...and now, a PrinceWatercress Blog one-shot. Here's how to get through Castlevania without dying, courtesy of One Credit Classics.
Oh, 1987. Not only did it bring us some good music, but it also brought us the English-language port to the first game of one of the greatest series of all time: Castlevania.
The first game takes place in 1691 and centers on Simon Belmont entering Castlevania to destroy Count Dracula. That's pretty much the gist of it, really.
Stages 1-3
The torches here contain power-ups. To get them, strike at them with your whip. There are quite a few things you can get out of them:
Hearts are used to power-up your sub-weapons, which you can use by holding Up on the Control Pad and pressing B. Different sub-weapons consume a different amount of hearts. Small hearts are worth just one heart, big ones are worth five.
Chain whips are power-ups for your whip. You can get up to two before your whip is fully powered-up. The first makes your leather whip a more powerful chain whip, while the second makes the whip even longer.
Money bags give you points.
Crucifix necklaces destroy all enemies currently on the screen.
Pitchers of water give temporary invincibility.
Here are the sub-weapons:
Knives can be thrown straight ahead until it either goes off-screen or hits an enemy.
Holy Water is thrown to the ground and cause a small flame to burn where it was thrown for a second or tow, burning any enemy it touches. Despite the fact that it doesn't seem that useful at the beginning of the game, it becomes very useful later on, making it worth getting and keeping as soon as possible.
Stopwatches stop all enemies for a few seconds.
Axes can be thrown into the air to take care of enemies above you.
Boomerangs extend to the other side of the screen before they come back.
II and III symbols allow you to throw two and three projectiles of your sub-weapon, respectively. These are useful for boss battles. If you keep using your sub-weapons, you'll find these things at random before you know.
Don't forget: enemies can drop sub-weapons at random.
With that out of the way, let's get down to business.
The entrance has a bunch of torches that you can destroy for hearts. Hearts are used as ammunition for your sub-weapons. If you leap over where the door is, you can also get a hidden moneybag to pop up, which is worth 1000 points.
The zombies just move towards you. The black panthers will leap at you before running in the other direction. The bats will fly at you.
Once you go through the door, you'll have to go down a bit and go down the stairs to the left. The wall to the right has a pork chop that refills your health. If you know what you're doing, you can wait for a bat near the pork chop wall, have a bat fly towards you, jump off the upper-right edge of the bat and skip the fishman area coming up.
If you go down the stairs, watch out for the fishmen as they can knock you into the water and, if you're in the worst possible spot, to your death.
There is a platform at the bottom of the screen below the stairs leading back up on the other side. If you break the blocks above it and stand there for a few seconds, you'll get a flashing, hidden money bag worth a ton of points.
When you make it to the end, you'll meet a giant bat. It will come at you, but if you back off a bit and use the whip, you should be fine. The axe works very well against it. One of the blocks near the exit door contains a square with the Roman numeral "II" on it. If you pick it up, you can have two of your sub-weapon on the screen at any given time. There is also a "III" as well. If you collect another weapon or die, you'll lose that multiplier and you'll have to hunt for it all over again, so be careful.
After beating the giant bat, you'll get a crystal. Pick it up and you'll restore your health and head over to the next set of stages.
Stages 4-6
The living armor just patrols the platform it stands on. You'll also see more bats, and they'll wait on the ceiling until you come close enough to warrant them coming after you.
Stages 4-6 is where the platforming elements of the game come in. Remember that once you jump, you won't be able to change your direction or control your jump while in mid-air. This can be a killer if you're dealing with enemies as you jump. As mentioned before, if you run into or are hit by an enemy, you get knocked back. This is worse with the platforming elements of the game, as you just might be sent down a pit if you're unfortunate enough to get hit in mid-air in the wrong place or time.
The Medusa heads are widely considered to be one of the most annoying video game enemies of all time, due to their sine wave movement pattern and the cheapness that is involved with it in certain areas.
The candle leading up the stairs at the end of the first section of Stage 5 gives you a Double Shot or Triple Shot if you don't have either item.
One of the blocks to the left of the door at the beginning of Stage 6 contains a Pork Chop if you need it.
The crushers at the beginning of Stage 6 are instant death! Thankfully, you can duck under the second one. For the rest, you'll have to run by them as they rise up to the ceiling.
Another new enemy: the Dragon Skull Cannons. These things will shoot fireballs at you from one of their skulls, as the two skulls face a different direction. Just hit it a few times with the whip while targeting the one that's spitting fire at you, and you'll be able to take out the fireballs and the cannon. If your whip is at maximum strength, they take six hits to kill. Talk about a steeper learning curve. The second skull at the first part of Stage 6 has a Double or Triple Shot if you need it.
Sometimes tiny ghosts that fly around the screen will materialize. They go down after a few strikes from the whip.
The boss here is a giant Medusa head. The Holy Water is the best sub-weapon for this fight, as the fire from the Holy Water can freeze the boss in place. The more hearts you have, the better. It's pretty easy, too. Just get in range, then Holy Water, whip, whip, Holy Water, whip, whip, Holy Water, whip, whip, repeat until dead. Even though the first boss is easier to beat with the Axe, you're better off just keeping the Holy Water the entire game as it's so overpowered. You can also use the Cross if you have the III multiplier. Just be ready to deal with the Medusa head moving.
Stages 7-9
The Fleaman makes his debut in this part of the game. Sometimes his jumps are high; other times they're long. Hit him with your whip as soon as he's in range.
You'll also see the skeleton as well. He walks back and forth, throwing his bone into the air much like Simon would with the axe.
The birds will slowly fly into you, so hit them as soon as you can when they're not moving. You can off-screen a few of them to get them out of your way if you know what you're doing.
The block to the right of the left mummy will give you a Pork Chop if you need the health.
The boss here is a pair of mummies. If you have Holy Water, you should be in for a time. If you have the health to spare, get them together and plow into them with the "Holy Water, whip, whip" pattern. If you have the cross, however, you can take them out even more quickly if you have the III multiplier.
Stages 10-12
The problem with Stage 10 is not just the platforms or the bats, but the fish men. They can leap out from under you without warning. Also, if you jump straight up while on one of the moving problems, you're going into the water opn your way down. Also, you'll want to duck under the low red ceilings of the cave if you want to get to the other side.
In Stage 11, you'll be heading to the right while dealing with eagles dropping Fleamen down at you. Take care of the Fleamen so that they don't become a problem. At the end is a Skull Dragon. Attack its head when it reaches your level. When it dies, it turns into a bunch of small Hearts that you can use for your sub-weapon.
The block directly behind the Skull Dragon at the beginning of Stage 12 has yet another Pork Chop. The block directly behind the one after it has a large Heart.
The boss here is a Frankenstein's Monster with a little Fleaman for a friend. If you have the Holy Water, you can get on the second platform and just throw Holy Water at the boss until they both die. If you need to alternate between the Holy Water and the whip, do it. They both share a health meter, so if you can deal damage to the Fleaman and not the Monster, do it. If you don't have the Holy Water, you'll have to avoid both the Fleaman and the Monster's fireballs. It's not that bad, but the Holy Water route is much easier.
Stages 13-15
You're going to be seeing a lot more of the skeletons in this area. Some of them will throw bones upwards and forwards much like Simon Belmont throws axes, so you'll need to keep a good look-out for those.
The red skeletons break apart when you hit them, then come back. They can't be killed, so be sure to temporarily off them when you see them.
The part after the red skeletons in the second section of Stage 13 has a pork chop. Before jumping onto the platforms before the door, strike the wall below all the platforms with your whip.
The Axe Armors have shields, and they also throw axes straight ahead. You can destroy the axes with your weapon, but keep your distance so you don't get hit by one of them. It takes even more hits to take out the Axe Armors, and to make matters worse their axes will come back to them like boomerangs after they travel a certain distance. They can throw them either high or low, and you'll have to duck down to hit the low ones.
If you have the Holy Water and the Triple Shot at this point, then whatever you do, be when you destroy the Skull Dragon Cannon at the top of the first section of Stage 15. You definitely don't want to trade in Triple Shot Holy Water for anything else due to the fact that sometimes enemies can randomly drop sub-weapons every once in a while. That's just a doozy of a dick move by the game right there.
Also, before you go up the stairs that lead up to the final section, attack the wall to the right. It's another Pork Chop. The next part combines both the Axe Armors and the Medusa Heads, which is a nasty combination if you don't have enough hits to beat Death without the Holy Water...and since Death can kill you in four hits, that's not good.
At the end of Stage 15 is Death himself, who would become a powerhouse of a Castlevania mainstay. If you have the Holy Water, he's really easy. All you have to do is throw the Holy Water at the platform to the top right, where Death will instantly show up. Just keep jumping and throwing the Holy Water onto that platform. Death will be taken down before he even has a chance to attack you.
If you don't have it, well...you're in for a fight. Your best alternate weapon for this is the boomerang. Pay close attention to the screen as Death just flies around, summoning scythes to come out of the air and spin around, slicing at you if get too close. If you have the Stopwatch and a whole lot of hearts, that really helps, since he can be kept in place no matter what.
Stages 16-18
Just keep moving to the left in Stage 16. If any of the giant bats hit you, just keep going. If you need to, hit any that are in the air before passing under them.
At the beginning of Stage 17, just let the skeleton come to you. This makes it easier for you to kill it.
Once you go up the stairs from here, you'll be in the clock tower - yet another Castlevania mainstay. You'll want to go down, then left, then left again. All the while, you'll be dealing with hunchback-dropping eagles...again. (The first staircase is kinda hard to see if you're not paying attention, but it's there.) Just before the first staircase, go to the right of the stairs for a pork chop. For the second staircase section before you reach the final section leading to Dracula, make sure the first eagle appears from the left side of the screen. This way, you can tread carefully and nothing can hit you.
When you reach Stage 18, you've made it. There's no turning back.
Dracula has two forms. The first one, he keeps disappearing and reappearing and throwing a three-way fireball out of his cape. His only weak spot is his head. For best results, jump as soon as his arm is extended and position yourself so that you can hit him in the head, jump over all three fireballs before they fan out and not take damage. You'll want to be four or five tiles away from Dracula to do this with maximum effect. You also want to be careful, as sometimes he can reappear right where you're standing. If that happens, move out of the way before he stops flashing.
As soon as the first form is over, you'll take on the second: a snarling, fanged monster that leaps up into the air as he's coming at you. This is where the Holy Water comes in. Keep stunning Dracula with Holy Water and keep hitting him in the head with the whip (hitting the body does very little if any damage). He'll still jump forward (sometimes high, sometimes low) and spitting fireballs at you, but if you have enough Hearts to stun him with, this won't be much of an issue. (Sort of.) If you don't have any hearts, you'll need to hit him when you can and you'll also need to run under him when he makes a short, high jump towards you. This will keep you from getting cornered on the sides of the screen.
When you beat Dracula, hats off to you! You just beat this awesome game.
The game loops when you beat it, and it gets harder when that happens. Thankfully, only the difficulty changes. For now, enjoy the ending.
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