Retro Games Beaten

After coming off of Gargoyle's Quest II, I just wanted to confirm my feelings about it versus the original game, so I jumped into Gargoyle's Quest last night with the intention of stopping at some point. An hour and 35 minutes later, I was rolling credits.

My memories didn't fail me regarding the graphics - I think they're much better in the first game having been designed around the Game Boy's limitations instead of downscaled to the system. And the soundtrack, once again, absolutely sells the setting far better than either version of GQ2. The RPG mechanics are slightly stronger here, too - you can actually search the ground in a few places, and you have random encounters. I don't think they're game-changing, but it does make the quest feel a bit meatier despite being not as long as GQ2. At least the GB version - I think the NES version ends up around the same time.

One thing I did notice was the difficulty - even after all these years, this game will absolutely punch you in the face early on. Until you get your third health pip, things stay exceedingly dicey without careful play. The most difficult area to tackle is the tower where you face the eyeball bosses at the top. With only two health, it doesn't take much to take a cheap hit on the way to the boss, and then slip up against them. I died twice before finally getting through. Then the next area has some random battles that really ramp up. It gets better, but that difficulty spike was always where I was stymied as a kid when I'd play at my aunt's, and even with knowledge it takes tight execution to make it through.

I did notice some small changes in control between the two games, though. In GQ2, when you scale a wall, you don't jump out, you can just go straight up without any horizontal movement. You can also press down to drop without a jump, something also not present in the first game. That means you can wedge yourself against some spikes and have no choice but to take damage as there is a fixed amount of height you'll go up when you jump off.

Interestingly, I did get the Essence of the Soulstream, and, well, I've basically been playing on hard mode all these years. You can use it once for a full health refill, and it replenishes either at the end of a stage... or when you die. Which means it effectively doubles your life once you have it. It's honestly bonkers. I'm almost positive the last few plays I didn't even get it, so getting through Breager's castle in particular is very tricky.

I will also caution anyone that, if it's your first playthrough, you're not going to finish in an hour and a half. That difficulty and not knowing the routing will slow you down quite a bit.

Anyway, this still stands the test of time as one of the best Game Boy games. Capcom was firing on all cylinders with this and Bionic Commando. This is at least a 9/10, and might be BC's equal. Definitely recommended to anyone that digs action-adventure titles and can grok the controls.

If you love DC, I can't see you not enjoying both games. Probably the only big adjustment will be the limited flight time, but to some degree that helps the platforming shine since the challenges are designed around those limitations. Demon's Crest is still fantastic, but it does shift the focus slightly given that you always have unlimited flight ability. (It's my favorite of the series, but the original GB game isn't far behind.)

I stand corrected. I thought I had both.

Wow I'm glad I kept my cart for GQ2. Yeesh ebay!

It's interesting that the NES only got a port of the second one? It looks the most appealing to me. Almost Zelda II-like? But yeah maybe I'll give one of these a shot this weekend. Seems like fun Halloween kind of retro games haha.