PixlBit

If you want to know what Shining Force III is all about, please read my review of Scenario II.  This review will focus not on the gameplay or graphics or anything like that, but in how the game differs from its predecessors.

You may know a little bit about Shining Force III, the strategy RPG for the Sega Saturn.  It was released in three parts, creatively titled Scenario I, Scenario II and Scenario III.  Kidding, they have other names to differentiate them; for example, Scenario II is subtitled “Target: Child of God!”  Shining Force III is misleadingly titled!  It isn’t the third game in the series at all.  Did they forget about Shining Force CD, or maybe they wanted to forget about it?  (Point- it wasn’t very good)  By my estimation, Shining Force III is the fourteenth game in the series, and it isn’t even one game at all- it’s three full Shining Force games in one! 

I played Granstream Saga when it was first released at the turn of the century.  I didn’t get very far into it, but looking back now, I couldn’t remember exactly why.  I recall it being an exceedingly ugly game….. like you  know how you say some people were hit with the ugly stick?  This game took a walk through the ugly forest.  I mean ugly as in its physical presentation is not pleasant to look at.  It’s early PS1, so the characters are blocky and lack any sort of features that make them look human.  They are blobs that are vaguely human in form, I guess, but their faces are blank white squares, bereft of eyes or a nose or other things humans have.  It’s disconcerting to go back to a game after so many years and see these miniscule evolutionary missteps on the way to creating graphics that actually resemble the things they are meant to resemble.

Treasure of the Rudras is a Squaresoft JRPG for the SNES that was never released in this country.  This is a travesty.  It is one of the best RPGs on a system that is loaded with amazing RPGs.  I’ll rank them: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Terranigma, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Dragon Quest VI, Treasure of the Rudras, Final Fantasy IV, Mario RPG, Dragon Quest V, Tactics Ogre.  That’s the top 10, and Rudras is right in the middle of it.  Have you heard of this game?  If you’ve heard of it, have you heard enough good things to make you want to play it?  If you have heard some pretty good things, have those good things pushed Rudras ahead of other games on your backlog?  The guess here is that the answer to one of the above questions is “NO!”, and so you have missed out on a classic on par with the SNES Final Fantasies. 

My sporadic output is due to a shitty work schedule.  I'm only here tonight because I had to cancel my class due to emergency root canal surgery.  Pity me!  But lucky you, I've got time to tell you about all the obscure games I decided to play this Summer.  Here it is in list form!

I don’t know whether or not people consider Battle of Olympus (by Broderbund) a NES classic.  I feel like if there is any consensus at all, it’s that the game is fondly remembered, but never really ranked up there with the likes of Zelda, Crystalis, or Metroid in public estimation, and maybe doesn’t even merit the cult status bestowed upon Zelda II, Guardian Legend or Clash at Demonhead.  I’ve named seven games (including Battle of Olympus) and I wonder if you can put them in order from Dave’s favorite to Dave’s least favorite.  I’ll save you the trouble:  Crystalis, Zelda II, Battle of Olympus, Zelda, Clash at Demonhead, Guardian Legend, Metroid.  Was that the order you’d have put them in?  Math lesson for you- there are 7!, or 7*6*5*4*3*2 ways to order a list of seven games, so you probably didn’t order them in the exact same way.

I've taken a bit of a break from the RPG reviews to write this up for you.  I finished Golden Sun and moved on to other projects.  Here's a fun game- what are the names of the next two titles I'm going to review?  You are wrong.  The answer is Ninja Five-O and Esper Dream II.  Anyway, here is part of my long-running countdown.

This is a review of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS.  You don't care about this game.  You didn't when it was released, and you don't now.  Even if you liked the previous two entries in the series, so much time passed before this one was released that you questioned whether or not you even wanted to revisit the series.  Ultimately you did not revisit the series, and you didn't lose any sleep over it.  So read this long review instead, and dream of what might've been.....

Hello again, everyone.  My Summer semester is finally over, so no more getting home at 10:30 p.m. and waking up at 5:45 a.m.  Yes, for the past four weeks, my work day has been that long.  But it's over now, and I hope I have more time to post some of my reviews/thoughts.  No pictures this time, so it might be a slog.  When I have more time, I'll work on some more complete blog posts.  Thanks for hanging in there!

I feel a bit guilty producing this part of the countdown.  I realize just how little I remember about games on this part of the list.  Fully half of them- I couldn't recall even one memorable moment.  These are the games that aren't broken or even particularly bad; they  just don't have much to recommend them.  If you are paying attention and reading these blurbs that I've worked on so dilligently, you'll be hearing that fairly often until around the top 150.  I recall playing them; I recall having opinions; I just don't recall a damn thing about them.  If I didn't keep all my old notebooks, I might not have been able to cobble together a coherant list that ranks them in relation to one another.  Meh.  When I return to the top 100, the blurbs will become more informative.  Until then, I'm glad I could help you waste five minutes.