Super Castlevania 4 sur Super Nintendo - Niveau 11 : The Dungeon

The Bridge

The level begins with a fairly simple descent despite enemies having a rather long range. Once a bit below the clock tower, you will have to cross a crumbling bridge while being pursued by many bats. If you don't stop, everything should go well and you should reach the entrance to the dungeon without any trouble.

The Dungeon

The ascent doesn't start in the most hospitable way, as a huge saw relentlessly pursues you. Furthermore, the stairs crumble. You will need to be fast enough without taking reckless risks, as there is some margin. In fact, one of the most important things is not to stop on the stairs because if you fall from one, you generally won't be able to use it again. After a while, you reach a place where platforms fly diagonally, and you will have to let yourself be carried and navigate to avoid the spikes on the ceiling. To do this, jump onto the platforms further to the left, but not too much because there are spikes all the way to the left. This event happens again a bit later just when you thought you were leaving the screen. There, you will have to walk to the left and not jump (except for the first time) to hope not to be impaled on the ceiling. Once this difficulty is passed, you will enter a classier part of the dungeon for a series of bosses.

The 1st Boss of the Dungeon: Slogra

This boss isn't very difficult, but a bit annoying and repetitive. The best way is to stand against a mini pillar, crouch down and hit him. When he flies away, go towards the other pillar, then turn around and hit while crouching. Repeat until you have broken his spear. In the second part, do roughly the same, except you need to stop at the pillar, crouch and hit, then move to the other one as soon as you've hit him.

The 2nd Boss of the Dungeon: Gaibon

After a few candles to recover your strength, you are now facing Gaibon in a superb room. In the background, the moon lights up the night and this sort of blue dragon makes a crashing entrance while screaming. Despite his impressive appearance, Gaibon is surely the simplest of the 4 bosses. By staying at the bottom, you can easily control him with the whip. At first, he fires from time to time without appearing to really aim. His second attack is a bit more dangerous. He pauses briefly in the air and then plunges vertically to the ground, making the room shake. Sharp pieces of the ceiling then fall on you while he simultaneously fires a horizontal ball at you. You'll need good reflexes and perhaps a bit of luck to avoid everything. After emptying half of his health, he turns red and falls to the ground. He gets up very quickly for the second part of the fight. There, not really a problem because his attack is quite easy to avoid. He descends to a fairly low level, freezes, then fires. If you move away, the shots will pass behind you. Between each attack, quite a bit of time passes during which you can hit him, for example, with upward whip strikes delivered from the bottom of the room while jumping.

The 3rd Boss of the Dungeon: Death

After a small corridor filled with candles, you find yourself in a large room where Death appears. Death can be quite annoying, and a defensive technique can prove effective. When it is in the air going back and forth and throwing sickles, defending consists of sticking to the left platform, turning to the right and raising your arm with the whip hanging down. Obviously, you must try to hit it between two sickles when it passes over you. Not very fast, but devilishly effective. When it comes down to the right, you can hit it a lot with your whip while moving to the left when you get too close. You will have to jump over the first scythe and go under the second. Ideally, you should be facing it and stuck to the platform when it catches the second scythe, so if you don't want to get hit, don't hit it too much for the second scythe but go left quickly. Once against the platform, put your arm back in the air looking to the right and start over from the beginning. Once Death is defeated, a few platforms appear and you finally cross a corridor in which the candles light up one by one as you pass.

The Great Staircase

As in Castlevania 1 on NES, it's a great staircase that leads you to Dracula. The developers have provided a "secret passage" here to make defeating the boss easier. To take it, you must jump into the void to the left instead of taking the stairs going up. There is an invisible platform from which you can descend via an equally invisible staircase (hold down while going left) to find yourself on a final invisible platform below. If you stay close to the edge of the screen, you will get all the equipment you need to beat Dracula in the best conditions. Be careful when returning, press up firmly while going right to take the stairs back, and jump onto the visible platforms as soon as the length of your jump allows you to reach them.

Go see the end of the game.