...Let's Plaaaaaaay!!
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Lately, I have been enjoying quite a few new games, including many Gameboy Advance games. One very nice one is Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu
(新約聖剣伝説)
which is an enhanced remake of the original Seiken Densetsu game (for the old black-and-white Gameboy). Never having played the original Gameboy
version, I can only say that it has very nice graphics, similar to that of Seiken Densetsu 3 (see below) for the Super Famicom, but with perhaps less
color depth, but still very nice. Day and night changes seem to be extremely fast - almost every time you go to another screen, it already starts to darken.
The portrait graphics are very similar to that from Legend of Mana (Playstation) (apparently they used the same artist). This artist is, mmn, okay, but
I liked the older art better. The button system has changed from Seiken Densetsu 3, and makes spell casting faster. I just started the game,
but apparently you have different classes that you can work on for your characters as you level up.
Another nice game is Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, which is kind of interesting. It is similar to older Dragon Quest Monsters games in that you have to raise monsters, but the game is quite different - I like the first two monsters you get (a slightly evil normal slime and an eggplant named "Venus"). Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is also quite a fun game, but with a very big problem - that you have to basically read a cheat book at the same time you play the game if you want to get all the skills, blue magic, and items - this is a very typical problem with Square games that makes their games much less fun. (I played through half of it, and realized I was missing quite a lot of stuff, and thus too weak to move on.)
So, anyway, there is some more content here: ignore the defunct Secrets of Asherah FAQ below (based on the First Star Online game), but please take a look at some old content I resurrected (and enhanced) from my old homepage, listed below!
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Other Gameboy Advance games are:
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, a strategy game that is quite good, letting you use various units and heroes, the heroes including
Galdalf, Legolas, and Gimli (and others, who are mostly ignored by me),
Super Real Mahjong Dousoukai (スーパーリアル麻雀同窓会), a game where you play Japanese mahjong and try to get your opponents to take their clothes off,
Breath of Fire II (a port of the Super Famicom RPG),
Romancing Saga (a slightly easier port of the Super Famicom RPG),
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2, a game where you gain outfits to change into different classes - but the main characters look very bland
and empty; actually, I think the old Gameboy Color Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon was better (better costumes and characters).
Dragonball - Advance Adventure, a fun action game where you control Son Gokuu as a child. Also a great vs. game, with energy blasts, air combos, and
various characters like Kuririn and Jackie Chun,
and
Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage, a HARD strategy game that is a lot of fun to play, involving you summoning monsters to be your units.
However, it is VERY HARD since if anyone dies (except story characters), they will disappear forever,
Eye of the Beholder, a new, completely different version of the old PC game now based on D&D 3rd edition rules,
which is actually pretty fun, with battles that are turn-based on grids, but party members can only gain a max of 7 levels.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a one-player action RPG game that is much dungeon crawling
and fighting, with you choosing from three classes - fighter, archer, and mage.
Actually, most recently, the most enjoyable game for me has been Baldur's Gate
(for Windows PCs) which I have
been playing (along with the expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast). This game just blows
away any other RPGs out there - Japanese RPGs have always been too cute, too bright, too unrealistic,
too linear, and too musical - Baldur's Gate is the best thing that ever happened to good old computer RPGs,
and especially to Dungeons & Dragons computer RPGs, which were basically dead for a while. Multiple classes for your main character
(Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Clerics, Druids, Thieves, Bards, Mages, Abjurers,
Conjurers, Diviners, Enchanters, Illusionists, Invokers, Necromancers, and Transmuters) as well as
many races and many tens of
NPCs that can join your party who may have their own special abilities as well. Lots of
story, characters that talk and react to each other, and more, make this game particularly
enjoyable. You can play as good, neutral, or evil characters, and choose to be nice to everyone,
improving your reputation (which lowers prices for you eventually), or pickpocket folks and
open locks, adding to your treasure troves; finally, you can also kill the guards and take
their armor or even kill heroes like Drizzt Do'Urden and take their magic swords - but
your reputation will fall really fast, and ultimately the many guards will even attack you at
sight (and you may be haunted in ways even in the sequel) - but you have lots of fun choices in this game. I guess that they could have made
the druids a bit stronger (this is fixed in the sequel), and the experience point limits are
a bit strict (89,000 for Baldur's Gate, 161,000 for Tales of the Sword Coast (level 8-10
depending on class for single class players)), but there is lots of fun to be had. I do wish
that the old manual was included with it, but as I bought it as a collection that was quite
cheap, I guess it's not so bad (I get a free soundtrack as well, and most patches are already
applied).
General
Baldur's Gate
