I will no longer be posting here

Due to recent changes and lack of activity on my part I will no longer be posting things here. 

You can now find me on my Tumblr blog: http://draginhikari.tumblr.com/

Emerald Star Legacy

Emerald Star Legacy is an original story concept of my own design loosely based on a series of free-form text based Role-Plays that took place as early as 2000. As you can expect with a decade or more of changes, lost information, plot holes, character inconsistencies, and loss of contact with people involved it has taken me a very long time to get it together to a point where I am able to actually start bring it together in any significant manner.

In the coming weeks I hope to start bring some conceptual ideas and plans before I start writing so it can avoid the fate of my previous side projects. To be honest it's been a very long time since I've seriously written anything, so any criticisms or suggestions would be greatly appreciated moving forward.

Battletoads

 

Battletoads for the NES… ugh… do I ever have a extreme love hate relationship with this one.   For a NES beat em up it’s very well put together graphic wise and the level designs were all very unique… expect that you will never see most of them because most of the game is impossible.   20 some years this game has existed and more than three dozen some times I’ve attempted  I still can’t get by the third stage, the only reason I even begin to know what the other stages look like is because of the fact that we used to have a game genie when we younger that allowed us to skip levels.   This game is evil.

Fire Emblem Awakening

The first current generation game to enter my collection this year is Fire Emblem Awakening, for the 3DS.    I haven’t played it yet since I just got home with it, but as much as I like Fire Emblem, I pretty sure it will disappoint me little.

Chrono Cross

Time to start the year and collection count new once again, starting with a PlayStation classic, Chrono Cross.   Now I have a very weird connection with this game, mostly recalling how utterly confusing the entire plot was the very first time I played it.   As a result for a long time I wasn’t extremely clear on what exactly was going on or the whole point.   So even though I beat the game years ago I was still very unclear on a lot of the story being told.   I understand better now but it still creates kind of an odd perspective doesn't it?

Game Collection as of 1/1/2013

This is 1/1/2013 Collection display.    This year was probably the single largest expansion on my collection I’ve had yet.   Just a quick note before I start I did try some different things with the pictures this year and I’m not particularly happy on how they came out, so excuse the somewhat lousy quality.   This year I now have 235 games compare to last year’s 182.   So without any further word let’s start.

 

This is my ‘bookshelf’ as of 1/1/2012 prior to this year’s collection addition.

 

 

Here is this year’s new additions to the collection all displayed at once.   There are a total of 53 additions.

 

NES:

Adventure Island
Adventure Island III
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Disney
American Gladiators
Batman
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Contra
Darkwing Duck
Gradius
Kid Icarus
M.C. Kids
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Spy Hunter (Not displayed forgot to put this one out)
Startropics II : Zoda's Revenge
NES 2 (A/V Modded)

Sega Genesis:

Altered Beast
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Toejam & Earl
Sega Genesis (Model 2)

N64:

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Mario Party
Paper Mario

Gamecube:

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

PS2:

Final Fantasy X-2
Kingdom Hearts

Wii:

Frogger Returns (Digital)
The Last Story
Mega Man 10 (Digital)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (Digital)
Xenoblade Chronicles

PC:

Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection Abyssea Edition (Digital)
Ib (Digital)
Custom Build (Antec 900 Tower) (Not Shown)

Gameboy:

Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Tetris

Gameboy Color:

Dragon Warrior I & II
Pokemon Pinball

3DS:

Kid Icarus Uprising
Paper Mario Sticker Star
Tales of the Abyss

 

NES had the biggest single increase in any of my console this year going from 34 to 54 a staggering 20 titles.   So much that I’ve split the NES collection into four separate pictures.

Adventure Island
Adventure Island III
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Disney
American Gladiators
Batman
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Contra
Darkwing Duck
Disney's DuckTales
Donkey Kong Classics
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dribble
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior II

                        

Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior IV
Gradius
Kid Icarus
Kirby's Adventure
Kung Fu
The Legend of Zelda
Life Force
M.C. Kids
MagMax
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6

 

Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Millipede
Nightshade
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
Pac-Man
Popeye
Rad Racer II
Rampage
Rollerball
Spy Hunter
StarTropics
Startropics II : Zoda's Revenge
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2

 

Super Mario Bros. 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Tiny Toon Adventures
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
NES 2 (A/V Modded)

 

There were actually no new SNES games this year still standing at 39.   Since I was trying to do pictures differently this year I decided to retake the pictures anyway and ended up with 3 separate pictures.   Games are listed as below:

Aero the Acro-Bat
Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
Captain America and the Avengers
Cybernator
Disney's Aladdin
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls
Earthworm Jim 2
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's DreamLand 3
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse

 

Mega Man X
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Fighting Edition
Pac-Man 2
Rock 'n Roll Racing
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Metroid
Super Play Action Football
Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back

 

 

Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Super Valis IV
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
WWF Royal Rumble

 

3 new titles of the N64 were added raising the total from 10 to 13.  Games are listed as below:

Donkey Kong 64
GoldenEye 007
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party
Paper Mario
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
StarFox 64
Super Mario 64

 

Sega Genesis is a new section of my collection and has been a bit slow to start but here are the games as listed below:

Altered Beast
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Toejam & Earl
Sega Genesis (Model 2)

 

Gamecube only went up by one title going from 5 to 6.   Games are listed as below:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Mega Man Network Transmission
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Tales of Symphonia
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom

My PC collection is kind of weird since most of the games on it these days are digital products but I still generally count them.    PC went from 11 to 13, games are listed as below:

Enchantasy: Quest for the Eternal Grimoire (Digital)
Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection Abyssea Edition (Digital)
Final Fantasy XIV
Heroes of Might & Magic III & IV: Complete
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Shadow of Death
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia
Heroes of Might and Magic V
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East
Ib (Digital)
Might & Magic Heroes VI (Digital)
Custom Build (Antec 900 Tower) (Not Shown)

PS2 went up by two games this year going from 14 to 16.  Games are listed as below in two separate pictures:

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2
Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Kingdom Hearts
Mega Man Anniversary Collection

 

Mega Man X Collection
Mega Man X: Command Mission
Mega Man X7
Sonic Mega Collection Plus
Soul Calibur III
Tales of the Abyss
Wild Arms 3
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses

 

No new games for the PSX this year, listed as below:

Dragon Warrior VII
Final Fantasy Anthology
Final Fantasy Chronicles: Final Fantasy IV / Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Origins
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
The Legend of Dragoon
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Megaman X4
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories

 

Wii games have increased by 5 games though most of them were WiiWare games this year.   This has raised it from 18 to 23.   Games are listed on two separate photos as below:

Dragon Quest Swords: Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Digital)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Frogger Returns (Digital)
Kirby's Return To Dreamland
The Last Story
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Link's Crossbow Training
Mario Kart Wii

 

Mega Man 9 (Digital)
Mega Man 10 (Digital)
Metroid: Other M
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (Digital)
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Wii Fit
Wii Play
Xenoblade Chronicles

No new DS title this year, games listed on two separate photos as below:

Chrono Trigger
Dragon Quest IV: The Chapters of the Chosen
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Fire Emblem
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Kirby Super Star Ultra
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals

 

Mario Party DS
Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS
Mega Man Star Force 2
Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus
New Super Mario Bros.
Phantasy Star 0
Pokemon SoulSilver
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Professor Layton and the Last Specter
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Tetris DS
The World Ends With You
Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus

3DS games have gone from 3 to 6.   Though I still find it strangely low for a Nintendo handheld, maybe it’s just the sign of the times regardless.   Games are listed as below:

Kid Icarus Uprising
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Paper Mario Sticker Star
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
Tales of the Abyss

 

 

Also new for my collection Gameboy and Gameboy color games.   I decided the combine the two since there are not enough of them to warrant separate pictures. 

Gameboy:

Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Tetris

Gameboy Color:

Dragon Warrior I & II
Pokemon Pinball

 

No new Gameboy Advance games this year, games are listed as below:

Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI Advance
Golden Sun
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Mega Man Battle Network
Mega Man Battle Network 2
Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue Version
Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun
Mega Man Battle Network 6: Greiga Version
Metroid Fusion
Pokemon FireRed

 

Console List:

Upper Right: Custom Build (Antec 900)

Upper Row: Wii – PS2 – N64

Middle Row: Sega Genesis – NES – SNES

Bottom Row: Gameboy Advance SP – 3DS

 

Controller and Accessory List:

Top Row: NES Dogbone Control – NES classic controller x2 – SNES controller – SNES third part controller – N64 aftermarket controllers x2

Middle Row: Nintendo Wavebird – Gamecube Controller – Sega Genesis 6-button Controller – Sega Genesis classic controller – Wii Remote (White) x2 – Zelda Remote (Wii Motion Plus) – Deluxe  Classic Control – Wii Nunchuck x2 – Classic Controller

Bottom Row: PS2 Dualshock (Blue) – PS2 Memory card x2 – PS1 third party memory card – GCN third party memory card – Xbox 360 Wireless controllers (Black) x2 – Wii Zapper – Wii Wheel – Wii Balance Board.

 

Finally this is my ‘bookshelf’ as of today 1/1/2013.

 

Last Minute Collection Entrees!

Gift card from Christmas means one last collection boosting before the year ends.  

 

Darkwing Duck for the NES, based on a cartoon show that Disney put out in the 90s.   I remember the show quite well from when I was a kid; however I only recently found out that there was an NES game for it.    Now much like many Disney games for the NES put out by Capcom during this time, is game is actually extremely solid for a shooting plateformer.   The animation matches the series pretty well, the controls are extremely solid, and it’s actually more fun then I was expecting.

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest for the NES, now in general this game is known for being almost impossible to complete without some kind of walkthrough not really due to the difficult but the translations resulting in character dialogue that is extremely unclear and confusing.   Still I find myself enjoying the game a lot regardless of the games numerous flaws though a lot of this may be due to the fact that we did have a player’s guide for the game from Nintendo Power before we played the game so I guess we experienced less of the overall frustration.   

 

 

Batman for the NES, though only slightly based on the original Tim Burton movie, it is commonly viewed as a classic on the NES, though today was the first time I’ve ever actually played it.    I don’t really have much to say other then all of the good things people has said about it in the past are entirely true.   Though I can’t beat the first stage at the moment, NES hard, there is a reason this term exists. 

 

Adventure Island 3 for the NES, this was the game I was actually looking for earlier in the year when I accidently purchased the original.   Compared to the original I like this one much more and even when test playing it, I ended up playing it for much longer then I usually do with these kind of things.   One thing I will say, this is probably the best condition game I have ever purchased from a used game store such as Gamers, I see almost no flaws in the cartridge or even the labeling.   Though not really all that important considering the condition many of these kinds of games has, it’s always nice to see something in extremely good condition

 

Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2, even as an RPG fan I have not played any Kingdom Heart games at this point though I have been told many times by people I know that I must play this series at some point and now I shall.   Not much to say since I’m new to the series but here it is.   

So this ends the collecting for this year, in the next couple of days I’ll be putting up my 2012 collection album so please take a look when I do ;)

Time for One Last Major Collection Additions for 2012

 

Time for one last major collection addition before the holiday season and the end of the year!  Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for the Nintendo GameCube.   This game seems to get mixed perspectives from the Zelda fan community due to art direction and the general direction of the game at that point and time.   It is a very different kind of Zelda experience involving a great sea resulting in a different kind of world and place from the earlier games.  Regardless of these differences I completely tend to disregard the criticism of this game and consider it a great game in its own right.

 

Final Fantasy X-2 for the Playstation 2, this is kind of a hard game to discuss among Final Fantasy fans, though it does present some unique elements to it, it definitely does reek heavily of marketing and fan service with the game general ascetic and character design that sometimes feels a bit out of place.   I don’t really share the hate for this one like many do, I find it’s best to take it as it is and not try to read too heavily into it and it’s still an interesting game if nothing else.   Considering I didn’t pay very much for it’s still an acceptable collection addition if nothing else.

 

 

 Paper Mario Sticker Star for the Nintendo 3DS, to this day I will not ever understand my liking of the Paper Mario series, it a very odd concept when you think about it, but they are charming and enjoyable games even if they aren’t always the most in depth type of RPG.   I haven’t gotten a chance to start playing it yet but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. 

 

Spy Hunter for the NES, now to be honest this is a classic game though not anything particularly special, it was a port of an Arcade game being one of those games that is all about a high score and can’t ever actually be beaten it’s a fairly simple game, though all I ever seen to do is die within seconds of playing because the speed and control is a little funky at times.    I played this game for years on and off during visits to my grandparents when I was younger so it does have a bit of nostalgia behind it even it’s not really that memorable.

 

Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64.   This is one of the few console Zelda games I have never played until now.   When we had a Nintendo 64 we lacked the Nintendo 64 expansion pak required to play the game so it passed me by.   I haven’t gotten a chance to play through it yet, but just from the short start… I will say it’s one of the creepiest Zelda games I have ever witnessed.   A lot of elements and imagery is just kind of creepy.  I intend to play further into it, but it’s nice to finally take a crack at it.

 

 

Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64, this was the original Paper Mario game that started that particular sub series.    I seem to be focused on this today it seems like, as I said with the new one, I still am not sure why I like the series as much as I do but I will take it for what it is. 

Recent Collection Additions

To those that are new here I am a video game collector specialize mostly in 80s and 90s era games. Though I generally post my new entrees mostly on Facebook I'm going to start publishing them here as well.



Had some eBay Bucks to spend so here we are, Mike Tyson's Punch Out! for the NES. What can I really say about this one? Gotta love the gameplay, the blatant stereotypes, and the fight theme in your head that never ever goes away and cartridge in pretty decent shape as one can expect.



After three failed attempts with original NES consoles due the design flaw of the original system getting worse with age I decided it was time for an Upgrade for the NES2. The NES2 was a model released some time after the release of the SNES, but due to the decreasing sales of the NES they were quick to disappear. The sleeker model and design were already an improvement but what is drastically different is what's inside. This version corrected the design flaw of the original NES hardware by removing the lock-out chip and by it being a top loader resolving the vast majority of connectivity problems by being a top loading console. There are some flaws of course but this is no normal NES2 console, take a look at the next picture to see the difference.



Yes, this NES 2 is a modded console. The original NES2 model lack the A/V ports on the back that the original NES had, as a result the NES2 had a poor image quality overall then the original. But thanks to this mod, this console support A/V connections for sound and graphical quality comparable to the original console. Where did I buy such a thing? I bought it from here: http://nintendorepairhut.com/

Starting over...

It's been a couple of years since I've done anything with this blog and am feeling up to starting to do more with it so I've deleted everything expect my old RPG reviews.

RPG Talk: Enchantasy: Quest for the Eternal Grimoire

So, I've talked about three games that were fairly known or either acknowledged. Now let's talk about a game that is so unknown that I can't even find many screen shots of the game itself and it doesn't even exist on wikipedia. This is:


Enchantasy: Quest of the Eternal Grimoire was released in the early 90's for DOS/Windows and one was one of the first games I ever downloaded from the internet, which was shortly after I had played Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest which to note I didn't play for a few years after it's release. Very few people have ever even heard of this game. It was released by EGA Computing and programmed by a single individual who's name I have forgotten . This was one of those independently developed games that was a unique experience but was heavily overshadowed by much bigger titles. The game was released on a simple AOL page that has long since cease to exist. I should state before I start that the computer holding the full version of the game long has since crashed and the only version I have been able to find was the shareware version that was limited to 5 saves and have yet to find a full version (If anyone ever manages to find it let me know). So this RPG talk is based entirely on past experience and the only light refresher I was able to take with the shareware version of the game.

Enchantasy takes place in the world of Savilia. People are disappearing, monsters and evil humans are roaming the land. Eradan, a humble mage apprentice is summoned to the mage guild headquarters and is tasked with finding the Eternal Grimoire, a legendary spellbook that suppose has the power to cease the evil powers threatening the world. With his friends: The warrior, Jared. The ranger, Rodell. And the thief, Shyna. They would have to scale the globe seeking the Grimoire, searching for the kingdom's prince, discover the mysterious assassinations of the guild members, and confronting an evil wizard.

The story as a whole wasn't entirely original even for the time it was developed. However it uses a much older style of progression and story method in comparison to the JRPGs that were more common on the consoles at the time. There is very little character development between the actual main characters and the actual direction is more open world. NPC dialogue requires some probing in order to learn anything useful. Simple one to two word phases could be typed to try to learn more about what an NPC knows. Most of the time this was accomplished by using by typing a word that the person themselves said. Other then seeking out the four characters the rest of the game is pretty much self directed by what you yourself learn from the surrounding world and the people living in it. The only limits set are the strength of the monsters that you fight. The gameplay is actually more similar to D&D or other earlier RPG games where the story is more directed by the player though there is an eventual endpoint.


The game play is very, very aged. The entire game game play consists mostly of single keyboard commands and the player is capable of moving in only four directions. Many options require additional skill or input such as Invoke or Pick commands. There aren't very many puzzles in most places and requires more exploration or the use of the Invoke command to activate certain areas. In general you have to figure out when and where to go to places because the dungeons themselves give few clues of what your suppose to be doing there. So often times I could recall myself taking down notes to keep track of the things I needed to do or where I needed to go. As tedious as that sounds it did keep you moving forward because you had to pay attention if you wanted to know what was going on. The story really isn't spoon-fed to the player.

Gear was kept fairly simple, weapons, shields, armor were pretty standard to the specific characters but the items were just expensive enough that it did take some work to keep your characters gear up. Also all gear was skill-based in other words if you were too low in level for the gear, you couldn't use it. Skills and abilities did fall back on some old style RPG style type play, as you leveled you received training passes to train in skills such as first aid, magic, range, melee, lock picking, etc rather then simply learning them as you leveled. And since you only earned one pass per experience level it would require you to think through what it was you needed to do. In addition, there is a food supply stat that requires you to purchase food which did place a slight time restraint on how long you could stay away from town. Allowing food to drop to zero would cause a Hunger status that would do a poison like damage over time.

Battles had a mix of random encounter and encounter based in specialized places (you still couldn't see the enemy but running away from these enemies would force your character to step back, so until you won you can't move forward). Battles took place on a large, grind like placement similar to some tactic RPGs. Characters could moving in any of the eight directions and attack any target in eight directions. Bows, Slings, and Magic could allow you to hit enemies from distances, but you couldn't shoot anything next to you, though you could still use magic. But because the characters can only move one space, it really forced you to plan your move carefully or you might end up surrounded. Experience works very differently. Unlike most RPGs at the time, the amount of experience a character earned at the end of a fight entirely depended on their use in battle. If you stand back and let your mage wipe everything out with spells, none of your other characters will gain any experience as a result. Experience was also lost when you ran away. The only problem with this is that it heavily penalized your ability to conserve your resources for tougher fights and particular in areas with high encounter rates could leave you losing quite a bit of exp when you're weaken. The quests you can complete allow you to earn higher numbers of experience in burst which does soften the blow slightly.

I will say this straight out, this game is HARD. Unlike most RPG console games I was playing at the time, the battles were extremely difficult, and taking the quickest and easiest way out could end up hurting you very quickly and punished you heavily for mistakes. Experience accumulates rather slowly so additional grinding for the sake of trying to build up what you need. Some areas had battles ranges that would go from a cakewalk to a impossible death match at a moments notice. The rest of the difficult was based on fact it was extremely difficult to figure out where you were suppose to go and when you should go. It's wasn't always obvious how strong the monsters would be from one area to the other and since there were very few things preventing you from entering most area, and it was easy to enter a place early on with monsters many times greater then you can handle.

The graphics are old even in the 80's they were aged. The graphics use EGA style graphics that were more common in the earlier days of computer games. NPCs and characters hardly ever move. There are probably about 2 frames of animation for water. Battle sprites look little like what they are suppose to. Attack animations pretty much consist of two frames one swing left or right then swing in the other direction. To be expected there is a lot of palette swapping and the environments are limited. The area design though is fairly solid, many of the castles and towns are actually arranged like actual places and don't tend to look identical which does leave an impression regardless of the lack of detail.

The game has no music and very few sound effects, giving the detail to graphics this isn't very surprising, the game using some authentic sounding sound effects, though at a low bittage. The battle start and end have short jiggles.

The game being what it is doesn't appear to have a lot of exploitable glitches. Though there was a cheat code that was coded right into the game that would allow you to heal, get full items, and so on. You could alter a lot of things with a hex editor if you knew what you were looking for.

There weren't a ton of extras, there were certain quests that you could do. Some were required while others were not. More then anything the point of these quests were to gain experience and sometimes items that were sometimes needed. While other times when they weren't needed at all.

How does Enchantasy hold up? We due to it's lack of acknowledgment it's obvious the game didn't leave much impact which was the fate of many independently developed games. As an RPG, Enchantasy was a solid experience. It had a very large world to explore and many things to accomplish. The graphics and sound were very subpar which probably threw some people off. If you are able to look past it though it's technological shortcomings , Enchantasy: Quest for the Eternal Grimoire is worth a try...
...
...

If you can find it that is.

RPG Talk: Super Mario RPG

Super Mario RPG was released in Japan March 9th, 1996 and was released in North American merely two months later. It wouldn't be released in Europe till it's release on Virtual Console almost twelve years later, making it the single longest regional delay of a title in Nintendo's history. Super Mario RPG was not only the final Mario game for the Super Nintendo but was also the last Nintendo game that was developed by Square until 2002. Super Mario RPG is regarded as one of the SNES's best regardless of it's late release and among the RPG community it is usually highly regarded, which is saying a lot since the Super NES's RPG library is fairly legendary even now. Regardless of how many times this game has been reviewed and re-reviewed. I will give my input on rather quirky RPG.

As with most Mario games, the exact time of the setting isn't easy to determine, the appearance of Bowser's Clown Car and Yoshi at least suggests it takes place at anytime after Super Mario World, though like most Mario games it's extremely vague. The story starts up classic Mario style involving Peach (Who was still known as Toadstool at the time) is kidnapped by Bowser in front of Mario's house while waiting for Mario to wake up. Mario being Mario rushes to Bowser's Keep to rescue her. Though Mario was able to quickly dispatch Bowser, his attempt to rescue Peach was halted when the castle begins to shake as a giant sword splits the sky and crashes straight into Bowser's keep sending Mario, Peach, and Bowser scattered to the four winds. Upon recovering, Mario returns to Bowser's Keep believing Peach was still there only to find that the Keep is under control of the 'Smithy's Gang' who seem to intend to conquer the world and fill it with weapons. To prevent interference from Mario or anyone else for that matter, Exor, the sword collapses the Keep's bridge. Mario is forced to return to the Mushroom Kingdom and eventually would discover a star piece in the castle after it is brought under attack by a creature called Mack the Sword while Mario was helping Mallow retrieve a stolen coin. Mario's quest involves stopping Smithy, finding Peach, and discovering the secret behind these star pieces.



Now overall the plot is generic overall, but it's characters and the world that really bring the story to light and make it less ordinary. Mario, like most of his games, remain the silent protagonist but yet still manages to display quite a bit of personality through his various animations and expressions. Bowser revealed a side that hadn't been seen about him often. He's tough guy who thinks he's the baddest around but yet display an attitude that appears to be that of a whinny spoiled kid more so then the force of ultimate evil. He makes continuous excuses for everything that doesn't go this way and gets rather annoyed when people ignore him. Peach shows some courage in this particular story but yet seems to display her symptoms of her Princess life style often getting scared by things and even scolds people a few times. The two original playable character Mallow and Geno. Mallow was a lost prince, who for some reason thought he was a tadpole even though he was more shaped like a cloud. He's more or less a crybaby who tends to have a few moments where he seems to go back and forth from courageous to cowardly. To me he came off as a teenager who's not exactly sure who he is or what he wants. Geno on the other hand has come down from the Star Road to recover the star pieces that Exor damaged when he dropped down from the sky and possessed a doll to do so. I'm going to be honest, I've never quite understood the big deal with Geno of all of them, he's has probably the least personality of any of playable characters. He's the most soldier like in mindset, he has a mission to do and takes most of his priority. Though it's still a solid interesting character, he just comes off a little weaker on my view on him. He does have alot of flashy attacks and is a fairly strong character regardless.


NPC interaction is also fairly interesting, many of the NPC have various animations besides just simply standing or walking randomly. The unusual thing about these interactions is unlike most RPGs, Mario is already well known but most of the world. So there isn't alot of complex involvement into getting involved into most situation, it's more that Mario just seems to happen to be in the area when things are going on though this could easily be view and cheapen the plot or shallowing the development. Some characters interact pretty well with many of the NPCs adding more character particular to Bowser while interacting with his troops showing Bowser as a little less of simply a brutal dictator. That his troops to a certain extend seem to have loyalty or even respect for Bowser regardless of the shortcomings.

Even many of the non-plot related enemies have unique personalities and pre-set relations. The two most commonly known are Booster and Valentina. Booster is a crazy man that lives in a massive tower with his snifits, he forgets things and seems to have no sense of common sense or intelligence. He's not particularly evil more so then easily confused, in his attempted to marry Peach he ended up eating the cake and left completely forgetting about everything else prior. While Valentine is a self-proclaimed beauty who tends to be extremely bossy particular to her sidekick, a fat blackbird named Dodo. She's a character that defines egoistical beauty. She's has a short fuse even though she hides behind that using beauty and sophistication to her advantage.

Traveling is actually more standard of Mario games then RPGs in general. There is no spanning world map between areas. Rather you select the area and enter it much like Super Mario Brothers 3 or Super Mario World. In areas themselves are also a lot like a Mario game. All enemies are visible and Mario is able to jump , run, drop off and interact with the area with very little restriction. Areas range from simple go from one end to the other while others involve more exploration and puzzle solving. The puzzles are entertaining at times and the more difficult ones are more optional then required, which bypasses the struggling with some puzzles like my previous reviewed game. It is easy to jump and move in all directions making it fairly easy to get around and avoid enemies if necessary.

The game does play a little similar method regarding gear and items. Each character only has three slots: A weapon, an armor, and a Accessory. As far as the weapons go each character has three varieties but there aren't many varieties other then them getting stronger. Armor is character specific while most accesories can be equipped by just about anyone. The item inventory is quite small however, I never found it a heavy burden since it's fairly easy to avoid enemy encountered if your dangerously low on health and/or items. The standard spell formula has also been simplified, each character only learns a total of six spells and they are only earned through levels. In this game the mana pool is referred to as Flower Points or FP. Unlike MP it is not character directed rather the party shares FPs. This forced the entire party to converse when necessary and did add a bit of complication to the simple process, but at the same time, it made some abilities pretty useless not making the FP cost worth the effort in comparison to others.

The battle system is a fairly standard turn-based battle, however it had it's own twisted to the system in the form of timed attacks. When attacking or being attacked, if you hit the button at the right time, your damage increases done or decreases your damage taken. The pattern for weapons was pretty easy to learn but rewarding to do, parrying attacks required a little more work and sometimes it was hard to pull off with particular enemies, but it did keep you on your toes in tough spots. Special abilities also had timing features which ranged from timing hits with Mallow's Thunderbolt. Rapidly tapping the button for Mario's Fireball, to holding down the button for Geno's charge attacks. Three members were permitted in the party at once with Mario always making up one of these members.

However, the one place this game falls short is it's difficulty level. Most of the boss fights are relatively easy and the maximum experience level cap is relatively low. Certain boss fights can be skipped in a few places by completing certain mini-games. Regardless there a few extra fights that do challenge you such as Culex and Jinx. However, there is a piece of armor in the game, the Lazy Shell if you equip that to Peach after she's learned comeback, it pretty much can make your party invincible. Level grinding really isn't all that necessary unless you tend to take on Culex with no Lazy Shell.

The graphics were very unique by the standard that was set by RPGs at the time. The actual game was displayed 3/4 perspective. In other worlds it wasn't true 3-D rather sprites that gave the illusion of 3-D. Mario and the other characters could move in all 8 directions and the sprite animations were very smooth for the time. The worlds are very colorful and the environments were all unique and well designed. The enemy sprites were fairly detailed and showed quite a bit of originality along with the common Mario staples. The only real compliant I have is some of the spells look flat. Some spells like Shocker and Bowser Crusher looked like flat pictures moved slightly over the area. Mind you, they still look fairly good regardless.

The music in Super Mario RPG was composed by Yoko Shimomura. The music was of a different style then what was common in Square's previous RPG works. The soundtrack was very upbeat and bouncy fitting in with the colorful Mario world. Even the standard battle theme sounds more upbeat then any RPG theme I've ever listen to, and probably even more catchy. The sound effects range from Mario classic jump noise to explosions and all of them sound very good.

The game is fairly polished and doesn't have a lot of glitches or bugs. There are a few areas that infinite number of enemies walk down, and I could recall people using turbo controllers to level up quickly this way, but that is hardly game breaking. However, I did run into a bizarre glitch, in Land End, according to every source I've ever read, there is a couple of chests up on a high edge. You jump about center to make a floating platform appear then jump in the cannon and land on the platform and it's suppose to take you up to these chests, I've never once got this to work I've tired every method I could think of but it will not move. I don't know if this is a glitch in my cartridge or it was a more widespread problem.



The game is full of extras big and small. The game has several random cameos from other Nintendo games such as Link and Samus. There is also a place in Booster's Tower that turns you 8-bit with the whole classic Mario Overworld theme to go along with it. There are also several mini-games that can provide small rewards and test your reflexes. A mine cart ride, a Yoshi race requiring you to tap buttons via melody (Which I STILL cannot beat, curse my lack of rhythm), and even composing songs by jumping on tadpoles. There are also several bonus fights later on in the game which included Culex, a Final Fantasy style character who is not only the strongest boss in the game, but has four crystals that are just as powerful as he is (Not to mention it includes special music from FFIV).



Super Mario RPG is an unique RPG experience. Everything just comes together very well and expands the Mario World into a living and breathing world in a way that hadn't been entirely done up to that point. It gave us another side of not only the Mushroom Kingdom but RPGs in general. It's colorful world, upbeat musical score, and simple yet appealing battle system. Super Mario RPG is a late blooming but loved classic in the SNES RPG library.