Alright, let's talk about
Boktai. It's been so long, I don't know if folks are very familiar with it, but this is back from when Konami actually made video games. Shocking, I know! Furthermore, it's a Hideo Kojima-directed work. You'd think that means lots of cutscenes and ridiculousness, but no, this is much more in the vein of his earlier works, constrained by the media he had to work with.
So the best way to describe the game is probably
Metal Gear Solid meets
Castlevania meets...
Landstalker? Not too far off. Isometric views, stealth mechanics, and some shooting of various sorts that can also be played stealth-free. The game does rate you on how well you do in each section, though, much like
Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel does on GBC. And there are lots of puzzles sprinkled throughout, most being the block-pushing variety but a few others as well. All this sounds interesting, of course, but the last hook is the one that made or broke it for people, and that's the sun sensor.
Y'all know this, but the original model GBA was not backlit. So good lighting was helpful to be able to play. Kojima was like, "Hey, we need to get people outside more, so maybe this will do it!" So your "ammo" is literally sunlight, which you can recharge while playing or even bank it in excess as you play. This means you can actually play without sunlight, but there are points at which you actually
have to have sunlight, and that's when you purify the bosses. When you hit the end of a "main" zone (others scattered about can hold interesting items, but are bite-sized areas), you'll face off against a boss in the traditional manner. But once you defeat them, they'll be sealed in a coffin. At this point, you need to drag said coffin back to where Otenko, your helper, has placed the "Pile Driver" for purification, which sets up beams around the coffin which you keep running via sunlight and shots to finish the ordeal.
Really, all this stuff is inspired design, in my opinion. Probably some of Kojima's best work on a mechanical front. Sunlight and vampires (and other undead) seem like a great match, and they are, it's just too bad that the whole game revolved around a sensor and potentially gaming in sub-optimal conditions. If you only get gaming time in the evening, well, you're just out of luck unless you're willing to cheat the system (UV or black light works), or do what I did: use the sunlight patch on the ROM. You can then adjust the light to however you need. While one would argue that detracts somewhat from the experience, it also adds to it in others, so it's a net wash. Interestingly, the sunlight can even have environmental effects that are detrimental; one area has wind that blows the stronger the sunlight, so covering the sensor actually makes it stop.
Graphics, especially for the platform, are fantastic. Really clean spritework, and it's telling that they even carried much of it forward to the DS spiritual successor
Lunar Knights. (By the way, that game is also great, but is also a very different beast, being much more a traditional ARPG that never requires a sunlight sensor but can still utilize it from the GBA cart for bonuses.) I also liked some of the music, something the GBA isn't always strong at, but this was finally at the point where I think Konami had figured out a balance between audio fidelity and CPU strain.
Probably my only big gripe is that the last boss can be a bit spongey, but I also checked a longplay and perhaps I wasn't handling it quite right or just didn't have some of the most powerful weapons to make short work of it. You can also tank a ton of hits if you've been exploring; you'll have scads of healing items and whatnot, so you really shouldn't die against bosses unless you're not paying attention.
My final time was 12h08m, and I got a "B" ranking at the end. I was found I think like 401 times, which tells you I wasn't necessarily playing carefully, more of a balance between speed and stealth. I think the game also counts it each time you're spotted by an enemy, even if it's one that has already spotted you and you hit it, and they reacquire you visually on the hit. Regardless, I really enjoyed my time with the game - I'm either going to give it a 8/10 or an 8.5/10. It was a lot more fun than I was expecting, and it's really easy to fall into a rhythm and have time just disappear on you.