Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse -- Stage 8, Syfa

This is a strange one all right for several reasons. It's the eighth stage, and we're JUST now making it to the front doors of Castlevania...and as such, it's decorated in such a manner as to be highly reminiscent of the first stage of the first game.

That said, as the eighth stage of this game, it's an extremely short level, maybe even one to rival the shortness of the initial stage of the first game...but at least as it was Stage 1 in that game, it had an excuse.

At the very least, for such a small area, it's filled with competent enough enemies.

I said I'd do it, but I'm pointing out the final room's staircase entrance "behind" the floor, actually a block transition, but this particular case is interesting for a more sinister reason than the unusual "Block 3-00" case.

I want to point out that the candle I got the Triple Shot powerup from would normally have been a Holy Water if I hadn't already had some equipped and the breakable wall in the final room would ordinarily be a Double/Triple Shot powerup, if I hadn't already had a Triple. The final room also has every subweapon along the crumbling walkway if you have a particular one you want to take into battle with you.

Of course, you may ask yourself...so what? Why is any of this important? Sounds like a pretty good deal all said, and they're definitely trying to help you out, since Death is the boss of this stage...whereas in the first game, there was absolutely NO help whatsoever if you wanted to take on the old reaper and in fact it required a nigh-flawless run of that particular stage if you wanted a Holy Water subweapon to pin the guy down properly.

Anyway, if you were to die and restart, you'd do so from the third block, meaning you'd miss out on the Holy Water pickup just beforehand. You can't get the Holy Water on the crumbling bridge and expect to go back to augment it with the Double Shot, so really your choices are Double Shot with Cross (here I gave it to Syfa for that wonderful lightning spell, since I already had my subweapon of choice) or single Holy Water...or really any other weapon you want, but those are the two that I would consider to be the strongest contenders...especially since you know how impossibly biased in favor of the Holy Water in at least 90% of all situations.

So...to drive the point home exactly why Holy Water with Double Shot (or Triple Shot, as seen here...something I can't actually say I've had the pleasure of putting to practice until this fight as seen here) with Holy Water is an absolutely Death-breaking combination, even more so than with the original game, because Death was more prone to bounce around like a maniac in that one, so the Double Shot was much more vital for pinning him down successfully, whereas here it's an extra nail in the coffin.

Oh, and let's not forget the extremely large, predictably-patterned second form. Poor guy never stood a chance.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Castlevania
• III
• Konami
• NES
• 1990
• Trevor
• Belmont
• Syfa
• Sypha
• Belnades
• Dracula
• Vampire
• Killer

[Overhazard]

I just had to giggle when the knight fell off the collapsing platform. Man, Trevor's really got to cut back on those milkshakes. Or whatever they had in his time.

[YuuGiJoou]

It's all these pot roasts that he keeps eating whenever he sees them. They're load-bearing meats, apparently, because they're built into the architecture, so that would explain why they're such hearty meals.

[MenaceFan]

You wrote that entire description but didnt bother to mention Vampire Killer?? wtf?

[trivia212005]

This second part of this boss is kind of scary. Especially when I was little.

[Rebel40000]

You have to love video game logic sometimes.

[Overhazard]

They're that heavy that they can support these huge walls...but if they really are load-bearing, why doesn't the entire place collapse when Trevor eats those pot roasts?