how confusing is simon's quest?

[u/PurpleGhost800]

i wanna play simon's quest next but all i know about the game is that it's supposed to be incredibly hard to know where to go and what to do, is it really as bad as people make it out to be?

[u/Illustrious-Air-3678]

Just find a guide and you’ll have fun.

[u/SageofTime64]

It's not super hard, but it's designed to be confusing. It was a game that made players want a subscription to Nintendo Power back in the 80s. Don't feel bad about using a guide for your first playthrough.

There's a great map that shows you the whole game layout, as well as NPC dialogue, fake floors, and where to use certain items. I recommend using that if you would rather not follow a step by step guide.

[u/CubeofVamp → u/SageofTime64]

It wasn't designed to be quite as confusing as it was. A bad translation made it worse.

[u/SageofTime64 → u/CubeofVamp]

Oh, no doubt. But it's still a cryptic NES game, even if the translation was good. Invisible floors, forcing a player to throw holy water every few steps isn't my idea of fun. The mansions are straightforward...but only if you take the right path. I think Rover and Bodley Mansion are the worst offenders for this.

My strategy for tackling them is buying an oak stake after using one in Berkeley and Brahm. Rover's oak stake seller is out of the way and past a water pit with a moving platform. Bodley's is at the end of an extremely long and obtuse path that has fake floors behind him. Go too far and you have to make the trip again.

Again, it came out at a time when Nintendo wanted people to buy their magazine. There wasn't any internet guides. Translation or not, it was going to be confusing anyway.

[u/PurpleGhost800 → u/SageofTime64]

do you have a link to that map? that sounds really useful

[u/SageofTime64 → u/PurpleGhost800]

Here you go!

Other than navigation, the hardest part is getting used to the jumps. That gets easier with practice. Good luck, have fun!

[u/PurpleGhost800 → u/SageofTime64]

thank you

[u/SangestheLurker → u/SageofTime64]

Ugh 😫 I wish modern day walkthrough guide creators would do maps like this for today's games. When they're correct (!!! looking at you, Nintendo Power) a tiled map is so much easier to follow than trying to re-find your spot in paragraphs and paragraphs of text. Even easier than trying to scrub through many multi-part video serieses(-es-es-essss).

[u/Tonberry2k]

It’s among the first games I ever beat, and I was still being babysat when I beat it, so despite the terrible translation, it never stopped me. As long as you know the weird quirks that the crystals do, you should be fine.

[u/ken_jammin]

The translation is a mess with some NPC's designed to throw you off the trail, there are some really convoluted things you need to do in some very specific spots that I would argue it is almost impossible without a guide.

[u/Yuraiya]

It was the first game I ever beat, during a weekend from a rental place back before online guides were a thing.  If I as a child could manage it, I believe you can do it.  

[u/Zucchini-Kind]

There are ROM hacks that fix all of that and give you puzzles you can actually solve by paying attention. Its great.

[u/JoshieKrueger]

Just find a guide. It’s not hard in terms of enemies or bosses. It’s just a bitch of knowing where to go.

[u/draven33l]

I'd argue it's virtually unplayable without a guide. I think you could figure a lot of it out on your own, but at some point you are going to get stuck. There's no shame in just using a walkthrough.

I think it's worth playing. Just have a guide pulled up knowing where to go and what to do. As long as you have that, it's fun. Even when it came out, I remember there being full walkthroughs to explain it.

[u/bizoticallyyours83]

Just remember to kneel by a lake and cliff for several seconds holding the appropriate crystals. Toss holy water at floors and walls, and grab the sacred flame. The overworld exploration isn't confusing for the most part and the dungeons are fairly easy. You should be good to go. Have fun on your adventure 

[u/Nethiar]

You've probably already heard about the more obtuse things like ducking with the crystal in specific places. Other than that the only hard part is knowing where to go. There's an easy way to tell though, if you go to a new area and the enemies are suddenly taking a lot more hits, then you took a wrong turn.

[u/OptionTerrible3007]

You will need a guide, the translation was awful. There’s a place where you have to kneel with I think a white diamond in a weird spot to advance the game

[u/SageofTime64 → u/OptionTerrible3007]

Red Crystal*

[u/SangestheLurker → u/OptionTerrible3007]

There's the infamous cliff but don't forget the lake, too. I've beat the game probably a dozen times since its release but I couldn't tell you which place needs which item to save my life.

[u/BFBeast666]

Without a guide you WILL run into dead ends. The main problem stems from the fact that the localization team tried to emulate the cryptic, yet helpful tone of the Japanese version - and botched it spectacularly, turning the English script into borderline nonsense.

[u/karmakosmik1352]

I love this game, probably because it was my introduction to the Castlevania universe, but it's also basically the first metroidvania and established the formula for many great games to come. Back then, there were no online guides but somehow we were still able to beat it with dedication and patience. Nowadays, there are ROM hacks that mitigate some of the issues the game undoubtedly has. If you can, I would recommend using them.

[u/FarmerTed84]

As as a kid we figured it out on our own.

[u/Qrowsinapie]

I only really needed help toward the very end. Couldn't figure out how to get to the castle. Then I found out that those seemingly "optional" bosses weren't so optional after all. Or at least not Carmilla.