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The Three Mothers

Original game : Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Platform : NES

Author : Gagarin

Release date : 02 February 2023

Category : Complete

Patch version : 1.0

Modifications : G, S, L, T, P

Downloads : 680

ROM Information

Database match: Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: D6B96FD98AE480C694A103FE9A5D7D84EEAFB6F7
File CRC32: A9C2C503
ROM SHA-1: 2447D6133573F7ED2CC49DC95B3130427BD4DC35
ROM CRC32: C471E42D

Hack description

This hack is based on The Three Mothers trilogy by Dario Argento, especially on the lore from the last movie, where it is summarized:

"More than a thousand years ago, witchcraft was birthed by the shores of the Black Sea
by three sisters. For years they roamed the earth bringing death and destruction wherever they went."

Everything from the original C2 was changed: levels, sprites, bosses, texts, some few sound effects and all endings! Overall, it was made intending to be far more of a challenge than C2, exploring it's hidden potentials.

It is already patched with Improved Controls, False Floor & Breakable Block Replacer, Simon Restore & Improved lifebar and SRAM hack. The cool sword sprites comes from Vengeance on Hell, and one of the bosses was based on a sprite from Quest for Sarah. Others sprites were adapted from Castlevania 3, while others are original (including the little Baphomet!).

Have fun!

Screenshots

Contributions

ContributorType of contributionDescription
GagarinHacking

Reviews

Very well done hack. Very hard difficultyOriginalGamer8A8A2023-04-09Version 1.0

Great hack. Level layout, enemies and mansion all great. Difficulty... not so great, some parts are very frustrating and unfair but still worth a play. There's a spot in two mansions if you don't have the laurels you can't proceed, stock up!

Great design but frustratingly unbalancedPacoHades2023-03-27Version 1.0

Please take into account that if this hack is a reference to a movie or some other media, I'm playing while unaware of whatever that is.

I did enjoy the level design and item changes. I also like the amount that the Lens(white crystal) matters in the game and the abundance of breakable blocks is fun. I enjoyed most of what I experienced with this hack with the exception of the absurd health of the enemies. I cannot play any further in what seems to be an excellent hack otherwise. There are regular enemies that take an average of EIGHT whip(sword) strikes each to kill before even the first mansion! Grinding for hearts to upgrade the whip/sword becomes either impossible or frustratingly tedious because the enemies take big chunks of health and take so long to kill that dying is very easy and devastating. The strength of enemies in relation to hearts dropped makes an otherwise great hack unplayable in my opinion. I'm gonna put "Yes" to Recommend though; Maybe you will update it.

Very Atmospheric!kooloo50002023-02-19Version 1.0

Love the new palette changes and the new storyline! Haven't seen the original movies but definitely intrigued after this. Definitely don't understand the other review complaining about cross-dressing - the sprite looks fine!

Simon's dress?somberlaindx2023-02-06Version 1.0

First, I'd like to say I like the idea of a new protagonist and new story using CV2 assets as well as the integration of new sprites. It's nice to have directional signs to help you navigate that's useful. Kudos on the implementation of new items even if the functionality is the same.

There are both pros and cons to the changes you have made to the jump mechanics. The pros being not getting locked into a certain direction mid jump. That's always been one of those things I've always found incredibly annoying, so I like that change a lot. The con would be that you added a touch sensitive jump which is extremely hard to adjust to and I ended up jumping into enemies far more than over them. We could definitely do without that.

Like I stated above I like the idea of a new protagonist but I can only see a cross dressing Simon.. It just doesn't sit right. I think you should have sprung for a new character model.

Changing up the level designs are nice but honestly there are too many pit falls. Yes, they are visible but using the same color only darker especially in Brahams using gray on gray was incredibly annoying unless you are looking for them frame by frame.

As much as I like the minor difficulty spike by adding more mobs, too many mobs on screen causes slow down to happen far too often.

I hate to be that guy but the horrible day and night cycle text speed and time between cycles is still as bad as the original. That is usually the first thing people fix.