#Simon's Quest

[simonsquest]

I tried to challenge myself by attempting to replicate Katsuya Terada's Zelda 2 art below, but with Castlevania 2 instead:

[lune-redd]

Blossom but she has a curse

Bonus feat. Simon and the other two

[wygolvillage]

for the simonheads in my audience

[asksimonbelmont]

Were you scared the two times you had to fight Dracula? Did you, at any point during the fights, thought that you were gonna lose, or maybe die after successfully killing him?

If I may be honest… Yes. I was petrified. The injuries I sustained from our first encounter—paired with the falsehoods Dracula planted in my mind during—had me absolutely certain I would not survive, and that I would perish either during the fight, or soon thereafter.

I had made my peace with God. As long as I slayed Dracula, what became of me after the battle did not matter.

Resigned to whatever fate God had chosen for me, I fought as hard as I possibly could.

It is a miracle I survived the battle.

However, for our second encounter…

To my greatest shame, I became cowardly. The curse—and the illnesses from it—wore me down. I was a shadow of my former self. I became paralyzed with fear of what it meant to return to the ruins of Dracula’s Castle.

But I had no choice but to stand resolved: I had to heed the call, no matter how difficult. No matter the cost. Even my life.

But I was terrified, the moment that I arranged Dracula’s remains on the altar…

And when he appeared before me once again.

[umbrabelmontvania]

more simon, oops

[beevean]

@simonsquest My part of the art trade <3

I hope you like it!

[the-crow-binary]

Doodle of the daddiest of Belmonts and my first try at this design <3

He is so precious, how could you refuse to help him? :(

[orchidblack]

[akumahoshojo]

Castlevania I + II Fanfic: A Horrible Night's Dream (Chapter 1 preview)

I wrote this fic for @eboni-napalm as part of a Halloween gift exchange that started back in like... 2021 😱 After two of the roughest years for me ever (school/health/family/general RL problems all happening at once), I've actually been able to work on it!

While I'm still finishing up my final draft of the first chapter (fingers crossed I can do it before midnight!), I thought I'd post this preview of it here for tonight for any CV fans who might be interested in reading... and hopefully checking out the rest. It's the first 4 out of 8 vignettes to be contained in the completed first chapter, set in CV1 era for now.

Game: Castlevania I and II Pairing: Simon Belmont + CV2's "Mysterious Woman" (😉) Themes: Prophecies, Curses, Fighting Fate, Anachronic Order, Second Person POV, Experimental Style Content Warning: General themes of prejudice, non-graphic human sacrifice scene Thanks so much for your patience eboni-napalm-- I'm so sorry about the delay, but getting to work on this story has been rewarding and challenging in the best kind of way! 💗 Check out the story below!

i. now

To one who dreams the future, the present is the past. And thus all your remembered life has been a divided one, waking eyes on constant guard and inner eye fixed on time untold, like two-faced Janus in the body of a girl.

You've never been able to consider your nighttime visions a power, or even a gift: not when they've only come to you as you've lain helpless in the dark, bringing unwanted glimpses of a greater darkness in the world that encircles the realm of dreams.

And if some force beyond even that world can tear through the layers of time to give you a fleeting glimpse of what lies on the other side, then one lone human attempting to change the future’s design in response seems as futile a task as attempting to prevent an avalanche through the placement of a single snowflake.

But that's never stopped you from trying.

ii. then 

To the citizens of Transylvania, he may have been a savior, but to you, he was no different from the rest of them—which placed him somewhere just above scum. And so, as all of Jova turned excitedly north to welcome their conquering hero home, you chose to remain alone in the wooded outskirts of town, where they'd told you your kind would always belong.

Simon, the latest golden boy of the Belmont clan, with a mane of golden hair and bags of looted gold to match, was already the stuff of legends. He'd journeyed alone only days before to Dracula's stronghold beyond the mountains, slaying its monstrous guards and unholy master in a single night and escaping just in time to watch the demon castle crumble at dawn. Stories of his triumph had already traveled down from the hamlets at the foothills and across the river from the town of Yomi, faster than the news of the Dark Lord's resurrection on the night the Black Mass occurred. 

The night they’d shunned you for the last time.

iii. now

The future creates itself in the darkness behind your closed eyes. Your essence stares back from the depths of your mind.

Another vision, two-sided as always: fate's promise to you, and yours to yourself. You will fight it, the truest part of you swears, in the waking world where dreams can't reach, no matter what you'll see and see again.

It catches you off guard anyway.

As your mind's eye clears, the darkness that clouded it coalesces into a black sea, the crests of dozens of waves rising ominously from its surface. The light comes next—faint touches of distant moonlight and dancing candlelight, refining the indistinct sea of shadows into something all too real.

Hooded worshippers, lit by candles as black as their robes, fill the gutted remains of an old church. The church is dark, and the night outside is darker, showing through the shattered stained-glass windows like a void swallowing up the holy and the fair. Idols and relics, goat-headed demons and inverted stars and things you can't decipher, lurk just at the edges of the shadows.

But it's the thing on the altar that scares you the most.

Nearly shrouded in a tattered black cloak, it lays limp and motionless, sickly pale as any corpse—but with a countenance alert as any living man. Its face is twisted into a rictus of mad triumph, sightless eyes fixed on the crumbled ceiling above and a sky empty of stars, as if to mock, even now, whatever higher power watches from above. You're certain you've never seen it, through this eye or your outers. And yet, the longer you stare, the louder a primal alarm seems to scream from somewhere deep inside you.

Known and unknown, mighty and weak, living and dead—the thing’s very existence is a contradiction made flesh.

Clarity flashes across your mind in the errant glint of candlelight off a fang.

You know, now, what this thing is. Its—his—name is Dracula: scion of the dragon, the devil's very son.

His dark grip still chokes Transylvania as tightly in legend as it did in reality, even a century after his last death. Though the countryside has long healed from the scars of his prior reign, those like yourself, too well acquainted with the occult, feel their phantom ache to this day. It is the pain that springs up with each scornful word and every hostile stare, the chafing knowledge that anyone judged slightly less than normal will never be truly safe from a populace still cowering from even the memory of Dracula's shadow.

Your gaze focuses once more at a sudden shuffling among the faceless worshipers: a parting of the shadow sea. From the darkest corner of the church a maiden is borne, light as spindrift, through the crests. Her dress is pale, and her panicked face is paler. She seems almost to shine amongst the shadows that guide her onward, a lone spot of white nearly consumed by the blackness of the church.

A sacrifice.

As she nears the grim idol that lies in wait upon the altar, one of the encircling shadows shoves her roughly forward. She stumbles against the altar's edge, delicate hands bound tightly behind her back.

You are forced to watch, powerless as always, as present and future slip beyond salvation.

Another shift of the lurking shadows. A fleeting flash of metal. A torrent of blood from the maiden's lovely neck.

As the blood splatters on the leering corpse below, its fanged grin seems only to widen. And with a creeping chill of dread, you realize the thing on the altar isn't a corpse anymore.

The church darkens even more, beyond what seems possible, as the sky through the ceiling is choked by thunderclouds. The candlelight drowns in a shadow sea.

For a moment, you see nothing but blissful darkness, blessed oblivion—for a moment, you can nearly imagine what a normal night's sleep might be.

By the time a flash of lightning illuminates the church once more, Dracula is already gone—the monster loosed from its temporal cage.

You barely notice. You'd seen it, then, when the lightning struck, in what little you could view of the world beyond the church. The outlines of a cityscape all too familiar. The narrow curve of a waning gibbous moon.

Jova. Easter Sunday.

You still have time, you realize.

And, fate willing, so do they.

iv. then

It had been Easter then, the time of the town's yearly carnival. Those dull brick buildings had looked almost inviting, festooned with grand banners and colorful paper lanterns, as lively dances and celebrations went on in the market square. The scenes of joy and community, the swirls of music and laughter, seemed to sweep you up despite yourself, almost softening the heart their world had hardened long before. You were hopeful enough to believe the Lord's Resurrection reason enough for them to accept you, for that one day at least, to heed your warning and save their souls.

You were wrong.

No matter who you approached, no matter how you pleaded, the hatred you'd grown up with, inseparable as your shadow, blocked you at every turn. Maybe it was your clothes, or your accent, or just the fact you knew something they didn't, but whatever attempt you made, they judged it to be wrong. Your warnings, increasingly desperate, were met with insults from even the kindest faces in that celebration, insults steeled with the threat of something worse.

Liar.

Witch.

Unholy.

Unwelcome.

You'd finally turned your back on Jova when the stares began to linger a little too long, when the murmurs in the crowd began to overpower even the sounds of the festivities. You refused to add your own life to the number that would soon be lost.

And you'd tried, dammit. They couldn't say you didn't try. 

If their blood was to be shed, it would not be on your hands.

You told yourself this as you left them all behind, the music growing fainter and the colored lights dimmer with each step you took into the engulfing darkness. They'd just shown they cared nothing for you, for even themselves, so why chance your life for them? You didn't care—you truly didn't care.

But when your prophecy came true and hell came to earth, you suffered with them all the same.

[hobodante]

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

[simonsquest]

My heart of fire burns for you, Valentine

YOU NOW PROSSESS MY HEART, VALENTINE

Let's not wait until night, Valentine

[micchio]

Healing and Overwriting

[famicomdojo]

Sean helps Simon Belmont resurrect Dracula to end his curse once and for all.

The original Castlevania is a classic, but there were many variations across different consoles. The NES version focused more on arcade-style gameplay, but the MSX experience was quite different. When creating a sequel, Konami took more from the latter. Rather than knock down abilities and weaponry when injured, Simon Belmont can now collect items and upgrade weapons at shops, which will persist even after enough failures that a continue is needed. There are NPCs, towns, and other locales that can be revisited throughout the game, as opposed to the strictly linear progression of the NES predecessor. In fact, this more RPG-like system is quite a bit like another maligned sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link!

Sean has chosen Castlevania II: Simon's Quest as the first Producers Pick "Honorable Mention", plucked from the poll of January 2024. The game feels topical, given our recent experience with the Zelda II enhanced remake, and how the changes to that game have brought the two more in line. Also, both games were Sean's favorites as a kid, and the first titles he got along with his first NES back in 1989. 35 years later, it's time to see what he remembers about playing this game!

[asksimonbelmont]

Simon what would you do if someone disrespected your lineage right in front you? (Maybe call them, and you, monsters?)

"Regrettably, it has happened. In those moments, I have no choice but to turn the other cheek, and proceed with my mission, even if those who I have devoted my life to protecting vilify me. It would only worsen their opinion if I were to retaliate."

"…it is still painful, though. After all our family has sacrificed. After the suffering we’ve endured, and what I continue to endure."

"I am imperfect. I have desired to shout at them, to tell them they’re mistaken, to deflect blame instead to them—that they themselves are to blame for Dracula’s resurrection, not I, nor my family. But…"

"I can only walk away.

I pray my deeds will change their opinions of us.

…I pray they do not take notice of my cursed state.”

[doshmanziari]

An Index of Castlevania Posts

For this Halloween, and for readers’ convenience, I’d like to provide an index for most of the posts I’ve made on this blog about Castlevania. I’ve attempted to keep things vaguely chronological, from oldest to newest, while also organizing some stuff according to content and titles involved.

Writing-oriented

A look at Super Castlevania IV′s stages ➪ 0 || 1 || 1.5 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8

A Study of Michiru Yamane’s “Dracula’s Castle”, from Symphony of the Night

Reflecting on the Inverted Castle

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness ~ It’s Just Like Symphony of the Night, Except Not At All! ➪ 1 || 2 || 3 || 4

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has one of the best soundtracks in the series

Selective Chromophobia & Castlevania

Circle of the Moon, 2018

Economy and Thematic Structure: Symphony of the Night’s Level Design

Thoughts on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection

More is Not More: Castlevania 3

Image- or audio-oriented

Recolorings and inversions of various Castlevania game screenshots ➪ 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12

Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest ~ Dark-mouth Fronts and Silenced Dead Ends

Images from an abandoned hack of Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest

A catalogue of pedestals ➪ Symphony of the Night || Harmony of Dissonance

Special Containers from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Skeletal Portraiture ~ Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance’s Paintings

The Pixel Paintings of Castlevania

A catalogue of special light-bearing objects ➪ Harmony of Dissonance || Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence ~ Looking Back at the Loveliest Castle Made of Boxes

Aria of Sorrow: Rowdy Edition

Glitched screenshots of Harmony of Dissonance

Lo-fi CRT photos of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness: 1 || 2 || 3 (with comparisons)

An arrangement of “Jail of Jewels” from Portrait of Ruin

Screenshots from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance using an NTSC graphical filter

Maps from three Castlevania games drawn from memory

[beevean]

My part of the art trade with @simonsquest :D

He asked for anything Simon-related, so I went with what I think is the most intriguing scene with him. I don't have a solid grasp on the character, but I tried to make him sound like he does in his wonderful ask blog <3