This game also wants a fair amount of grinding from you – the leveling system depends mostly on minimal EXP rewards from killing enemies in random encounters, but those random encounters continue to throw enemies at you without giving you EXP for most them. Most dungeons include a lot of trial and error even after you have the necessary item and adequate level. The overworld makes for a lot of aimless wandering, split into dungeons or towns populated by NPCs that either give cryptic hints about item requirements or just useless dialogue. Still, that doesn’t make a gameplay loop that is so similar to Castlevania II any more fun.

The way the shield and magic system work add a cool layer to an otherwise uncomplicated game, and it tries a number of other interesting ideas that just don’t work out. The Adventure of Link is an action RPG that retains almost nothing from the original Zelda’s formula. Zelda II is not so different from Castlevania II, but at least one can confidently say that it’s a generally better game. Needless to say, this game isn’t worth the time it demands. Even once you have the right item and know where you need to go, navigating the overworld map to get to the right places is a convoluted nightmare, punctuated by a nightly “curse” that makes all the enemies twice as tough. On the off chance that you’re killed while out wasting your time like this, you’ll respawn right next to the thing that killed you and all your currency will be gone. You also realize that the gameplay loop mostly involves wandering around and killing random enemies to gain currency for buying unexplained items. At first, the game simply drops you into an unknown town with a bunch of useless NPCs who spout nonsensical “clues” about where to go and what to do. It is still fundamentally an action platformer, retaining the stiff movement and attack controls of the original Castlevania, but Simon’s Quest trades deviously smart level design and exciting bosses for a disjointed overworld and incomprehensible puzzles.

500 nintendo nes classic edition games