Together Retro: Eighties' Ladies' Night

[prfsnl_gmr]

Plus, the GBC version has those adorable 8-bit “dancing sprites” JRPG graphics! They are so Dragon Quest!

[Sarge]

I may invest in the 3DS or Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest 3, because the Famicom one has some more minor problems and then one really big problem that I'm not sure I can get around.
Minor Problems:
- The controls are a bit stiff and slow, but it's not like it's an action game, so that's a very minor annoyance.
- I'm not sure it's displaying properly. I'm not sure if the game is supposed to look so fuzzy, but the font of the text is crazy hard to read on my flatscreen. This doesn't do my major problem any favors.

Major Problem:
- Auto-scrolling text. The game seems to auto-scroll the box of text in a sequence of dialogue. Pair this in with the hard to read font and I have barely any idea what's going on (not to mention I can't look up what words I don't know because they're gone ).

I'm hoping I can fix that last problem by turning down the text speed all the way, but if I can't do that then I'm gonna need to fork out the 16 bucks for the 3DS version if I wanna play it

You say Famicom, does that mean you're playing the Japanese original? Never mind, just read more carefully and saw where you mentioned looking words up that you don't know. I don't know anything about the font on that side, but the English font should look just fine if you want to swap over to the NES release.

If you're playing on real hardware, it could be that you're just seeing some awful de-interlacing on what I would assume would be an RF or composite image. Both are a pain. I've got a Samsung 4K TV, and composite signals look absolutely terrible on there.

The Super Famicom version is splendid, and fixes a lot of the slower pacing issues with the NES version. I still have a massive soft spot for that iteration, just because I grew up playing it. As recommended, the GBC version is also excellent. I would assume that the 3DS version is based on the mobile port. I'm looking that one up, and it would seem the enemy animations have been cut, which is really disappointing. I'd roll with SFC if you can't get your issues resolved with the NES game.

EDIT: Also, generically regarding HDTVs, what are your sharpness settings? If those aren't set right, they can completely screw up your image quality. Mine starts at 50 by default, but to disable it (and you want to) I have to put it all the way down to zero. Some sets are fine as is, others are not, but "sharpness" is something left over from CRT days that you don't want to actually use on an HDTV. What they call sharpness there is really just a post-processing filter, and it will often add some really bad "ringing" artifacts on edges of objects.

[Sarge]

Figure it might be better to just double-post.

Finished Wing of Madoola myself. And no, I did not do it legit, I used save states at points. I think I could do it legit, as Ex mentioned that you have unlimited continues. Really, the only thing that stumped me was getting the "wings" at the end, and not knowing where to go. Well, turns out I didn't have enough MP, so I couldn't activate them to fly. Derp. You have to be careful in the stage, because burning through your MP will guarantee you have to start over; there's nowhere after you pick them up to replenish MP. So that's an instance of bad design.

On the positive side, there's a decent little powerup system going. You'll need it all, because enemies will rock you. The little swarming purple blobs were my least favorite, especially when they come after you while you're trying to climb a tower. You can duck and they won't hit you... unless they're coming in beneath. This is thankfully less often than it could be.

Anyway, for all the little items you get, really the fire sword is the most useful. That last stage would be a prime spot for the cross (screen-clearing the blobs), but you gotta save that MP... 1000 MP per use, and you have to use it twice: once to get up to the end boss, the other to ascend to the final door. I started with 3600 MP, to put that in perspective.

Graphics are passable, although pretty repetitive. I liked the few tunes that were there, though; they had a nice energy to them that made up for lack of technical wizardry. For 1986, this ain't bad at all. I'd say it's a 7/10; good, not great. If you grade it by the time, it definitely shows a lot more ambition than other games, and shows some of where Sunsoft would go during the NES years. Man, I miss peak Sunsoft...

[Exhuminator]

You have to be careful in the stage, because burning through your MP will guarantee you have to start over; there's nowhere after you pick them up to replenish MP. So that's an instance of bad design.

I had that same stupid thing happen to me. I knew I had to push down + jump to fly, but I'd never fly! Then I found out I needed 1000MP to do it. Worse yet when the dragon appears, all the normal enemies go away, so you can't farm for MP. I ended up doing a soft reset, which still allowed me to continue to the last stage, and thankfully my MP was restored to 3000 IIRC. Enough anyway to fly the two times you have to in order to beat the game.

swarming purple blobs

Those things are RIDICULOUS. They're like way more annoying Metroids or something. I know I don't care to see another purple jellyfish for a very long time.

the fire sword is the most useful

If that's the power that shoots out the ball of flame that explodes vertically into shafts of fire, yes I agree. I used it to kill a bunch of bosses.

I'd say it's a 7/10; good, not great.

On the base game I'd give it a 7/10 too, but the whole "princess saves the prince" aspect I thought was worth an extra point (considering its release date), so 8/10 for me.

Glad you beat it!

[Ack]

I haven't posted in a while, but I am continuing on in Flicky. I've made it into the low 40s, and I believe there are only 48 levels total, though the game apparently tracks bonus stages as levels, so I don't know if I am actually as close as I think.

The levels in the late 30s and early 40s get brutal though, as they show off just how slippery the platforming is in Flicky. Miss an ounce of precision, and you'll be sliding around as a mess and possibly forced to deal with cats up close while you don't have a weapon. To make matters worse, the devs brought back a redux of a level in the 20s that I found particularly difficult, only now with smaller ledges that require exacting jumps, lest you bounce off a wall and slide back down to the bottom of the level. In some levels, you can make a mistake and still recover well enough to keep going without a loss, but this is definitely not one of those levels.

I really don't like how slippery this game is, but I still want to push through and finish it.

[Sload Soap]

Had a break from Phantasy Star as Dark Souls 3 and Wolfenstien 2 went on sale and I picked them up. Went back last night and plowed through Dezoris. I needed a nut and a Prism but got the Lac Shield and some other gubbins along with it. Should really be able to close the game out now. Alis is level 25 and has what I assume is her most powerful stuff and the others aren't far behind.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’ve opened a path to the final dungeon, and The Legend of the Ghost Lion ends tonight. The game is a complete slog, however, and barring an absolutely mind-blowing ending, I will not recommend it to anyone.

[nullPointer]

I need to try and beat at least one more Lot80s game this month. After taking a break from it I've been once again slugging it out through the game I never finished for last month's TR (where I've thankfully made a bunch of progress and enjoying my time with it).

I'm on the fence between two games. I'm tempted to play The Guardian Legend, which is probably the 'safer' bet of the two. It seems like most of the folks playing this one have had an enjoyable time with it. The other game I'm considering is the NES version of Athena. This one isn't as much of a 'sure thing', but I think we were all pretty sure that this would be one of the default choices this month ...

And while at least one person gave it a shot, to my knowledge no one beat it so far this month and the feedback was ... not great (although to be fair I think the only participant to have tried Athena was playing the Arcade version). Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment but I kind of like a lot of those early SNK NES releases, though I haven't ever played very far into Athena. I 'm actually kind of leaning in this direction. I mean, someone has to beat Athena this month right!?

[Sarge]

Watch the speedrun from AGDQ. Oof. I was tempted to give it a go, but it looks absolutely awful. I think perhaps it deserves its reputation. Go with The Guardian Legend!

[Exhuminator]

The game is a complete slog

I'll be interested to know how long the game takes to beat. I've heard it's very brief, but maybe that's only true if you use a walkthrough and a Game Genie.

The Guardian Legend VS Athena

By all means, give both games a shot. I like Athena's aesthetics and charm, but it's just not much fun to play IMO. Even the arcade original wasn't fun to me. Who knows you might enjoy it though?

The Guardian Legend is freaking amazing however. That's indisputable. You'd have to willingly defy the laws of nature to disagree.