Belmondo" thing is a reference to french actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. He was well known in Japan back then, though he never appeared in a horror film as far as I know !

One of the most BEST Games I EVER had when I was a child until this day

I don't understand. You have the best retro game videos on RU-vid. Why don't you have more subscribers? Frustrating.

I finished a lot of tough NES games but still can’t best the Reaper in this one. It’s still a favorite of mine! Maybe this year is the year for victory!

If Castlevania I is a near masterpiece, that makes Castlevania III (JP version of course) a real masterpiece, right? That's actually my favorite NES/FC game of all time.

Needless to say, this happens to be the only game in the Castlevania series I have ever beaten so far... The quest to destroy Dracula continues!

I'm glad you brought up the fact that the MSX version, Vampire Killer was an inspiration for Dracula II. That is the whole reason why Simon's Quest is built the way it is. because that was the desired gaming experience at that time.

YES. Between October's Castlevania videos and the Final Fantasy 2/IV episodes I'm only needing to wait for the first Zelda video to complete my childhood videogame Holy Trinity. While I agree with every word being said from 4:08 to 4:16, I'm deeply amused by a sentence touting Castlevania's fairness compared to Ghosts 'n Goblins being punctuated by the bone tileset background that tricked baby!me into thinking they were a safe platform to jump on. I had never felt so betrayed by a videogame up until that point. ;) While I do love that the series branched out into traditional folklore from across the world, literature, modern film, and occult obscura like the Ars Goetia for its bestiaries and arsenals as well as embracing Ayami Kojima's gorgeous gothic romance aesthetics, I do often miss these more blatant elements of the Universal Monster party. I think the film reel theme of the intro was dropped entirely after Bloodlines. It wasn't touched on here but Castlevania also had a real scattershot history with censorship in North America. Naked statuary was probably the most consistently hit but far more zigzaggy was the religious imagery across the first four games to appear on Nintendo consoles. It was mostly just a matter of what crosses disappeared and which ones remained, as well as one losing some graphical flourishes. To this day I'm uncertain what the Cross Boomerang was originally called in Japan, though it seems to have simply settled on Cross in Symphony of the Night-onwards. Looking back, I'm surprised how much of both nudity and religious symbolism made it through NoA's standards of the time. This and next week's SNES Works episodes were perfectly timed for the season. Whatever trickery was involved was well worth it. Now for the next episode and game-locking player respawn points that make you and your siblings never want to rent a game uninformed again! (also, now to line up a ridiculous number of Castlevania OSTs for a Halloween playlist)

Yes! I've been waiting for this one! Castlevania has, and always will be, one of my all time favorite game franchises. A master class in NES game design.

I hate the 3rd games difficulty when you have go through the level where bricks fall on you. It is too long and slow but the next stage is more hair pullingly hard because then the bricks start melting.

Thank you Mr. Parish for finally encouraging me to play this game. I also always wondered how a game with jumping this stiff earned itself a handful of sequels and eventually a franchise. Platformers for me were all about fluid movement, especially jumping.

There were a lot of fantastical stories about this game during school lunchtime. I'm still wondering if there is a Castlevania where Dracula's giant foot takes up the entire screen and stomps on Simon. Lol! Excellent work.

I used to call Konami lack of facial features in early video games: "Konami-face".

Whew, it was 14 minutes in until he finally mentioned The masterpiece that is it's musical score. Shame on me for ever doubting you, bravo as always.

Castlevania Requiem ad before this video. Nice.

For me personally, I would never be able to get in to the series until a friend in HS introduced me to Symphony of the Night. I tried various games in the series before that, but I've just never been able to enjoy games whose whole purpose is testing memorization and skill, but god that music sure is catchy.

Don't remind me about ghost n goblin's that was an evil game

Jolly God! Your play is amazing, Jeremy! And I didn't knew what "II" and "III" icons did, and how they spawned. Castlevania was among the two proper NES cartridges I ever saw, other being SMB. I've only ever come across those 9999999-games-in-1 or 6-games-in-1 bootlegs.

Been binge watching your content lately and it's clear your lack of subscribers is a crime.

Came here from ReviewTechUSA, Rich recommenced your channel saying it’s good and he wasn’t wrong. Dam why are you only at 42k subs?! 4 video in and dam keep up the good work.

I came here to check out your thoroughly details of video games and gotta say that's a lot of work. I love it!! Reviewtechusa recommended us to watch cause he says he's surprised how much detail your videos have through NES games it's very rare to find a channel that caters to gaming details. :)

Huh, I had just told someone elsewhere a few months ago that the windup of the whip doesn't actually hurt anything; is this another Mandela Effect thing? I went in and tested it just now and indeed, the whip windup doesn't do any damage to enemies or candles.

See, I know this is an unpopular opinion, but honestly... I like the MSX version of Castlevania a lot better, and also consider it to be a much easier game, even with only two lives and no continues. The key difference between the two games is that Castlevania on NES relies on twitch reflexes, even if to a much lesser extent than most other "NES hard" games. But Castlevania on MSX can be overcome even if your twitch reflexes ABSOLUTELY SUCK. Castlevania on MSX is all about careful planning -- figuring out exactly which subweapons you need (because in the MSX version, you can carry multiple subweapons at once), figuring out where and how to get them (which mostly just requires exploration), and then carefully achieving that goal and remaining alive long enough to take on the stage boss... who can be defeated with pretty much zero effort, assuming you've indeed come prepared. I also like how in the MSX version of Castlevania, EVERY SUBWEAPON IS USEFUL. In the NES version, let's face it -- nobody likes the dagger. But in the MSX version, the dagger actually replaces your whip, and thus requires 0 hearts to use. AND can be double-shot from the start. Suddenly, the crappy NES dagger seems even crappier when you realize that double dagger-tossing without penalty is WAY BETTER than swinging a whip -- it's faster and covers a greater distance. The same can be said for the cross and the axe (which functions like the axes tossed by the axe knights, rather than flying above your head in an arc), though you have to be extra-careful with those two, since you ACTUALLY HAVE TO CATCH THEM ON THEIR RETURN or else you lose them and immediately go back to the downgraded whip. If you can manage to keep the axe, though, you're basically unstoppable, since the axe is 8 times more powerful than the downgraded whip (and 4 times more powerful than the upgraded whip!). It all balances out really well, and the exploration is absolutely wonderful, with areas being quite a bit larger and more interesting than in the NES version of the game. They're also quite a bit more devious, with several traps placed by the developers to lure you to your death if you're not paying careful attention -- there's even one instance where a stage key is visible well in advance, but placed in a spot where you can't possibly obtain it without dying. You're expected to walk right past it, whereupon you'll find another stage key just a few screens over, right in front of the door it unlocks. It's an amazingly underrated game, and does things with the classic Castlevania formula that NO other game in the series ever has. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you enjoy the microcomputer style of gaming, you will no doubt love it as much as I do. It really is "the thinking man's Castlevania" -- for those of us who suck at games, but love playing them nonetheless, and enjoy a good mental challenge every now and agaian.

This game was way to difficult for me when I tried to play through it as a child and I was never able to beat it. Fortunately I feel like I experienced the refined version with Super Castlevania IV on the SNES which I was able to complete as a teenager.

The Grim reaper is so crushing to me. The triple boomerang is so crucial on that fight. I love the "Works" series' I look forward to your videos so much.

Castlevania and Ghosts 'N Goblins are both great games, Castlevania came a year later and reflects the maturity of the system.

Why you gotta do Ghosts and Goblins like that? Also, I'm not too sure the games should be compared. I feel that G&G is closer to modern games such as Dark Souls, whereas Castlevania and Metroid were kind of their own thing.

Admittedly I didn't even beat this one til Wii Virtual Console and the savestate feature! (or it may have been Wii U it was a while ago) and even then it was still hard as heck! a lot of the little things in the game (like the map layout being reflected in-game) I never really thought about til you mentioned it but that was an astute observation, for sure. But overall a great game and not one to be missed on NES!

One of the first games I beat in my nes library. It was the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade. I remember it so well

"Castlevania has the best NES soundtrack" Megaman fanbois: "REEEEEE!"

Castlevania speed run drinking challenge. Take a drink every stage completed. (Doors) Take a shot every Level you complete. (Obtain orb) The game does not need to end after level 6. Enjoy.

I think the deal with the cheesy puns in the end credits is to offer a form of decompression after just how incredibly hard a game Castlevania is

I love the way this world flows together so well. If only someone were to produce a hand-drawn map of it.

New Challenge: Beat the game without using a single candle.

I've been waiting for this episode! Love Castlevania and I miss the series dearly.

This game is one of the best game ever I still play this game on my Nintendo

My all time favorite NES game of all time! I love it that much!

The classic style Castlevanias (1, 3, rondo) are the soulsborne games before soulsborne was a thing. Tough but fair difficulty, particular and precise controls, gothic settings

Holy water breaks the game. You can wreck every single boss with holy water

Not gonna lie, 0:20 tricked my brain into thinking this was a Metroidvania Works video.

You get a higher level you take 4 hits if you take all 4 hits the game is over that's why this is a stupid game the programers really messed up on this game

5:08 Video shows 3 axes are needed to take out the knights, not 2. Oops ;-)

How you gonna grab that orb at the end of the video without jumping and whipping? I'm seething here!

Level design wise, one thing that's always bugged me, even when I played it as a kid is why did the designers place crucifixes in spots where there are usually no enemies around? The best example is the first few stages - a crucifix is placed in a candelabra just before the doorway that takes you into the next area, where there are usually no enemies around. I think Castlevania is a masterclass in level design, but I never figured out why the logic behind the crucifix placement.

thanks as always for your work on these videos. they're a delight to watch and look forward to every week.

What's the jazzy music from the end of the video?

Just beat this myself. Dracula is no joke. Wow that boss was hard. Played the FDS version as well! And on original hardware. I try to save these for after I complete games that I plan to play.

Good timing. Castlevania Requiem coming out alongside Netflix Castlevania season 2, that's without mentioning Halloween month. This is perfect, pretty good video as well, although a few small mistakes like the whip windup thing (it was, however, introduced in latter games in the franchise). Shout-out to the MSX version of Castlevania, which is closer to Maze of Gallius and the Metroidvania genre that the franchise came be known for afterwards.

Fantastic work, as per usual! Rock on!!! :)

I do wonder if the whip upgrades are there specifically to allow for self-imposed challenge runs.

I love this game. The holy water sub weapon is OP though. The only way I can beat the Grim reaper is to stun lock him straight away using the holy water.

Top notch content on your channel. Great job!

The original Castlevania will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was the first game we ever got aside from the SMB/Duck Hunt combo. Finally completing the game 15 years later remains one of my proudest NES accomplishments.

Ah, Castlevania. It's awesome.

The funny thing about this was that I found out that the Famicom Disk System load screen BGM was super catchy, and it got reinvented for the Sharp X68000, which required us to bob our heads even more.

Belmondo is also a movie reference, he's a french actor

I recently played this game for the first time a few days ago and I learned that the Death fight can practically be skipped if you have holy water! This sounds lame, but it's actually cleverly implemented. The holy water weapon is given to you 2 stages earlier, and the only way to carry it all the way to Death is to not lose any lives. Basically, if you master the previous 3 stages before Death enough to keep the holy water, you can use it on him and make the boss a cakewalk. It's a great way to reward skillful play.

Just in time for Castlevania season 2 on Netflix

So, if hearts aren't health, what is? I always thought they were health, but then I only played it after the Legend of Zelda came out. And why do they credit Christopher Lee's (Sorry, Christopher *Bee's* ) Dracula when they chose the Bela Lugosi style?

Bravo!

Great video as always, Jeremy. Noticed some of the recording from the first level lacked music, any particular reason why?

Castlevania 2 was the first video game that my dad ever purchased for me, and I was originally instantly bummed before I even played the game. I was like 8 years old and i knew he picked it only because of the box art. Then I played it, and I loved it, annnnd I hated it... of course I'm referring to that garlic bit and kneeling in the corner for what felt like eternity. Back then you only knew this seemingly random stuff through word of mouth, I thought for sure I was being pulled, in comes the ferryman and the day is saved. Thank you Pops! 😊.. 😢... RIP.

Wonderful retrospective as always.

I always pick one game in the series to replay right around Halloween. Maybe it'll be the original this year.

👍👍Great upload thanks😇

that soundtrack.... most anxiety-inducing 8-bit soundtrack to exist. gets the player more into the game with anticipating doom at any moment.

The amazing soundtrack every stage with a unique track ...man I love that game

It's honestly really depressing to look back on this and other Konami releases of the time, and see the sheer quality of the products they put out, and then compare it to the corrupted embarrassment they now are. Same with Capcom really.

Top 5? Top ten at LEAST of all time NES games. I get far, further every few years, but I still can't get to Dracula 🧛‍♂️ I prefer the Nes music to Fami disc , I just can't "appreciate" the added tones and to me, they detract

Castlevania was a quarter muncher....on a home console. You'd drop 10 bucks easily if it was an arcade cabinet, however it established the trope of "NES Hard" gaming experience.

Loved the game back rhen but somehow never played the sequels. Probably because they came super late in EU.

If there's one real flaw with the original CV, it's that it doesn't really allow for battling the bosses all that well without using your subweapons, which, while understandable as encouraging exploration of the mechanics is important, is a bummer when your subweapon can end up varying, has limited ammo and can't be reasonably reloaded due to the combination of time limit and lacking drop rates, thus encouraging rather conservative subweapon use when one isn't yet familiar with the stages. SCVIV would end up going too far in the other direction and make subweapons all but useless with how OP the whip is. CVIII struck the right balance with the subweapons-and partners-being useful but not all but vital. But that's part of why all three are worth playing; same basic gameplay, different expected approaches.

Welcome to Castlevania! Mwuahahaha!!

The Belmont family characters saved by defeating evil and vampires betrayed there evil masters for the Good of Humanity

My all time favorite game!

Amazing job, Jerry.

ReviewTechUSA and his love of Castlevania brought me here.

Been waiting for this one. Excited!

Cheese & crust, hot damn awesome!

Simon Belmondo = Jean Paul Belmondo

I think this game benefits from its difficulty rather than suffers from it

Why do you say it doesn't itself seriously besides the credit?

11:11 I've never managed to get passed this stage.

Wonderful use of vocabulary and usage, great stuff sir.

Never stop doing the castlevania stuff parish, It's always good. (Whats the name of that last song used in the "next episode segment" please)

love that music!

Yes! Finally...Everything changes....

Brilliant.

Great video