A fun an unique quest that's definitely worth the 5 star rating. Check it out if you're bored.

Sword or whip?

I never grew up with the Castlevania games, and only have I recently begun to play through the series. And I'm loving it. So I had ignored this quest when it was first released seeing as I would have had no frame of reference, but now that I have experience with the series, I decided to come back and give it a shot.

Let's talk about the presentation, which is absolutely superb. The graphics were ripped and used expertly and really does give off a perfect visual Castlevania vibe. The enemies use the proper sprites and many of them act much like they would in the NES games. In short, it really does look and feel like a Castlevania in the visual department.

Gameplay-wise, again, enemy behavior was made to emulate their NES counterparts as well as they could. It's not perfect, but it's well-done. Since there is no screen scrolling, the game opts for a style more resembling Castlevania's MSX counterpart, Vampire Killer, which was focused more on single screens and searching the levels for the key in order to progress, and it works very well. Indeed, there was a time or two I forgot I was playing ZC and attempted to use the wrong buttons for my jump or weapons. Speaking of, I really did like the weapon system of having both Zelda items and Castlevania subweapons, which only worked on enemies from their respective series.

There's only a few aspects where the gameplay isn't as solid. The first is the jumping, which, regardless if you prefer the stiff jumps of the Classic series or the more fluid jumping controls, just feels off, in height, momentum, and gravity, but I realize there's not much you can do about that without heavy scripting. Related to jumping, there were some sections where you had to make jumps that forced you to scroll through the screen above you and back just to make the jumps. There were a couple of annoying Knight placements and a few repetitive tips. There's also no real penalty for death... never once was I too low on hearts. The stairs and locked doors can be finicky as well at times.

Now to the sound. It's Castlevania music, I don't really need to touch on that. The sound effects were great for the most part except... why is there a Godzilla roar for the secret effect? It makes no sense, is out of place, and got real annoying really fast. Also, I feel like you should have used the Castlevania 1/3 death jingle during the death effect instead of Castlevania 2's death noise; using the MIDI of the former during quick falls into spiked rooms makes it cut off way too early, and the MIDI itself just sounds goofy. Those spike screens should have just kept the level's music, and the death noise should have been the 1/3 death jingle. What is that noise when you land on spikes that gets cut off quickly anyway?

The challenge... well, it's not really hard at all, especially since there's no real penalty for death and continuing puts you back on the same section of a stage. Not that I'd want to play the whole stage on one life. But I never found myself needing to use a potion or being too careful. It's a decently-challenging quest for the average player, but not a challenge for old-school Castlevania fans.

Also the story's goofy as hell.

In the end, I'm unsure whether to judge the quest based on its own merits or how well it emulates the Castlevania experience. On its own merits, it does some pretty interesting and fun things for ZC, with a few annoyances. How well it emulates the Castlevania experience, it needs a bit of work. Meeting the two in the middle, my score would probably be 3.5, which I'll round up into four stars.

Hard to find flaws in this quest. I've gotten the chance to play a demo of it and I liked all the changes made and it definitely feels like a complete quest. 5/5.

I don't know if I missed any items along the way, i'm sure I probably did.

Music selection was superb, gameplay was smooth, no bugs, very enjoyable all-around.

Okay, I just finished this quest and I'll make this short and simple.


Gameplay: 9/10. Let me just say I have never played the original Castlevania on the NES, but I have seen some YouTubes of the gameplay, so it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

Difficulty: 5/10 [Just Right]. Trust me, it's much easier if you play this quest with a controller. There will be some instances of trial and error (such as falling into an insta-kill pit, hitting the wrong candle in later stages, or realizing that you need to use Zelda-specific weapons against Zelda-specific enemies, such as Darknuts and Keese), but once you figure things out, it will be a breeze.

Graphics: 9/10. Almost everything you'd expect from an NES-style quest... a perfect blend of Castlevania and Zelda.

Sounds: 9/10. I mentioned in the comments not long ago that the Godzilla roar doesn't fit well in a Castlevania-themed quest, and it gets old and tiresome real fast. Other than that, not much to complain about...

Music: N/A. I played the entirety of this quest with the Master MIDI volume muted so I won't give this a rating. It would've been nice if an NSF (NES Sound Format) of the first Castlevania was used IMHO...

Quality Control: 8/10. The stairs were a bit finicky to use, and some warp tiles, such as the one that appears after beating Death, don't always work.

Replay value: 8/10. Every once in a while, it'd be nice to play it again. I never did find the Magical Sword...


Overall, I enjoyed playing this quest. Any Zelda fan who is a fan of the Castlevania series definitely must give this one a try.


Verdict: PASS

Found what i was doing wrong

Alright, so I haven't actually touched this quest per say, I just discovered it today, so this isn't a proper review. This is more of a "Reviewmpressions" (a term I stole from a favorite fuzzy and blue monster who's a big Nintendo fan). I'm basing this on what I'm seeing in screenshots, what I've read of other people's comments and reviews, and just my own thoughts.

Let me just start out with this: I'm not a Castlevania fan- I've played a GBA game, play as Simon and Ritcher in Smash sometimes, know Simon and Link are bot in the crappy but popular crossover SATAM cartoon Captain N, and I enjoy Castlevania's music and theme of defeating vampires like Dracula. I've also played a little bit of the spinoff/spiritual successors series Bloodstained. I think the games, both Castlevania and Bloodstained, are good games for their genres. And I do love the idea of a crossover quest.

But, I don't think Link's squatty little Hyrule Fantasy styled sprite at all suits the ripped tileset of Castlevania 1. It looks terribly out of place. Graphically, either go full Castlevania style or full Zelda style- or go for the third option;I've seen a handful of Metrovania type quests on this site, usually opting for an original style. But to me, the mix of both is a bit jarring. I would have preferred seeing a more Castlevania-styled take on Link's taller Adventure of Link styled sprites. Mitsukara has already done her own take on that style of sprite for her own quest (a personal favorite of mine), so I don't see why an already Metrovania-esque type of platforming/sidescrolling adventure game sprite set of Link wouldn't have worked for this. Same for other Zelda enemies that seem to appear in this quest from what I've heard. Either they should be drawn in Castlevania style or the environment should suit their original Zelda style.

Also, I do think that there's potential for actual story here, rather than just "Oh, I think I'll just stick Link and some Zelda enemies into an unrelated game with not terribly much explanation. I would have loved to see Link being thrown into the world of Castlevania with a reason- like maybe to help Simon conquer an apparent alliance between Ganon and Dracula, and how did Ganon and his minions arrive in this world? I don't know terribly much about Castlevania's lore, sadly, but seeing some interaction with Simon for context, or heck, a character switching system between Link and Simon a la Panoply of Calatia would be cool.

I think this kind of crossover quest hold a lot of potential for both fun, challenging gameplay and good storytelling; that's just my two cents. Seeing a sequel or sorts in future would be nice.

I've played through this whole quest, took me about two and a half days. It's not too hard once you get the hang of it, especially the early parts (some parts in the clock tower are very frustrating).

I really like the assortment of new Castlevania based items- not only the Whip and the standard five subweapons, you even went on to include the Book and Rebound Stone/Diamond. Awesome! Some of the items are a little more powerful than normal (Link can move while using the whip, and the holy water makes a ton of fire), but I don't mind that since it makes them more useful. Though, I didn't find the cross boomerang very powerful compared to most Castlevania games, and I made very little use of the Zelda weapons. I also had some blank spots in my main item inventory by the end...??

I also really liked how many elements were based on "Vampire Killer"/Akumajou Dracula for the MSX, rather than only the NES games or newer. Many elements are familiar from that game, like the hidden keys, wraparound areas, , and soforth.

Plotwise, I'm very confused that Alucard seems to be supporting Dracula in the plot, but the math bit is amusing and it's also kind of funny that Link doesn't really care about Dracula in the end. The plot is generally kind of goofy, so that's okay.

The scripted bosses are very cool and I really like them!

If I were to change anything, my suggestions would be:
- The readable hints are very difficult to spot sometimes and are hard to notice. This might be on purpose, but I kinda sorta played through half the quest before I realized I was supposed to be reading them at all. (Also, maybe the book icon from Simon's Quest's clues would make sense, instead of tiles with words on them?)
- Alter the stairs script a little bit so that you move slower (maybe have an integer that has to counts down a little bit for each time it moves you?), and maybe adjust it so you don't get "stuck" at the top (I kept going back down stairs by mistake) or have trouble getting on at the bottom (something to do with the FFC hitbox width maybe)?
- It's a little odd that the scripted mummies aren't a boss, but Gleeoks are. I'd probably have used a room of those mummies as the level 3 boss, like in CV1.
- There's a few minor situations where it feels like there's no way to avoid damage in the Clock Tower from the Bone Pillars (due to platform placement), and when fighting the fire Gleeok (but that's largely a problem with Fire Gleeoks to begin with). To fix the Fire Gleeok, I'd suggest going to the enemy editor and switching him from "Breath" to "1 Shot", he'll still breathe fire but there'll be more opportunity to attack in between shots.
- The final boss felt a little off due to

But all in all, I enjoyed this quest. Neat stuff!

It's about time you got rid of that Godzilla roar, it didn't fit the Castlevania theme at all.

Looks great! I'm glad to see that this is finished!

Side-scrolling action sounds great! I can't wait to try it!

Edit: I mistakenly had thought that "side-scrolling" had also meant that the screen scrolled with you. Silly me! I guess that would've been called Adventure-of-Link-style scrolling. Still, the door-opening sequences are like that, which is totally sweet!

Still, you got some nice side-scrolling action going on there! I love the merge between using both Zelda items and Castlevania items! (That is, except when I can't remember what the item was in Castlevania, but I remember most of the main weapons, so I think I'm okay.) The stairs were a little tricky at first, but I got the hang of it.

The part where you had to jump from the stairs was a bit odd. I couldn't jump all the way from the top of the stairs over to the platform, and it baffled me of where to go. It might've been nice to have a hint somewhere that you don't have to wait until you're at the top or bottom of the stairs before jumping.

I love the implementation of Castlevania enemies!
I died at the darknut before I remembered your hint to use Zelda items on Zelda enemies. The whip just wasn't working for me! Still, the darknut is tricky because he likes to turn around before you can hit him. I'll have to practice that some more. At least I found the key so I can move on when I'm ready.

I'll play further before giving this an official review. Great job so far!