Final Fantasy - NES, NDS

Well, it seems odd to have a video-game website that mentions Dragon Quest but not Final Fantasy. To tell the truth, I'm such a Final Fantasy fan that I actually thought I'd dedicate them all on a separate sight. That didn't go so well. So now I'm just going to port over some of the results from that sight.

I've played Final Fantasy about 11 times in my life, it is just one of those games that I can play over and over just to see if I can still do it over again. It's like a Rubix cube for me. So when I found out that they did a re-release for it on the GBA with extra dungeons, I jumped at the chance to play it once more. I won't go into the details, but I will just port over the results from my other blog, the Final Fantasy Challenge.

(from September of 2007)

So as you can guess, the posting isn't going to catch up with the gaming. I need to back-track and talk about the end of Final Fantasy one.

The fight up to Tiamont took up 12 hours, but the optional bosses took up another 8 hours. Our friend Garland was the culprit the last boss. Channeling the powers of time and evil he becomes Chaos. By the time I got there, I was a whopping level 77. The last time I played and beat it, I was level 43. This game definitely was made easier. Also back then my strongest weapon was the Masamune and the Excalibur, now I had the Ultima Weapon and armor that never existed back then. It was just a breeze. Well here are some stats, and I'm on my way to Final Fantasy II (not the one with Cecil, but the one with Firion).

Chaos Shrine - defeated Chaos (level 77)

• Game Time: 21 hrs 28 mins
• Total Time: 21 hrs 38 mins (10 mins added)
  
• Days: 9 of 80
• Bestiary - 93%
• Weapons Completion - 99% (missing Assassin's Dagger)
  
• Optional Bosses - 100%
• Optional Quests - 100%

Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS

I began playing this game to ween myself away from Civilization again. It seems like every time I reinstall a new computer I install Civ. 4 and try to give it another go. It's an addiction, or perhaps it's just delusions of grandeur - we all want to rule the world.

But back to Dragon Quest 4. This is probably my favorite Dragon quest game. The idea of putting the main character four chapters later into the game was novel at the time. We spend like ten hours playing through four quests and we haven't invested any time in the main character yet. It was a breakaway from the first three Dragonquests, especially as it no longer talked about Edward. Playing it again after 17 years (it came out in 1992), I find it remarkable that I remember so much about it. I still love the Taloon quest, and so did many other fans because Taloon created some franchises out for himself in Japan. I am amazed at how smooth it runs on the NDS, nothing is lost, but a lot is gained. The game will not live up to the action packed RPG's of today, but it's definitely for nostalgia's sake. People who played this one before, will love it. The music would literally time warp you back to the time you played this on your NES.

I spent about six hours on it and got through the first three chapters. Now I'm playing the fourth chapter with Meena and Maya. It's a matter of time before I get to the end of that one. There seems to be a relative ease on game settings, because I'm able to get through them with relative ease. Hopefully I don't lose my edge in the coming dungeons.

Castlevania 1, 2, and 3 - NES

Castlevania is not just a game, but an entire franchise for Konami. Yeah, we tend to think of the Wii title that flopped recently, but it's definitely one of those series that will go on for a long time. The story is simple: Dracula is alive and well; he commands an army of darkness; the Belmont family has a tradition of killing vampires. Yes, we all remember the whips, the crosses, and funny potions. Where else can you battle the Grim Reaper, the Sand Man, Frankenstein, and Medussa in one game? Let's travel back in time for a minute and look back at these classic games. 

The first one was basic. You side-scrolled your way through levels, grabbed hearts, and fought bosses. You had a whip and a little knife to throw, and that was enough to make a classic. I know I beat this game, but I can't even remember what the pitiful ending was. It might have just been a picture of you looking at the castle with words scrolling up... which is usually the case in old NES games. 

The second one was totally different. Coined as, "Simon's Quest", it became more of an RPG mixed with elements from Metroid. You had to complete quests and find runes, all while defeating ghouls and goblins of all types. Bosses lead to more questions and questions lead to more quests. There were events in the day and events in the night. I remember beating this game, but I don't think I liked it too much. 

The third one of the first trilogy involved one of my favorite characters, Alucard (of course that's Dracula spelled backwards). He's on his quest to defeat his own father. Now the gameplay of this one is more like the first one, but for the first time, there were more than one main character. The clock-tower was one of those places that burned into my memory; something about jumping and having medusa heads loom towards you made me hate that level. 

The Belmont family continues!

Completion: Beat the game:

Castlevania - 20 hrs

Castlevania 2 - 40 hrs

Castlevania 3 - 20 hrs 

Hours Spent: approx. 60 hrs.

Check out the Angry Video-game Nerd bashing Castlevania 2:

Swords and Serpents - NES

Ahh yes, another heavily forgotten game for the NES. Another game that I am writing about because it's old and lesser known? Well, just like the Magic of Scheherazade, I owned Swords and Serpents as a kid also. It was an RPG in the first person, and boy was it boring. I think when you're a kid, you had a knack for boring things, or at least I was. 

The game consists of your four characters fighting in a labyrinth to save the world from a certain evil. Sounds like Gauntlet doesn't it? Well, it's not because it's turn-based and the graphics were sub-par. You really don't know if you've hit the monster well because all it does is blink. The map on the screen was interesting, because you basically felt like a rat in a maze. Worse of all is that a lot of the rooms are filled with dead-ends, and yes, they just kind of sucked. You had to figure out where the trick was, because sometimes you can just jump through. 

I couldn't remember what the hell the ending was to this game, but I know I beat it. It was a crazy hot summer, and I wasted too much time on my Nintendo. 

Completion: Beat the game 

Hours Spent: approx. 40 hrs.

Check out these retro videos on you-tube, amazing!

And this TV commercial of the game!

the Magic of Scheherazade - NES

What is this game? Why is this worth writing about now? Why talk about this game that nobody cares about anymore? Well it's only important because it belonged to me. This game came out in 1989 and I actually went out and bought it at a Woolworths with my mother. It's odd why I picked that one, but I think it's only because I liked RPG's, and back then RPG's were few. I had a lot of fun with this one. Just look at the cover-art! Still looks inviting today. I think another reason was because my friends already had Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. 

The game is basically one of the earliest action RPG's for Nintendo. You're a warrior that is out to save the Princess Scheherazade (I still have a hard time pronouncing that name) that is abducted by an evil wizard. Not the most original of plots, but it establishes the mission. The setting is Arabic, and pretty much as stereo-typical as it goes. You weild a scimitar, you have balloon-like pants, and heck, you even wear a turban. You walk around from place to place talking with merchants and wacking monsters. You have a health bar and a magic bar, and you had levels. 

I don't remember much about this game after that. I knew I bought it, I played the hell out of it, and it was lost in this mass jettison of old stuff that I owned in my past. I'd like to see it again, but I doubt I'd really have the patience for it now. It just reminds me of the good old days. 

Completion: Beat the game 

Hours Spent: approx. 40 hrs.

Enjoy this video from youtube! Ahh, the 8-bit graphics. 

Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 3

Dragon Quest is the first RPG game I've ever played, and most likely, it was the first for many. It was released in 1986, yes, that was during Ronald Reagon's second term. We barely had 14.4k modems back then. And most likely the game was less than 1 megabite. We, as Americans, got the English versiona as Dragon Warrior in 1989 for the NES.

The game featured one knight out to save a princess. It was pretty much the entire plot. It introduced ideas like regaining your HP at the inn, saving at the cathedrals, and getting clues from villagers. Monsters like the Wyvern, Golem, Slime, and Dragons got their start in this first game. Remember walking through tunnels and you actually had to use the ITEM torch? Remember walking through the marsh and picking up a clue in the middle? The good old days.

In Dragon Quest 2 we explored the possibility of the party. While Final Fantasy already had the hero party of four members, DQ2 introduced a team of three. The cool thing about Dragon Quest games are that they continue after another. The descendant of Erdrick (or Eldrick) makes his name in the world. You actually can find your father towards the end of the game. Pretty fun stuff. It came out in 1990, so I can't remember much about it.

Dragon Quest 3 still had an attachment to the first two games as it was set as a prequel to them. It introduced a system of recruiting teammates with different classes. There were skill points in addition to experience points. This game really brought replay value into the series as you can pick different classes of heroes to finish the game. I remember the goof-offs became sages, odd way of doing things, but I guess they wanted you to suffer carrying a goof-off in your team until you can get him to the shrine for a class change.

All in all, these games really set the tone for NES rpg's, especially since Final Fantasy 2 and 3 were not ported over to the US.












[image from Entropypump.com]

I recommend this the Dragon Quest Shrine for more info on this series of games.

Completion: Completed all three
Dragon Quest 1 (x 4) = 80 hours
Dragon Quest 2 (x1) = 50 hours
Dragon Quest 3 (x 2) = 100 hours
Hours: 230 hours

Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, and 3

How can we forget about Mario? He's only the most recognized video-game character in the world. So yes, I've had my share of Mario. Heck, I had to because when you bought a Nintendo in 1989, it CAME WITH MARIO. Remember that? When video-game console systems came with stuff? Yes, it came with Super Mario Brothers, Duckhunt, the zapper, and two controllers. Fun.

While I spent a lot of time on Super Mario Bros., I really didn't master it. I didn't "grock" it like the guys on youtube. No, I cannot beat the game in 20 minutes or however fast. I just learned basic plat-form gaming. It was a great time, and I have to admit, you miss those simple side-scroll games here and now.

Super Mario Brothers 2 enabled you to use the Princess, Toad, and Luigi. Yes, we all loved Luigi, but the Princess can float. Each of them had special abilities, so it became a sort of "Lost Vikings" kind of game. Not the greatest game, but I remember a lot of fun getting the star: 23 seconds of invincibility? Not bad.

Super Mario Brothers 3 was the one that everyone loved. I remember when it was the rave when we saw it in the movie "the Wizard" with Fred Savage. God that was a silly movie, but of course we all wanted to be that wiz kid. My favorite aspect of SMB3 was the suits. Yes, you gotta love the suits! I mean, back then all you had were the overalls and then the white over-alls if you had the fire-flower. But in SMB3 you had the Frog Suit, Racoon Suit, Hammer Bro's Suit, etc. Awesome fun. These three games will live on as the great ones, but will I ever play them again? Most likely not.

Completion: Completed
Hours: aprox. 60hrs.