Castlevania 3 is my personal "it's good because I can beat it" game. The challenge is immense, but it's so satisfying to crack it... I'm also just a little bit of a masochist. As a big video game replayer, I also appreciate the many different playthroughs to try between the multiple characters and routes- even multiple versions of the same game! It's kind of shocking how perfectly Castlevania 3 panders to my tastes. Thank you again for making the videos that got me into the series- without them, I would not have tried these games and found what I love about them.
I went from spending days on the Sypha bridge level, to doing a Trevor Solo run through every stage. The level of satisfaction from figuring the game out is fantastic. There are some dumb parts such as the falling blocks in Alucard route and excessive stairs in Spyha route. The Doppelganger fight pretty much forces you to learn AI manipulation to succeed. Still love the game now despite it's flaws because the overall experience is great.
I only had about a dozen games as a kid, and this was one that I can beat. I can't get past the 4th level in Battletoads, but I never thought CV3 was crazy hard as a kid.
Castlevania 3 is such a masterpiece. Yes, it's tough, but it's really satisfying making it further and further into the game over the course of months until you finally defeat Dracula. It's definitely in my top 3 NES games.
I got obseeeeesed with this game this past spring and summer. I didn’t want to use save states because I’d been wanting to do it the way I had to back on my Wii when I was in high school. It was a personal challenge and after playing the living daylights out of it, I can now beat CV3 with no continues. I was able to beat the hard mode once. Now that was boo boo. I don’t intend on doing that again 😂
I love this game. The song “Stream” is amazing. I never thought it was as hard as you say but I’ve only played the Japanese version (for the music) and didn’t know they made it harder for the US.
Definitely the pinnacle of the whole series for me. I love the difficulty because I feel like I'm always learning. There's always some new challenge, be it the second loop (flying skulls!), a solo run with any of the four characters, etc. I even managed to beat it without continuing on one epic run, but that, too, can potentially be improved upon. The road is just neverending.
I'm always torn between CV3, 4, and Ronda for favorite game in the franchise. They are all bangers that bring different things to the table. I think CV1 and 3 become much easier games once you realize you have to be deliberate with your actions. Because everything has a commitment factor to it you can't just do things willy-nilly.
Castlevania 3, Aria of Sorrow, Rondo of Blood are my holy trinity of CV games that I've played so far (If we include Bloodstained, Curse of the Moon 2 would be there as well). Beating the NA version of CV3 blind while unknowningly taking the most difficult path with Alucard was very satisfying for me, and I really enjoyed replaying the Japanese version a couple times to play with Sypha and Grant.
My favorite game of all time. Got it as a birthday gift in 1990. The music, the art, it's a masterpiece. The flicker and lags were all part of the charm. As for the stairs - having grown up with it, I never saw it as an issue.
Castlevania 3 is one of the few games that got harder as I got older. It wasn't that I had forgotten the mechanics of the game or the possible tricks, tips and exploits. It was simply that I started seeing the level designs with bigger eyes, I started observing smaller details and I stopped watching where I was going, or even paying attention for incoming enemies and projectiles. It was this way with every classic NES title for me, but the Castlevania games (the third game most specifically) are much more packed than most I've experience. It was definitely fun coming back to the classic three after 20 some odd years. Would do it again in 20 more probably.
Only two minutes in and already I want to shout "thank you" for pointing out how annoyingly people dog pile on second game in a series while only focusing on that specific trinity of games. As someone whose brain immediately turns off when someone utters the cliched phrase "black sheep of the franchise", it's nice that you are trying to look at NES Castlevania through a separate lens. Edit: "It isn't possible to walk up a flat floor" is going on my list of great out of context video essay quotes.
When I first got this game for Christmas in 1992 when I was 3 years old, back when Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon was new/popular., Rollerskating/Rollerblading & Skateboarding were unpopular at the time, when that show on Nickelodeon was popular/when i first got this game.
This was some resplendent writing, and possibly the best description of this game I've ever heard. Definitely checking out the rest of your channel and subscribing.
8:12 Am I the only one blown away by the lore presented in the manual?!?! Belmont Warlord Chromosomes? Grant, Alucard and Sypha are merely spirits? Trevor *transforms* into said spirits? Trevor's weapons were given to him by the Poltergeist King? WHAAAATT?!?!?!
Apparently pretty much all of that is just something the translators added for shits and giggles cause they couldn't use religious stuff like in the original, so the pope turned into the poltergeist king etc.
People talk about mark-ups nowadays with video games but I can recall being 9 years old and watching my older brother buy this game for $109.99 upon release. Games were $79.99 here in Ontario Canada at the time.
Thing that keeps 3 at the top for me is how no following CV gave as much depth when reusing its ideas. Rondo and Bloodlines have only two characters each and you're allowed one at a time. Not to mention Maria is mechanically a replacement of Richter vs complimenting Richter's abilities w/flaws of her own (lower health isn't a big difference play-wise). Bloodlines does better in this regard, but again you only get one per playthrough. Mixing the Belmont mechanics w/another that compliments them, on the fly, makes for some of the best gameplay and stage progression you could have w/CV's format. Then the multi-route idea was simplified. Rondo has great branching stage routes but it doesn't always make sense where you end up, vs 3 giving you a map connecting each area. Bloodlines only has a few branching routes in the entire game, and each one is forced upon you depending on your character selection vs letting you tackle them w/either John or Eric. 3 keeps Sypha and Alucard on specific routes, sure, but the added cheats of the US version allow you to start the game w/any partner. To this day, 3 is the only one to go this hard on the secondary characters and routes. The entire game is designed to have any of the characters in any of the possible situations. It feels so complete in that regard. The only games to truly follow it up are Curse of the Moon 1&2 (and what a great job they did).
I'm not even close to beating this game (and I have doubts as to whether I even will), but a detail I've noticed while playing this after Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 is how they handled separate characters. The alternate routes in Castlevania 3 were entire levels, determined by you. There are (in my experience) a couple in-level sequence breaks with Grant (and probably Alucard later on) but the structure of the levels is largely the same. Meanwhile CoTM 1 and 2's separate routes are inside the levels themselves, as the same level can be played VERY differently depending on your choice of character. I hope the third CoTM (if it's ever a thing) has the best of both worlds, as I dislike how you can't have more than 2 characters in Castlevania 3, but I think I might prefer its form of progression. I'd even be OK with you not being able to get every character due to them being disagreeable (even if the routes align): In the online character guides for CoTM 1 and 2, it's essentially said that everyone hates everyone. In CoTM 1 Zangetsu hates literally everyone, Miriam was screwed over by the shard implementation (if it's detrimental like Gebel's hatred of Alchemists implies: I haven't Ritual of the Night yet) so she probably hates Alchemists, Alfred... Is a bit of an unknown, Gebel is overtly stated to hate humans and Alchemists and kills several demons, Dominique hates demons so she probably probably hates the first game's side characters, and Robert tries to kill Hachi on sight with the only thing keeping him from trying the same with Dominique is her self sacrifice. Hachi is a good dog and never tried to hurt anyone. They probably only get along because Zangetsu's there with them, and it'd be awesome to see something like a faction system where you can recruit sets of team mates like the Shardbinders, the alchemy gang (Alfred and Hachi), and the normal people (Dominique and Robert), just to name a few.
Honestly a great idea, and the kinda depth Inti likes to put in their stuff. They've been doing their own thing since COTM2 but Gal Guardians was basically COTM3 in all but name. Shows me a desire they have to keep making Vania-likes if Igarashi allows. COTM2 was great but felt overloaded in the endgame. Sure it's endlessly cool to choose your allies out of all eight but can feel overwhelming when you're supposed to be searching for items Megaman X style (some of which, iirc, are locked behind certain character abilities). Having a sort of faction system, planning playthroughs around who you'd want to recruit later on, gives even better replayability on top of risk-reward, inspiring you to use different play styles. I wouldn't mind another NES style game but seeing a CV3-like in a 16bit style ala Bloodlines would work so well. Bloodstained's brand echoes Bloodlines' color pallette and art style so hard it feels needed. It'd be like getting a long lost "What if" situation: if the 16bit games lent a bit more towards 3's structure. As far as I know Igarashis in pre-production for ROTN2, so we can expect another linear side game since they were such successful marketing pieces.
Always love telling fromsoft fans that they haven't experienced true gaming difficulty till they've experienced this, battletoads, or Ghouls and ghosts
Beating US version of Castlevania III on Hard Mode using only Trevor is one of the most insanely difficult challenges in retro gaming. Instead of Medusa heads there are skulls that move in random fast patterns making the Medusa heads seem easy! For those of you that don’t know…if you beat the game and continue playing you unlock hard mode. There is a password to unlock it too.
Back in NES days Castlevania III was my first Castlevania game I played. Yes it can be difficult. I have played and beat this game many times as a kid and don’t see it as difficult anymore. Still a fun game though.
CV3 is where it’s at. So fun and offers abt 3 replays right off the bat, but you’ll want to play more for a challenge later. Runs with solo characters and such are so fun
castlevania 2 wasn't a deviation though, it was just a piece of the greater puzzle and was a concept that was too soon to realize, the idea of adding RPG elements and being able to revisit areas you explored is very much in the same vein of any castlevania game since SotN
You should play Gimmick! Not for a video essay, just based on what you've said you enjoyed about these games in terms of gameplay I think you'd enjoy it.
This (though a video essay would also be a welcome surprise). Easily one of the greatest games on the Famicom, and I had no surprise it existed until last year despite generally being well-acquainted with the system's library.
This reviews the original Japanese version. Akumajou Densetsu was quite a different experience in the sound performance, visual, blood loss, and Grant departments compared to the international version we know as CastleVania III.
Anyone else beat this game more than once? I've beaten it so far once with each companion via the 3DS eShop a few months before it closed. Was tempted to do a solo run of it but I just ran out of enthusiasm and wanted to focus on other games via the eShop.
I played Castlevania 3 and was convinced people were making up their enjoyment for it. Its designed like a quarter eater on an arcade cabinet. Walking up and down stairs shouldn't be a challenge. In a game when enemies spawn in your face, at angles you might sincerely might not be able to hit them. The game being beatable doesn't excuse its bullshit.
I love this game but I cannot for the life of me beat Dracula. I’ve tried and tried without studying tactics or anything as that’ll feel less earned but man do I love playing and trying!
i remember this game being slightly hard but not that much and dracula being very easy unlike castlevania 1. there's actually a very easy way with sypha with the fire spell you just spam that when dracula is getting up and boom. you change to trevor with the axe kill the second form and third form don't even get onto the platforms, just spam the axe. it's very ez really...
Well not for me, I wasn’t looking up strats on the internet when I was a kid lol and it’s hard to GET TO HIM regardless beat him. I’ll try again, but for me, I’ve never done it. And have done Castlevania 1 no problem, idk.
the stages are a bit hard and to get to dracula i remember it's easier with alucard because you can cheese your way like flying around levels but the last boss is defo with sypha. this one i beat as a kid in like 3 days but yeah i "cheesed" a lot. #2 easy but cryptic game, castlevania 1 as a kid only got to death and never defeat it but as an adult i beat the game tons of time and at one point knew it by memory. dracula is hard until you know the patterns and eventually you can beat the game without dying@@JackpotToys
Good video! I think your observations and analysis are pretty good, though I do disagree about few things: I do think that Castlevania 3 ultimately doesn't go too far with it's difficulty, and games like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden ultimately stand out as hard, but still doable games nowadays: there are still games on the NES that I would say are fair, but still crushingly difficult to an almost comical point, and as time went on, the genres that those games belonged to would only go further and further into that: the Gradius series is an example I'd bring, particularly the NES ones as the console versions were generally redone and rebalanced compared to the arcade counterparts. Regardless, I wish you luck with the rest of the series and I hope you'll have fun with them.
I'm bad at games, so I judge difficulty of games by whether I can beat them. Castlevania III I can beat, but Castlevania I cannot, so I've always thought of III as easier. The difficulty level is set by which companion you take, objectively, whether you realize it or not. Alucard lets you fly past obstacles, but he's so weak and fragile that you're stuck using Trevor most of the playthrough. Grant is situational in levels, but he's a good way to have the Axe subweapon on standby for bosses where that's useful, letting Trevor keep his Holy Water. Sypha may be fragile, but that lightning spell is a homing shot with huge projectiles that hit multiple times, her short range attack is very fast, and she moves exactly the same as Trevor. She's the easy mode, Grant is medium, and Alucard is hard mode. Trevor alone is gimmick difficulty and I never did that to myself because like why dude.
One thing I think that people miss is that Zelda II is much like the Dragon Slayer series. Dragon Slayer I was a top down action RPG and Dragon Slayer II was a side scroller action RPG. Sounds sort of similar to the first two Zelda games. Anyways, besides that spot on about Konami being about excess. It’s the reason why they are always early to move onto new hardware. They are also the most prolific creators of custom Famicom chips. I think that Japanese Castlevania III is one of the best classic style Castlevania games in my opinion and one of the best games for Nintendo’s 8-bit system. I have never really played the American version, nor do I ever plan to, I just find the differences to make it less interesting, so I don’t really have any interest. The presentation and the gameplay while not perfect as the original game are just a lot of fun to replay.
yeah it was actually just a limitation of the NES the Japanese version dosn't use pronouns like that so having 2 different dialogue boxes (one for each sex) would be tricky when it comes to localisation (something like that i am no genius when it comes to tech)
With Nocturn being a disgrace I decided to finally buckle down and beat CV3. I'm almost there but I hate to say it but w/o the save states in the collection I think I would have given up again. IDK what it is about getting older but my patience for old hard games is starting to wane. It's a great game all the same but a remake would be greatly appreciated.
I finally beat Castlevania 1 thanks to the anniversary collection, and I was really surprised that 3 was not better. I often found myself laughing along with C1 whenever it presented some absurd challenge, because I knew soon after with some patience and growing in skill I would succeed. C3 on the other hand often feels like it is abusing you, putting up absurd challenges just to see how much you'll tolerate. I started getting frustrated cos it felt like the game was laughing at me, not with me. It's not a terrible game, but if I ever go back and play the NES ones, C1 is probably where I'll stay. C1 has singlehandedly gotten me to appreciate the classic vania style that I usually avoided more than the metroidvania style that I preferred because it is so tight, the difficulty so well tweaked, and everything clicks so well that the metroidvanias feel like a step back in design. But C3 on the other hand has me remembering why I like the RPG style of metroidvanias.
I question the video game tastes of anyone who would prefer Ghosts and Goblins or the original Mega Man over Battletoads, one of the greatest games ever made for the system.
I mainly only played the games in the annversary collection, and out of those, Castlevania 3 is my second favorite game right after Super Castlevania 4. It always impresses me just how many things this game got right on 8-BIT hardware, which I largely associate with outdated or compromised games. Certainly, a strong contenter for my favorite pre SNES game.
I beat and enjoyed The Adventure without save states or rewind, and somehow I find CV3 to be harder than that game!!! I am so stuck in the waterfall level. Also woah! Fear and Hunger gameplay clip, cool!!! :D
It's OK to like castlevania 1 more than 3, BUT you are correct....Dracula's Curse is easily a top 10, maybe top 5 game (maybe top 3??) For the NES hands down.
Castlevania 3 is certainly one of the best looking NES games but is easily surpassed by Sunsoft's Batman: Return of the Joker. That game looks better at times then some 16-bit games.
@@ProfessorBopper I think much of the little touches of animation in the environment on Batman RotJ as well as Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom push them just a little bit over Castlevania 3 but it's close.:)
I paused at the same time to ask the same question. This game looks awesome if anyone will ever answer as to what it is. It's certainly not either of the 2 games he mentions.
Castlevania III >>>> Super Castlevania IV Anyway, this game shows how less powerful than the SMS the NES was, struggling with a game that was not that complex compared to SMS ones.
The funny thing with Castlevania III is that the American version is unplayable due to them ruining most of the game so people couldn't beat it in one rental, but the Japanese version is more of a normal difficulty and a ton of fun
@@TheT3rr0rMask It's pretty miserable. Enemies do way more damage and some of them take less damage, and you have to replay the entire Dracula stage again in the English version while you can retry as much as you want in Japanese. It's technically beatable, but it's such an unfun slog compared to the original game that there's no point unless you just want "Hard Mode" playthrough.
@@ProfessorBopper i think those are more features than deviations. ff1 was very simple so it wasn't surprising to see new features in the sequels. castlevania 1 to 2 was a huge deviation to an open world format from a level based game. castlevania 3 wasn't so much as a deviation as it was a return to the original format with new features. they're all great though, well ff2 not so much but the castlevanias!
3:30 You are playing Akumajo Densetsu in this clip. In the US release, the Dragons’ fire was altered to reduce slowdown. 11:50 I disagree. If you have played AD, you see how bad Cv3 is relative to it, the former being, IMO, superior to all Classicvanias barring one. 11:57 TCRF is not the Castlevania wiki. It is a site documenting hidden secrets and version changes in games.
5:00 you make this point while showing gameplay of you using save states and also just getting your ass kicked in the gameplay in general. Have you played Castlevania Chronicles (1993), Dracula X, Bloodlines or Circle of the Moon? The Castlevania series definitely deserves its reputation as one of the hardest series ever. You compare it to Megaman and say Megaman is harder? Megaman isn’t hard outside of 1,(arguably) 4 and 9. This is coming from the guy with the Megaman pfp that Castlevania is 100% the harder series. Let’s be honest Castlevania 1 is also very hard, it’s easy to master because it’s short but it’s hard as fuck your first few of go arounds.
TL:DR, please play Castlevania Chronicles in its original form, as you’re playing the game, play the clip of you saying “the more I play the more I question the reputation of Castlevania’s difficulty.” You won’t be questioning it anymore. I can assure you that.
Dracula X and Bloodlines are easier than Castlevania 3, though, and Mega Man has games far harder than 1, 4 and 9 (3 is one of the hardest classic ones but it throws an absolutely absurd amount of lives and E-Tanks that make the game seem easy, on top of the mostly easy Wily Castle)
@@marx4538 Drac X and Bloodlines are easier then 3 no doubt, but that wasn't my point, my point was to say that 3 isn't the only hard Castlevania game, this guy said he questioned the reputation for difficulty the series has. my point was those games I listed are no cake walk either. Its not just 3 is hard and everything else is easy like the reviewer assumes. But for my claim about Mega Mans difficulty I'm talking about the classic series only, of course there are harder games outside of the classic series. I also get your argument for 3 being hard, but for me its the length that makes it seem hard, the levels themselves are relatively easy but the Doc Robot stages make the game seem harder then it actually is as your just spending more time on it. 2 5 6 8 10 and 11 are very easy for Mega Man standards. I can see arguments being made for 3 and 7 but I didn't mention them as I feel as those games are easy for the most part but have a huge spike like 3s Doc Robot stages and 7s Wily Capsule fight. It seemed like I said Classic Mega Man was easy, its definitely not easy, but when compared to Castlevania I think Mega Man is alot more forgiving.
@@flightsimx That is fair, I do agree, and yeah, classic Mega Man is more forgiving than Castlevania. I wouldn't say 7's Wily Capsule is very hard though, but that may be just me and that game still has Slash Man and the first fortress fight against Bass which are both really unpredictable.
I swear I am not trying to sound like a dick but I just cannot believe how bad you kids are today at videogames. I was 13 years old when I got Castlevania 3 for Christmas. Thirteen! This was the much more difficult North American version too. Yes, the game was challenging but seeing the way you are struggling on some of the earliest parts of the game, despite no doubt using save states like crazy is just absurd. The thing to understand about Castlevania 3 as well as many other NES games of the time is that even characters that you think are random and unpredictable like the flying gargoyles can in fact be manipulated by the player. I can still to this day make it through those vertical stair heavy sections with gargoyles unscathed. You have to plan the timing of your movements and use the full length of your whip at times. It is absolutely doable though.
I'm kinda glad you brought this up. To me, a lot of reviewers for this game look like they're running into enemies on purpose to exaggerate how difficult they are. I certainly wont say this is an easy game. It does have a learning curve. But these seemingly random and unpredictable enemies are in fact predictable. Just like you said, it's a matter of correct timing with your movements and your weapons.
I was a kid during that gaming era and Castlevania1+3 whooped my ass everytime I rented them. Actually they still whoop my ass now that I own them. 😅 Just because we grew up in the Arcade/NES eras, doesn't mean we were all whiz kids at every single game. 😉
@@bezoticallyyours83 Castlevania 3 kicked my ass plenty of times. It still does at times. This guy just seems really bad at the game though. Thirteen year old me shouldn't be so much better then this guy. That was the point I was making.
Really your comment is how most new players would even handle that. What makes me laugh is the reviewer is having a hard time with the medusa heads, when they have a very predictable pattern that can be dodged easily... I figured this out pretty early in my first playthrough and I played this game for the first time not too long ago. The reviewer has a skill issue, and tries to make it sound like its a bigger problem than it is, by lumping in other would be players into the complaint. It was really hard to finish this video, the voice got so grating and complaining for the sake of it. Just play the game, learn how its played, and adapt. just like any game lol.
Castlevania 3 is my personal "it's good because I can beat it" game. The challenge is immense, but it's so satisfying to crack it... I'm also just a little bit of a masochist. As a big video game replayer, I also appreciate the many different playthroughs to try between the multiple characters and routes- even multiple versions of the same game! It's kind of shocking how perfectly Castlevania 3 panders to my tastes.
Thank you again for making the videos that got me into the series- without them, I would not have tried these games and found what I love about them.
I went from spending days on the Sypha bridge level, to doing a Trevor Solo run through every stage. The level of satisfaction from figuring the game out is fantastic. There are some dumb parts such as the falling blocks in Alucard route and excessive stairs in Spyha route. The Doppelganger fight pretty much forces you to learn AI manipulation to succeed. Still love the game now despite it's flaws because the overall experience is great.
I beat castlevania 3 with ever ch with no subwepos and leather whip only the frist whip with no Upgrade the game is not that hard
@@Doofkopf That definitely takes a lot of practice. Good job.
That's awesome
I only had about a dozen games as a kid, and this was one that I can beat. I can't get past the 4th level in Battletoads, but I never thought CV3 was crazy hard as a kid.
To this day beating this a kid is probably my greatest gaming achievement
Castlevania 3 is such a masterpiece. Yes, it's tough, but it's really satisfying making it further and further into the game over the course of months until you finally defeat Dracula. It's definitely in my top 3 NES games.
Castlevania 3 can be nicely summed up with this exchange from Trevor and Alucard from the Netflix show
"Eat shit and die!"
"Yes, fuck you"
Looking forward to the Belmont's Revenge video, that game has an absolutely unreal soundtrack for a Game Boy game.
always a nice day to watch a video essay
I got obseeeeesed with this game this past spring and summer. I didn’t want to use save states because I’d been wanting to do it the way I had to back on my Wii when I was in high school. It was a personal challenge and after playing the living daylights out of it, I can now beat CV3 with no continues. I was able to beat the hard mode once. Now that was boo boo. I don’t intend on doing that again 😂
I love this game. The song “Stream” is amazing. I never thought it was as hard as you say but I’ve only played the Japanese version (for the music) and didn’t know they made it harder for the US.
The only Castlevannia game that I owned as a kid for my NES. I was SO excited about beating it after playing it for over half a year!
Definitely the pinnacle of the whole series for me. I love the difficulty because I feel like I'm always learning. There's always some new challenge, be it the second loop (flying skulls!), a solo run with any of the four characters, etc. I even managed to beat it without continuing on one epic run, but that, too, can potentially be improved upon. The road is just neverending.
You need to touch grass bro.
It’s the greatest CV game, no doubt.
I'm always torn between CV3, 4, and Ronda for favorite game in the franchise. They are all bangers that bring different things to the table.
I think CV1 and 3 become much easier games once you realize you have to be deliberate with your actions. Because everything has a commitment factor to it you can't just do things willy-nilly.
Castlevania 3, Aria of Sorrow, Rondo of Blood are my holy trinity of CV games that I've played so far (If we include Bloodstained, Curse of the Moon 2 would be there as well).
Beating the NA version of CV3 blind while unknowningly taking the most difficult path with Alucard was very satisfying for me, and I really enjoyed replaying the Japanese version a couple times to play with Sypha and Grant.
My favorite game of all time. Got it as a birthday gift in 1990. The music, the art, it's a masterpiece. The flicker and lags were all part of the charm. As for the stairs - having grown up with it, I never saw it as an issue.
Fucking thanks for finally making one of these that isn't 3 hours long
Our darksoul in our childhood before darksoul existed.
Dracula's Curse is still my favorite entry to this day!
Castlevania 3 is one of the few games that got harder as I got older. It wasn't that I had forgotten the mechanics of the game or the possible tricks, tips and exploits. It was simply that I started seeing the level designs with bigger eyes, I started observing smaller details and I stopped watching where I was going, or even paying attention for incoming enemies and projectiles. It was this way with every classic NES title for me, but the Castlevania games (the third game most specifically) are much more packed than most I've experience. It was definitely fun coming back to the classic three after 20 some odd years. Would do it again in 20 more probably.
Only two minutes in and already I want to shout "thank you" for pointing out how annoyingly people dog pile on second game in a series while only focusing on that specific trinity of games. As someone whose brain immediately turns off when someone utters the cliched phrase "black sheep of the franchise", it's nice that you are trying to look at NES Castlevania through a separate lens.
Edit: "It isn't possible to walk up a flat floor" is going on my list of great out of context video essay quotes.
When I first got this game for Christmas in 1992 when I was 3 years old, back when Salute Your Shorts on Nickelodeon was new/popular., Rollerskating/Rollerblading & Skateboarding were unpopular at the time, when that show on Nickelodeon was popular/when i first got this game.
This was some resplendent writing, and possibly the best description of this game I've ever heard. Definitely checking out the rest of your channel and subscribing.
Beating that is one of my greatest gaming accomplishments, it gets as hard as a space shooter to see the credits.
Zelda 2 > Zelda 1
Mario 2 > Mario 1
Simon's Quest > Castlevania
POINT
:)
8:12 Am I the only one blown away by the lore presented in the manual?!?!
Belmont Warlord Chromosomes? Grant, Alucard and Sypha are merely spirits? Trevor *transforms* into said spirits?
Trevor's weapons were given to him by the Poltergeist King? WHAAAATT?!?!?!
Apparently pretty much all of that is just something the translators added for shits and giggles cause they couldn't use religious stuff like in the original, so the pope turned into the poltergeist king etc.
I think Konami went all out because Simon's Quest was such a letdown they needed to make up for it with part 3.
People talk about mark-ups nowadays with video games but I can recall being 9 years old and watching my older brother buy this game for $109.99 upon release. Games were $79.99 here in Ontario Canada at the time.
Why did he have to pay 30 extra bucks?
Thing that keeps 3 at the top for me is how no following CV gave as much depth when reusing its ideas. Rondo and Bloodlines have only two characters each and you're allowed one at a time. Not to mention Maria is mechanically a replacement of Richter vs complimenting Richter's abilities w/flaws of her own (lower health isn't a big difference play-wise). Bloodlines does better in this regard, but again you only get one per playthrough. Mixing the Belmont mechanics w/another that compliments them, on the fly, makes for some of the best gameplay and stage progression you could have w/CV's format.
Then the multi-route idea was simplified. Rondo has great branching stage routes but it doesn't always make sense where you end up, vs 3 giving you a map connecting each area. Bloodlines only has a few branching routes in the entire game, and each one is forced upon you depending on your character selection vs letting you tackle them w/either John or Eric. 3 keeps Sypha and Alucard on specific routes, sure, but the added cheats of the US version allow you to start the game w/any partner.
To this day, 3 is the only one to go this hard on the secondary characters and routes. The entire game is designed to have any of the characters in any of the possible situations. It feels so complete in that regard. The only games to truly follow it up are Curse of the Moon 1&2 (and what a great job they did).
I'm not even close to beating this game (and I have doubts as to whether I even will), but a detail I've noticed while playing this after Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 is how they handled separate characters.
The alternate routes in Castlevania 3 were entire levels, determined by you. There are (in my experience) a couple in-level sequence breaks with Grant (and probably Alucard later on) but the structure of the levels is largely the same.
Meanwhile CoTM 1 and 2's separate routes are inside the levels themselves, as the same level can be played VERY differently depending on your choice of character.
I hope the third CoTM (if it's ever a thing) has the best of both worlds, as I dislike how you can't have more than 2 characters in Castlevania 3, but I think I might prefer its form of progression. I'd even be OK with you not being able to get every character due to them being disagreeable (even if the routes align):
In the online character guides for CoTM 1 and 2, it's essentially said that everyone hates everyone. In CoTM 1 Zangetsu hates literally everyone, Miriam was screwed over by the shard implementation (if it's detrimental like Gebel's hatred of Alchemists implies: I haven't Ritual of the Night yet) so she probably hates Alchemists, Alfred... Is a bit of an unknown, Gebel is overtly stated to hate humans and Alchemists and kills several demons, Dominique hates demons so she probably probably hates the first game's side characters, and Robert tries to kill Hachi on sight with the only thing keeping him from trying the same with Dominique is her self sacrifice. Hachi is a good dog and never tried to hurt anyone.
They probably only get along because Zangetsu's there with them, and it'd be awesome to see something like a faction system where you can recruit sets of team mates like the Shardbinders, the alchemy gang (Alfred and Hachi), and the normal people (Dominique and Robert), just to name a few.
Honestly a great idea, and the kinda depth Inti likes to put in their stuff. They've been doing their own thing since COTM2 but Gal Guardians was basically COTM3 in all but name. Shows me a desire they have to keep making Vania-likes if Igarashi allows.
COTM2 was great but felt overloaded in the endgame. Sure it's endlessly cool to choose your allies out of all eight but can feel overwhelming when you're supposed to be searching for items Megaman X style (some of which, iirc, are locked behind certain character abilities).
Having a sort of faction system, planning playthroughs around who you'd want to recruit later on, gives even better replayability on top of risk-reward, inspiring you to use different play styles.
I wouldn't mind another NES style game but seeing a CV3-like in a 16bit style ala Bloodlines would work so well. Bloodstained's brand echoes Bloodlines' color pallette and art style so hard it feels needed. It'd be like getting a long lost "What if" situation: if the 16bit games lent a bit more towards 3's structure. As far as I know Igarashis in pre-production for ROTN2, so we can expect another linear side game since they were such successful marketing pieces.
Always love telling fromsoft fans that they haven't experienced true gaming difficulty till they've experienced this, battletoads, or Ghouls and ghosts
Grant having such a bad normal attack is what turned me away from using him. It’s a shame because his climbing ability is really fun to use.
The last boss is nutty
Wonderful video. im happy you decided to keep it going even after this one.
Bloodlines has the ability to jump off and on stairs. And like, a million other amazing things. Best game in the series easily.
Beating US version of Castlevania III on Hard Mode using only Trevor is one of the most insanely difficult challenges in retro gaming. Instead of Medusa heads there are skulls that move in random fast patterns making the Medusa heads seem easy!
For those of you that don’t know…if you beat the game and continue playing you unlock hard mode. There is a password to unlock it too.
A good video Bopper. Thanks for the informative video essay.
Dracula's Curse is my personal favorite of the series. Belmont's Revenge is awesome, too.
Back in NES days Castlevania III was my first Castlevania game I played. Yes it can be difficult. I have played and beat this game many times as a kid and don’t see it as difficult anymore. Still a fun game though.
CV3 is where it’s at. So fun and offers abt 3 replays right off the bat, but you’ll want to play more for a challenge later. Runs with solo characters and such are so fun
castlevania 2 wasn't a deviation though, it was just a piece of the greater puzzle and was a concept that was too soon to realize, the idea of adding RPG elements and being able to revisit areas you explored is very much in the same vein of any castlevania game since SotN
I agree with both your assessment of 1 and 3 wholeheartedly. I play 1 like it's an old friend. 3 is to be endured.
Another hidden gem channel found
great video! really looking forward to the next episode
You should play Gimmick! Not for a video essay, just based on what you've said you enjoyed about these games in terms of gameplay I think you'd enjoy it.
This (though a video essay would also be a welcome surprise). Easily one of the greatest games on the Famicom, and I had no surprise it existed until last year despite generally being well-acquainted with the system's library.
Skill issue
This my favorite growing up
A game maker going by Warhammer is doing a remake of CV3!
I have played this game so much, that I dont really find it difficult.
My favorite nes game. Can beat it on every character. Very difficult.
This reviews the original Japanese version. Akumajou Densetsu was quite a different experience in the sound performance, visual, blood loss, and Grant departments compared to the international version we know as CastleVania III.
To be honest, I never die to the pendulums. I thought those sections were pretty easy compared to most of the game.
Anyone else beat this game more than once? I've beaten it so far once with each companion via the 3DS eShop a few months before it closed. Was tempted to do a solo run of it but I just ran out of enthusiasm and wanted to focus on other games via the eShop.
I played Castlevania 3 and was convinced people were making up their enjoyment for it.
Its designed like a quarter eater on an arcade cabinet. Walking up and down stairs shouldn't be a challenge. In a game when enemies spawn in your face, at angles you might sincerely might not be able to hit them.
The game being beatable doesn't excuse its bullshit.
I love this game but I cannot for the life of me beat Dracula. I’ve tried and tried without studying tactics or anything as that’ll feel less earned but man do I love playing and trying!
i remember this game being slightly hard but not that much and dracula being very easy unlike castlevania 1. there's actually a very easy way with sypha with the fire spell you just spam that when dracula is getting up and boom. you change to trevor with the axe kill the second form and third form don't even get onto the platforms, just spam the axe. it's very ez really...
Well not for me, I wasn’t looking up strats on the internet when I was a kid lol and it’s hard to GET TO HIM regardless beat him. I’ll try again, but for me, I’ve never done it. And have done Castlevania 1 no problem, idk.
the stages are a bit hard and to get to dracula i remember it's easier with alucard because you can cheese your way like flying around levels but the last boss is defo with sypha. this one i beat as a kid in like 3 days but yeah i "cheesed" a lot. #2 easy but cryptic game, castlevania 1 as a kid only got to death and never defeat it but as an adult i beat the game tons of time and at one point knew it by memory. dracula is hard until you know the patterns and eventually you can beat the game without dying@@JackpotToys
Good video! I think your observations and analysis are pretty good, though I do disagree about few things: I do think that Castlevania 3 ultimately doesn't go too far with it's difficulty, and games like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden ultimately stand out as hard, but still doable games nowadays: there are still games on the NES that I would say are fair, but still crushingly difficult to an almost comical point, and as time went on, the genres that those games belonged to would only go further and further into that: the Gradius series is an example I'd bring, particularly the NES ones as the console versions were generally redone and rebalanced compared to the arcade counterparts.
Regardless, I wish you luck with the rest of the series and I hope you'll have fun with them.
I'm bad at games, so I judge difficulty of games by whether I can beat them. Castlevania III I can beat, but Castlevania I cannot, so I've always thought of III as easier. The difficulty level is set by which companion you take, objectively, whether you realize it or not. Alucard lets you fly past obstacles, but he's so weak and fragile that you're stuck using Trevor most of the playthrough. Grant is situational in levels, but he's a good way to have the Axe subweapon on standby for bosses where that's useful, letting Trevor keep his Holy Water. Sypha may be fragile, but that lightning spell is a homing shot with huge projectiles that hit multiple times, her short range attack is very fast, and she moves exactly the same as Trevor. She's the easy mode, Grant is medium, and Alucard is hard mode. Trevor alone is gimmick difficulty and I never did that to myself because like why dude.
Childhood? Avgn? Jeez louis I’m getting old
It’s not so bad. I’ve heard some people say they grew up with PlayStation 4
Castlevania bloodlines was the hardest for me besides this one
One thing I think that people miss is that Zelda II is much like the Dragon Slayer series. Dragon Slayer I was a top down action RPG and Dragon Slayer II was a side scroller action RPG. Sounds sort of similar to the first two Zelda games.
Anyways, besides that spot on about Konami being about excess. It’s the reason why they are always early to move onto new hardware. They are also the most prolific creators of custom Famicom chips. I think that Japanese Castlevania III is one of the best classic style Castlevania games in my opinion and one of the best games for Nintendo’s 8-bit system. I have never really played the American version, nor do I ever plan to, I just find the differences to make it less interesting, so I don’t really have any interest. The presentation and the gameplay while not perfect as the original game are just a lot of fun to replay.
8:28 I love how they refer to Sypha with male pronouns, they really tried hiding the fact that she was a girl until the very end 😂.
yeah it was actually just a limitation of the NES
the Japanese version dosn't use pronouns like that so having 2 different dialogue boxes (one for each sex) would be tricky when it comes to localisation (something like that i am no genius when it comes to tech)
I guess Castlevania was taking cues from Metroid even back then.
With Nocturn being a disgrace I decided to finally buckle down and beat CV3. I'm almost there but I hate to say it but w/o the save states in the collection I think I would have given up again. IDK what it is about getting older but my patience for old hard games is starting to wane. It's a great game all the same but a remake would be greatly appreciated.
I finally beat Castlevania 1 thanks to the anniversary collection, and I was really surprised that 3 was not better. I often found myself laughing along with C1 whenever it presented some absurd challenge, because I knew soon after with some patience and growing in skill I would succeed. C3 on the other hand often feels like it is abusing you, putting up absurd challenges just to see how much you'll tolerate. I started getting frustrated cos it felt like the game was laughing at me, not with me. It's not a terrible game, but if I ever go back and play the NES ones, C1 is probably where I'll stay. C1 has singlehandedly gotten me to appreciate the classic vania style that I usually avoided more than the metroidvania style that I preferred because it is so tight, the difficulty so well tweaked, and everything clicks so well that the metroidvanias feel like a step back in design. But C3 on the other hand has me remembering why I like the RPG style of metroidvanias.
Try the jp ver. I've heard it's much more forgiving compared to its US counterpart.
I question the video game tastes of anyone who would prefer Ghosts and Goblins or the original Mega Man over Battletoads, one of the greatest games ever made for the system.
I think most of the levels are fair, except for level 7 on Alucard’s path, screw that.
I mainly only played the games in the annversary collection, and out of those, Castlevania 3 is my second favorite game right after Super Castlevania 4. It always impresses me just how many things this game got right on 8-BIT hardware, which I largely associate with outdated or compromised games.
Certainly, a strong contenter for my favorite pre SNES game.
I beat and enjoyed The Adventure without save states or rewind, and somehow I find CV3 to be harder than that game!!! I am so stuck in the waterfall level.
Also woah! Fear and Hunger gameplay clip, cool!!! :D
It's OK to like castlevania 1 more than 3, BUT you are correct....Dracula's Curse is easily a top 10, maybe top 5 game (maybe top 3??) For the NES hands down.
Castlevania 3 is certainly one of the best looking NES games but is easily surpassed by Sunsoft's Batman: Return of the Joker. That game looks better at times then some 16-bit games.
RotJ is definitely the better looking game on a technical level, but I much prefer the aesthetics of CVIII
@@ProfessorBopper I think much of the little touches of animation in the environment on Batman RotJ as well as Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom push them just a little bit over Castlevania 3 but it's close.:)
Japanese Castlevania 1 is also easier than western.
is there a rom that has the Japanese sprites and sound and the US difficulty?
Dear Disney, Stop spamming every video to advertise your crappy streaming service cause Ill never buy it.
Congrats ?
They can't see this comment. If you're commenting during an ad, you're just commenting on the RUclips video you clicked. Nothing changed.
I only see T-Mobile ads constantly
I got domino's ads and liberty mutual. Because I'm gangsta af
What ads?
What game was that at 9:58?
I paused at the same time to ask the same question. This game looks awesome if anyone will ever answer as to what it is. It's certainly not either of the 2 games he mentions.
What emulator is that you are using?
@@jaodasilva7993 this is on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Switch
Castlevania III >>>> Super Castlevania IV
Anyway, this game shows how less powerful than the SMS the NES was, struggling with a game that was not that complex compared to SMS ones.
What's the game at 12:28?
Fear & Hunger 2: Termina
The funny thing with Castlevania III is that the American version is unplayable due to them ruining most of the game so people couldn't beat it in one rental, but the Japanese version is more of a normal difficulty and a ton of fun
It's not unplayable though. That's a huge exaggeration.
@@TheT3rr0rMask It's pretty miserable. Enemies do way more damage and some of them take less damage, and you have to replay the entire Dracula stage again in the English version while you can retry as much as you want in Japanese. It's technically beatable, but it's such an unfun slog compared to the original game that there's no point unless you just want "Hard Mode" playthrough.
Guy literally explains it in this video
Why would the people who funded making the game care if you had to rent longer in order to beat it? That's no more money in their pocket.
@@Debbie-qs2xo I believe rental stores like Blockbuster would pay the American localizers of those games money to do it
what's the game at 9:58? great video btw
It is Gal Guardians. An upsettingly good game. Unbearably cringe and unfortunately fun
And it unbelievably has good co-op, too. Imagine CV had that. Truly unfortunate.
how did ff2 or even ff4 deviate? they deviated in the early 2000s with ff12 and the stupid real time 3d combat, and they never stopped with it.
FF2’s entirely revamped leveling system and FF4’s introduction of ATB
@@ProfessorBopper i think those are more features than deviations. ff1 was very simple so it wasn't surprising to see new features in the sequels. castlevania 1 to 2 was a huge deviation to an open world format from a level based game. castlevania 3 wasn't so much as a deviation as it was a return to the original format with new features. they're all great though, well ff2 not so much but the castlevanias!
3:30 You are playing Akumajo Densetsu in this clip. In the US release, the Dragons’ fire was altered to reduce slowdown. 11:50 I disagree. If you have played AD, you see how bad Cv3 is relative to it, the former being, IMO, superior to all Classicvanias barring one. 11:57 TCRF is not the Castlevania wiki. It is a site documenting hidden secrets and version changes in games.
5:00 you make this point while showing gameplay of you using save states and also just getting your ass kicked in the gameplay in general. Have you played Castlevania Chronicles (1993), Dracula X, Bloodlines or Circle of the Moon? The Castlevania series definitely deserves its reputation as one of the hardest series ever. You compare it to Megaman and say Megaman is harder? Megaman isn’t hard outside of 1,(arguably) 4 and 9. This is coming from the guy with the Megaman pfp that Castlevania is 100% the harder series. Let’s be honest Castlevania 1 is also very hard, it’s easy to master because it’s short but it’s hard as fuck your first few of go arounds.
TL:DR, please play Castlevania Chronicles in its original form, as you’re playing the game, play the clip of you saying “the more I play the more I question the reputation of Castlevania’s difficulty.”
You won’t be questioning it anymore. I can assure you that.
Dracula X and Bloodlines are easier than Castlevania 3, though, and Mega Man has games far harder than 1, 4 and 9 (3 is one of the hardest classic ones but it throws an absolutely absurd amount of lives and E-Tanks that make the game seem easy, on top of the mostly easy Wily Castle)
@@marx4538 Drac X and Bloodlines are easier then 3 no doubt, but that wasn't my point, my point was to say that 3 isn't the only hard Castlevania game, this guy said he questioned the reputation for difficulty the series has. my point was those games I listed are no cake walk either. Its not just 3 is hard and everything else is easy like the reviewer assumes. But for my claim about Mega Mans difficulty I'm talking about the classic series only, of course there are harder games outside of the classic series. I also get your argument for 3 being hard, but for me its the length that makes it seem hard, the levels themselves are relatively easy but the Doc Robot stages make the game seem harder then it actually is as your just spending more time on it. 2 5 6 8 10 and 11 are very easy for Mega Man standards. I can see arguments being made for 3 and 7 but I didn't mention them as I feel as those games are easy for the most part but have a huge spike like 3s Doc Robot stages and 7s Wily Capsule fight. It seemed like I said Classic Mega Man was easy, its definitely not easy, but when compared to Castlevania I think Mega Man is alot more forgiving.
@@flightsimx
That is fair, I do agree, and yeah, classic Mega Man is more forgiving than Castlevania. I wouldn't say 7's Wily Capsule is very hard though, but that may be just me and that game still has Slash Man and the first fortress fight against Bass which are both really unpredictable.
I swear I am not trying to sound like a dick but I just cannot believe how bad you kids are today at videogames. I was 13 years old when I got Castlevania 3 for Christmas. Thirteen! This was the much more difficult North American version too. Yes, the game was challenging but seeing the way you are struggling on some of the earliest parts of the game, despite no doubt using save states like crazy is just absurd. The thing to understand about Castlevania 3 as well as many other NES games of the time is that even characters that you think are random and unpredictable like the flying gargoyles can in fact be manipulated by the player. I can still to this day make it through those vertical stair heavy sections with gargoyles unscathed. You have to plan the timing of your movements and use the full length of your whip at times. It is absolutely doable though.
I'm kinda glad you brought this up. To me, a lot of reviewers for this game look like they're running into enemies on purpose to exaggerate how difficult they are. I certainly wont say this is an easy game. It does have a learning curve. But these seemingly random and unpredictable enemies are in fact predictable. Just like you said, it's a matter of correct timing with your movements and your weapons.
How long have you lived in mom's basement?
I was a kid during that gaming era and Castlevania1+3 whooped my ass everytime I rented them. Actually they still whoop my ass now that I own them. 😅
Just because we grew up in the Arcade/NES eras, doesn't mean we were all whiz kids at every single game. 😉
@@bezoticallyyours83 Castlevania 3 kicked my ass plenty of times. It still does at times. This guy just seems really bad at the game though. Thirteen year old me shouldn't be so much better then this guy. That was the point I was making.
Really your comment is how most new players would even handle that.
What makes me laugh is the reviewer is having a hard time with the medusa heads, when they have a very predictable pattern that can be dodged easily... I figured this out pretty early in my first playthrough and I played this game for the first time not too long ago.
The reviewer has a skill issue, and tries to make it sound like its a bigger problem than it is, by lumping in other would be players into the complaint.
It was really hard to finish this video, the voice got so grating and complaining for the sake of it. Just play the game, learn how its played, and adapt. just like any game lol.
What is the game at 9:58?
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge, a game by Inti Creates: developers of bloodstained: curse of the moon duology.