Dragon Quest III (Feb 10, 1988)
Platform played: NES emulator (Dragon Quest III Delocalized Romhack)
Date beaten: Dec 18, 2023
I played Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 3 back-to-back, and it was quite a journey. Going into the game unspoiled, I didn't understand at first why this was considered part of the "Erdrick Trilogy." I mean, you get to name and customize your own party, and no one ever mentioned Erdrick/Loto having companions, so it's not like this could actually be a prequel where you were secretly playing as Erdrick the whole time, right? RIGHT? Wrong. It's revealed at the end that you were indeed playing as him the whole time. The last segment of the game sees you traveling to Alefgard, and after defeating the final boss, you are granted the "title" of Erdrick (Loto in the Japanese and "delocalized" version), the legendary hero. To be fair, seeds for this were planted in the original Dragon Quest, which did mention that Loto was a hero "from another world." This game shows us that world, and how Loto got to Alefgard, which was a "world of darkness" in perpetual night below Loto's "world of light" above. The eternal night is lifted after Loto defeats the archfiend Zoma, which is why Alefgard looks normal in DQI+II. Also, the world that Loto comes from bears a great deal of resemblance to our Earth, which locations based on Japan, Egypt, etc. It's still weird that no one ever mentioned Loto having companions, though...
All that aside. This is the first DQ to have a "job system." Aside from the hero who is of the unique "Hero" class and has a similar progression to the heroes of the previous two games, the first of your party is hired adventurers you create and recruit from the tavern, like in Wizardry. The game recommends you recruit a balanced party of a Wizard, Warrior/Soldier, and Priest/Pilgrim, but you're free to customize your party however you wish (aside from the Hero, who can't be dropped), and the Temple of Dharma/Alltrades Abbey eventually allows you to change classes (if you've reached at least level 20), which is the only way to acquire the Sage class; you either have to have one of your party members read the Book of Satori/Book of Enlightenment and then change classes at the Abbey, OR if you manage to raise the joke class Goof-Off/Jester to level 20, they can become a Sage for free. Also like Wizardry, changing classes resets you to level 1. But you get to keep the spells and abilities you have already learned from your previous class.
This is also the first DQ to introduce gambling, in the form of the monster arena where you can bet on monster fights. I didn't touch on this mechanic at all though. Despite that, and despite not finding any cheap "infinite gold" exploits in this entry like the first two had, I ended the game with an excessive amount of money.
TV Tropes credits this game for basically all trends (in both story and mechanics) of modern RPGs, including late game twists of "woops, it turns out the guy you thought was the final boss wasn't the real final boss!" and secretly having a whole nother world to explore. This twist probably worked better back then since a) it wasn't done to death yet and b) this game's pause menu isn't full of compendiums clearly showing you "hm, I'm about to fight the supposed 'final' boss, yet I've only acquired 50% of the game's collectibles..." (Modern remakes might have that problem though, idk)
Maybe it was from playing three DQ games in a row, but while I really enjoyed this game, near the end I was starting to get fed up with all the random encounters. It seems like there is one every couple of steps when you're just trying to get somewhere or figure out where your boat went, but then when you want to grind, there aren't enough. Eventually you gain an item that lets you enter a battle at will, which is great for grinding - but for the opposite, preventing random encounters, there's never an item or spell that seems to work as reliably. Though, like DQI and II, you do get the ability to explore the world encounter-free after beating the final boss, which is always nice. But speaking of randomness, here are some other things that are really annoying:
- High-level spells having no effect on the enemy. Is this because the spell has a high chance of failing, or the enemy has a resistance to it, or your wizard is equipped with the wrong stuff or has bad stats? The game will not tell you.
- Spells to revive party members have a chance of failing. A lot. And you still lose the MP if it fails. This seems to have been a common thing in old-school RPGs, but I can't fathom why. I have stern words for whoever first thought this was fun or a good idea.
- Enemies that have instant death spells. You can seal their magic to prevent this, unless of course, you get ambushed and they kill or put your entire party to sleep before you can even act. Of course, your instant death spells never seem to work.
On the upside, the Poison Needle has a chance to insta-kill and it seemed to work decently often, which made it much easier to grind on the Metal Babbles.
I will admit, I played the whole trilogy on emulator and made liberal use of save states and speed-up for grinding purposes, which made it much more fun and less tedious to me.
Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (Apr 22, 1988)
Platform played: PC (YSI&II Chronicles+)
Date beaten: Dec 25, 2023
An immediate sequel to Ys I, which ended on a cliffhanger. This game adds a magic system which adds a little more complexity to the combat. Most bosses now have you dodging bullets while shooting fireballs at them, except for the final two bosses who are immune to magic. For this one, I made my own map of the first dungeon which is very maze-like. I tried to get through most of the game without a guide but eventually decided to use one to navigate the final dungeon. I was still able to get almost everything and beat the game with only one item missing, since it was hidden in an earlier area before I looked up the guide.
There is also a HUGE amount of dialogue in this game, making the world feel much more fleshed-out compared to other '80s JRPGs. Not only do you have numerous NPCs as before, who can now be given gifts and react accordingly, but you can also talk to every single non-boss enemy in the game once you gain the Alter magic. And they all have unique dialogue. Sometimes they give you hints (which means you get many more hints than in the first game), but sometimes it's just for humor/fun/flavor. When you first start talking to them, you'll hear things like "Many of my friends have been killed recently. Be careful!" making you feel guilty for killing monsters decades before Undertale. The impact is somewhat lessened by the enemies always respawning, however.
Super Mario Bros. 2 | Super Mario Bros. USA (Oct 9, 1988)
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: October 30, 2023
Kinda frustrating at first but fun once you get the hang of it. The bosses are quite repetitive though. I beat it with Luigi. It is a platformer like the first game, but with the ability to play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, or Toad, and they each have slightly different abilities, e.g. Luigi is "slippery" but jumps higher and Peach can float. You also have the ability to pick up items and throw them, which can be used to defeat enemies or to make magic doors appear. To defeat the recurring boss Birdo, you must pick up her egg and throw it back at her, and defeating the final boss Wart requires throwing vegetables into his machine.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Oct 23, 1988)
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: Dec 21, 2023
Having grown up with Super Mario World, I can't help but be reminded of that game, which of course came after this. The overall gameplay style is very similar, where you move Mario around the world map to select which side-scrolling level you want to tackle next. (For the most part the game is still fairly linear, though it's possible to do some stages out of order or skip them entirely, plus the hidden warp whistles from previous entries return as well). But I can't exactly say that Mario World is "just Mario 3 on the SNES," since it does add new mechanics such as Yoshi.
This is the most involved and complex of the NES Mario titles, with a very large map, lots of power-ups and minigames. I love the Tanuki suit personally. It still has repetitive bosses like the previous Mario titles, however. There are essentially two bosses in the entire game with slight variations, with the final boss of Bowser being the only one that is actually different. Bowser is, as usual, a puzzle boss who can't be harmed by just jumping on him. I did like that Bowser himself doesn't appear until you actually reach his castle at the end, unlike the first Mario Bros. where you repeatedly fought fake Bowsers. After you beat him, Peach says "Thank you Mario but our princess is in another castle!...Just kidding!" which got a sensible chuckle from me.
I kind of stopped having fun with World 8 and its auto-scrolling tank levels, but I stuck it out and finished the game with heavy abuse of save states. Overall, a pretty good time.
As for as the story: This game notably does NOT start with Princess Peach being kidnapped. Instead, the Koopalings are using the magic wands to transform the kings of the various domains, and Mario has to defeat the Koopalings to take back the magic wand and transform them back at the end of each of the worlds. Peach sends you helpful letters and items at the end of each world, but when you beat World 7, you instead get a taunting letter from Bowser saying that he kidnapped the princess while you were busy running around, so now you have to go to World 8 to save her.
Final Fantasy II (Dec 17, 1988)
Platform played: GBA emulator (Final Fantasy I+II: Dawn of Souls)
Date beaten: January 19, 2024
I was tempted to skip this one but felt kind of obligated to play it. Honestly, I didn't like it much. The gameplay is kind of janky, and it's known for being the first FF To attempt having a "proper" story (as opposed to FF1 which is more trying to be some kind of single-player D&D campaign) but the story is a fairly generic "rebels take on the evil empire" plot that isn't really good enough to be worth the tedious gameplay.
Some interesting quirks of this game:
- It doesn't have the traditional level-up system that most FFs/RPGs in general have. Instead, you level up your stats by using them, eg using a certain weapon makes you more proficient in using that weapon and getting hit increases your HP. This is kind of neat and makes some sense but isn't always intuitive (I never quite figured out how to increase evasion) and can incentize counterintuitive behavior, like attacking yourself.
- The "keyword" system. When you talk to people, sometimes they will use a key term highlighted in red, which you can "Learn," and then "Ask" other people about that term. Maybe inspired by the way you'd be able to type in different keywords to ask people about in computer RPGs like Ultima.
- Your three main party members are always Firion, Maria, and Guy. Your fourth party member constantly rotates out at different points in the story. It might have been nice if you were able to choose from different recruitable party members, instead of it being dictated by the story, though...
I think the game suffers from a lack of side content. You get the airship near the end and just use it to land on the top floor of the castle which is the final dungeon. In more modern JRPGs you might get the airship near the end, but then you can use it to revisit previous towns to finish up all your sidequests and stuff. Doesn't really happen in this game, especially seeing as most towns have been destroyed by the empire at that point. Which, to be fair, does fit the game's theme of being oppressed underdog rebels fighting against a powerful evil empire.
Mega Man 2 | Rockman 2: Wily no Nazo
Platform played: NES Classic Mini / PC (Mega Man Legacy Collection)
Date beaten: Dec 12, 2023 / Feb 17, 2024
Dr. Wily is back and has created 8 new robot masters to get back at Dr. Light after the events of the first game. The original 6 robot masters in the first game were actually created by Dr. Light to help humanity and Dr. Wily had reprogrammed them to be evil, but the ones in this game were actually created as weapons to begin with. At the end you fight Dr. Wily again of course. His machine has two phases, followed by another fight where he turns into an alien. He was an alien the whole time?! Nope, defeating him reveals that it was all a trick and he was projecting the alien form using holographic technology. Kind of amusing. This trick might be the "mystery" (nazo) referred to by the Japanese subtitle.
This is the only Mega Man game to be included on the NES Classic, probably because the series is excessively formulaic so they only wanted to choose one game to represent the series, and this may be the most well-liked and fondly remembered of the NES Mega Mans. It improves on the first game, and all the sequels pretty much stick with the same formula established here, but later games do add some important innovations such as the slide and charged shots.
I beat it over two days, with my total playtime being around 1 hour 30 minutes. I beat it on "normal" difficulty, which I recall hearing was actually an easier difficulty added for the international release, with the "difficult" level actually being the original Japanese difficulty. That may be why some people find it easier than the first game.
I mostly like this game for the memorable Robot Master designs and kickass music. Otherwise, the level design is just okay. I'm glad I saved Heat Man's stage for last so I could use the items to basically skip over the stupid vanishing blocks. Wily's Castle can get a little bit annoying with certain bosses that require specific weapons to defeat, but there are generous health and ammo pickups that can be farmed from respawning enemies, so it's not too bad, especially compared to the endgames of some of the other NES titles I've played recently. Unlike SMB3 and DQ3, at no point did I think "maybe I'll just give up and not finish this one" near the end. But this game is also a lot shorter than those two, so maybe it's just a matter of the game not overstaying its welcome...
After buying the Legacy Collection on Steam, I played it again beat the Japanese version which is the same as the American "Difficult" setting. Since I was able to beat Rockman 1 and Rockman 2 on the same day, I've definitely gotten better and faster at them after having played each one before. After playing them both back to back, I think I might slightly prefer the first one? The second is definitely more polished, but Wily's Castle kind of ruins it for me because it's one of the most infuriating things I've experienced, particularly the Boobeam Trap boss, which basically necessitates going back and grinding for energy, which slows down the pace immensely and feels out of place in an otherwise fast-paced action game. The final boss also can only be damaged by one weapon, and it doesn't look like there's really an area nearby to grind for energy, so I literally don't even know how you were supposed to beat this without save scumming. I guess you just have to die and continue so your energy gets refilled? Wily's second phase has attacks that seem almost impossible to dodge, too.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest | Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin (Dec 31, 1988)
Platform played: NES Classic Mini
Date beaten: Dec 22, 2023
It's a direct sequel to the first game. Simon has defeated Dracula, but is suffering from a curse. To break it, he must collect five of Dracula's body parts to resurrect Dracula and destroy him again.
The Japanese subtitle translates to "The Seal of the Curse."
Like Metroid, the ending you receive depends upon on how fast you beat the game. Dracula is defeated in all endings, but in the "Bad Ending" (15+ in-game days) Simon seemingly succombs to his wounds immediately following the battle. In the "Neutral Ending" (7-14 days), Simon doesn't survive his fatal wounds, but is still shown in the ending screen (the bad ending only shows the gravestone). In the "Good Ending" (7 or fewer in-game days), it seems Simon lives out a full life after defeating Dracula.
I was able to beat this game in a single real-time day with the help of a guide - The combat and platforming in this game is actually MUCH easier than the first one. Though there are six "mansions" (similar to the "palaces" of Zelda 2, basically the dungeons of this game), there are only three bosses in the whole game, including Dracula himself. Instead, the game's difficulty comes from its sheer cypticness. Like Zelda 2, it's a sort of open-ended adventure-RPG where it can be difficult to figure out where to go and what to do next. This puts the game's difficulty in kind of a bad spot where without a guide, it's too hard, but with a guide (or a fan patch making the hints less cryptic), it's too easy.
In addition to the infamous day/night cycle, this game adds "RPG elements" to the series for the first time. Like in Zelda 2, you go to towns and walk around and talk to people and buy items from them, and farm enemies for experience and currency. Curiously, it seems these elements weren't well-received at the time, but would return in Symphony of the Night which solidified them as part of the Castlevania formula. This is still kind of an oddball in the NES Castlevania trilogy though.
The Manhole
Platform played: PC (Masterpiece Edition on GOG)
Date played: 6/1/26
It's debatable if this counts as a "game." From what I can tell, there is no goal of any kind nor puzzles to solve. It's simply a bunch of interconnected screens in which you wander around and click things to see what will happen. In one case, I went to Mr. Dragon's lair and no one was home, but another time I found him, so there seems to be a bit of randomness to it, or maybe the characters follow a schedule depending on the time. It's aimed at kids and as such, is very whimsical. GOG claims it's "educational" but I have to assume they just mean because it would help a child get used to using a computer - otherwise, it doesn't resemble any edutainment game I've played. Probably the most notable thing about this game is not the game itself, but the fact that it was created by the developers of Myst, before they went on to create that much more famous game.
Game of the year: Despite listing my frustrations with it above, I think I will have to give the title to the iconic and influential Dragon Quest III.