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Post by Ex on Sept 7, 2024 21:17:12 GMT -5
Agreed 100%. Also the best intro/title screen of any game possibly ever. Here's how I'd rate the series:
Gargoyle's Quest 10/10 Gargoyle's Quest II NES 8/10 Gargoyle's Quest II GB 7.5/10
Demon's Crest 10/10
Talking about these games on HRG is a Monkey's Paw. We might invoke a new one, but does Capcom have this level of skill anymore? I doubt it.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 7, 2024 22:48:59 GMT -5
I think I might have GQ1 ever so slightly lower than you, but it's still an amazing game. Agree with everything else, although I haven't given the second GB game enough time. I do know it's basically the original version, but has some sort of power to send your soul out to scout ahead... to make up for the lack of screen real estate.
Oh, finished off Skyblazer through the retranslation patch. And... gonna be honest, while it was neat to see some of the level design elements come back, the actual text was pretty disappointing. Very basic reading, which is probably in line with the original Japanese text, but there's just no spice to it. At all. The US localization at least tried to give it a bit more verve.
Great game, though - I think this is an 8.5/10 for me. Not the absolute best on the system, but a very fun and forgiving romp that's easy to get through in about an hour and a half.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 7, 2024 23:07:00 GMT -5
Hah, Sarge did the homework for us. Did it seem too "literal" I guess? I think that was the case with Chrono Trigger DS to me. Something about that version seemed really dry compared to the SNES original.
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Post by Ex on Sept 7, 2024 23:16:49 GMT -5
I do know it's basically the original version The Famicom/NES version of GQ2 is the original, the GB version is a port. I bothered to beat the GB version because it has two new stages (a cave in the north of Sittem Desert, another cave in the desert where Dagon resides). Completing those stages unlocks abilities unique to the GB version, a homing upgrade for Firebrand's attack, and the astral projection technique to see beyond the edges of the screen. The latter was a crutch to make up for the reduced view compared to the NES original. That's the issue I had with the GB version; the stages weren't retooled for the GB's shorter field of view. Still a great game though for GQ fans, but I'd recommend the NES version over it. |
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Post by Sarge on Sept 7, 2024 23:49:35 GMT -5
Sorry, I typed that in a less-than-clear way. I meant as you say that it is a port of the NES original, not that the GB version was the original. I'd forgotten about the new stages/homing attack, though. I should probably give it a look one of these days.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 15, 2024 22:23:26 GMT -5
Okay, had to cleanse the palate a bit. Shadow of the Ninja done. Still a great game. A bit rusty, so I got a game over on my first attempt, then came back and got it with a couple of continues to spare. Came within two hits of taking the last boss on the first try! It usually takes me a bit to remember the patterns, but until the last boss goes psycho mode at critical health, he's very manageable. Still lines up with my original score, for me this is an 8/10 - it's a great game to hit up after the biggest of the big hitters on NES.
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 15, 2024 23:08:43 GMT -5
Haha. As people like us always love to say, reboots/remakes or whatever never fully replace the originals. They're always still there for us to go back to whenever we want.
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Post by toei on Oct 19, 2024 22:07:21 GMT -5
Random beat for me: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team. Not so random in that I've beaten plenty of Mystery Dungeon games, and this one has the same writer as Shiren 2, which I played early this year and loved. But random in that I didn't plan to play the Pokémon spin-offs initially. But I needed a portable time-killer, and it's a fine one, actually. It's the first of this subseries, released in 2005 for the GBA - as per Pokémon tradition, there was a Blue Rescue Team released at the same time, same game but with different monsters, though interestingly, that one was for the DS.
It's a more accessible on the formula - your levels don't even reset when you leave dungeons anymore, and all items are pre-identified. So the rogue mechanics are pretty light, though combat and exploration still works like every other MD. You always have a partner this time around, but sometimes the Pokémon you fight in the dungeons will offer to join you. Plot is nothing special but there's a charm to the writing, and the pacing is good, with lots of shorter dungeons. I beat the story mode in about 12 hours. That's because it's quite easy, so eventually I quit exploring every floor thoroughly like I mostly do usually and just went for the stairs often. As per Mystery Dungeon tradition, though, the post-game content is several times longer than the main game, and brings back true rogue mechanics. It just sounds tedious, though - there's like five or six 99 floor dungeons! The longest in the story is a little over 30, most are around 10. So no way I'm doing that. It's no Shiren 2, but it's a good little game, well-paced and charming. Just wish it wasn't so easy. ***.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 19, 2024 23:07:48 GMT -5
Just how many Monster Dungeon games have you cleared by now? Has to be stacking up.
Have you beaten any mainline Pokemon games? Would be kind of funny if you haven't. But I could see for such a series, the spinoff stuff maybe being more appealing to some. I briefly played Blue/Red and that's somehow the fully extent of my personal Pokemon journey. I'm an anomaly for my generation...
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Post by toei on Oct 20, 2024 1:23:21 GMT -5
I have never played a mainline Pokémon game, funny enough. My prior experience with the franchise was just watching the anime after school sometimes. But I've beaten the first five Dragon Quest Monsters plus Shin Megami Tensei 1 & 2 and The Last Bible 1 & 2. Those franchises give me all the monster/demon-catching I need, and they actually look cool. A couple of the bosses in Pokémon Mystery looked cool, a few of the larger ones too... but that's about it.
For Mystery Dungeon, I've beaten 7. Out of the remaining ones in English, I'm still interested in the other Shiren games, especially the new one that came out this year since it marked the return of the OG writer to the series for the first time in 24 years, and it was very well-received (not always the case with this series). It's also the highest-selling in the Shiren franchise's history.
Maybe the other 2D Pokémon, Explorers of Sky, which is supposed to be the best of them. I don't really see myself playing the 3D Chocobo (the 2D ones weren't great either) or the 3D Pokémon entries for now, or the Druaga spin-off. In the same genre, I played a couple hours of Azure Dreams and dropped it about a week ago because the dungeons were just awkward and the translation wasn't great either.
When the translation for the Dreamcast Shiren spin-off comes out, I'll be pretty excited since the same team as Shiren 2 worked on it and it was made a year after. I'd probably play the 3rd Torneko game and the Young Yangus game if they were ever translated. If you ever want to try one, I recommend skipping the early ones and going straight to Shiren 2. Or Torneko: The Last Hope, maybe. The early games can be addictive and tense but also boring and frustrating since they're closer to pure Rogue (except you're meant to finish them). It's worth playing one, but not the whole lot, I'd say. They really added a lot to the series as it went on - more variety in gameplay and dungeons, more "fair"/less random elements, more story and character interactions (while keeping things concise), more goals, various new concepts. In Pokémon there's no weapons so you have 4 skills instead with a set number of uses, and you can link them so they're all triggered in a single high-power move.
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