Castlevania III - Stage 8

I'm slowly coming around on Castlevania III. It still doesn't feel as fun to me as the original game. This isn't nostagia, because I didn't play the original Castlevania until 2002 or 2003. I still can't put my finger on why the game isn't doing it for me as much as it should. Part of me wants to say that it is the difficulty. It is a difficult game, but in a way that is different from the original Castelvania and thus is actually harder to me.

I started the game over from the last time I played and picked up Grant this time. Now I have a character who has different platforming moves from Trevor Belmont. Grant's ability to grab onto walls, jump higher, and even control his jumps while in the air make some sections much easier. There are other parts, though, that were designed to be gone through with Belmont-like stiff jumps and trying to jump through these with Grant can be fatal.

I took Alucard's path to get to Dracula's castle. Level 6 was the first level that required many tries to get through it, but I did. Level 7, though, almost had me tearing my hair out. The level has a ton of platforming elements. From navigating a room of blocks as acid eats them away, to jumping from moving platform to moving platform as bats fly at you, to climbing up blocks as they fall down on you, to navigating the flipping floor while medusa heads fly at you, to attempting to climb up the screen before it scrolls upwards and sends you to your doom, this level is tough.

I finally got through it and level 8 is an awesome remake of the first level from the original Castlevania along with the original music. Thus, the level itself isn't too difficult. The difficulty is the end of stage boss(es). You face the grim reaper, and while I have managed to beat it with some health remaining (Grant with axe and double shot rocks), you immediately face the next boss (a floating skull) that always gets me because I only have enough health to take one hit.

If this game follows modern Castlevania convention, facing the grim reaper means that I am almost at the end of the game. So, I may only have one more level before the showdown with Dracula. And after that? Do I want to attempt to beat the game with Sypha and Alucard as well?