indigozeal

My experience of Simon’s Quest benefited from my playing it as a kid; it didn’t bother me that the Deborah Cliff puzzle was impenetrable, because at that age, every game was impenetrable. I was left with the game’s grim atmosphere, which Simon’s Quest does more to establish for the series than any other early installment: Simon’s…well, journey leads him through forests of barren, twisted trees, lonely villages built like cold stone forts, grassless cliffs and graveyards, and jagged mountains severe and impenetrable. It’s all very stark in its 8-bit simplicity; nature, in a change from Castlevania's usual house-bound titles, is your only real companion in this land, but even nature itself is cursed and dying.

It’s no surprise, then, that most work inspired by Simon’s Quest is distinctly autumnal. Of greatest recent note is the in-progress attempt at a remake by LegsHandsHead, with illustrations that look like old woodcuts. But a longtime resident of my mp3 folder is remixer Jake Kaufman’s “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse,” a chamber-music rendition of “The Silence of Daylight.” It’s based on a simple idea - play the composition with actual strings - but it really brings out the beauty in the piece; it’s like how they say attractive people look best in classic clothes. The rich timbre of the chamber strings readily identifies itself with the leaner, more solemn months, as does the strident severity of the bowwork - which also invokes the purposefulness of a grim quest. But the great benefit of “Curse“‘s straightforward approach is how its showcases the sheer satisfying energy of the melody. Stripping the best Castlevania music of its electronic fanfare seems only to remind listeners of how good these tunes are compositionally.

The original "The Silence of Daylight", the town theme of Simon’s Quest, opens relatively quietly and swells to a certain menace later on, but the unease in it never really either overwhelms the piece or resolves itself; it’s a constant presence, a reminder of the unforgiving landscape and Simon’s precarious, accursed situation even in what in a videogame is supposed to be a safe haven. “Curse” wraps that cool hostility up in a big, beautiful, classical bow, a synthesis between horror and artistry that marks the Castlevania series at its best.
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