Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

Wizardry VI marked a significant new turn for the series; not least of which because it was actually the first to use a new engine, departing from the one they'd had for five previous games and over seven years.  With it also came a whole new slew of playable races, from Dracons to Felpurrs to Mooks, as well as numerous new classes like Valkyries, Bards, Psionics and Alchemists.  Magic, rather than being simply divided into priest and mage spells, has been similarly overhauled, now comprising the domains of fire, water, air, earth, mental, and holy spells, restricted by class - only Psionics can use all of the Mental spells, for example, while Alchemists get a small handful from every sphere to simulate them brewing various potions and poisons.  There's a limited skill system in place too, with some being tied to a particular class (such as the Bard's music skill) while most others can be used by several classes or even any class; though obviously things like Legerdemain (pickpocketing) and Skullduggery (lockpicking) are best suited to specialized classes like the Thief.  The core gameplay remains quintessentially Wizardry, though - first person dungeon crawling with 90 degree angles, punishingly difficult battles and a whole lot of grinding - but you can at least do proper saves and reloads now rather than having to roll a whole new party each time you die.  There is also no hub town this time - you start off straight in the dungeon itself and make do with whatever you scavenge from treasure chests or battles, or whatever scattered NPCs you can barter with.  Something else relatively unique for the time is that each of the two games also have multiple endings - depending on how you complete the story, importing your party into the next game will start them in a different place in the next one and with slightly different surrounding story events, though the overall story and sequence of events remains largely unchanged.  Still quintessentially old-school, brutally tough, grindy and "primitive" in design even a decade after the series' origins, Wizardry 6 and 7 are for a very niche audience, but those who enjoy their specific school of design swear by them.

 

Developer: Sir-Tech

Publisher: Sir-Tech, ASCII Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nightdive Studios

Released: 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2013

Platforms: PC, FM Towns, PC-98, PlayStation, Mac OS

I would also strongly recommend you play the DOS version of Wizardry 7 and not the Windows remake "Wizardry Gold"; Gold breaks several important skills and makes the game much more difficult to complete.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike

DragonStrike (not to be confused with the similarly-named D&D board game) is certainly an odd take on Dungeons and Dragons, exhuming RPG design in favor of an aerial flight and combat sim game.  The player is put in the role of a knight riding on the back of a dragon, and over the course of numerous missions they shoot down enemies with dragon breath or defeat them in melee combat using their dragon's claws, teeth or their lance.  There's quite a few of them too - dragons, manticores, wyverns and beholders all attack at various times, and flying too low will put you in range of enemy archers, so that's something to avoid.  Per Westwood standards the game is quite impressive visually with its smoothly animated (albeit undetailed) 3D environments and enemies, and the 2D artwork on display between stages is quite beautiful to behold.  While not a particularly deep game it is fun while it lasts, and if nothing else it's probably the only flight sim that will ever be attached to the D&D license. 

Developer: Westwood Associates
Publisher: Strategic Simulations
Released: 1990
Platforms: Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, PC-9801, Sharp X68000

Neutopia

 The Legend of Zelda was without a doubt one of the defining games on the Famicom and gaming as a whole in the mid '80s, so when NEC launched their PC Engine console in 1987 (later released in North America as the TurboGrafx-16), it made sense to have their own answer to Zelda on it.  Hudson Soft stepped up to develop the game, releasing it in 1989 in Japan and the following year in North America.  For what is likely the first 16-bit Zelda clone, it does its job pretty admirably, with plenty of secrets to uncover and several dungeons to complete over the course of the story.  There are quite a few similarities to Zelda - health restoring potions, bombs to blow open walls, and a fire rod as both a weapon and a means of burning down trees to uncover secrets - as well as some new ones, like rings that transform enemies into weaker enemies.  It does have quite a lot more dialog than Zelda does, though, as well as some interesting cultural influences, like a golem for a boss (complete with a giant Star of David) and a bizarre Star Wars reference or two.  Interestingly the game also has two ways to save - either via a password system or, if you have a Turbografx-CD addon, to that system's internal RAM.  The Turbografx didn't get too many RPGs of its own (not outside of Japan, at least), but Neutopia is a good one if you have the means to play it.

Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft, NEC
Platform: TurboGrafx-16, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console, PSN
Released: 1990, 2007, 2011, 2017

Little Ninja Brothers (aka Super Chinese 2)

Super Chinese is one of Culture Brain's most prominent franchises (surpassed perhaps only by their Flying Dragon fighting game series), though it's probably better known for its release under various titles with the word "Ninja" in them - Ninja Kid, Ninja Boy, and on NES, Little Ninja Brothers.  The moniker doesn't make a great deal of sense considering ninjas and ninjutsu are very Japanese in origin (and I don't recall a single instance of in-game dialog referring to the characters as ninjas) but regardless, that's what they called them.  Anyhow, Little Ninja Brothers is the first game in the franchise to incorporate RPG elements - you travel across the world, find towns, upgrade gear, and get into random encounters.  Combat plays much like it did in the first Super Chinese game (localized as "Kung Fu Heroes"), pitting the player against waves of enemies from a top-down perspective.  Thankfully, the game does retain its two-player gameplay for these segments, making it a rare example of a co-op RPG on the system.  Throughout the journey you also undertake olympic-style sporting events to gain new abilities and equipment, with both players competing against one another or, if playing solo, against the CPU.  In some ways, this makes it an early precursor to later RPGs that had minigames as a major component of their design like Super Mario RPG and the Playstation Final Fantasy games.  It still has the same weird hit detection that Kung Fu Heroes did, though, so combat takes some getting used to.  However, its quirky sense of humor, exaggerated style and quite good music make it a fun journey regardless.  Little Ninja Brothers is one of the more uncommon NES games these days, but if you come across a copy, give it a go with a friend - you'll have some fun with it.

Developer: Culture Brain
Publisher: Culture Brain
Released: 1990
Platform: NES, Wii U Virtual Console (PAL territories only)

The Magic of Scheherazade

Culture Brain isn't a name that's commonly spoken these days in the west, but in the '80s and '90s they were a fairly prominent name, producing games with some interesting gameplay elements and, as their name implies, were often somewhat cultural experiences.  (The company still exists today too, though they haven't had a game released in the west since 1997).  Magic of Scheherazade is their first attempt at an RPG, and they certainly made no secret of their inspirations, copying elements from Zelda and Dragon Quest alike.  Much of the action takes place in a top-down perspective, having the player explore maps and battle enemies with swords and magic rods, but every now and then when you enter a screen you'll enter a turn-based battle instead, fighting alongside the bizarre gallery of allies you collect throughout the game.  As the name implies the setting is also a relatively unique one for a Japanese RPG, drawing much inspiration from the Arabian Nights in its monster designs and setting.  Also uniquely, you can attend Universities to learn new combat formations (which unlock powerful spells for your allies), and you can even ask for discounts at shops and often get them (though asking multiple times will cause the shopkeeper to become angry and kick you out).  Time travel is a significant element of the story too, having you hop between past and future versions of the current map and radically changing up the There are also several very powerful, one-time-only use "Great Spells" with amazingly powerful effects - topping off your money and supply of all items, changing the landscape to get rid of health-draining desert screens, or fully healing the entire party.  It never quite hit the ranks of becoming an NES classic, though, and that's because, while unique, it's not the most fun game to play - you're a large target, hit detection is awkward and combat balance is pretty lackluster, particularly for the turn-based battles - you either get demolished or you effortlessly decimate the enemy, and they rarely give enough experience to be worth the effort of fighting them either way.  The game also strangely utilizes a lives system, and once all your lives are depleted, the game ends.  Saved games are a thing, of course, but they utilize a 43-character password system to track your progress.  An imaginative game at its core, but its gameplay doesn't quite stack up; it's still a cheap game to purchase nowadays, though, so you may want to give it a go.

Developer: Culture Brain
Publisher: Culture Brain
Released: 1990
Platform: NES

Double Dungeons

Dungeon crawlers aren't quite as prevalent in gaming today as they were in the '80s and early '90s, but they continue to have a devoted fanbase nonetheless, with gamers drawn to their addicting design - traversing a big maze full of monsters and traps, collecting treasure and solving puzzles is the quintessential RPG experience.  The Turbografx-16 had relatively few examples of the genre to its name compared to its competitors, and I imagine Double Dungeons didn't win over too many fans.  It's a pretty simple game overall- you just maneuver through a given maze, bop monsters, get money to purchase equipment and fight a boss at the end, with a second player optionally joining in (starting at a different point in the maze) to help you if you wish.  There's little in the way of narration (you just get a bit of text at the start explaining your "objective" for that stage, which has no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever), and there's basically nothing in the way of puzzles, traps or obstacles other than monsters.  There's virtually no penalty for death, either - you just get dropped back at the start of the maze and respawn to full health to try again, so the whole thing feels pretty insubstantial.  Just a bland experience in general, and having a second player along adds surprisingly little to the experience; surprising considering this is one of the earliest co-op RPGs I'm aware of.  But when Wizardry, Might and Magic and Ultima already had several defining entries on both consoles and PC, and hell, even the legendary Ultima Underworld wasn't too far off by the time this one was out, there's little reason to play Double Dungeons other than morbid curiosity.

Developer: NCS

Publisher: Masaya, NEC

Released: 1990

Platform: Turbografx-16, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console

Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (1990)

Lord of the Rings is of course a highly popular and influential franchise; beginning with the source novels from the 1950s, it's gotten all manner of adaptations to radio, film, television, stage and even video games, and it shows no signs of slowing down.  Interplay, a name pretty well established in the RPG field with games like The Bard's Tale and Wasteland, created two different adaptations of Fellowship of the Ring - a 1990 computer RPG similar in design to the Ultima games, and a 1994 action-RPG for the Super Nintendo.  The 1990 game is pretty solid for what it is, having you venture around Middle-Earth as Frodo and friends and following the overall plot of the book pretty closely, though with quite a bit of side-content added for variety and even quite a few new characters can join the party to aid you.  It is rather light on actual role-playing elements, that said - there is little, if any, opportunity to customize your characters' abilities and equipment (all you get is one weapon and one piece of armor), most puzzles just boil down to "use the right skill at the right place, and if you don't have a character with that skill, recruit one", and combat is pretty shallow overall, mostly just coming down to trading blows with monsters and hoping your dice roll better than theirs.  This version did get a sequel as well as a CD rerelease, with the CD version providing a much-improved UI (including a minimap and no longer having to look up story paragraphs in the manual) and utilizing some clips from the 1978 animated film at key story moments.  While it's still not an incredible game by any stretch, it's a solid enough adaptation of the books and will probably provide some entertainment for die-hard fans.

Developer: Interplay Productions, Silicon and Synapse (Amiga)
Publisher: Interplay Productions
Released: 1990
Platform: MS-DOS, Amiga, PC-98, FM Towns

Super Hydlide

The third game in the Hydlide series and the second to be localized for a western audience, this time as an early release for the Sega Genesis.  A few improvements are evident right away - you have a choice of multiple classes, as well as an attack button, so combat isn't just a game of madly dashing into enemies and hoping for the best.  However, the game also unwisely attempts to add in a lot of CRPG elements - you have to manage your carry weight (carrying too much will slow you down dramatically or even make you immobile), hunger, tiredness (stay awake too long and you die) and even Morality - attacking "good" monsters will cause more traps to appear, while avoiding doing so will earn you extra rewards.  It also goes into a rather surreal place, having you travel the stars and even wander through space at one point, so it's got quite a bit of that early CRPG imagination to it too.  It's still very easy to die - both you and your enemies register numerous hits per second and venturing even a screen too far can result in you getting reamed by much stronger foes - so you have to be absolutely on-point with your movement and attacks and diligently manage your character if you want to get far.  Basically, it's Hydlide with a few improvements, but also a lot of new annoyances attached that, while at home in CRPGs of the time, feel rather forced in a game built around fast paced action.  Still, its creative elements and just being a substantially better game than its predecessor (while not quite escaping its annoying trappings) make it at least worth a brief look.

Developer: T&E Soft
Publisher: Asmik, Seismic Software
Released: 1990
Platforms: MSX, MSX2, PC-88, Famicom, Genesis, Sharp X68000

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light

The humble origin of the Fire Emblem franchise, which proved unpopular with critics for its difficulty curve and relatively undetailed graphics but was a big hit with Japanese gamers, who enjoyed its challenge and surprising depth; enough to make it a cult classic that would see fan translations, tons of sequels and spinoffs and, for a limited time, an official release on the Nintendo Switch marking its worldwide debut.  This game introduced the world to many of Fire Emblem's design tropes that would be used for three decades and counting - utilizing terrain and character skills to your advantage, having your equipment degrade with use (necessitating that you find/buy replacements on a fairly frequent basis), and of course the series' mainstay of dead units being lost forever, necessitating careful planning and risk mitigation.  That said, it is a bit slow and stiff to play, particularly compared to many of the newer games' highly polished UIs and memorable character interactions.  Still, it's worth a look for series fans and RPG buffs; if you want to experience the story in full, though, I'd say play the remake (Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for Nintendo DS) instead.

Developer: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: 1990, 2020
Platforms: Famicom, Switch

Destiny of an Emperor

The Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history is one that's ripe for adaptations, and there have been tons of them in the realm of gaming (probably the best-known of which are Koei's Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchises).  Capcom took their own crack at it (and their first foray into RPGs) with an adaptation of the manga "Tenchi wo Kurau".  Not a turn-based strategy game as you'd expect, though - a traditional Japanese RPG with a few terms switched around.  Hit Points are your soldiers, Tactics are your spells, and there are 150 recruitable characters to serve as your generals in battle, act as a reserve force should one of your generals fall, or become your tactician and provide your whole team with various Tactics to utilize.  Unlike most RPGs your characters' Strength and Intelligence stats are fixed and never increase with levels; only a small handful of characters improve with experience (and even then, only to increase their max soldiers and learn new tactics).  In fact, grinding in general is discouraged owing to the Rations system - every step you take on the world map depletes one ration, and you start losing troops with every step until you purchase more. Battles tend to go on for quite a while, but fortunately there is a handy function in the "All-Out" command that causes both sides to continually attack one another and skip all prompts and dialog boxes until one side falls or you hit the B button to cancel it; handy for quickly mopping up weaker forces, but not so much when you're facing any considerable threat.  Destiny of an Emperor is not the most talked-about NES RPG, but it does have a dedicated following, with fans creating their own editing tools and scenarios to keep players coming back for more.  Worth a look!

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Released: 1990

Platforms: NES

Escape from Hell

The second Wasteland-copycat game released by Electronic Arts in 1990, and like Fountain of Dreams, it's a rather creative concept - your character and his girlfriend are teleported to Hell and, as the title suggests, you try to rescue her and escape back to the world of the living.  The game's humor is pretty on-point throughout, with a lot of characters making rather flippant remarks about the sins that landed them here, and it liberally references the Divine Comedy throughout (with the first place you visit being Limbo, home to virtuous pagans).  You'll also encounter other people and locales of dubious virtue, from annoying clowns to waiting rooms with times reaching into the thousands of years to televangelists with their mouths permanently zippered shut.  Quite a few notorious figures appear, both real and fictional - from Hamlet to Juliet to Genghis Khan, Al Capone, Caesar and yes, even Adolf Hitler; some are just there for a bit of dialog, while others serve as foes and still others will join you in your quest (often with little prompting).  Fitting in with Bard's Tale, Wasteland and the other games with art direction by Nancy Fong, Escape has some delightfully detailed and grotesque character portraits with bits of animation to give them more personality, all masterfully rendered by Alan J. Murphy.  The downside is it still has the same trappings as those games too -  the world state is saved to disk every time you enter or exit an area, which means collected treasure chests will not respawn (ever, even if you start a new game without completely reinstalling from master disks) but all of the enemies will, meaning you can potentially screw yourself over if you don't have enough resources to get through areas packed with monsters.  Also, like Fountain of Dreams, the whole thing is disappointingly short and threadbare, which squanders a great deal of what could have been done with the concept - few NPCs have any meaningful interactions, the narrative is disappointingly limited and several plot threads go without any satisfactory resolution, only three major locations exist (even less than Fountain had) and nearly all NPCs you can speak to use the same generic portrait; bafflingly, even some major characters do too.  Basically, it's just another example of EA being EA - taking a great concept formulated by a team of talented developers, writers and artists... and rushing it out the door in a shoddy and unfinished state, dooming their hard work to be forgotten in only a few months' time.  A terrible waste back in 1990 and still going awful today; that's Electronic Arts for you.

Developer: Electronic Arts

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: 1990
Platform: MS-DOS

Swords & Serpents

Most first-person dungeon crawling experiences on the NES were relatively mediocre ports of computer games, but Swords and Serpents was an exception, being built exclusively for the system and taking advantage of its capabilities to deliver something relatively unique for the genre.  But does it prove to be a satisfying experience for genre fans, or are they simply better off sticking to MS-DOS?

The NES has several iconic RPGs, but nearly all of them are Japanese in origin.  While most obviously drew inspiration from early CRPGs - Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy being two prominent examples - they took advantage of the hardware's capabilities to create a fresh and new experience that looked and sounded good, as well as making substantial interface improvements and curbing a lot of the overly irritating quirks that made those games difficult to enjoy for all but the most masochistic gamers.  While made for a younger audience, many older gamers found them more fun as well, leading to a split in the genre that drove both camps to up their efforts for later projects.

Most ports of computer games to the system didn't fare quite as well, doing little to tone down the irritating elements of the originals and adding plenty of bugs of their own.  Names were changed, items didn't work as they should, and the push to add graphics and sound mostly just made them slower and less fun to play.  Swords and Serpents was a definite oddity, however; being made by a western company and specifically for the NES definitely set it apart.

Further setting it apart was the fact that it was a slightly more actiony take on the genre, with a simpler UI, relatively fast-paced combat, little focus on stats and even multiplayer support; if one had an NES Satellite or Four Score, they could have up to three friends join them on the adventure, each controlling one of the four party characters.  The game put a relatively minimal focus on stats (paring it down to just Strength, Intelligence and Agility), has only three classes and keeps a minimap on screen at all times, making it one of the easiest games of its type to pick up and play too.

Of course, the game isn't entirely a cakewalk or it wouldn't be particularly fun.  Random encounters are frequent, and locating a temple so one can heal up and restore their MP quickly becomes key to not getting overwhelmed by their sheer frequency.  Finding clues and new spells hidden throughout the game, saving money to upgrade equipment, and finding shortcuts back to earlier floors to solve puzzles are other key elements of the experience.  Floors are also relatively large, so it may pay off to have maps handy (or make your own) regardless of the minimap present on the screen.

Interestingly for an RPG on the NES, Swords and Serpents features no battery backup, instead opting for a password system.  It's implemented in a rather strange way, though, as there is not one, but FIVE passwords - one to track your progress in the dungeon, the other for each of your four characters.  This does theoretically allow each player to power up their characters separately on their own time, but this does come with a couple of drawbacks.  First is that you have to punch all five passwords in each time you game over or turn the console off, and second is that gained experience resets to zero each time you do.  So if you're even just a few points away from a level and get wiped or turn the game off, you have to start from scratch at whatever level your last password recorded.

Swords and Serpents, all in all, is a competent and entertaining dungeon crawler.  It reaps the benefits of being built for the NES console. having some nicely detailed visuals, relatively good music (by George Sanger) and sound, and a simple, easy-to-use UI.  The option to have multiplayer gameplay is a novel one too, if somewhat underfeatured, and while somewhat clumsily implemented, one can also power up their characters separately without having to use the same cartridge.  It may not reach the plateau of being a classic of the genre, but it's a fun, decently-long and well-made experience that won't break your wallet.

Developer: Interplay Productions

Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment

Platform: NES
Released: 1990
Recommended Version: N/A

(There is also an Intellivision game titled "Swords and Serpents", but it has no relation)

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line

The second in the Dragon Quest series, noted for greatly expanding upon the original game in almost every way it was possible to.  But did it prove to be a worthwhile RPG adventure for 8-bit RPG players, or was this just overshadowed by other contemporary games?

Dragon Warrior was a modest success in North America (in no small part thanks to a Nintendo Power promotion giving away copies of the game for free), but a monstrous success in Japan, so naturally, a sequel was inevitable.  Several sequels, actually, as the franchise continues to this day, spawning a number of spinoffs and side-games that all expand upon the original format in various ways.  The core series has remained relatively constant in design, though, only getting modest updates and maintaining the same overall minimal design philosophy.

Still, it had to make significant leaps and bounds forward in some places, and Dragon Quest II may just be the series' most prominent example of that.  This is evident right from the get-go, as the first thing you see upon starting is a fairly lengthy cutscene depicting the fall of the kingdom of Moonbrooke, with a single surviving soldier escaping to tell the king of Midenhall what happened.  The player is then given control of the Prince of Midenhall and sets out on an adventure to defeat the evil Hargon.

A world-spanning one in this case, as the action in Dragon Warrior II is no longer confined to a single island, but a world map roughly four times the size of the original.  The game is largely traversed on foot at first, but later in the game one unlocks the ability to teleport between specific points by unlocking teleporters across the planet, as well as sailing on the ocean via the ship (lending a nonlinear element to the proceedings).  Dungeons are significantly longer too, as well as tougher, with quite a few more traps and puzzles to solve to make your way through.  One also has the option to gamble in a few places too, which can earn the player some extra cash and prizes while giving them a short reprieve from constant battles for that purpose.

Going further, the game is no longer a quest undertaken by a single character.  Instead there are now three playable characters, with the Prince of Midenhall primarily being a melee fighter with the ability to equip heavy armor and the strongest weapons, but unable to cast any spells.  The Prince of Cannock joins later and is primarily a supportive character, being only an okay fighter but able to cast healing and supportive spells.  Finally, the Princess of Moonbrooke is the weakest of the three physically, but can cast powerful spells that quickly wipe out enemies.  This lends a bit more variety to the game than the original, as they also have quite a few more spells than were seen in the original game.

Naturally, enemies now appear in larger groups too - sometimes six or seven in a single battle, with enemies often taking on similar roles to those seen in the party.  Bigger hard-hitting types are often seen with HP-restoring "Healers", and a line of strong enemies can be backed by a caster that deals heavy damage and is generally more of a threat than his protectors.  The Wizardry influence is definitely felt here - both from the variety of enemies you face and just the general design of the UI, which consists mostly of windows and monster sprites on a solid black background.  One slightly annoying element is that the player can only target specific groups of enemies and not individual units within that group, which can lead to you spreading out your attacks and enemies getting more turns in.  Magic that targets entire groups does mitigate this to a small degree, but as in many JRPGs, you'll probably want to conserve the majority of it for bosses.

Like the original game, though, Dragon Quest II is a very grindy experience, requiring you to stop at several points and power up before you're tough enough to overcome a dungeon or a particularly irritating boss - a rather lengthy process as most enemies give very little in the way of experience.  It can also get particularly frustrating in some areas, particularly toward the end where you hit a brick wall of difficulty, with areas packed to the brim by difficult enemies that can easily wipe your entire party.  Which is only compounded in the penultimate dungeon, which is a lengthy maze of rooms that one must enter in a very specific way - one wrong turn sends you all the way back to the start to try again.  But even worse than that is the final dungeon itself; while relatively straightforward, it is packed to the brim with encounters containing enemies that destroy themselves to instantly kill one of your characters, and if they happen to hit your healer, your run is pretty much ruined as you have no way to revive him (aside from a leaf of the Yggdrasil tree, which you are only allowed to have one of at a time).  Basically, it doesn't matter how much you level up before coming here - getting to the boss relatively intact is just a matter of pure luck.  Thankfully, most remakes of the game do at least throw you a bone here by giving the Princess a revive spell as well, so you can bounce back, even if at a considerable cost to your resources.

In short, Dragon Quest 2 is a logical extension of the first, adding a bit onto everything - a bigger world, more characters, more varied enemies and tactics, and quite a bit more challenge.  It doesn't stray far from what made the original game popular, but that's part of the appeal for its fans, and for a game that dates all the way back to 1987, it was still quite novel to see a game with depth and longevity rivaling a PC RPG on a console.  It may not be my favorite game of the era to revisit or even my favorite Dragon Quest game, but it's a fun piece of history and a decent RPG in its own right.  Just be ready for it to become downright hateful as you approach the end.

Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Platform: NES, MSX, MSX2, SNES, Game Boy Color, Mobile, Wii, Android, iOS, 3DS, PS4, Switch
Released: 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019
Recommended Version:  I'd recommend one of the remakes over the original release as they are reworked to be considerably less grindy and more balanced than the original release.  The most easily-found one nowadays is probably the Switch or Android/iOS versions (though the Game Boy Color version is a personal favorite of mine).

Secret of the Silver Blades

The third in SSI's Dungeons and Dragons series makes some modest improvements to the engine and continues the running storyline once again. But is the third time around still fresh and new enough for discerning fans, or is this a sequel that can safely be skipped?

Another entry in the prolific Gold Box series, and while not too much has changed from its predecessors, there are some marked improvements apparent right from the get-go.  The intro itself shows this off in fine form, with some gorgeous, detailed artwork that shows off some genuine talent and makes you forget that there are still only 16 colors being displayed at a time.  It's accompanied with a surprisingly decent musical track by John Halbleib, though sadly there is still no music during the actual gameplay.

The UI has seen some overhaul too.  This was one of the first Gold Box games to implement mouse support, though it's largely academic; while you can click menu options at the bottom or select characters during the navigation screens by clicking their names, it's still more efficient to simply use the hotkeys for this purpose.  Moreover, it is unfortunately not possible to quickly target enemies in combat with the mouse, which largely defeats the purpose of even having the cursor onscreen there.  The keyboard interface has also been somewhat reworked; rather than using the archaic method of pressing PageUp or PageDown to cycle through menus, you now simply use the arrow keys, having to enter and leave a dedicated Move mode to maneuver around dungeons; not a big deal once you're used to it, but it took some adjusting after playing the first two games.

As with the previous game (Curse of the Azure Bonds), one can still import characters from the previous titles, allowing them to carry over their stats and experience points but disappointingly none of their equipment.  There is a slight bug with this, though - equipping an item that boosts a character's stats before transferring them over will cause that stat boost to become permament, which is more than a bit exploitable; passing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power around among your party before transferring will give them all 18/00 Strength and a significant advantage for the rest of their careers.  The series' common problem of giving you far too much money is still present here, with even random encounters granting enormous amounts of gold and gems.  The latter are necessary to a point, being required to activate the Well of Knowledge to get your mission objectives, but you'll still be leaving quite a few magical items and piles of platinum coins behind as you travel.

Still, at least some attempt to mitigate this is introduced; the hub town you revisit frequently throughout the game allows you to spend quite a lot of money to get some powerful magic items (Darts of Hornets' Nest, magic scrolls, wands, et cetera), and any particularly valuable things you find that you don't want to use right away can be put in storage in another building for later retrieval.  While a relatively minor feature, it nevertheless comes in handy for keeping your party's encumbrance down and maximizing their move range in battle.

Silver Blades definitely ups the ante for challenge, too.  Many maps can no longer be "cleared" of enemies, so you'll still be getting random encounters no matter how many you've faced before.  Some maps you encounter (particularly the mines) are staggeringly huge and will basically require you to make your own maps.  The level of challenge picks up right where the previous game left off too, pitting you against high-level Clerics, Magic Users and Dragons right from the start, ensuring that you'll have to make good use of your resources right from the get-go.  There is a fast-travel system in place, though as is common for video games, you must venture through a lot of dangerous territory to unlock the portals going back to the Well.

In closing, Secret of the Silver Blades is another standard sequel, with much the same gameplay as its predecessors but some slight improvements to its UI and presentation, a new set of enemies appropriate for the game's recommended level, and some minute tweaks here and there.  There are a few clever callbacks to earlier games, and though its narrative may not be the most gripping the series has seen, it's nonetheless a logical continuation and a pretty good tale to be told, especially for 1990.  If you enjoyed the first two, you'll probably continue on with this one and not regret a thing.

Developer: Strategic Simulations
Publisher: Strategic Simulations, WizardWorks
Released: 1990
Platform: Amiga, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, NEC PC-9801
Recommended Version: I have only personally played the DOS version, but they all seem to be pretty comparable in quality.  The Amiga and NEC PC-9801 versions contain some slightly higher-res graphics, sounds and short musical cues, however.

Final Fantasy III

After a not particularly well-received second entry to the franchise, Final Fantasy III went back to what made the original great, restoring the class system while retaining a lot of the polish that 2 brought to the table.  But was this game successful at restoring the franchise to glory, or is this just another one that most people will want to skip?

The last of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games and the only one that didn't see release in the west until a remake 15 (!) years after the fact, Final Fantasy III was one of the least-known games in the series for a good while, even among RPG enthusiasts.

Thankfully, when emulation and fan translations came on the scene, it got as much of a chance as any other game in the series did, and what we found was a quality experience that ranks among the platform's finest.  The unpopular, stat-by-stat leveling system from Final Fantasy II was thrown out in favor of one that used traditional levels, the game sported significantly more interactivity with switches to flip, doors to open and many hidden items in towns and dungeons to find, and the class system from the first game made a return as well.  However, the latter saw a major expansion, as there were a grand total of twenty-three to play with - nearly twice as many as the original game.

You don't get to pick from all of them at the start, though.  As in the later Final Fantasy V, you start with just a generic class - the generally lousy Onion Knight - and earn more as the game progresses.  At first these largely fall along the lines of the first game's - Fighter, Monk, White Mage, Red Mage, Black Mage - but as you go on, you'll begin to see not just twists on the familiar ones, but several that are totally new to the franchise.  To name a few - the Thief class, no longer just a glorified faster but lighter-armed Fighter, now has the ability to steal items mid-battle, flee from a fight with less chance of failure, and open locked doors without a key.  Knights are armored fighters who can cast low-tier magic and defend critically weak characters from attacks that would kill them.  Dragoons are fighter-types who wield spears and can use the Jump command to remove themselves from the fight for a turn, coming back in with a powerful diving strike that does heavy damage.  This was also the first appearance of the iconic Summoner class and many of the iconic summons thereof - Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, Odin and so forth.

All fun stuff, but the overall balance between the classes leaves a bit to be desired.  Several of the classes one acquires later are basically straight upgrades to the base classes, making the older ones totally obsolete.  Others are very situational, such as the Scholar (who can see enemy weaknesses and stats and cast low-tier magic - only really useful in one fight where the boss constantly shifts weaknesses) and the Dark Knight (whose weapons are the only ones that don't cause certain enemies to split into two).  Others still are nearly useless, like the Bard; his attacks are weak but debuff enemies, while the Cheer command acts as a low-level party buff and Scare will sometimes (rarely) cause enemies to flee.

That sums up the game as a whole too - the overall challenge of it is uneven at times, with the occasional ridiculously hard boss fight that you'll have to stop and grind to defeat, or just use underhanded tactics on.  One early example of this is a rat boss that must be fought while the entire party is in Mini state, making your fighters effectively useless as their attacks do only 1 HP of damage and forcing you to spam magic while enduring his ridiculously strong attacks.  Another notorious example comes near the mid-game; a particular boss that spams powerful lightning attacks every turn - more than enough to outpace party healing spells.  The only effective strategy I found, other than grinding for hours, was to make the entire party Dragoons and spam jump to both evade his attacks and hit him until he went down (and even then, only one character survived the fight).  This is also not aided by the game featuring no mid-dungeon save points at all - not even in the later remakes, so dying at a boss can mean redoing upwards of an hour of work.

Still, the game does manage to avoid being too frustrating by doing what Final Fantasy has always done best - providing a feast for the eyes and ears as you play.  While still relatively minimal in terms of animation, this is easily the impressive Final Fantasy game on the system visually, with huge, highly-detailed monster sprites and environments to explore.  The music in the game is great too, reworking the iconic theme to great effect and having some surprisingly moody music regardless of the situation - eerie dungeons, a bright and uplifting overworld theme, and an air of mystery when you step into the world at large and your quest truly begins.  The game also ups the ante as in-game vehicles go, providing the player with four different types of airships over the course of the game, each with differing abilities.  The two most interesting are the ones unlocked near the end - one doubling as a submarine and allowing underwater travel (necessary for some plot elements but also enabling secret-hunting elsewhere) and the Invincible, which has shops, item storage, beds for resting and even damages random enemies before fights truly begin by lobbing a bomb at them.  Fun stuff, and definitely keeps you invested in a pretty creative way.

So, despite its uneven design and some wonky balance in places, Final Fantasy III is a fine 8-bit RPG, telling an enjoyable story while throwing a lot of curveballs at the player, and leaving them free to figure out their own way past them.  There is plenty of side-content to experience along the way too, lending it quite a bit of longevity and replayability, and it's easily among the platform's best in terms of presentation.  It's a shame it's among the more shunned Final Fantasy games by Square, as it's easily worth a look for any serious fan (and, in my opinion at least, the 3D remake doesn't do the original justice).

Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Platform: Famicom, Nintendo DS, iOS, Android, PSP, Ouya, Windows Phone, Windows
Released: 1990, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Recommended Version: Every release after the original Famicom version is a variation on the remake, which attempted to balance the classes more and add some more depth to the story by giving the main characters distinct names and backstories.  However, many of the battles are much smaller in scale (Typically only 3-4 enemies max instead of the original game's 8) and secret hunting is now done via a rather clunky "zoom in the camera to see the sparkles" mechanic, which doesn't feel as satisfying.  In addition, class level stat bonuses are made significantly higher, necessitating more grinding, and whenever one changes class their stats are lowered and they must fight several battles to get up to that classes' full strength, which is rather frustrating in places, especially late in the game.

Final Fantasy

The first game to bear the name "Final Fantasy" is regarded as both a genre-defining classic as well as a building block for a legendary franchise to follow.  But is this piece of history still worth visiting today, or should it just remain a milestone and little else?

Final Fantasy's story is well-known to most any long-time RPG player, but for those unaware, I'll summarize: Square was founded in the early '80s by Masafumi Miyamoto as a software subsidiary of the Den-Yu-Sha electronics company.  They had a few moderately successful games on Japanese computers before signing a deal to become a Famicom developer.  Their early releases on the Famicom Disk System were not particularly strong sellers, which put the company in a tight spot financially, and while later, more technically-advanced titles like Rad Racer and The 3D Battles of World Runner fared much better (the latter selling nearly 2 million copies worldwide), they were not games lead designer Hironobu Sakaguchi particularly enjoyed creating or playing.  Seeking to create something more in line with his interests, Sakaguchi proposed an RPG project inspired by the likes of Wizardry and Ultima; Miyamoto was hesitant at first, but ultimately approved after Dragon Quest became a smash hit on the Famicom.  The project was initially named "Fighting Fantasy", later renamed "Final Fantasy" after discovering the name was already taken, with the moniker also serving as a reference to Sakaguchi's plans to leave the industry if it wasn't a success.  Their gamble paid off, though - Final Fantasy scored more than 600,000 lifetime sales in Japan, gave Square a flagship franchise and kicked off a long-running media empire that persists to this day.  It was even one of the first Japanese-made RPGs to garner mainstream popularity outside its home country, selling around 700,000 copies in North America when it made its way there in 1990.

It's not hard to see why it became popular, either.  Computer RPGs were still outside many gamers' reach, but Final Fantasy managed to provide an experience on par with any good Wizardry or Ultima game while taking advantage of the NES's hardware.  The game's visuals are bright, colorful and polished, with intricately detailed town sprites and quite a few creative (and grotesque) enemy designs.  Having your characters on-screen, visibly swinging swords and firing spells at one's enemies, was actually a pretty novel idea for the time too (and some competing franchises like Dragon Quest would continue to avoid that as late as the Playstation 2 era).  Nobuo Uematsu (who would go on to become a legendary composer and contribute to nearly every major Square game to follow) also showed some of his finest work to date here, with distinct, memorable tunes for each era and the iconic Final Fantasy theme making its first appearance as the player stepped off the starting continent into a larger world.  His  tunes also add tremendously to the bleak atmosphere of the game, carrying the mood of a world falling into decay and slowly being overrun by freakish monsters.  Even the town themes have a sad feel to them, with their largely-empty streets and the music carrying a somber mood.

Another relatively new feature at the time for JRPGs was the ability to customize one's party to their liking.  Rather than simply having a party of pre-fabricated characters, one was afforded four character slots, each of which could be filled with one of six classes - the Fighter, Thief and Black Belt were the more physical choices, while the Red Mage, White Mage and Black Mage would comprise the more magic-oriented characters.  The Fighter was your typical RPG brute, being able to take hits, equip and use almost any weapon and armor one finds and deal heavy damage with them, the Thief was faster but couldn't equip heavier weapons and armor, while the Black Belt started off weak, but gained HP at a rapid pace and would eventually develop to the point of being able to kill monsters more effectively with their bare hands than with a weapon.  White Mages cast healing and supportive spells for the most part, while Black Mages were centered more on destroying enemies with powerful elemental spells.  The Red Mage fell somewhere in the middle of all of these, being able to equip lighter weapons and armor and able to cast both White and Black spells, but having fewer options for spells and mediocre stats overall.  As in Wizardry, one also had the ability to upgrade their characters to a more powerful "prestige class" after completing a particular side-quest during the game, making their character more powerful and changing their sprites to look more, well, 'legendary'.  And of course, all six of these classes would  become staples of the series and be joined by many others in later entries, with the expansive class system becoming a defining element of the franchise.

Final Fantasy is also among the first JRPGs I know of to utilize a wide variety of vehicles throughout the adventure.  This begins at first with one getting a boat to travel the seas, making it a relatively open-ended adventure in the early stages (though, as with a lot of early games of this type, venturing too far abroad can leave you severely outmatched by enemies far above your level of power).  Later, one acquires a canoe to sail up rivers and reach areas they wouldn't be able to by foot or by ship, and eventually, one gets an airship, letting them essentially travel the world freely as long as they can find somewhere to land (usually a grassy plain).  This progression would become a staple of many JRPGs to follow, with later entries having to figure out new twists on the formula to distinguish themselves.

As with many other RPGs of the period, combat is one of the major focuses of Final Fantasy, with enemies often attacking in large groups of up to nine smaller monsters or four larger ones (or combinations thereof).  This, paired with the relatively limited number of spell slots one is afforded, makes getting through some dungeons a harrowing test of endurance.  It's not uncommon that one will have to stop and grind battles for a couple of hours to toughen up their party enough to survive a dungeon, and even then they can still be taken out by a stray Death or XXXX spell.  Basically, grinding and saving before entering any dungeon, as well as making two trips (one to gather all the treasures, the other to beeline straight for the boss at the end to conserve resources) become key elements of the overall strategy.

This is also not aided by Final Fantasy's somewhat dated UI.  There is no option in the original version to mass-buy items, so purchasing and using potions and antidotes must be done one at a time.  Potions themselves are limited in function too, only restoring about ~30-40 HP, making them best saved for between-battle patching up instead of using them mid-fight.  The original version of Final Fantasy also famously does not automatically shift one's attack targets after an enemy has fallen, meaning that if two characters target an enemy and the first one kills it, the second character's attack will hit nothing and be wasted.  Carefully measuring enemy strength and not just mashing one's way through weaker foes quickly becomes important.

Final Fantasy is also a notoriously buggy game, with many item effects and spells not performing as described in the manual or, in worst cases, doing nothing at all.  One of the most infamous examples of this is the Intelligence stat; it actually has no effect on spells at all in the NES port, meaning Red Mages are just as effective at casting spells as a "pure" spellcaster.  Most weapons that purportedly do extra damage to a particular enemy, like the Were-sword, Rune Sword and Dragon Sword, actually don't factor in the extra damage to particular enemy types.  Buffer spells like Temper and Saber don't actually boost attack, the LOCK spell doesn't work at all, while the LOK2 spell, rather than weakening an enemy's Evasion stat, will actually increase it.  Most of these errors were addressed in later ports and remakes, but make for a very unbalanced experience on the NES.

But in spite of these flaws, Final Fantasy won over many gamers in its time and continues to be regarded as a classic today.  Maybe not as beloved as some later entries in the franchise, but for one of the earliest games that tried to combine the depth and strategies of a quality CRPG with the polished presentation of a console experience, it was definitely a success.  Certainly worth a look for any serious RPG historian, though if you're looking to experience it with some more modern sensibilities applied, I'd say check out one of the remakes instead; preferably the Dawn of Souls compilation for the Game Boy Advance, the PSP remake or even the 2021 pixel remaster.

Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Platform: NES, MSX2, Wonderswan Color, Playstation, Game Boy Advance, Playstation Portable, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Nintendo 3DS
Released: 1987, 1990, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015
Recommended Version: The Game Boy Advance Dawn of Souls version is probably my favorite, retaining the overall simple style of the game but polishing it up to the standards for the platform, as well as fixing many bugs present in the original release, reworking the spell system to a more traditional MP-driven one and adding in some extra dungeons and new content like a Bestiary.  The PSP version is very similar, though with completely redrawn (and quite nice) visuals and upgraded music to take advantage of the platform's capabilities, though the encounter rate on this version seems to be unusually high.  The Pixel Remaster version on modern platforms is mostly based on the GBA and PSP versions, though with the tiered magic system restored, the postgame content removed and some nicely updated visuals and music, as well as extra options like experience/money multipliers, having the original (NES) or arranged soundtrack and the ability to disable random encounters.

River City Ransom

A game largely overlooked in its day that built up a cult following in later years, River City Ransom was a blend of a side-scrolling beat-em-up and RPG-styled shops and character customization.  But is this trendsetter still worth a look today, or are there just too many better examples of this blend of genres available now?

Technos may be a long-defunct company, but they left quite a legacy behind.  Known primarily for beat-em-ups (most prominently the Kunio and Double Dragon franchises) and a series of sports games where brutally assaulting other players is both allowed and encouraged, they built up quite a following during their prime years in the 80s and 90s.  Perhaps because of that, their franchises have lived on, with Double Dragon and Kunio seeing rereleases, remakes and sequels across numerous platforms, companies and genres to this day.

The latter franchise is probably best-known for Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, whose westernized release, River City Ransom, is a cult classic in its own right.  In no small part because of its absurd sense of humor (the ending in particular being an iconic piece of NES cheese), but for its strong gameplay that combined RPG elements with those of a side-scrolling beat-em-up. 

To that end, the game is a non-linear experience, with the player allowed to freely roam the game's environments, picking up all number of weapons they find along the way - tires, pipes, chains, boxes and so forth - and defeating enemies to earn money and buying items at shops to earn new moves and upgrade character stats.  There are a lot of them, too - from cafes to donut shops to fast food joints to sushi bars, every item within offers different prices and benefits, giving the player a lot of options to experiment with (rivaled in its time perhaps only by Earthbound, released a few years later).  Some can only be eaten there at the restaurant while others can be carried with the player and used whenever they wish, which can grant them a quick energy boost in a pinch.

One can also visit bookstores, which allow the player to purchase books that, for the cost of a slot in their inventory, will permanently grant a new move in their arsenal.  Stone Hands makes one's punch into a rapid-fire triple punch, Dragon Feet does likewise for kicks, and Acro Circus turns one's jump into a damaging somersault to name just a few of these.  These do vary wildly in usefulness, with some being comically overpowered and others being virtually worthless, but nevertheless they add some more variety and strategy to the game.  Some also require quite a lengthy time investment to afford too, with prices stretching into the hundreds of dollars, so it's a bit more longevity for the game.

The game has a bit of an unusual health system to reflect its RPG element, too.  Stamina represents one's current health, which can be restored by food items, Max Power can be upgraded and grants more stamina, but alongside these exists a third stat - Willpower.  The higher this is, the better the chance one has to get back up after having their Stamina depleted, losing some of their Willpower stat in exchange for one or two bars of health back.  It can potentially save you from dying and losing half your money at times, but of course the better option is probably to carry a couple of spare food items to prevent your health from getting to that point in the first place.

Of course, no beat-em-up is complete without a co-op mode, and River City Ransom certainly doesn't disappoint there.  The second player can join in as Ryan and build up their own stats and money alongside player 1.  However, this seems to have been something of an afterthought on the developers' part, as having a second player join in causes the game to become extremely laggy and slow to a crawl, particularly in larger maps where enemies tend to spawn in greater numbers.  It may also make the game just a bit too easy, as almost every boss in the game faces you solo, which can make it easy for a two-player team to gang up on them and combo them into oblivion without them even being able to get an attack in.

Being a game with hefty RPG elements, RCR does employ a save system, though it's one of the most convoluted and bizarre I've ever seen in a video game.  Rather than utilizing a battery back-up, the game utilizes 30-digit passwords per character that run the full gamut of upper and lower case letters, numbers, punctuation and even apostrophes over letters, making them quite a chore to write down and re-enter.  Even more bafflingly, leaving the password screen and re-entering it only a moment later will generate an entirely new password, so I have no idea how the game even generates or stores data within them.

Still, it's not hard to see why River City Ransom built up the following it did.  RPG fans had much to enjoy with a game that let them build up and customize their characters however they wished, while fans of beat-em-ups saw a solidly-built, entertaining game that provided plenty of hard-hitting action.  It may not be the finest example of either genre, but it's one of the best the NES had to offer, and the fact that it's spawned a continuity in its own right (with nearly all localized Kunio games utilizing the sillier Western version of the story and characters rather than the original) speaks to its following.  Definitely worth at least a look.

Developer: Technos, KID, Million
Publisher: Technos, Sharp, Naxat Soft, Arc System Works, Atlus, Infogrames, 505 Games
Platform: NES, Sharp X68000, PC Engine Super CDRom2, Game Boy Advance
Released: 1990 1993, 2004
Recommended Version: Of the 90s releases the Super CDRom2 version is definitely the most impressive, with completely redrawn graphics and a CD soundtrack, though it is only available in Japanese.  The Game Boy Advance version of the game, River City Ransom EX, is a remake with retooled gameplay, new moves and AI-controlled teammates but sadly no co-op feature of any kind (save for importing your character into another player's game to work as an AI partner).  If you don't mind that, though, it may just be the definitive edition.  But if you want the original experience with some of the technical limitations of the NES version (sprite flickering and massive slowdown in two-player mode) removed, grab the "Kunio and Double Dragon Retro Brawler Bundle" on modern platforms.

Startropics

A relatively forgotten Nintendo IP which was developed by a Japanese studio but ironically never released in that region; only in North America and Europe.  But does Startropics hold up to the test of time, or is this one short-lived franchise that is forgotten for a reason?

The Legend of Zelda was a huge game in the early days of the NES and still a hugely influential one even today, so it's little surprise that other companies would try to make their own versions to cash in.  From Golden Axe Warrior to the Neutopia games to Crusader of Centy to Beyond Oasis ("The Story of Thor" in some territories), Zelda's style of gameplay was far-reaching and, whether you played the original or not, you probably at least saw a game based on its style.  But after the first game's success and the more mixed reception of the second game, it would be a while (and a new generation) before Nintendo released another entry in the franchise proper.

Perhaps to tide over their western fans, Nintendo R&D3 and Locomotive Corporation created a new IP that drew inspiration from Zelda's format while working in more of a modern and irreverent style of narrative.  Thus was born Startropics - a game set in the fictional C-Island chain in the southern hemisphere and following the exploits of Mike Jones, a teenager who embarks on a quest to find his missing uncle.  As a nod to the modern setting, the player's primary weapon is a yo-yo, and several of the weapon pickups they find are similarly modern - slingshots, baseball bats, mirrors to reflect projectiles back at foes, and spiked cleats to attack all enemies on the screen at once.

Similarly fitting are many elements of the adventure itself.  The player encounters the usual complement of ruins, flooded caverns, hidden passages and switch puzzles in each one, as well as enemies like bats, snakes, mummies, skeletons and the occasional Indiana Jones-style boobytrap, several modern elements make their way into the proceedings too.  The player soon acquires a submarine called the Sub-C to make their way between islands, and they interact with many silly characters and scenarios throughout the adventure like a talking parrot (that must be bribed with a worm) and a giant organ that one must play a specific song on to open a passage.

Gameplay itself is reminiscent of Zelda in many ways, and the action element of the game is no exception.  Taking place from a top-down perspective and having the player move from room to room, solving puzzles and defeating enemies, it's the same overall formula.  Even the powerups are similar, with enemies dropping hearts to refill Mike's health, stopwatches to temporarily stop all enemies' movement, medicine to restore a portion of health on demand, or stars; collecting five of these will restore one heart to the life gauge.  However, Startropics does have a few unique elements to distinguish itself.  For one, most items the player finds and utilizes are specific only to that dungeon, and often limited in use besides; if one finds a lantern to light up dark rooms or a Rod of Sight to see invisible enemies, they will generally only get a few uses of it before having to find more (and all will be taken away once one dies or completes the dungeon).  Second, the game operates on a lives system; the player begins with two lives, and dying while one still has lives left will simply cause them to restart at the last checkpoint rather than having to redo the whole dungeon.  One's stock of lives will be replenished upon completing a dungeon, but one can also find a "Try Your Luck" sign as a hidden bonus in many levels that will grant one to three extra lives or, if unfortunate, take one away (thankfully it will not do this if the player is on their last life).  A few unique powerups appear in specific dungeons too, such as Anklets (which double one's jumping distance) or Vitamin X (which maxes out the player's health gauge but causes any health over their maximum to slowly 'bleed off', similar to Quake).

Startropics is a considerably more challenging beast than Zelda, though.  For a start, Startropics loves to throw at the player death traps that can be considered "cheap", doing things like punishing them for taking a wrong path by forcing them to backtrack a significant portion of the dungeon or even causing instant death (with no forewarning of this fact at all).  Second, the game is quite heavy on platforming puzzles, forcing the player to hop across numerous platforms in rooms to reveal a hidden switch, then hop over and press it, avoiding or defeating enemies all the while.  Movement in the game is grid-based and somewhat stiff, which is fine for hopping platforms but can be somewhat cumbersome when trying to deal with a large number of fast-moving enemies.  Enemies, particularly late in the game, can be downright frustrating, moving quickly and dealing huge damage (or even instant death) on contact while taking huge amounts of punishment themselves.  Mastering the slight delay in your movement, as well as the art of jumping, turning and firing while in flight, quickly become essential skills to master, as does knowing the shortest route through the levels simply so you have fewer enemies to deal with on the way to the end.

Another clever element of the game was a letter included in the game's original box, filling in a bit of backstory and providing a novel trinket for those who bought the game new.  However, it saw use within the game itself too, as at one point the player is prompted to dip the letter in water in order to reveal a hidden passcode so that they can continue with the game.  Naturally, those who bought the game used probably didn't get said letter with it, resulting in much confusion as they searched the entire game for something that didn't exist within its code.  Naturally, Nintendo was deluged with questions concerning the letter and the code it held, to the point where they eventually gave in and printed the solution in a later episode of Nintendo Power.  This was more a hallmark of games like Ultima on the PC, which included numerous trinkets and instruction books written from the perspective of in-game characters and the like, so to see it on a home console was a novel inclusion (even if it ultimately came back to bite its creators in a bad way).

Startropics is a unique game in many respects - developed by a Japanese company but never released there, taking part in a quirky, humorous and modern setting years before Earthbound would arrive on the scene, and having a novel fourth wall breaking gimmick packed into its box that few console games before (or since) would ever attempt again.  It may have been a bit clunky in gameplay and frustrating in design, but its charm shone through, delivering a fun adventure with a lot of twists, unique sights and creativity as ending up as a distinct and memorable game that stands out among the NES's best.  It really is a pity that, despite its cult classic status, Nintendo hasn't really done anything with the franchise in twenty-five years save for the token digital re-release.

Developer: Nintendo R&D3, Locomotive Corporation
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: NES, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console, NES Classic Edition
Released: 1990, 2008, 2015, 2016
Recommended version: All of the later versions are ports of the original, though with some slight tweaks; the Yo-Yo is renamed to the "Star" owing to a copyright issue, and the infamous letter's text is shown in the online manual, complete with a bucket icon one must click to reveal the hidden code.

Ultima VI: The False Prophet

Ultima VI marked a new turn for the series, moving away from the simple visuals and gameplay to a more realistic, immersive world simulation.  But does it prove to be a bold step into a brave new world, or does Ultima VI just stumble over its own ambition?

Two years after Ultima V was released came Ultima VI, and like the two games before it, the ante was upped once more for Ultima VI.  No longer content to settle for simple tile-based sprites and simple PC Speaker music, Ultima VI moved into a bold new era of VGA graphics and MIDI music to provide a colorful, fluidly animated and living world for the player to get immersed in.  The interface underwent a similar upgrade as well, now with a visual interface for character's equipment as well as icons for most everything - characters potions, reagents, equipment, and just about anything else the player can pick up and use all have unique inventory sprites, giving them a much more personal feel than simple text on a menu.  Each is nicely distinct too, allowing the player to quickly identify party members or needed objects with a minimum of fuss.

Ultima VI benefits too from a greatly simplified interface, taking the full-keyboard layout of previous Ultimas and condensing it down to about 8 commands.  For example, climbing ladders, boarding ships, drinking potions and opening doors are now condensed into a generic "Use" command.  In addition to keyboard hotkeys, Ultima VI was the first game in the series to support a mouse - anything that can be done with keys can also be done via point-and-click, with interface icons for things like using, picking up or entering combat mode and interacting with the world - perfect for aiming ranged attacks more quickly than with a keyboard, for example.

Ultima VI as a whole feels much less "video-gamey" than its predecessors, taking great pains to make itself feel more like a fantasy world simulation than a simple game environment.  There is a surprising amount of realism present in almost every detail of its design - doors now lock and unlock with specific keys, instruments can be played, cows can be milked, and even objects like functional sundials and light-casting lanterns and torches are present, giving the game considerably more atmosphere.  The world is much more seamless too, feeling like one large, contiguous map instead of having towns and dungeons feel like entirely separate worlds from the main world.  This also allows for some clever new puzzles; at one point the player must guide Sherry the Mouse through a tiny gap other characters can't enter in order to recover a key item.

There were a few stumbling blocks with this change, though.  As one can see from the screenshots below, the game's HUD is rather large and intrusive, only affording the player a 9x9 view of the world surrounding their character (even less so at night); this can at times prove to be quite the detriment, particularly when you have to reach an obscure area deep in a dungeon or well off the beaten path and have few or no identifiable landmarks to go off of.  While there are spells and items that afford the player a glimpse at the surrounding area, these tend to be costly to cast repeatedly, so they're not the most feasible of options to compensate.  Nor is making paper maps - an elegant solution for the grid-based 3D dungeons of the older games.  The sound design in the game is relatively limited, with very little in the way of sound effects and only a few music tracks that loop quite often, which gets just a touch annoying after one's been playing for a while.  Finally, while the game is much more vibrant and detailed than earlier Ultimas, its low resolution does work against it at times; one particular example in my mind is a rather involved quest at the middle of the game, wherein the player must find a nine-piece treasure map, then follow a route laid out on it to a destination.  A good idea, but a much less well-realized execution, particularly as the assembled map looks like this:

Go to that tiny, nondescript island situated south of two other tiny, nondescript islands.  Got it!

Some rough edges are to be expected with such a large and ambitious engine change, though.  And unlike most franchises that undergo such a thing, Ultima certainly did not lose sight of what it was - a dense, complex and engrossing tale that defied RPG norms of the era.  While it is easy to look at the cover art and think of Ultima 6 as a simple good-versus evil story (and indeed, it even seemingly starts out that way), it quickly proves to be anything but.  I won't give too much away, but suffice to say that Ultima 6 once again effectively turns its initial setup upside-down, and even puts a creative inversion on several founding elements of the entire series, once again crafting a tale that defied RPG norms of the time and even stands out today.  So, while it may not be my favorite Ultima to play, I cannot deny that it is still an excellent RPG and well worth a play in spite of its snags.

Developer: Origin
Publisher: Origin
Platform: MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, FM Towns, SNES, PC-9801, Sharp X68000
Released: 1990, 1993
Recommended Version: I have only personally played the DOS version extensively, but most other versions seem to be comparable (though being such a limited system, the Commodore version requires disk swapping every time one wishes to converse with NPCs or enters a new map area, which can get quite tedious).  The SNES version is a surprisingly faithful conversion, though somewhat scaled down owing to ROM space limitations and censored owing to Nintendo's policies of the time, removing all gore, references to killing, NPC portraits and changing the Gargoyles' appearances to be slightly less "demon-like".  The DOS version of 6 can also now be run in ScummVM with additional tweaks and improvements like a higher resolution and a less cramped UI, so that's the route I'd recommend nowadays.