Castlevania II / Golvellius retrospective: ’Vania mania | Metroidvania Works #013

At last, the "metroidvania" concept begins to live up to its name. Metroid was on-point from the start, but Castlevania was slower to come around to the exploratory action-RPG concept. After the baby steps of the original Castlevania (   • Castlevania retrospective: Vlad tidings | ...  ) and Vampire Killer (   • Metroid / Vampire Killer / Milon's Secret ...  ), Castlevania II felt like the first meaningful effort to turn the quest to stop Count Dracula into a proper adventure. It was also kind of a mess, but hey, like I said—baby steps. Also in this episode, Compile gives us another interesting twist on the action-RPG with Golvellius. It's not really a metroidvania, but that's OK. Video Works is funded via Patreon (  / gamespite  ) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.