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This is THE way to play Castlevania II, combined with a retranslation patch. Just as an update, the latest recommended version at the time of writing (2.12.1.1) also works pefectly well with this, if you disable the "[Usability, EXTENSION] Stairs features" in its patching options. This will grant you the ultimate experience with this game.

Many thanks to NaOH for updating his patch to work with more recent versions of Bisqwit's Retranslation (+Map) mod. Being able to control your character after being knocked back is simply amazing and greatly improves the experience.

My ideal way to play CV2 now is with Bisqwit's Retranslation (+Map) mod and NaOH's improved controls and reduced penalty mods. Obviously, I also use my own tile mod.

An important note, NaOH's patch description says it's compatible with Bisqwit v2.12.0.1, but the readme says it's only compatible with v2.9.9.1. I was able to get NaOH's improved controls to work with Bisqwit v2.12.0.1 by following the link on Bisqwit's patch page to his homepage, which advertises more patching options. From there, I built a patch after unselecting the option for "[Usability, EXTENSION] Stairs features", which conflicted with NaOH's improved controls and led to game freezes. So far, so good.

I didn't grow up playing Castlevania games, I only recently got into them. Simon's Quest is a notoriously cryptic game and I believe the creators intentionally made it that way to incentivize '80s kids into buying Nintendo Power subscriptions and stuff like that to beat the game.

In order for me to play this game and genuinely enjoy it, I have to use Bisqwit's hack along with Greyfield's block tile hack. Now that this improved control patch is compatible with both of those hacks, Simon's Quest feels like a much more realized version of the original NES game. Amazing work here with no complaints.

Starting with Castlevaina IV you could change your jump in the air and control the height of your jump. Has the caveats that you have to hold down the A-button or you may jump short and if you whip while jumping it may stunt your jump. You have to whip at the height of your jump because once Simon whips he starts to descend. Not hard to get used to, and it's a cool option to have and works similar to the later games.

Call me a purist, I do prefer the simplistic if stiff jumping of the NES games to this. It's how I grew up playing them and it's a part of the challenge as far as I'm concerned. Once you press A you are committed to that jump almost like in a puzzle platformer. While it is not something I would ever use either by itself or with another patch (I used it with the Re-translation + Map hack for a complete play through and it worked fine), it is well done and gives it the more modern fluid feel of the later games, it's just not for me.

I ran this hack alongside tkempkes Annoyance Fixes (Double Hearts) and your Game Over Penalty Reduction mod in my playthrough of Castlevania II - Simon's Quest+ here [VIDEO] and together it made for an overall better experience of the game as a whole. The only bug running all 3 is I couldn't initiate the final boss battle. Simon just continuously walked into the alter so that might warrant some investigation. I chalked it up to a possible incompatibility with tkempkes's mod.

Regardless, the improved controls were a highly noticeable improvement and I didn't feel bogged down by poor controls on stairs or in mid-air. In fact, it actually made the game much more fun to play.

This is a direct improvement to the game and I wouldn't play Castlevania 2 without it I actually used your Improved Controls hack for Castlevania 3 too XD

Tthe only thing I didn't like of this, and for the matter, any "cv control improvement" hack is that you need to hold the button to make a full jump, takes time to get used to it and besides, hops in this game are useless, the ability to control Simon while jumping is great, the ability to jump on stairs is welcome but the hops are not needed... I'll see if I can remove this...

Yes, this works with bisqwit's re-translation + map hack to create the ultimate redux version of Simon's Quest. It's really fun to play this way, the controls are brilliant, but makes the game a bit easier than it already was I think, i.e. you can whip in the air at target while moving away from target. Really fun though and breathes new life into the game. Thanks!

Firstly I want to disagree with the other 3 reviews up so far when they talk about the difficulty in controls in the original trilogy. The first and the third Castlevanias are balanced around this movement so adjustment to movement in those games is unnecessary as far as I'm concerned.

Castlevania 2 however? It needs all the help it can get and it has gotten a lot of it in the form of romhacks through the years. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this one in particular is big for CV2. Castlevania 2 is very similar to 1 at a glance but beneath the surface there are differences in the gameplay that makes how the original movement behaves less than ideal as instead of just an endurance test obstacle level based structure we're introduced to more elements like backtracking and exploration. Things like how much time you take is actually important now so unlike CV 1 & 3 you really don't have the same opportunities you did to just try again if you failed a level. In CV 2 if you take too long to clear the game you're stuck with a bad ending no matter what.

It's differences like these where the new movement akin to the post SoTN games make a huge difference. Being able to drop from stairs and control your air movement, especially after being attacked makes a ton more sense in this game. Because you're less prone to make time wasting mistakes you feel more encouraged to perform well under it's new restrictions.

I love this hack a LOT for those reasons. But partly why I wanted to write this review is also to somehow get word out to the author that this hack doesn't seem to be compatible with Bisqwit's Castlevania II English Re-translation (+Map) romhack; when pressing the select button to access the map the game freezes. Really hope they can get this compatible someday as Bisqwit's hack is just mandatory for CV2 these days.

Castlevania II it's the most underrated game of the original trilogy because few things:

1- cryptric and troll translation.

2- zelda II style game but with very bad control and nintendo hard type.

3- unfair gameplay with troll actions like "camila´s cementary" jumping.

All of these things bring down a great game.

This hack fixes the unfair gameplay. Now you can enjoy the real gameplay and story if you patch the retranslation.

The only thing of this hack don't work with the hack "Castlevania II English Re-translation (+Map)". When press select to show the map, the game crashes.

I would see this hack together with Castlevania II English Re-translation (+Map).

It will the definitive experience of the most difficult castlevania ever made.

Finally the trilogy is complete. This control hack seriously changes the way Castlevania is played. I've always loved the original Castlevania games but the controls for all 3 always bugged me. Not being able to control your jump meant many pointless deaths whereas now this problem is no more! Simon becoming transparent when hit is a really nice bonus as well.

This hack combined with the Redaction hack, Heart Penalty hack and Double Hearts+False Floors hack is the definitive version of Castlevania 2. I can verify that all 5 hacks work great together. I didn't bother with the Fast Transition hack (From the annoyances hack) as that removes the "Horrible night to have a curse message" which I quite like. The transition is fast anyway due to the Redaction hack.

Well done NoAH! You're a legend! Keep up the great work :)

The trilogy is now complete! All three classic NES Castlevania games can now be played with these improved controls. While still difficult, this change tones down the infuriatingly frustrating "nintendo hard" down to the levels of mere mortals. Now these are games I can sit down and enjoy playing instead of wishing I could enjoy them.

I've also confirmed that this hack is compatible with Moody and Bisqwit's re-translation.