The other Ys IV

Really fumbled the ball at the end, didn't it? 

I first played Ys IV: Mask of the Sun in 2018. It was when I played all the other games in the franchise. I remember playing it, but that's all I recall. Since I want to play all the RPGs for the SNES, I figure now's the best time to replay it. I think I regret it. I want to keep this quick, so... 

If you've played Ys I or II, then IV will feel exactly the same. It's the return of the bump combat. It's fast paced, feels random, and is unchanged in any way. To damage an enemy, simply run into them. But this also damages you, so you have to find the correct angle. Aim for the back, and don't let them get ya. Dungeons are unique with their own mobs, but this falls off at the end of the game...

The plot is also just like Ys I and II. In fact, it takes place days after Adol saved Ys. We see him and Dogi running from Lilia at Minea Port. Doctor Flair joins them as well. You even return there a few times. But this adventure is kicked off when Adol finds a message in a bottle he can't read. It's in a different language, but a friend translates it. He also teaches Adol how to speak in a matter of days, I guess? Once settled in the land of Celceta, Adol gets thrown in jail. He's allowed out and starts looking to save the forest, finding new friends and uncovering new ancient legends along the way. This also falls off towards the end... 

The music is also classic Ys. Borderline metal music for exploration and boss battles. Slow, mellow melodies for heartfelt and relaxing locations. That being said, I was kinda annoyed by some of the town themes. Fortunately, you barely spend any time in them! This did not fall off towards the end. 

The art also follows suit. 

The charm is, well, let's discuss the fall offs here. While the NPCs hang around, and the world feels aliveish, the game over stays. The penultimate final dungeon is an incredibly long maze filled with backtracking. It kills the fun. Doors open up at plot points, but good luck realizing and remembering where the doors are. 

What's worse, the last two bosses are awful. They require being at a high level to do any damage to them. And I, despite grinding an extra level before every boss, was not high enough. I had to grind six more to reach level twenty five. And I still did zero damage! I did cheat to reach that level, so maybe there was an anti cheat or a bug somewhere. I did harm the penultimate boss at level twenty, but failed to at twenty one, so who knows. Regardless, I was not manually grinding those levels. The exp from mobs was too low for how much I needed. This killed the vibe. The plot drops are terrible because they contradict games I and II. It's further ruined by VI and Memories of Celceta, and that's good. The big twist makes Reah and Feena out to be cannibals instead of the kind and loving leaders we know they are. And we don't even know what this great ancient power was, something the game itself points out!

The last four hours ruined all the enjoyment for me. MotS is, apparently, not well liked, but I was loving it until then. The final four hours cost ten points from the final score. I only kinda wanted to play Mask of the Sun, so I'm whipping through this review. The final score is 29 out of 50, 57 percent. 

Between the weird plot, terrible final dungeon, and occasional headache graphics, I don't want to play this anymore, and I'm thrilled to know it's no longer canon. I'm already looking forward to my next game, even if I don't know what it is yet. 

The best RPGs stayed in Japan.

Naza, Nihon!?

After playing all the localized turn based JRPGs for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, I need to go back to being a weeb! I still plan to compare and discuss the probable whys and hows the US never got the good games, but I've opted to take a greater approach to this topic. I need more data, and I'm starting here. Emerald Dragon! 

My recent YouTube vice president rhythm has been recommending me retro RPGs a lot lately. I don't know why... One of those games is the Japan only, Lunar-esque Emerald Dragon. It pre dates Lunar by three years, by the way, so that's an opposite comparison, but you get the point. The way it was described by reviewers told an interesting and unique story that caught my attention. I wasn't sold on one aspect, which is why it took a while to play, but life is short. Let's get silly! 

In Emerald Dragon, you play as a young dragon named Atrushan, henceforth Atru. Atru lives with a tribe of dragons who were kicked out of the holy land, Ishbahl, thousands of years ago. A curse now permeates the land, killing all dragons who still inhabit the area. Fifteen years before the start of the game, a human ship crashed near the tribe. Humans can't cross the barrier between the two worlds, so something is strange. But one child was saved, though she had amnesia. The dragons renamed her Tamryn and raised her. The dragons rarely mate, so youthful entities are sacred to them. Thirteen years later, Tamryn grows curious about her past and asks to return to the human world. The leader of the tribe, White Dragon, allows it and teleports her away. As a going away gift, Atru rips off his horn and gives it to Tamryn. She is to blow it in case she's ever in trouble. Three years later, Atru hears the horn. 

White Dragon transforms Atru into a human and warps him near Tamryn's whereabouts. He quickly finds her, and he gets caught up in a war between humans and demons, all to save his best friend. Along the way, he meets a wide and colorful cast of characters all fighting for the same thing. Grizzled veterans who care for their fallen allies, a stern priest with a checkered past, a horny prince stalked by his overly formal tutor, aloof and non traditional archers, and five bunny women. There is tragedy, humor, love, and redemption. Someone dies, and it's hilarious for the dumbest of reasons. Twists, turns, war, wars, and we finally learn the hard truth about where Tamryn came from and where they're going at the end. It is an incredible journey that sucked me in.

While on that journey, you play as Atru and only Atru. This is what scared me off for so long. The battle party is five people large, but you only control one of them. You can give orders of who to attack, and (I think) use items, but that's it. You can't even see what spells your mages have. I eventually came around to this when I realized this was a role playing game in the truest sense. You're not playing Cloud and his two friends from time to time. You're Link with backups, Ashe without gambits, or the Dragonborn with more companions. In fact, only Atru and Tamryn can level up. Everyone else only gains levels when they leave the group. They're secondary. Tamryn should have been playable to emphasize her importance and to break up the monotony of being a boring swordsman, but whatever... Keep in mind, Atru isn't a boring swordsman. Dude can transform into a dragon! It only lasts one turn and leaves you in critical condition, but it's hella rad and does a hella amount of damage. And works for the lore! Actions are ruled by "points." Movement drains those points, and every weapon costs a certain amount of them to attack. It can lead to you keeping a slightly weaker weapon because you can get twice as many actions off. It's a neat system that creates some brain scratching options.

Emerald Dragon was originally a PC Engine 89 game, and those visuals were brought over. High quality character portraits are all over the dialogue, and there are even full screen cutouts! It's a unique aspect of the game that you don't see often. Breath of Fire I comes close, but those scenes disappear after the golem. Sprite work isn't as excellent, but it's still well detailed. I find it a bit too blocky for me. 

The soundtrack is beneath the story and character quality. It's not bad by any stretch, I just found it wanting. Nothing jumped out to me as my song, and nothing is stuck in my head. I actually think a few songs are a tad annoying... But there's voice work. It's mostly just people yelling their loved one's name or laughing. But there is the occasional entire sentence to drive home the gravitas. 

Let me gush about the small things real quick. The world feels so neat. It's not the best, but the lore is fleshed out and meaningful. There are so many cute things to experience, and I want to explore further. It's rare that I want more of a game, but Emerald Dragon does it for me. What's really neat is I want to give the original version a try. The PC Engine game has three more characters. They're not huge deals, but it's more of what I want. Also, a different soundtrack that might be better than what the SNES has. 

Emerald Dragon, translated by Translation Corporation, gets an 80%. A slightly better cast of characters, or one who doesn't feel tacked on, and villains would have been nice. Evil for the sake of evil, ya know... More varied and lasting townsfolk NPCs, and control of Tamryn would have tipped this game into a goat. It's still great and one of those hidden gems, but I think about what could have been. What a fun game! 

Reputation proceeds it.

Lotta stinkers lately...

Way back in the before times, when the world made sense, life was good, and the biggest political scandal was two bags of sentient grapes upset they didn't receive oral sex, I once rented a video game. That's how long ago this was... That game had a neat title and gave off a dark aura in the screenshots. It looked like a grittier FFVII. It was something that called to my preteen edginess. I got it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I ended up getting the flu during those five days, but I remember really wanting to play it while I was dying. Despite that, I couldn't beat it and never rented it again. Ten years later, before college, I remembered it existed and tried again. I overwhelmed myself with emulatable games, so I moved on to something else. Fifteen more years later, and I'm giving it a third go. I'm also tapping out. 

Shadow Madness sucks. 

The worst part of the game is the graphics. It came out two years after FF VII, and it's an imitation of that style. And it's a terrible homage to that! Characters are even uglier, room transitions are just wherever with zero indication of their existence, interactable stuff blends in with the dull pre rendered backgrounds, and even the CGI is outdated. FF VII was stunning. Legend of Dragoon was released the same year, and its CGI was rad. I didn't like Grandia, but its graphics were charming. Shadow Madness was trying for dark and gritty, and, in a way, it hit it. But then again, so does a closing grave. Valkyrie Profile hit the brooding atmosphere. Parasite Eve nailed it. Even Vandal Heatts II looks better than this. And the spell animations... But at least there are plenty of models. 5/10

The story is one dimensional. Evil guy is evil because he's evil. Perhaps there's a twist somewhere, but I didn't see one when I spoiled the final boss. Even the characters are flat. They want revenge and have no plans for the next phase in their life. They barely even have a background. Again, there is no change in any of them. At least as far as I played. Harv-V might have something going on, but there are only hints. And the pacing is terrible. The writers had a field day and wrote so much for the game. They made the world and its history massive. And the characters, no matter how unimportant, love to yap. It gets jarring after a few hours. I can't care anymore. 4/10

The gameplay is straight from 1989. Physical characters can only attack with nothing special about them. Magic characters have too many spells, and I don't know what they do. They're also expensive. Besides that, the basics are turn based and a combination of Grandia, Chrono Cross, and Super Mario RPG. Battles play out on a field where you'll need to move close to melee them. It's akin to CC because there are three attack types: weak, normal, and aggressive. No matter what you choose, though, you're gonna miss at a fifty percent chance rate. Super Mario RPG is referenced because melee attacks can have their damage doubled with a properly timed button press. I played on easy, and all the battles were just long and monotonous. There is a way to avoid random battles, but it didn't work for me. I was also told you could do a "twitch attack," but that, too, didn't work, or I didn't understand it. Either way, I'm bored... And that's all you can do in Shadow Madness. Besides all the fetch quests... 5/10

The soundtrack is strange. It's half ambient sounds and half John Williams orchestral score. However, it's eight CDs long... Every area, almost no matter how small, has its own theme. Nothing lasts long enough to get stuck in your brain. Turns out there is such a thing as too much variety. It's all pretty good, though. 7/10

The game is too long, lacks side quests, important NPCs, and exploring is tedious because the battles suck. The world building and history are massive, though, and the writing has its moments. Seeing as Working Designs worked on the game, it falls apart from time to time, though. Pop culture references are plentiful, but at least it's funny. 4/10

The encounter dodge bugged out on me. -2

The accuracy of all attacks slows the game down, and SM has one of the worst item inventory limits I've ever played. -4

In total, kid me was stupid. Why did he like a game that got 19 out of 50 points? 

I thought it was fun at first, and I wanted to keep playing. But the party was split up for too long, and one side is a fetch quest nesting doll. I think I'm about eighty percent through Shadow Madness, but I hate this and want to do something more rewarding with my already miserable life. I can't believe they ported this to Steam two years ago...

Beep beep beep beep beep

Zelda II sucks ass. 

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is an occasionally maligned experience. At the time, many players didn't like the shift from the top down gameplay of Zelda 1 to the side scrolling platformer with RPG elements of Zelda II. Although none of those critiques are mentioned in Wikipedia's notes, so maybe this isn't as widespread a belief as I've been told. Nowadays, though, people who've played Z2 think it's great! As you'd expect from my opening line, I'm a part of the contrarian crowd. 

Most of my displeasure stems from the difficulty. Zelda 1 was hard, but it felt fair. Zelda II is nonsense, and that nonsense comes in many forms. Way too many mobs or projectiles on screen, several types of armored enemies with tiny hit boxes, and a respawn point on the otherside of the world all drag down this game. And don't get me started on the rarity of magic potions and the total lack of health pick ups. 

And that difficulty creates tedium. Whenever you die, you return to Hyrule Castle, which is nowhere near the final dungeon. This means you need to travel two continents, avoid multiple bridges with difficult crossings, get pelted with rocks three times, dodge the game's random battles, and pass four cave systems that aren't fun. This is misery. 

And it's not worth it. Link, the bosses, and the story are just as barebones as before. Zelda is asleep, Link has to save her, and how he did that makes no sense. 

And I'm bummed this sucks because the basics are amazing. The world is massive and filled with as many upgrades, secrets, and things to find as before. The combat involves timing, which can be a double edged sword. Link has to wind up his attack, so there's a skill issue here. If you time it wrong, though, you've just hurled yourself into yet another stalfos. Jumping is also an adventure, mostly involving upward attempts. Dungeons are worse, though. Outside of bosses, there are zero differences between them. But the addition of magic, regardless of how situational it is, and up/down stabs creates growth and entertainment!

Music is better, at least. There are a lot more songs that fit more moods, and I enjoyed them all. My favorite song was actually an action one, so that's rad. 

I have mixed feelings on the graphics. In some ways, it's an upgrade, most notably in the form of animations. Link has three frames of attack animations, but several mobs do too. And this creates a fun little duel. One that happens far too often, mind you. If you're bad at this game, then you'll end up button mashing for two minutes, though. 

All the negative issues nag at the charm of it all. The world is less cool, NPCs aren't as consistent, and I hate exploration. And these are the points I am giving the game. 

Between all that, the confusing "inn" mechanic, the frustrating enemy AI, and getting swindled in the final dungeon, the classic that is Zelda II: Adventure of Link gets 14 out of 50 points. I got to the final dungeon and used the wrong spell at the wrong time. I had no way of farming for more magic, so the only thing I could do was jump into the lava. I was out of extra guys, so I respawned back at the start. I crashed out, and I hate this game. I was hoping to enjoy the game because there's a fan remake that fixes a few of my problems and adds more neat things. I wanted to play that one day, but the core gameplay drove me mad. Zelda II is one of the worst games I've ever played. 

There are a lot of staples of the franchise that originate from this game, but I see why Nintendo doesn't talk about this one.