Daria Reviews Wonder Project J [SNES]

[lendelin]

I think the discussion about the best RPG entry games is exaggerated. There are only a few RPGs I wouldn't recommend to beginners, but all the games in the OP are suited for RPG newbies. Actually, the vast majority of RPGs aren't a hindrance if you are a bit interested in the genre.

In 1990, I had little experience with videogames. I had only played Life Force, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden and Zelda 2 before I tried a strange game called 'Final Fantasy'. They called it a 'Role Playing Game,' Nintendo Power and other game mags had explained in detail what kind of a game genre that is when in 1989 Dragon Warrior on the NES was released. I knew that Dragon Warrior despite a huge marketing effort by Nintendo didn't sell well at all, but I was curious and tried this Final Fantasy game. (Supposedly it was successful in Japan) Result: I wasn't overwhelmed, the game was not too complicated for me as Nintendo was afraid of for European and American players, and I appreciated RPGs from my first FF on.

I think if you have a dispostion to like RPGs, not a lot of games can throw you off.

[kupomogli]

I think the discussion about the best RPG entry games is exaggerated. There are only a few RPGs I wouldn't recommend to beginners, but all the games in the OP are suited for RPG newbies. Actually, the vast majority of RPGs aren't a hindrance if you are a bit interested in the genre.

In 1990, I had little experience with videogames. I had only played Life Force, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden and Zelda 2 before I tried a strange game called 'Final Fantasy'. They called it a 'Role Playing Game,' Nintendo Power and other game mags had explained in detail what kind of a game genre that is when in 1989 Dragon Warrior on the NES was released. I knew that Dragon Warrior despite a huge marketing effort by Nintendo didn't sell well at all, but I was curious and tried this Final Fantasy game. (Supposedly it was successful in Japan) Result: I wasn't overwhelmed, the game was not too complicated for me as Nintendo was afraid of for European and American players, and I appreciated RPGs from my first FF on.

I think if you have a dispostion to like RPGs, not a lot of games can throw you off.

If someone wants to get into RPGs, you're right, not a lot of highly praised games are going to turn them off. But this post and video could be considered what if you have friends who have no interest in getting into the genre, and what could you show them to get them into it? With the games you played, it's comparing 8bit game to 8bit. What about gamers who started gaming in the last gen regardless of age? The original Final Fantasy is a great game, but it might feel a bit too limited and archaic not only in terms of how it plays but graphics too. You'd rather show these people games that are timeless in execution rather than something that is clearly showing its age, especially when you're trying to get someone who's not very interested in trying the genre.

[FieryReign]

No doubt, these are good games. Except for BOF3, that just boggles the domepiece. Would you expect your friends, who crush Madden even in the offseason, to like these games? Or your friend who is into online fps? Or your friend who is into mmorpg type shit? Maybe, but it depends. I still think it's a niche genre. Despite the perception that it's popular.

[Daria]

It's actually kind of funny. I can't get my husband to play my games usually (when we met he wasn't big on games with a lot of reading), but he LOVES both Dragon Quest 8 and Skies of Arcadia. Really the only two JRPGs he'd actually had the patience to play. So Nyaaaahhh! (jk) :P

Ni No Kuni (come to think of it he liked this one too) IS an excellent suggestion and one I originally wanted to cover but I can't capture footage from my PS3. So that really limited the systems I could pick from.

[FrankSerpico]

Good list, but I'm biased as Skies is tied with FF4 as my favorite JRPG of all-time.

[JSoup]

What about the classic homebrew brought to us by Bratwurst? It was a big hit in your last RPG topic, Daria.

[MetalFRO]

I enjoyed the video, and totally agree with Lunar - it was one of my first RPG's, and the learning curve was pretty minimal. I'm surprised Earthbound isn't in the list, given the way a lot of people say it's hardly grindy at all, and is very well paced.

[Daria]

What about the classic homebrew brought to us by Bratwurst? It was a big hit in your last RPG topic, Daria.

I've moved onto the spiritual successor:

[Daria]

New video. I wanted to bring some attention to some of the really awesome NES homebrews that are currently in development. This review covers the playable demo recently released for Legends of Owlia plus highlights a plethora of indie titles in general.

Basically Owlia is an action adventure game in the style of Legend of Zelda (or Star Tropics - which the creator credits as inspiration). Spoiler alert: I loved it. (:

[Daria]

New Video:

Big surprise! It's an RPG.

[Nz17]

Request: More RPG's for SEGA consoles please.

[Daria]

[lendelin]

Very good reviews of Little Ninja Brothers and Arabian Nights, I liked them.

If Little Ninja Brothers wouldn't be so pricey in the meantime (cib) watching your review tempted me to pick it up.

Too bad that Arabian Nights didn't turn out better. You showed the pros and cons very clearly. The unduly frequent random encounters in RPGs is a well-known problem even in fantastic ones like Skies of Arcadia for the DC. I asked myself why the programmers (although it is a homebrew) fell into this trap. Exaggerated encounters are frustrating at best if the gamer has a specific goal during a game session and are a big hurdle to identify with the storyline. Even for grind-loving animals like myself too frequent battles are just frustrating.

[Daria]

Very good reviews of Little Ninja Brothers and Arabian Nights, I liked them.

Aww... thank you!

If Little Ninja Brothers wouldn't be so pricey in the meantime (cib) watching your review tempted me to pick it up.

Tell me about it, I just paid $90 for LNB CIB, and it was a *cheap* copy all things considered.

Too bad that Arabian Nights didn't turn out better. You showed the pros and cons very clearly. The unduly frequent random encounters in RPGs is a well-known problem even in fantastic ones like Skies of Arcadia for the DC. I asked myself why the programmers (although it is a homebrew) fell into this trap. Exaggerated encounters are frustrating at best if the gamer has a specific goal during a game session and are a big hurdle to identify with the storyline. Even for grind-loving animals like myself too frequent battles are just frustrating.

Arabian Nights wasn't a homebrew though, a legitimate commercial release in Japan, just fan translated. But I agree 100% about the random encounters, watching the video myself I was wondering why I didn't like the characters more. The clips I showed actually made them seem pretty likable but I'm wondering if that disconnect between the grind and the cutscenes was preventing me from getting into the story after all.

[lendelin]

Aww... thank you!

You're welcome. I like your videos because you provide great information and you try to explain the games. WHY is it good, WHY is ist bad or mediocre, and what are the gameplay elements. This is much more than the ubiquitous 'let's play'-videos with wannabe funny comments. After all, the questions what makes a very good game, how can we identify with a game through gameplay and story, and how a story can be PLAYED and not merely watched are questions which are very difficult to answer.

Tell me about it, I just paid $90 for LNB CIB, and it was a *cheap* copy all things considered.

Yep, the prices are just insane nowadays. Sometimes I can only shake my head about the prices for classic games today. For six years I didn't care at all about price development for older games, and my last NES and SUper NES games I bought around 8 years ago. In the last couple of months I looked the prices for a couple of NES, SNES and Genesis games up I thought about buying, and I was just amazed how expensive they are CIB in the meantime. I can tolerate some insane prices for specific games like Castlevania Dracula X or Mega Man X3 (the latter was already ten years ago $300), but overall and on average the prices are terrible even for mediocre games. I'm glad that I have all of the Mega Man and Castlevania games minty mint, but I would never pay 400 for a cib Castlevania Dracula X. That's not worth it.

My good guess is that on average the prices for NES, SNES and Genesis games tripled compared to 10-12 years ago. Closer looks at price charting. com confirmes that.

I don't pursue collecting agressively, but I should have bought some more NES and SNES games 10-15 years ago. The prices were much more reasonable. (Just noticed that this developed to a rant, I'm sorry. )

We both can be glad that we have all the PS1 RPGs we wanted, the prices for them doubled in the meantime also. Can you imagine to buy all of your PS1 RPGs today?

Arabian Nights wasn't a homebrew though, a legitimate commercial release in Japan, just fan translated. But I agree 100% about the random encounters, watching the video myself I was wondering why I didn't like the characters more. The clips I showed actually made them seem pretty likable but I'm wondering if that disconnect between the grind and the cutscenes was preventing me from getting into the story after all.

If it is a commercial release with fan translation I might buy it. Despite its flaws it looked nevertheless interesting and like you I loved Magic of Sheherazade for the NES. (talking about prices, I got a sealed one from ebay around 2002 for 7 bucks) Now here comes the Q of a very cheap player/collector: how much and where can I buy it?

[Daria]

Ever wondered how Zelda would play as a Breakout/Arknoid action game? No?! Well the developers of this somewhat obscure SNES oddity sure did.



Special thanks to Robert Lee Diefendorf​ for cleaning up the audio quality.

[lendelin]

Great review of Firestriker! Well, Daria, with this review you did it! I was never subscribed to a youtube channel but just now I subscribed to yours!

I have to tell you, your reviews are getting better and better. I loved how you embedded the game up to Odama, and at the end of the review the watcher/listener knows what this game is about with its strenghts and flaws.

Wasn't there a similar game on the Super Famicom, something called like Zig Zag Cats? I have to look that up. I remember it was a Breakout style adventure game with paddles.

Too bad that Firestriker nowadays is complete so expensive. After watching your video I was tempted to buy it.

Keep it up, girl!

[Daria]

Wasn't there a similar game on the Super Famicom, something called like Zig Zag Cats? I have to look that up. I remember it was a Breakout style adventure game with paddles.

Oooh. That one's new to me! Wish I'd known about it before I did the video.

Edit: It looks more arcade-y somehow. Although it does have this free roaming hub between stages where you can save and do stuff? I love the zigu zagu gato voice synch during the title screen. Amazingly clear sound quality.

[Daria]

Sega fans already know the awesome in store when playing Landstalker - do you?

[lendelin]

Great review again! I have Landstalker for about 15 years, never played it, now it's time to change that. I completely forgot that the game has an isometric view, and since I loved (!) Solstice (NES) and Equinox (SNES) I'll give the game a try. I had no idea that the game has such great graphics.

I agree that the biggest hurdle for gameplay with isometric view are the diagonal jumps and finding out the exact position of the blocks. In Equinox and Solstice these were part of the puzzles and the games even played with optical illusions, so it wasn't frustrating. I'll see how this works with an action-adventure with RPG elements.

Is Time Stalkers for the Dreamcast a sequel to Landstalker?