The RPG Consoler

Game 58

Title: Defenders of Oasis
Released: September 1992 (July 1992 JPN)
Platform: Game Gear
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: RPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn based
Series - Standalone

Why do Arabian settings feel less distinct from each other than generic fantasy?

A battle between light and dark raged for all of history. Then Ahriman, the Wizard of Darkness, was sealed away by Jamseed who had three rings given to him by the Wizard of Light. However, the Snake King Zahhark attacked the kingdom of Shanadar, and killed Jamseed, bringing another age of darkness. 1000 years passed before another champion of light, Fallidoon, defeated Zahhark. History passed into legend, and now the empire of Eflaat threatens the boarders of Shanadar.

*Plop*

Swap out the names, and it's basically like any other high fantasy game, but the Arabian setting is seen as a novelty because few games ever bothered to use or explore the mythology. I'm not sure the setting has enough depth to support more than the handful of games that bothered to utilize it. We were already introduce to many of the cliche elements in Magic of Scheherazade: genies, desert bandits, magic carpets, magic rings, magic lamps, an oasis or twelve, and the standard scimitar. Of those, I think only magic carpets were missing from this game.

Look, bandits with scimitars

Defenders of Oasis begins with the prince of Shanadar, only referred to as Prince, welcoming his future bride, the princess of Mahamood. She's assaulted by some uncouth bandits while wandering about, and very grateful for the Prince's timely rescue. That night, the evil empire Eflaat's army attacked Shanadar. The King ordered the prince to escape through a secret passage, and take the princess safely back to her kingdom.

Oh yeah, and you might as well take this ring, it has the number 1 on it

However, as they reached the princess' ship, one of the king's trusted generals, Kohle, attacked. Armed with a magic sword provided by Ahriman, Prince was struck down. Rather than reach a game over though, Prince miraculously awakened in the care of resistance fighters. They told of a magic lamp in the king's treasury with the power to protect the wielder from magic swords. With it, I sealed Kohle's magic sword and vanquished him. The Genie inside is a controllable character in battle, and the only magic user who just so happens to have a spell that specifically seals this type of magic sword.

The game is broken into chapters, although past places are still accessible once transportation is gained

The game has an odd number of triggers to progress the story. In the second chapter, Prince and Princess escaped on a ship. Saleem, the first mate, accompanied Prince on an island in search of water while Princess waited on the ship (she doesn't participate in battle anyway). While there's no water in the town to gather, returning to the ship triggered the capture of Princess at the hands of Al Karria, the elite royal guard of Eflaat. Saleem's father, the ship's captain, died at his hands, and the party was powerless to stop Al. Stranded on the island, the townspeople helpfully pointed us to a temple that a man had entered and never returned from, a man named Fallidoon.

Inside was a strange script that I couldn't read

Reading the unreadable language advanced the plot enough that the mayor remembered I needed a mirror to read it. Asking around town caused the mayor to remember that he had the mirror, and he handed it over. The script was decipherable using the mirror, and throughout the game these messages provided either clues or new spells for Genie. At the end of the temple was the teleportation spell needed to travel to set locations. I took it to Mahamood, and began chapter 3.

Unlike other characters, Genie's stats increase through the use of special items

Combat rewards the party with experience and dinars (gold), and levels came frequently. It's a simple game, and I had no trouble getting through. The items needed to increase Genie's stats are overly expensive from the shop, so the majority are gained from random drops after combat or treasure chests. Each human character can equip a weapon, head protection, and armor. Most items are restorative, but some are limited to combat only. Combat two status effects come in two forms: sleep and poison. Unlike other games, poison doesn't drain health; instead it knocks the character unconscious if it is left untreated for five combat rounds.

One of the few instances where the name of the Wizard of Light is referenced

Each character can attack, parry, use an item, or use their special move. The Prince can run from battle, the Genie uses spells, Saleem has a move called Dance that hits all enemies (a chance to hit), and Agmar, pictured above, is a thief that can hide. When hidden he's immune to physical attacks, and can strike with an assault move that does 1.5 times normal damage. The Genie is also immune to all status effects (sleep, poison, and KO). Parrying reduces damage by half, but has no other beneficial effect.

Pictured here are a Kashaf and a Pazuzu an evil wind demon that had a Final Fantasy dragoon's jump attack

Back to the story, Saleem broke the bad news to his mom in Mahamood. The party then spent some time running around to learn that we should head to Gylan to rescue Princess. We learned that Al was after the rings, and had already stolen Princess' by the time we got to her. Kohle slowed us down a bit, but defeating him was necessary to gain his key. With the princess in tow, the party (now including Agmar) returned to Mahamood. Upon our return, the resident sage told us the third ring was in a tomb near the village of Ulk. The princess also gave us an amulet to put dead spirits to rest. Chapter four then began.

I'm sure that will not matter at all

Teleporting to Ulk, we arrived to find the village waylaid by bandits. They had the same ability to hide as Agmar, and provided a small challenge. Once again, in a strange bit of trigger searching, I had to learn the fake password of Open Sesame, attempt to use it at the bandit hideout, then return to town to be given the idea to wait outside and listen in on the bandits as they entered. Even though I had tried to do that exact thing, it only worked after those steps above.

Seriously, he used his real name while sneaking around inside

I retrieved the hammer from the thieves, which allowed me to break open the seal of the tomb. Inside the tomb I found the final ring, and a bunch of new spells. Once outside, Genie's lamp was stolen in a strange scene where the evil Al disguised himself as Princess and asked for it. Back in Ulk, we ran into a resistance fighter that requested Prince lead the revolt against the empire's occupation of Shanadar. Although combat was a little more tense without my healing source, it was easy to get inside the castle. We exchanged the rings for the captive king's safety, but we soon found he was nothing more than a zombie, and he held the Genie's lamp. Both fell quickly, and Prince used the amulet to banish the shade of his father forever. I regained the lamp, and prepared to retrieve the rings.

Yeah, we watched him do it earlier, but the party ran away instead of collecting these ashes earlier

The final chapter was over a third of the game. We breached the inner chamber of Gylan with a spell picked up in the tomb. There we saw Al burn the rings and release Ahriman. Through a series of conversations, I learned that the ashes still retained the powers of the rings. I collected them, and then went after Ahriman at a tower that rose up out of the desert. I had to defeat Al to gain entrance. Most equipment is purchased from the stores, but finally started finding useful pieces in chests. In what might be the first crafting system, Shanadar had a hilt I could buy, and combined with an F Stone I created a fire sword. I also found a poison sword that worked wonders on the giant Roc that would only take me to the alternate dimension Ahriman was holed up in if I could defeat him. I also found a pillow that had incredible defense, but kept the wearer asleep all battle (with the small advantage of being healed at the end of battle).

I guess that would be a little too easy

Ahriman was actually one of six great dark wizards that I needed to defeat. Salwa was by far the most difficult as I needed to fight him four times in a row before he finally perished. Every other boss, including Ahriman, was a pushover by comparison. Agmar's hiding ability was key in the final battle. The Genie went down in a single hit, which had me expecting my first real combat loss of the game. It wouldn't have been much loss though, as the game auto-saves before every battle. The manual boasts that you can turn the game off at any time, and return to the spot you left off. The corollary to this is that it's difficult to experiment with the many items that lack descriptions, in-game or in the manual.

The Genie reformed the rings and sealed Ahriman

The Genie then went into a speech: only with my great effort could the rings reform, had I given up the rings would have been lost forever. Saleem and Agmar parted ways as Prince and Princess settled down in Shanadar. Agmar ended up in the same cell in Gylan, and I'm sure Saleem returned to Mahamood. Overall, a rather short adventure that dragged on during the final dungeon.

Elapsed Time: 9h55m (Final Time: 9h55m)

They both officially changed their names to King and Queen

Combatant - Combat isn't as impressive when magic is limited. It's not until late into the game that the Genie could restore MP, so I kept his magic use to key points beyond healing. The MP restore can only occur during combat, and requires the Genie to remove himself from combat. The creatures fit the setting really well, and stats factor in heavily. One weird thing about combat was the order characters take actions; it isn't set. I'm not even sure the speed stat factors in.
Rating: 5
Admirer - Spells are gained by reading messages in dungeons, so they're slightly customized, but there's no downside to learning them all if you can find them. The stat boost items are store bought in the late game. No other character has any customization choices exist.
Rating: 3
Puzzler - There are no puzzles, and a main quest that takes so many triggers that it's sometimes difficult to track the next step when you've already figured out the third one ahead. No side quests, puzzles, or alternative solutions exist.
Rating: 1
Instigator - The story is rather basic with very little twist and turns. The game hits many of the classic Arabian themes. NPCs offer a few hints, but the majority are there merely for flavor. There are no item descriptions, and many usable items need to be tested to discover their power. I wasted an action trying out a bottle on the final boss (it blew at Ahriman and did nothing). There's no way to influence or alter the story.
Rating: 2
Collector - The items in the game world are rather unfamiliar to standard tropes. The only way to truly know what they do is to use them. Barrels heal the whole party as well as talismans. The economy doesn't allow for purchasing all that I could. In fact, there were some bits of armor I couldn't afford even by the end of the game. On top of that, there's the money sink that I could have used to boost the Genie. Inventory is (as far as I could tell) unlimited, but with the economy it's difficult to invest in all the equipment options to test relative strength.
Rating: 4
Explorer - The world feels a bit limited even though it's mostly open. There are no walls that prevent the party from returning to past areas. Music and graphics are well done, but there's just not much joy in exploring the long and mostly pointless dungeons. Most treasure, except in the final dungeon, is old equipment that's barely worth lugging around for the sell price.
Rating: 4

Final Rating: 19 [32%]

It's hard to say that the game is too long, but a couple of the dungeons and battles really dragged on. Overall, I had fun with the story and setting, but even after two games it feels a lot more similar than any other two fantasy games I've played. We'll see how the setting feels once I get to the Exile games. For a Game Gear title, it's great, and quite possibly the best it has to offer. I won't be playing Shining Force: Sword of Hajya on Game Gear as it's one half of Shining Force CD, so I'll cover it in that port. It's still a few years away.

The final scene of Shanadar

Next up is Cosmic Fantasy 2 on the TurboGrafx-CD. Even though I've already played Ys: Book 1 & 2, this will be the first non-port. None of the other Cosmic Fantasy games came to the US, so jumping in and then dropping out of the series feels a bit strange. Hopefully it stands well on its own, but judging by the system it's on it might be another forgettable title.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe - Rating(5 RPP)
1) 0 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 0 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 0 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 2 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 2 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 1 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve

Ax Battler was compared to Zelda II at its release; however, Zelda II does quite a bit more. First of all, this game has no experience levels. Beyond health, I'm not sure there are any stats to consider. Combat is action based with options limited to attacking and jumping. With the limited scope, I think the game has more in common with Gargoyle's Quest than Zelda. Towns exist, but don't support the usual stores. They're merely hubs for information on the next dungeon to tackle. There are training houses to gain special abilities like high jumping.

The game has a top-down overworld, random side-scrolling battles, and dungeons that include platforming in the same side-scrolling perspective. I'm not fully sure there are side quests, and no puzzles I saw in the first 15 minutes. Exploration is fairly linear, although I marked it as open in case it opens later. As far as I can tell, there aren't any items or equipment decisions, although upgrades exist.

Game 48

Title: Crystal Warriors
Released: Sources vary between 1991 - 1992
Platform: Game Gear
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: SRPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn based
Series - Standalone (in the US)

Simple and to the point

Finding an accurate release date for this title was difficult when I planned out the year. Most had the it as late 1991, and others as late as Dec. 1992. I didn't notice until too late that the title screen listed 1992 or I would have moved it on to the following year. In any case, it's a short, easy, and simple enough game to tackle now. Once again my only option was use emulation in order to get screen shots, but this game is available on the 3DS Virtual Console if you're interested in checking it out or playing on the go without using 6-AA batteries. This time I used the emulator's built-in overlay to obscure the screen to the correct display resolution.

Peace ending is how most RPGs start

Centuries of peace were disrupted when the Jyn empire attacked the kingdom of Ariel in order to capture the four elemental crystals. At the end of the invasion though, they noted only three, and a missing princess Iris. Emperor Grym's plan to dominate Tyramus with the crystals was thwarted. He sent his men in search of the princess, and gain the last crystal.

*Plop*

The princess Iris was joined by three fighters, a healer, and a mage. Each stage has static monsters as well as enemy forces that encroach on the party's starting location. Every unit has an elemental affinity, and the game uses a rock-paper-scissors mechanic for enhanced damage and defense. Fire > Wind > Water > Fire, and Earth sits as a neutral element. The princess, healer, and mage are earth while the fighters are one of each type. Paying attention to the weaknesses of the enemy was key to overcoming them easily. The mages are the most dangerous since they don't have an inherent weakness, and can potentially cast spells matching the weakness of any character. However, not every enemy mage had every elemental spell. To offset this, each fighter can capture monsters they defeat, and summon them to battle in the fighter's place.

Unfortunately the enemy army is hidden until attacked or scanned, so picking out initial placement is random

Each map had the enemies starting at one castle, and Iris at another. If the castle became occupied by opposing forces, then the opposing forces won. Most of the time, it was better to wipe out the enemies to gain more experience. Control alternates between player and enemy, and all units can either move plus take an action, attack, or cast a spell. Terrain didn't seem to contribute to combat. There was plenty of healing and MP to go around; however, it's not a complete a cake-walk. Any unit lost during battle were permanently removed from the army. Between each map the party rested at a town where hints, equipment, spells, and units were bought.

Spoilers: this guy died to test out what happens to units when they collapse in battle

There's also a fortune teller that reveals the composition of the enemy army (if they favor one element over another). Deciding which enemies to deploy didn't come into play until the army had more than nine units. Most of the free hints from NPCs were for flavor. The game became even easier once I raised my healer to max level. It caused her stats to become completely overpowered compared to other units. This took some effort to accomplish as experience is only gained when a unit delivers the killing blow.

The ultimate fighter is my healer

At certain points in the game, Iris gained additional crystals, but they were merely set pieces with no added benefit to battle. The towns cycled through various equipment with little rhyme or reason as to what was available. Spells were the same way. Although the later stages tended to have better spells and equipment, I often received offers late in the game for starting spells and equipment. The available recruits shuffled each town as well.

I missed getting a screen shot of the ending boss again; I'm really bad at taking live shots

Eventually we came to a point where Iris took out Grym, and then a final map where we took on a great evil (a jinn I think) and triumphed. I'm sure you can tell how vested I was in the story. There were a couple of named generals, but overall every mapped blended into each other, every town looked the same, and I felt like I was taking on the same 5 enemies with little change to my tactics. The only strategic part of this game was juggling around my units to ensure everyone was at an equal level. After 16 stages, the game ended.

Legen... wait for it...

My experience with this game was just bland. If I didn't end up leveling my healer, then it could have taken longer, but I don't believe it would have been any more difficult. Often she was eating up experience that could have been useful for other units. It's easy enough that I don't think anyone would have trouble with it, but there's no intrigue to grab a player's attention.

Elapsed Time: 6h44m (Final Time: 6h44m)

Thanks for the short game

Combatant - Combat is simple, and easy. The AI rarely makes an effort to avoid obvious traps, and will walk right down choke points. Mages offer easy ways to reduce enemy units, but enemy mages can counter any attack. This won't be the last time we see rock-paper-scissor style combat. It seems to be something of a phenomenon in this genre. Stats make a huge difference, but it can be such a pain to get the right units leveled. Under-leveled units have little chance to make up the gap if they fall too far behind. Gold is gained from each defeated unit in addition to 4 experience points.
Rating: 5

A couple healers duke it out

Admirer - Spells are customized with four slots per character, and separated by healer and mage spells. Mages have scan, and elemental spells. Healers have healing, and status effects that only work when they're participating in combat. Iris has a few specifically for her, but there's always an obvious best choice when deciding how to equip a character. Appearance doesn't change, and there are no advancement options. Controls are decent enough, and I don't remember having any problems.
Rating: 4

Manabu who?

Puzzler - I suppose as long as the game has a main quest this category will never be less than 1. Unfortunately, that's all this game gets. No side quests, no puzzles, and nothing else aside from combat and preparing for combat.
Rating: 1

I don't even remember seeing the unit on the right

Instigator - The story hardly pushes the game forward. I couldn't even tell if it was the same town I returned to, or 15 different towns. The helpful fortuneteller, mostly useless, is the only NPC worth any time. Everyone else drones on about how hard life is since Grym attacked, but there's really no evidence to support such claims. There aren't any decisions, and I can't say I was immersed in the game at any point.
Rating: 2

Fire vs. water, easy to tell who comes out on top

Collector - There's equipment, but only two levels for each type of unit. No other items exist in the game. Gold is in short supply, and with recruiting, buying random spells, and random equipment, it's hard to say when a good purchase will pay off. Spells and equipment are replaced with newer ones.
Rating: 1

I have no memory of the music, sorry Macky

Explorer - There's no world: it's set map, followed by town, followed by set map, followed by town, followed by (repeat until game ends). There's nothing hidden in the towns or maps, and no reason to explore. The graphics were well done, and while I don't recall the music, I don't think it annoyed me at all. Exploration is completely closed to either the current map or the current town.
Rating: 2

Oh, there's the final boss, which took a whole round of characters to bring down

Final Rating: 15 [25%]

While not the best game, it's definitely not the worst. I can't say I enjoyed the experience though, and I'm unlikely to ever revisit the game. I wouldn't recommend it. The best thing I can say about it is that it wasn't terrible. It's probably the most basic strategy RPG we'll see, or at least I could hope so.

Thank you Captain Elf

Moving on, we have the gaming year 1992 to cover before heading into our first game of that year: Ys III: Wanderers of Ys. I've owned the game on SNES since it was released, and that's the version I'll cover. It was released on Genesis and TG-CD at about the same time. While it might be interesting to look at the others, I'm going to stick to my one port policy. I might cover a few differences in the starting areas to give some comparison, but don't plan to play through each version.

Game 46

Title: Dragon Crystal
Released: 1991 (December 22, 1990 JPN)
Platform: Game Gear
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Rogue-like
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn based
Series - Standalone (related to Fatal Labyrinth)

There was no clear release date for the US, so I stuck this at the end of the year in hopes I'd have a 3DS capture device by now. Unfortunately, that's not the case, so I used an emulator for now. Hopefully one will become available by the time I reach Defenders of Oasis (I've already completed Crystal Warriors). All US released Game Gear RPGs have been made available on the 3DS Virtual Console for those interested in playing them in an official manner. Trying to get video output on a Game Gear is complicated, and takes some soldering, so I opted not to go that route.

A short game from beginning to end, but getting there takes a few tries

My warrior by the end was not nearly as well equipped as the one pictured. Dragon Crystal is a rogue-like game with randomly generated floors, items of mysterious effect, and turn based action. Every action uses one turn, and enemies act after the player. Identifying each item is done by using them, or throwing them at enemies. Weapons and armor are static, but can randomly be cursed. The goal is to reach the 30th floor, and touch the dragon crystal. The story is inferred from images that show a normal looking man trapped in a crystal turn into a warrior. This game is very similar to Fatal Labyrinth, but it's not clear if they're supposed to be the same game, or merely were developed in unison.

*Plop*

The emulator I used had an optional overlay, which obscures the screen to the standard resolution, but I chose not to use that for this title. The result was graphical artifacts normally hidden from view that disoriented me many times.

Everything's fine, just keep your eyes focused on the center

The items in this game differ slightly from Fatal Labyrinth, and some are unique to this title. Scrolls are replaced by books, and there are rings, staves, and potions in addition to weapons and armor. There's a food meter, but no fear of eating too much. HP regenerates over time as long as the player is fed. Levels are once again obscured by titles rather than a set number. In my travels I only reached Dragonlord, which is two below max level. The floors are revealed by walking along the walls, where they'll change color from a dull grey to each level's color palette. The early levels are this forest green.

Exit in the very last place I look

Each floor has an exit denoted by a six-pointed star hiding along the wall inside a room. The rooms can contain enemies, gold, or items. Connecting each room are single-file passages clear of anything interesting. Enemies keep to their rooms unless aroused by the player's presence, whereupon they may give chase into the hallways. The player is accompanied by an egg, which grows into a dragon as progress through the floors is made. This dragon doesn't do anything other than act as a barrier to enemy movement, and he always trails behind the player.

Ninja throw shuriken guarding some food

Enemies have unique patterns that require their own strategy. Ninjas teleport around a room randomly, but will target the player if they're in a straight line. Most enemies will follow the player, but some get an extra action while others won't move at all. Even others move at half speed, and one type is asleep until attacked. Later enemies have permanent status effects such as lowering strength, levels, or rusting equipment. Sorcerers can cast dizziness or fog, and land sharks steal food. Enemies get stronger each floor, and after about floor 20 every battle is dangerous enough that I started to avoid them as much as possible. The last couple of floors contain dragons that hit for over a quarter of my HP, so taking them on is out of the question.

Especially since most status effects don't work; like the reshape staff that softlocks the game when used on a dragon

It took three good runs to reach the end, and a number of false starts. Many of the items can result in an unrecoverable situation. Knowing when it's safe to experiment, and which items are useful for dragons is half the game. Overall it was an enjoyable game, but there's not much to it. Death isn't permanent, but it costs gold to continue; more each time and it might be limited. I don't think I took out a single dragon in my winning run, mostly due to dying on the 29th floor. Getting to the crystal was nerve wracking, and unfortunately I forgot to take screenshots during that run, but at least I remembered during the ending sequence. I'm not sure how easy it would be to repeat this success.

Elapsed Time: 6h45m (Final Time: 6h45m)

Remember when games thanked the players?

Combatant - Combat is well balanced with a number of strategies dependent on random item placement. Enemies seem to be a hodgepodge of different types without any explanation for them to exist in the dungeon. Stats do play a role, but equipment is more important than character abilities. It's difficult to tell when the next level-up will happen as experience is hidden from the player. Later levels were rarely boring.
Rating: 7

Credits are strangely short

Admirer - There's not much here to excite a customizer. There aren't any abilities or special skills gained. About the only thing to customize is equipment, which changes the appearance of the character. Controls are smooth, and I had little problem with doing what I intended.
Rating: 3

I wonder how many of these people worked on Fatal Labyrinth

Puzzler - I'm only giving this points for the variability in how to reach the end goal. Different items and level layouts lend to different strategies, and figuring out how to optimize exploration against resource acquisition leads to interesting decisions. No side-quests, no actual puzzles, and not much to do outside combat.
Rating: 2

There's an SMS version, but it wasn't released in the US

Instigator - There's kind of a story here, somewhere. It's only a framing device to give the player some motivation to reach the end goal. It doesn't contribute to how a player might approach the game. Even the dragon following the player is never explained, and disappears at the end.
Rating: 1

It's easy to see in these shots the resolution of the Game Gear

Collector - While there are many items in the game, inventory space is very limited. Each category of item has 8 slots that quickly fill up by mid-game. Trying to have one of each is out of the question. Equipment strength is only identifiable while equipped, and offloading useless pieces is troublesome as they must be dropped or thrown one-by-one. Gold is available, but it's only used as payment for extra lives.
Rating: 3

Coordinated what exactly?

Explorer - The game is pleasant enough, but I don't think it's anything to write home about. It's interesting that the path to the end is completely open from the beginning. Being strong enough to get there is another matter entirely. Just take a look at the TAS (Tool-Assisted Speedrun), which uses this fact to manipulate the RNG for a path straight to the end in about 1 minute. Extra bonus points for the new world every time.
Rating: 3

Final Rating: 19 [32%]

Thank you especially to these people and/or companies

Tied with Fatal Labyrinth makes sense given how closely they resemble each other. It's fun to play through the game every once in a while, but I don't think I'll have time to touch it again. I feel this game is harder than Fatal Labyrinth, but Dragon Crystal benefits from a run button.

Next up we have a childhood favorite. Lagoon holds a special place in my heart. I'm not even sure why I like it so much, but it's a stand out title that I enjoyed renting so much that I eventually bought it. We'll see how it holds up to the test of time.