Chrono Trigger

Title: Chrono Trigger
Year: 1995
Developer: Square
Genre: Console RPG
Platform: SNES

Review: Now this is a cool game of all times and a must play for anyone who loves RPG genre. Brilliant dialogues, cool graphics and cut-scenes, interesting plot, unique battle system, and nice music make this classic game stay juicy whenever you play it.

Let me start with plot. In this game Chrono and a group of his friends travel through time via teleport occasionally landing in the End of time. His (means your) goal is to save the world from destruction by changing some events in the past and in the future (although sometimes your doings may cause authorities toughen up the laws in the past and then find yourself in jail right after you return to your time). Meanwhile you'll need to solve many side-quests and play some mini-games like soup race at pre-historic age or catching the rat in post-apocalyptic future.

Gameplay is simple yet fascinating. There are 3 usual views: map view where you may travel from one location (building) to another. Area view friendly or hostile and battle mode. Talking to different friendly characters sometimes is as fun as fighting enemies - the game is full of funny quotes. No I won't tell you any.

As to battles and monsters.. first I was surprised why should I kill them they look so cute! I mean if you see two guys playing ball with another sphere-looking guy why should you attack them? Ok they have blue skin and maybe strange body shape but hey are you discriminating blue-faced guys or what? Same with mutants. When they sleep they look like a radish. Just ignore their size. And those cute volcano creatures sure throw stones and lava at you but look at their faces!

To win the game you must kill em all. Fighting with bosses is especially interesting because each boss is a riddle. You should figure out how to eliminate it, with which weapon and what is the best time for kicking it etc.

Battling the enemies you have a choice: to attack them physically with a weapon (sword, pistol, bow, crosbow...) to use a tech - a special powerful attack or magic. The latter two are shown with really cool visual effects. You may also use different health potions. If a character runs out of his hit points he cannot participate in battle but can be revived by a special potion. If all the characters die the game ends. If at least one survives and wins - all of them recover.

But again to me this game is not just about battles - it's about adventuring. The atmosphere is fun, the plot is well-thought and there are plenty eye-catching details in both dialogues, and interiors/landscapes. The whole universe is designed to arouse your curiosity and immediately draws your all your attention from the very start till the end of this wonderful game.

Legend of the Ghost Lion

Title: Ghost lion (Legend of the Ghost Lion)
Year: 1989
Developer: Kemco
Genre: RPG
Platform: NES

Review: Although box art shows us an amazon-looking woman, in the game Maria seemed more like a cute little girl in a pinkish dress to me. Unfortunately I've never had a chance to learn anything about her personality but the fact that her parents left her along in search for a legendary white lion who once appeared in their village and was driven away by some courageous young warrior. Why they decided to do so - I don't know but they never returned. After a while Maria decided to search for her adventurous parents and here is where the game starts.

Right in the beginning of her journey your protagonist gets washed away in a river and wakes up in a dream land which is remarkable for faeries who can restore her health and mana and lots of mushrooms growing here and there. You can also save your progress there. I said health and mana but in the game they're actually Courage (health) and Dream (Mana). Levels are called Hope. Courage and Mana are resored by faeries and you find pieces of hope in chests hiden in dungeons. With each piece of hope Maria's maximum Courage and Dream points increase. All of this looks quite fascinating at the start.

As soon as you leave the dream area you get to an enemy-infested map. When you encounter some random enemy battle screen appears. Now here you can either run away or fight. If you choose to fight you can either try to defeat an enemy with you weapon or call upon a spirit from certain objects you'll find. i.e. in the beginning you get a spear that holds young warrior's spirit. When you call upon him he'll 'join' you in the battle and help you defeat a monster. Various spirits can use magic or have other useful abilities. When you win you get some Rubys that are local currency.

There are some towns on the map as well as dungeons. In towns you can buy new items and receive quests. In dungeons you may also receive some quests, get pieces of hope and fight fight fight monsters. That's it. Despite some interesting moments the game lacks plot: we don't know anything about the girl we play for, short dialogues are way too uninformative and gameplay becomes boring very soon. I liked the idea about summoning spirits very much but I started to get bored by monotonous battles very soon. I know it is an old-school rpg game but I couldn't make it to the end.

What about the graphics and sound. Graphics is very simple but I got fascinated by the colorful dream world. On the contrary I got tired of music very soon too. So my resume is the game is not bad and has several interesting features that's why it's worth trying. However it's none too sophisticated and interest may fade quite soon.

Soul Blazer

Title: Soul Blazer

Year: 1992
Developer: Quintet
Publisher: Enix
Genre: Console RPG
Platform: SNES

Review: Warning! If you hear a tulip talking to you - calm down. You're not nuts. Same with dogs, moles, stumps, birds, squirrels and other creatures that you're going to save. Unlike the 7th Saga in Soul Blazer you'll have lots of crazy little dialogues with everyone and everything possible. Oh and you actually receive your quests from the roaring voice that comes from nowhere. The main quest is - to free the inhabitants of various lands who've been captured by Deathtoll. Why you should do it? Because you're a heavenly creature sent by Master. Doesn't it explain everything?

There's a manifold of inhabitants you're saving. You start in a peaceful Grass valley region, where you save people, goats, people reincarnated as goats, and talking tulips. Then you move to Greenland and free the birds, stumps, stumps dreaming they're birds, dogs, moles and ghost moles too. Btw beware of moles: they may appear suddenly in from of you and say Boo! Third region... but I don't want to spoil your fun. After you freed a certain creature you may talk to it and get some info, more quests or important items which may help you in your quest like new powerful sword or... mushroom clothes.

What about the enemies? Well braziers, pineapple plants, steel monkeys, fire spirits, palm trees, ghosts, huge snowballs... do you want me to continue. Each monster gives you some XP and crystals. If you get killed you lose all crystals you had. Crystals are used for casting magic so be sure you always have enough especially by the end of the game when you'll face the Deathtoll who's only killed by magic. Also in the beginning you won't be able to kill all the enemies. Some creatures (like those made of steel) can only be defeated with certain type of sword that you'll receive later. Others like huge snowballs cannot be killed with a sword but only destroyed by making them hit rocks or fall from the cliff.

Move from land to land, explore labyrinths, attack monster lairs, free various creatures and get to know more about how they all ended up like this. In the end of each level meet the boss. Having defeated the boss and freed the head of each land move to the next region for more adventures. Despite seemingly simple gameplay, Soulblazer is a very attractive game with lots of stuff to explore like. It may seem childish a bit but all the details are really awesome and freaky. i.e. you may get to a land full of monsters (which is ok) through the painting or watch the super snail race.

7th Saga

Title: 7th Saga
Year: 1993
Developer: Produce
Genre: RPG
Platform: SNES

Review: I disagree with those guys who say that this game is extremely difficult. It's challenging, yes but you'll just need to level up your character which is no problem since there are always dozens of tasty enemies on the map.

At the start you choose one of 7 characters and get your main quest - to obtain 7 magical runes. Nobody knows how they look like or where they're located or if they even exist so you'll have lots of fun finding them. Other 6 characters are up to these runes too so sooner or later you'll get to the point where you'll have to make them give you the runes they've found. One way or another. There is btw a good set of character races: Human Knight, Robot, Elf, Dwarf, Alien, Human priest, Demon. Choose whoever you like.

As you got your quest you may feel free to explore the 1st town and talk to NPCs. Talking to everyone is important because you only get the plot information through these short dialogs. Actually all real heroes find info about their quests when talking to people and not from roaring voices coming out of nowhere. You may shop for some useful items and save your record in an inn.

When you exit the town you get to the enemy-infested area. Your magic crystal appears at the top of left corner of the screen showing your location (blue dot in center) enemies (moving white dots), towns (white circles) and runes (shiny red circle). When an enemy gets close to you a battle begins. Here developers used a "Mode 7" graphic effect to create a 3d illusion when the screen changes. The effect looks fancy but becomes tiring and time-consuming very soon.

In battle mode you may attack, defend, use magic, use item or run away screaming the hell out of you. Good news: when you level up monster do not become stronger too. Bad news: the other 6 heroes do. Each defeated monster gives you some XP and money. If a monster defeats you - you lose half of your money. However if you invest your money in jewels then you may not fear for losing it as monsters have no use of jewels (I wonder why would they need money then? To buy cookies at ol' Dr. Frankenstein's store?). Jewels can be bought and sold for the same price.

When you collect enough XP points you level up. Let me upset those of you who likes playing with stats: all statistic points like HP, Strength etc are added automatically and depend on which hero you've chosen at the start and some characteristics are static and cannot be changed. There are also some items you find here and there that upgrade certain stats.

So as you may have understood the game is about fighting and dungeon exploring and I find it nice. There are games where you enjoy a complicated plot, you read long sophisticated dialogues and get various info and some food for thought. There are also games where there is little to read but lots of action and they're still very entertaining (not in a dummy hack'n'slash way). 7th Saga is the second type.

The last but not the least: music. It's very melodic and you don't get tired of it. It's really really beautiful.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden

Title: E.V.O.: Search for Eden
Year: 1993
Developer: Almanic
Genre: Action RPG
Platform: SNES

Review: After you've watched a starting story (a boring one) you're being told you're already a fish and shall evolve in order to reach Eden where you'll meet your mother Gaia, daughter of the Sun. Then begins a cool part!

You play for the fish. Rejoice or just accept it. Get used to the ocean and go meet a friendly jellyfish. Talk to the jellyfish and then eat it (the game is about evolution and survival of the fittest, right). Other creatures including jellyfishes are not so friendly and you better attack them first as soon as you get close to them. If you got hurt you can eat some non-moving stuff like algae to restore some health.

Each moving creature that you kill and eat gives you some health points and also some EVO points. When you collect enough EVO points you may evolve. Choose parts of the body which you'd like to upgrade and voilà! your fish gets some brand new teeth. Some abilities depend on the others and evolving one part of the body may cause decrease in other part's features.

Evolving is important not only because with each level enemies become tougher but also the bosses who are almost impossible to defeat without all upgrades and some of your wits too. When you've dealt with a boss proceed to next level and then to new era. The fish becomes an amphibian, the amphibian becomes a dinosaur and so on until it reaches Eden.

When I've started playing this game for the first time I was fascinated by flexibility of creature you control. i.e. you may make a sporty guy who jumps high but has medium strength or you can make a slow but tough creature or choose a golden middle. The enemies are well done too. There are many of them of course and each has its own features so that the game does not become monotonous and boring.

So to put it in a nutshell the game is original, interesting and very well done. Must play.

Bible Buffet

Title: Bible buffet
Year: 1993
Developer: Wisdom Tree
Genre: Board game
Platform: NES

Review: I honestly don't know why this game is called Bible buffet - it has nothing to do with bible. Or may be it is just another conspiracy.

Anyway Bible buffet is a board game and you can play it either alone or with up to 3 partners or you can play for 4 players alone. In the beginning of each turn a player has to spin a wheel that shows a number of moves he makes on a map. A map is divided into 12 lands and each land has several locations. When you land on one of this locations a nightmare begins.


Have you ever had nightmares? Sure you had! Have you ever had nightmares about how you travel through peaceful shiny lands when suddenly food attacks you and the only weapon you have is a spoon? You will! Oh and if you managed to kill a tomato or potato with your deadly weapon but didn't get its body right away - it will raise from the dead again after a short time.

The food itself is quite surreal. Potatoes chop themselves to pieces with a happy smile on their faces, toasts enjoy throwing knives to each other, pizza pieces... but enough of that horror. Moving from stage to stage you will have a chance to collect up to 3 spoons, forks or knives to show those food freaks who's a chief. You will also collect explosive barrels for those guys who cannot be killed with ordinary flatware, like ketchup.

Besides that you'll also have to pass quizzes. But don't worry no tricky questions there. Just 3 numbers. You have to guess which one is True and which is False and tick correct answers. If you're planning to play this game more then once I suggest that you write down the answers because every passed quiz gives you some bonuses. I guess the questions ought to be somewhere like game manual but who cares about it anyway?

So. If you'd like to spend some time chasing crazy creatures from your fridge this game suits the best. Oh and don't forget to harvest peaceful food too - it'll prove useful in a world food bank!

Disclamer

There are two things I missed when I was kid - console games and superhero comics. I've never ever had Nintendo or Atari or whatever other console and comic books were simply unavailable where used to live.

I've got my first PC in 1996 when I was 8 and I've played l-o-t-s of different games since that. Today I still love gaming but it looks like I ran out of games. Yeah yeah I know dozens of brand new games are published every year. But I am used to those issued in nineties and in the beginning of new millennium so those brand new games are just not for me. Different graphics, higher and higher system requirements, different approach to a gaming system and so on.

My husband was born 9 yrs before me. An unimportant term for marriage and critical for gaming experience. He used to play console and very first pc games for a long time and thanks to him I discovered this old new world of platform games.

So. I've got an emulator and thousands of NES/SNES/... games. Here I go!