Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (English FC Hack): Opening & Block 1: Wallachia

I finally took the time to start on Castlevania III, but with a twist! This is a modded version of the game, what I think is the most well-optimized version of this game! The original American NES release was pretty nerfed compared to the Japanese Famicom release. Some of its graphics were censored, but moreso, the game was made a bit harder than it already was, and it lost a special VRC6 chip Konami made for it that gave its songs more instruments to work with. Last but not least, its script, mainly what you see in the game's opening, was severely butchered from what we know of Castlevania lore, now. This mod was made by Vice Translations to translate the Japanese version into English while keeping all of its content intact. This mod in particular has even more changes on top of VT's, such as giving the title screen a brand new "Castlevania III" logo instead of directly translating the Japanese logo of "Legend of the Evil Demon Castle", changing the protagonist's name from "Ralph" to the more recognizable "Trevor", and redesigning Alucard to bare more resemblance to his appearance in Symphony of the Night. This mod isn't just to optimize Castlevania III for its gameplay, but also for its connection to other games in the series, including the Netflix animated series that was largely based on this game. I wanted to dedicate playthrough this game for the sake of Halloween 2020! ---------- So here's how the story starts, to summarize what was said in the opening. Dracula rose to power during 15th century Europe. He had gotten so powerful that he was not only planning to conquer Wallachia, but all of Europe. Many forces tried to combat this God of Malice, but all of failed and died in their attempts. Eventually, the Pope had no other choice but to summon a member of the Belmont Clan, a choice that was feared by their own people due to their own tremendous power. Eventually, such a person emerged as Trevor Belmont, the current wielder of the holy whip, Vampire Killer. This game is a prequel to the original Castlevania, as Trevor is one of Simon's ancestors, and chronicles his own adventure of confronting and defeating Dracula. He'll even get some help along the way... ---------- This game is a prequel to the original Castlevania, as I've said, but it also feels like a true sequel gameplay-wise compared to the real Castlevania II. Trevor's sprites in this game even look like Simon's with slightly more details. You once again get to upgrade your whip twice, from a leather whip, to a metal ball-and-chain, to a longer ball-and-chain. You also get to come across a variety of subweapons once again, such as Holy Water, the Cross Boomerang, the Axe, and the Stopwatch. Just like the first game, beating each level mostly involves moving from Point A to Point B, all while facing against a myriad of monsters like skeletons, bats, and Medusa Heads. Almost every level finishes off with a boss, and in this Block, it has the Skull Knight. Not too hard to fight, but try not to let him corner you.