Aggelos (Switch)

What is an aggelos?

After playing the fantastic Wonder Boy games for the Switch I got this itch for that kind of adventure game and here we have a game harkening back to that kind of formula dressed up in 16-bit glory. The story... was kinda hard to understand when I started it up since all the text were in japanese. Why? Don't know, but I thought it was something I could change after starting the game or I might not need it, Monster Boy III wasn't that much text heavy. I probably should have realised something was problematic when it spent the first screens to establish the story and I don't get it. I start and run out and it works fine, I walk out of my home and meets a girl attacked by some monsters that I save. I continue and ends up at the first village, and it's here I get I'm in over my head. NPC:s and everyone got something to say. I look up on the internet, don't find anything so I restart and tries the other option I found at the start screen and it appears to be the option menu and fiddling around I finally get it to english. Time to restart the game!

So that's what he meant!

So as I get the story the girl is the princess of the realm that was kidnapped by this evil knight and escaped but was caught up until you rescue her. You hide her in your home while travelling to the castle and get the guards to escort her back home. This evil knight have gathered the four elements and started open rifts to the dark world and you are the only one that can stop him. So you travel across the lands getting money to upgrade your weapons and armours and finding the four temples of the elements and defeat the bosses. After a couple of temples the rift to the dark world opens and you have new enemies all over the world to fight. Finding the last element you enter the rifts you can find to open the gate to the tower of the knight and fights him, Beating him leaves one final rift where you will find Downpour, the lord of darkness. Fight him, win and the game is pretty much over. You return to the castle and gets praised for saving the world, but as the celebration goes on a pillar of lights hit you and as the princess tries to grab your hand you get wings and fly up to the heavens. Apparently aggelos is some kind of angel that protects the world. The evil knight was a fallen angel and only angels seemed to be able to gather the elements. 

It was fun and not that frustrating until the fire temple where I got my first continue of many. I couldn't 100 % since I couldn't get a heart from a pterodactyl since I was unable to reach its nest without touching the ground. And I also didn't get the Woodpecker attack since I sucked at the second-to-last room where you have to do perfect platforming without using magic and you only got once chance at the final jump before starting over again. 6 hours playtime. Music sounds more 8-bit than 16-bit actually. Mostly decent, was probably 1 or 2 tracks that didn't sit well with me, but most where passable. Graphics looks like 16-bit and looks fine. I don't like the map system though since I prefer if they have something akin to Metroid or Castlevania (maybe... like MetroidVania... Ha Ha) since I can see where I haven't been able to reach due to the map not filling up. Here we got a map of the land and only able to see the save points that works like warp points. Which means I have to remember interesting spots to use different abilities on to get something or advance to the next area. Lucky it was short enough so it didn't matter that much and it was easy enough to make lapse around the world a couple of times (although that can be seen as a bit of filler). Short but enjoyable. And at the end the language turns to Spanish... don't know what the deal is.

Shadowgate (Switch)

It's Only A Model!

As mentioned in my post about Shadowgate 64 I was really interested in checking out the remake of the original game and lo and behold, they gave me the game on Switch to enjoy. And I played through it and afterwards it felt... I don't really know. Fun to get the story before Shadowgate 64 and characters like Lakmir, Jair and Talimar, but it might be inherit in the design of the old point and click games, but it was a lot of walking back and forth trying everything on anything to progress in the end. Not even the incorporated help of Yorick could help me so I caved in and looked up the solutions online. And I'm glad I did it at the lowest difficulty because adding a time-restraint as well would have made me go berserk. Now, problem with going for easier is that it doesn't give you the whole experience since they got certain event and puzzles (I gather by reading the guide since it mentioned a fifth mirror in the mirror room and different solutions to puzzles). 

Story is that Jair is summoned by the last wizard Lakmir, from the Circle of Twelve to the Castle Shadowgate in order to solve its puzzles and stop Lakmir's brother Talimar, the Warlock Lord who was thrown out of the Circle of Twelve and now attempted to unleash the Behemot on the world after taking over the castle and killed all denizens. As Lakmir guides Jair, he will uncover the truth of his own past and end up under the catacombs of the castle and fight off the Warlock Lord. Now, all the story about the different wizards, the history of the lands and such are real fun reading. I also noticed the shout-outs to Ridley Scots Legend and Dragon's Lair. 

For half the game the puzzles worked fine with little trouble (could also be that the Nintendo Magazine I had from my cousins were full with tips and tricks for the NES port of the game since it seemed to be one of the more played games and probably due to it being one of the few NES games that actually got a Swedish translation). But when I got to the Castle proper the game began to drag. It was up and down the towers and checking the different doors, trying to figure out the spells and much more. Could also be that I took 2-3 weeks break from the game there and was rather lost on where everything was or how I could use my items.

Overall, sitting with pen and paper and committing to the game on its rules would probably be the best solution. Also more people to share with it, like a kid, to get that childlike sense of adventure would probably help. Graphics are nice (certainly better than the N64-game), but the music is kinda bland (here the N64-game shines above the remake) so I don't get into the atmosphere like in the N64-game that oozed of it. Also, several times the game froze on me and rebooted me to the Switch interface. I don't know why, since I don't feel I taxed the game that much... maybe playing to long before starting over would have been a cause, but the first time was a couple hours into the game while the second time was randomly inbetween shutdown I made to the game. Reminds me of a game I bought for the Wii U that at a point constantly froze for some reason.

Fairune Collection (Switch)

At least she isn't looking at the tower

I've played through the Fairune games and it's spinoff and now they appeared on the Switch in a neat little collection with some extra stuff inside of it. You have Fairune 1 and Fairune 2 and I can't say much more that I did the first time I played through them. It's walking around and solving puzzles while trying to fight the right enemy so that you don't get overwhelmed. It's also a bit of roadblocking I realized since at points you need to clear rooms filled with enemies and for that to work you need to level up. Puzzles are still solved by looking around and noticing pictures and such to get you an idea what you are needed to do, othertimes you need to find an item and use it at the right spot. Second game is bigger than the first and actually have a semblence of a story. Graphics are nice and the music is fantastic.

A bit different

The other games in the collection is Fairune Origin. A very short adventure where it took me 15 minutes to beat. What the origins is about is hard to say since it just like usual. Collect fairys and defeat the demon king. Although this time there is 4 fairies and you have no level up system (since it's such a short adventure) and you heal by standing still for enough amount of time. The graphics are a bit more blocky and the princess is a bit taller in this game for some reason. I don't get why they just didn't reuse the same sprite all over again, but it was a bit interesting to see something new.

And now for something completely different

Last game in the collection that you need to finish the first three games in the collection to be able to play is Fairune Burst. And it is  2 minute shooter. You pick either the Princess or the two other heroes from Kamiko and run through the gauntlet and try to get as high of a score as possible within the time limit. Fun distraction, but I prefer the main 2 games and their gameplay. Overall I liked this collection. Everything easily accessible for me on the Switch and with a larger screen than on my New 3DS.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (3DS)

Like There Can Be No More Black

Continuing my Zelda Easter and in preparedness for the remake of this game I had to play through it again. Never played the original Game Boy release, but got the DX version when I bought my Game Boy Colour in red (as that was the only colour left). Like A Link to the Past this took forever to finish and I remember hardest part was the 7th dungeon, the Eagle Tower since I never got the gimmick of the place. Now I run through it in 15 minutes (that might be an exaggeration, but it at least doesn't take a month or so). Coupled with that I got the red shirt which doubled my attack, while I really needed the blue shirt for the defence bonus, but the damn rooster you have to carry around until you beat the tower makes it impossible to get hold of. Thanks game.

Playing it again I feel that the game wants you to be slow with it, explore and go around with the new items you get all over the map before continuing with the next dungeon. So there are a lot of missable things if you don't do it slowly. For example some of the photographs are locked at certain points, especially those with Marin. And when you try to get seashells for upgrading you sword you got to stop what you do and go to the seashell mansions when you acquired 5 and 10 shells respectively to get the ones  from the mansion. 

Storywise it has some interesting twists and turns, like that the island is just the imagination of the Wind Fish and the nightmares are trying to preserve it that way. But it seems like Link the one that actually pushes them to be aggressive since they didn't do much until Link landed on the shore. All in all it was fine to play again and I can't wait until the remake comes along. The artstyle already sold me on it and it's gotta be fun to see what they've kept and what they got rid of (if they got rid of anything). The biggest change will probably be the fact that you have enough buttons now to not need to equip things like the bracelet and the pegasus boots. In A Link to the Past they were used with the action button, but since the original game boy line only had an A and a B button, that would be problematic since you needed them for the sword and other items (including the shield). So I get that decision, but I hope they don't keep it since it was a lot of back and forth to go anywhere since you need to change items a lot to get around on Koholint Island.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (3DS)

The Gold Standard

Seeing a lot of randomisers out there being played by the favourite pastime of youtubing I got a bit of craving for playing the original game. And since it's the time of easter while playing this I had nothing else to do while stuck at my parents place for the holiday besides eating. And I could have hooked up the family SNES, but then I would have to take a break for the news and movies on the TV, but I brought my trusty New 3DS with its new battery loaded with all the games I bought during the years and never played. Time to resolve that.

Nice with a long holiday to play some video games.

Now, this game set the standard for Zelda games for a long time. Gather 3 items to unlock the master sword and then several dungeons to get to Ganon and defeat him and get the triforce to set everything right. Today I can finish the game around 10 hours in a run, but back in 1998 when we got it for the first time it took years. Mostly due to my scaredy-cat attitude. The first three dungeons fine and all, but the dark world scared me for some reason. And the dungeons where really scary. Lost woods was probably the worst, and if it wasn't the gibdos it's probably the wall-masters and the damn shield eaters... I don't know if it was like likes, but it ate my shield non the less. The graphics are pleasant, the music fantastic and the story is gripping enough and sent my mind soaring as a kid. It's still my number 1 Zelda-game. Which maybe shows that we bought this game 5 times (including the Wii U upgrade cost if you got it for the Wii first). If we look at the Game Boy Advance remake, do I miss something from it? Not really. Maybe that Maple isn't the witch assistant since otherwise it looks like every other magic shop salesman. I don't need the blonde hair or Ocarina of Time screams to enjoy the game, but it was at least portable, but my 3DS handles that well enough.