Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin in Japan) features Simon Belmont in a new adventure, taking place in 1698, seven years after the events of the first Castlevania. This game has significantly different gameplay than the original, and is much more like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Faxanadu. You will be exploring towns, talking to people for clues, finding and purchasing new weapons and items, and so on. You also have free movement around the world, rather than progressing through each level, one at a time, never looking back. The game also introduces a day/night system, where ever couple of minutes it changes from one to the other. At night the enemies are twice as strong, but give twice as many hearts (your "money"), and while town streets are crowded with people during the day, at night the shops are closed and zombies roam the streets.

Unfortunately certain gameplay elements were implemented poorly and many hints were excessively vague and/or badly translated (or so players/critics thought), so Simon's Quest was received poorly by critics and Castlevania fans alike. Some years later, though, a programmer who worked on the game revealed that the townspeople in the game were made to be deliberate liars in an effort to make the game more difficult.

As a result of the negative reception, future Castlevania games would follow the style of the original for years. It wasn't until Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was released that the series would re-adopt many of the elements of Simon's Quest.

Story
Seven years ago, Simon Belmont defeated Count Dracula (this was the story of the original Castlevania). Before dying, Dracula put a curse on Simon, so that he would too would die if Dracula was not resurrected soon. The only way to break the curse would be to find Dracula's five remaining body parts, which had been scattered throughout the land. If the parts were brought together and burnt on an alter in Dracula's castle, the curse would be lifted and Simon could live out the rest of his natural life in peace.