The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Wii U)

 

The smallest of Links.

Thought I had written about this game, but apparently not. Been playing Bravely Default for the Switch 2, but just don't feel like finishing the end game and everyone that have played it knows what it is. So I watched Game Grumps playing the Minish Cap so just felt that it would be a nice break. Originally for the GBA and made by Capcom that also did the Oracle-games. I got it for the GBA, the 3DS ambassador program and the Wii U that I played here. Seems like I hadn't finished it before since the only save on the console was from even before Link leaves Hyrule town with the princess. Probably was bored at the time.

Story is that Link is the grandson to the smith and it's the Picori Festival when Hyrule celebrates the picori, pretty much gnomes that are really small and lives in peoples houses or in the forest. At the price ceremony the winner Vaati goes haywire and turns Zelda to stone, breaks the picori blade and releases evil upon the world. Link gets the mission to find the picori since he is a child and they only show themselves to children. On his way through the Minish Woods he finds a talking hat that is being attacked. He helps it and it tells him that he is Ezlo, a minish sage that was turned into a hat by his apprentice Vaati that stole the minish cap from Ezlo and intended to rule the world. So Ezlo joins Link and this is the origin of Link's green hat.

You need to find the four elements and fix the broken picori blade. Ezlo helps you by being able to shrink yourself to minish height. It is a fun concept especially when they take normal enemies and turn them into bosses, because now they are massive. The picori blade then turns into the four-sword that was introduced in the side-quest for the Link to the Past remake for the GBA (where Vaati also was the end boss). So it's a lot of origins here.

I finished it before, but the memory was that it was hard to fight the end boss. And it is, but I guess 20 years of video games actually improved my thinking. I never 100 % it though and as I played it I began to see why. You have the kinstone fusions where you fuse kinstones with people that you get in chest, or get from grass or enemies and so on. Which is fun since you get chests or enemies or open paths and so on. But several of the fusions are random, and people can be really picky on if they want to due a fusion or not. I actually was able to get all those, but the last one was a pain. Apparently a deku scrub that had it. And then it was the figurines. You collect shells (which I assume is a nod back to Link's Awakening) that you can gamble to get figurines of characters or enemies. There is 136 total and I got to something like 100, and I got that by abusing the save state while playing the rupee game to max the winnings. Maybe I should have bought more shells than kinstones. Too late now. And you need to get all figurines if you want to get all heart pieces. God dammit.

Overall, a fun game and I like the concept of the minish and such (having watched Gnomes as a kid). End boss was hard though and took me a minute to remember how to beat Vaati and there is three phases of the boss. Don't like that, especially when I'm forced to fight off 3 darknuts under a time limit. And then I spent 2 hours to get enough rupees to buy the shells to gamble on the figurens. All to get the final heart piece and 3 chests with 200 rupees each... what am I supposed to spend it on, the game is over?

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Wii U)

 

Where's my continuation?

Finished off the second game again and the feeling of melancholy have appeared for finishing it up. Played it very slow compared to the last time. Last time I only put in 28 hours, 41 levels and missed 2 djinn and didn't get the last summons. Don't know why, but fixed it this time. Played it on Hard as well, mostly larger HP on the enemies I gathered. No problem until the end when I fought Dullahahn, which beat me every time so I had probably to grind for another 10 levels to be able to survive his attacks while dealing with the 200 regeneration he has. A bit easier on the old cart where I see that I had level 87 and played for 136 hours. Have I said this is my favourite game series? It has to be when a 30 hours game is played for 136 hours. Not as long as Tears of the Kingdom, but I only played that once. 

Played the game using the class items you get and while the first game actually gave me an enhanced experience since it made it easier with growth and such, here changing away from the basic classes actually was a hindrance where I constantly had to turn of the items and djinn to get Frost or Whirlwind, not until the second team showed up did it improve (and that was often due to their psynergy items that permanently gave you douse and Frost), but the final classes was awesome. At that point grinding for items worked really fine when I had all attack djinn put on the main party and diversified over all four meaning I could constantly hit them. And with Petra and Ground you could crowd control most encounters. And most late end bosses was really easy with a combo of those two and summon rush. Dullahan the only one that could handle it. Also went out of my way (which may explain some of the extra hours) to go to Air's Rock before Yampi Desert. Maybe would try to get the angry Kraden scene if I play again where you said no to everything and wanting to skip Lemuria gets Kraden so mad.

So, in a hypothetical remake, what would I want to see? Get rid of the RNG-blacksmith mechanic or let more enemies drop materials for Sunshine. I also realised again it was strange that people from the first game didn't have portraits there, but gained them here, so sync that up. A mini-map would be nice since the guide wasn't all that helpful at times since they didn't have a room in Ankhol ruins which put me on a loop which I couldn't get past. More funny is that I noticed they had missed a vial in Air's Rock as well. 

Still love the game. It has the emotional pay-off for a 60 hour game (both games combined) and cliffhanger in the end that really interesting. Sadly they didn't explain it in the 3rd game. Also, there was a lot of things they could have explored in a future game, the fighting between Hisperia and Atteka, Alhafra's greedy mayor and what happened to Prox after the Golden Sun event? Still, nice seeing it on the big screen, can't say the same for the next game, Dark Dawn since they never released it on the Virtual Console. A travesty I say!

Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (Wii U)

 

Finally!

Difficulties at work made me crave some nostalgic feelings and maybe it was time to replay the game I once called the best game ever. Especially since it was 6 years since last as of writing. So no story or such since I already covered that in depth. I think I played it on the Wii U last time, but since I didn't have a decent TV I think I used the Wii U gamepad and I gotta say, playing on a big screen with a Wii U Pro Controller felt rather well. Only problem with it I would liked to have utilised more of the buttons, but that is due to the Game Boy Advance controllers. 

So what did I do to spice it up? I decided to change my classes beyond the mono-elemental one I usually do. In the first game it doesn't work that well until you get 6 djinn of each element to gain some interesting combos. So I picked up my Prima Guide and had it beside me during the whole game. Then I began noticing certain things. For example giving Ivan Flint in the beginning and defeating the three thieves makes the game give you back Flint so that you won't miss him... even if it only is really a few minutes. It actually made it easier in most parts since I didn't have to think about growth psynergy or such since I already had it.

Then it was the artefact weapons and armor. Most of them in the early game is kinda worthless. The bandit sword is already out paced by the normal weapons you can buy before getting it. What's the point? And that keeps up until something like Altin. I read somewhere someone complaining that they didn't have money so maybe that, but I just played it normally and sold off all Water of Life and other consumables meaning I had enough money for pretty much anything. No problem. Maybe they didn't explore enough.

I also decided to do the game really out of order in my usual style. For example I headed for Imil and Mercury Lighthouse before Kolima Woods. Got my ass beat my Saturnos, so I headed back to Kolima and did that before returning with more djinn and levels. Went a lot easier. I forgot that I should have skipped the Force Orb for that special cutscene in the Altin Mines, have to wait for the next playthrough in 2030. Defeated the Cyclone monster in the desert before finishing Colosso, saw another text with Sheba before she left Tolbi which I haven't seen before. Read also that you could see the colors of the stones in Altmiller Cave with Reveal which was a cool tidbit. Never knew that since I wrote down what Babi said so I wasn't lost. Speaking about Altmiller Cave I found out that the Prima Guide has an error. The guide says that the Dragon Shield is in the cave, but it is in Altin Mine. Think it was a vial there, but they probably confused the vial with the Mystic Draught. Went through the Babi Lighthouse section and headed out so I could finish off Crossbone Island. I actually went back there as quickly I had the appropriate psynergy. Still, Carry is the final one and that is in Venus Lighthouse. After that I killed Dreadbeard at level 28, started up my old save that was for level grinding so I had 42 and grinded to 44 so that Ivan had the Tornado psynergy and then I beat the game and is prepared for the next game.

Overall I fell in love with the game again. The Music, the graphics and the story just makes me happy. So since there is probably no reason for them to release Golden Sun 4 at the moment the best I can hope for is probably some kinda remake. Best option would be the first 2 games remade into one. Would I change somethings? I would prefer if running was the default, more buttons to use and maybe some tweaks so that early weapons actually is useful. The main characters don't default to defend if the target dies before a strike. A bestiary and maybe some added content. If both games are combines I would gladly take a New Game+ where the levels just continues so that you can grind to lvl 99 and max all stats. Another thing is maybe add a store or such that actually sells something like Oil Drops or Weasel Claws so that you can use different play styles. They can also put in a growth psynergy to Isaac like they did for Matthew. And more inventory space. There's like 5 open spaces when you are decked out with weapons, armor, accessories and psynergy items. I would enjoy that, but question if I still would bitch about the game straying from the pure original.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch)

 

A return to their roots.

As of writing it's the end of February and I haven't played any video games beside some levels of Super Mario Bros. Wonder when I was at my sisters place the weekend 13 days after Christmas, and before that nothing since early December. As usual I'm not too inclined to play games during this time, and usually I get over it with a puzzle game. The game for 2024 was apparently Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Switch.

It's a remake of a 2004 GBA-game (which make it the second GBA-remake I know of after Advance Wars Switch-game) which I have two versions of on 3DS and Wii U. Never finished though. I finds that being the best thing about remakes, improvements to ease off play that actually allows me to finish them. Yes, I played casual mode that took away the timer which is new for the remake. The mode also gives you five bubbles instead of using extra lives taking some stress out of getting hit (in most levels it doesn't even hinder you from getting a gold star compared to the original). It also seems that they've added 2 set off overworlds since looking at the original it just seems to be 6 overworlds compared to the remakes 8. Since I don't intend to play through the GBA version I won't know unless I'm stuck somewhere with my 3DS and can't muster anything else to do.

Story is that one day Donkey Kong is zapping through the TV-channels when he stumbles upon a commercial for a new toy called Mini-Mario, he rushes out to get one (as the commercials message of "gotta get them all" repeats in his mind, think it's a jab at the Pokemon tagline). The stores is sold out so he rushes to the Toy Factory and steals them from the Toad workers there and Mario just happens to be there so he follows the Kong in order to get them back. He jumps and platforms his way through a set of 6 levels collecting mini-Mario's so that he can use them to collect the letters T-O-Y so that they open a chest he can put them in to get 6 hits on a boss level with Donkey Kong. Both the music and gameplay evokes the Donkey Kong arcade game and the Nintendo 8-bit series. After that you get a new set of levels and continue that for 8 overworlds to fight the big boss and then you do that all over again for the plus levels so that you can fight the final boss, Donkey Kong in a giant Kong Suit. Credits roll.

Then there is 10 extra levels that you unlock by the amount of gold stars you have, in the end I had 112, missing the boss fights. So in total. 130 levels to complete everything, but I don't feel the need to overextend my enjoyment. Took me a weekend of on-and-off play to get through it and that felt enough. A couple of days and I'm ready for something else during my half-week vacation.

Final Fantasy II (GBA)

The sequel

Just like Final Fantasy II I got this also on PSOne, but as stated, no TV and not available to me at the moment so let's play this. 

First enemy of the game, I'm f***ed!

So it begins when the Empire attack the kingdom of Flynn that forces Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon to escape their home. Maria and Leon is siblings and Guy is a "nature child" who was raised by animals while Firion is some kind of best friend I believe. After the intro attack Firion, Maria and Guy wakes up in the rebels hideout. Leon is missing. Firion & Co want to join the rebels, but princess Hilda says no, so you sneak into Flynn anyway. There you meet Scott, one of the princes of Kashuan at his deathbed as he protected everyone fleeing the castle during the attack. Returning to the rebels with Scott's ring you get aloud in and tasked with checking up on some mythril deposit in the north after talking with Josef from Salamand. With that you know have equipped the rebellion so they can fight back, but unfortunately news reach them that the Empire is finishing of the construction of the Dreadnought, a gigantic airship. 

I feel like playing Empire of Steel again

So you have to head to Kashuan to get the Sunfire to drop in the engine to blow it up. Scott's brother Gordon tries the same thing, but joins up with you at the castle. Returning the Dreadnought have captured princess Hilda riding on Cid's airship (Cid is a recurring character in every Final Fantasy game, often having something to do with airships). So a rescue operation is on the way. You rescue the princess and blow the ship up. But it wasn't the princess but a lamia disguising as Hilda. So off to the arena to rescue her. Meanwhile Minwu the white mage that saved you in the beginning have been missing in the search for the spell Ultima. Following in his footsteps you get eaten by the leviathan where you meet Ricard, the last of the Dragoons and together you climb a tower where Minwu uses his life force to break the lock on Ultima. You return, take back Flynn, but the Emperor summons a cyclone that wreck havoc on the rebels. Firion & Co awakens the last wyvern and storm right in fighting the Emperor at the top ending his evil reign. But it's not over since the Emperors Dark Knight have taken over. So you look for Cid who is dying of the wounds from the cyclone and hands you the airship so you can enter the Empires capital from the air. Battling to the top the Dark Knight is... Leon, but before you can do anything the Emperor returns from Hell and only with the sacrifice of Ricard does Firion and the others escape. Leon joins you and you know have to travel to Hell to fight the Emperor. 

And this one didn't come to the West?

You beat the Emperor and the End pretty much. The story is really good in my mind. Characters you meet during the adventure dies left and right. They incorporated a buzzword system so you could learn certain words and then ask them to get more information. So why is this regarded as one of the worst games in the Final Fantasy-series? Because they also implemented a new way to "level up" by removing it and focusing what you use is what you get. Including different spells and weapon types. Again they have refined it in the GBA game since I didn't grind anywhere. Although you have to go out of your way to use magic since MP hardly goes up due to being so limited at the start and then the spells doesn't get effective until something like level 5. And some enemies need to be attacked with magic. Doesn't help that originally it was also a thing that if one stat went up, another went down. Opposing stats that is so magic went up and strength down I believe. Also since it's so long between playthroughs I forget what spells are worth putting time and effort in. For example Haste, Berserk and Osmosis. All protection spells are worth it and I must put time in on Esuna since it never work that well for me. This is basically a reminder to when I get to the PSOne version where I can't save anywhere. I recall save scumming through the end portion of the game last time since I got hammered then, but this time no problem, which apparently is due to me not grinding for 5000 HP and 500 MP giving the magic defence and agility skills opportunity to raise to decent levels making the game much easier. And now I got the extra mode to play through.

I saw this a lot playing that mode

So I screwed up the leveling... again. Minwu and Scott hardly survived the first enemy and Josef didn't add much. Ricard was the only one that stood a chance and appropriate for the end game. So after reaching the town I gave up. So you are supposed to be the dead companions (plus Scott that looks like Gordon who was one of two companions two survive beyond the four main) and travel through another kind of Hell (or it might be heaven) to fight the Emperors "good side". For those that really liked those dead companions (and Ricard and Minwu are the best). This mode doesn't exist on the PSOne version so we will see if I ever finish it.

Overall I personally liked this game. I liked the "leveling up" system and it at least wasn't random like in Legend of Legacy that randomized the stat upgrade (game was made by the same people). The story might be cliched, but as proven time and time again, I can get down with it. And if you are gonna play one version this is probably the best due to the player friendly alterations they did for a modern audience. The music, while not abundant with tracks, is at least enjoyable. I especially like the boss theme. Now, if that is exclusive to the remakes I don't know.

Final Fantasy I (GBA)

The first of many Final Fantasy

I’ve been moving into my own place which means I got to unpack all those boxes I’ve stored on my parents attics (yes, that is multiple attics). And guess what I found, my GBA/DS collection. Unfortunately I can’t find my DS Lite so it has to be somewhere in a box that I yet have to discover. It’s like a real life treasure hunt finding my own stuff, but I would gladly accept finding some kitchen utensils so I can cook something more basic that macaroni. Anyway, lucky for me I knew where my GameBoy Advance SP where, at my sisters place with all my Zelda games because my brother-in-law wanted a go at them at the closest original hardware he could get his hands on. Whats that? They gave it back to my sister that have been living at my parents house for a year and she never told me but put the games in plastic bag near her sleeping place? Well, glad I looked around for my things then since I got it back. So which game should I try first? Well, most GBA games I actually got on the Wii U virtual console so that is the preferred console I would say for those. I still haven’t found my GameBoy-games so no Ducktales 2 or Roger Rabbit (the rest is Mario Land 2 and 3 together with Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 and all of those I got on the 3DS). So that leaves the Final Fantasy-games, I-II, IV-VI. I could play them on my PS3 with the PSOne-discs but first I don’t have a TV and secondly it seems I haven’t got the games with me either so Final Fantasy I it is on GBA. 

Now I'm playing with power

This one is a double pack game with both I and II in it together with some other stuff like extra dungeons or in II case a whole new story scenario after completing the main game, but I’m gonna focus on the first game only. It starts out like any typical fantasy RPG. The world is in turmoil due to the elements being out of balance since the four crystals of the elements have gone dark and there is talk about a prophesy about four warriors of light bearing their own crystals. So you name four characters and chose their respective class. I usually go for the fighter, thief, white mage and black mage.  Now, I brought back the names from my Quest for Glory playthorughs (which I probably should finish of some day) with the Warrior Roland and Black Mage Magus. I never played as a thief so I gave it my own name and the white mage I gave one of my middle names, Erik. So you arrive at Corneria where the knight Garland have taken princess Sarah hostage and the king wants you to save her and he will rebuild the bridge to the north if we do. Selfish prick. So I set out to town to stock up on supplies. And I can’t help that they must have made the game easier cause I could afford every weapon, armour and spell in town. I think on the PSOne I had to grind to get the things, like in Dragon Quest where you need to at least be level 5 to even attempt the starter dungeon. Anyway I set out the the Temple of Chaos where he hides and fight Garland, killing him and taking Sarah back to her parents. And then your off.

He's gonna knock me down (not in this version, but I recall that first time playing through the game)

Basically you travel from town to town solving their problems one by one and getting things so you can progress. The second town have an infestation of pirates so you clear that out, get their ship and sail to Elfheim where the prince have fallen under the dark curse of Athos, the dark elf prince. So for some reason I travel north to a ruined castle and the king there gives me a quest to search for a Crown in Marshe Cave. Do that and return and it turns out the King was Athos the whole time. Defeat him, get a crystal eye that you give to Matoya the witch that gives you a brew that awakens the elf prince. You get a mystic key that opens locked doors so you backtrack through towns, castles and dungeons to get all the stuff you couldn’t get the first time leading you to some nitro that you give to the dwarfs that blows up a channel so you can get out of the inner sea. The first town you encounter tells about the crystal of earth that is sealed in the earth cave to the south so you go there and defeat the vampire that have plauged the lands and you realise that something more sinister is behind that. You, for some reason got some ruby you bring to the giants cave so you can get to the Sage cave where you get a staff to dispel evil and you head back the Cave of the Earth and find some more floors locked behind a stone. Where you encounter Lich, the fiend of the earth. Blasting him and you have awakened the first Elemental Crystal. 

The Lord of Death

This is the first part of the game and is rather straight forward. And it’s usually here I failed to continue the game when I was younger (I finished the game ones before and it was on the GBA, I think it’s because I actually could play it alone without anyone bothering me for the TV or the possibility that I could save anywhere). From here you supposed to get to the Crescent lake, get the canoe and sail to the volcano Mount Gulag (sp?) where the fire crystal is held. But since I know somethings about the game at this point I ditch that story for now and head for the ice caves to the north of the volcano in order to get the levitate stone and then travel to the Ruyka (sp?) desert to the south to get the airship, then travel to the castle of trails to climb to the top and get a rat tail and then see Bahamut, the King of Dragons that gives me an upgrade. Roland turns into a Knight, Niklas turns into Ninja, Erik into a White Wizard while Magus becomes a Black Wizard. What I learned was that you should strive to get the upgrade as fast as possible due to the characters getting better stat upgrades for each level up and I did it, at the level 33. And here I believe the remake makes it self apparent again. I never grinded through the whole game. I went straight for the bosses and objectives and yet I reached level 54 at the end of the game and my characters had always the same experience points. Meaning I never finished a fight with a character down. And I recall grinding for hours to get spells, weapons and armours on the PSOne and I still never felt strong enough. So apparently they gave you more gil and exp this time around and it shows. I finished the game after 11 hours (taking into the account the restarts I did and so on). I checked the last save I did where my characters where level 93 and I put in 25 hours on that save. 

Giver of level ups

And the story continues with you finding each crystal and defeating the corresponding Fiend, Marlith for fire, Kraken for water and Tiamat for Wind. At the top of the floating sky fortress you can observe the world below you and see that the energy from the crystals are amassing at the Temple of Chaos. From the sages near Crescent Lake you learn that the fiends arrived during certain intervals in time, but they all came from 2000 years ago, and only by traveling to that time you can put a stop to this circle of violence. Entering the temple you travel back 2000 years and fight the fiends at each level once again until you reach the bottom floor and stands eye to eye with Garland, once again. As he died at the beginning he was sent back in time and when that happened he sent the four fiends forward in time creating the moment where the warriors of light appears and kill Garland starting the circle anew. Interesting concept. So the fight against Chaos starts. The battle rages on with Magus and Niklas boosting Roland and then Niklas so that they dish out the most damage while Erik heals the party. Magus then turns into nuking Chaos with the highest levelled magic spells. Then suddenly Roland falls and before anyone can act Magus throws a final nuke on Chaos obliterating him from existence and breaking the circle of destruction. Doing so undo the evils that plagues the world and so also the heroes own deeds since it was never needed. I like that story progression. It gives the ending a bitter sweet edge to it.

The Bringer of Pain

All in all it was fun playing through it, I tried going through one of the extra dungeons, but that was a at level 33 and I couldn’t fight of any single boss so I gave up on that idea. Doesn’t bring anything to the story anyway. The graphics of this version is very nice to look at, only wish I had the DS Lite so that the lighting is a bit more crisp, cause it’s hard to see in certain lights. I also believe they have added some cutscenes as well for certain scenes, like blowing up the channal, finding the airship and entering the sunken palace. The music was really good, and I’ve forgotten that certain themes are really pumping like the Cave of the Earth. Maybe it was on the easy side as noted, but if I ever get a TV we can see for ourselves with the PSOne if there is any major differences. 

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania in the future!

Finished of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow last Friday in a last push to get it out of my way, especially since it's like 7 months since I finished of Harmony of Dissonance. Why did it took so long? Well, I never felt like it. And I distinctly recall that something similar happened when I originally played this. Gameplay wise its fine, instead of a Belmont you play as Soma Cruz and instead of a whip and sub-weapons you use a large array of weapons like swords, spears, axes and even guns. The most important though is the soul system. With luck (and intense grinding) you collect souls from defeated enemies and are given their abilities and stats (all varying depending on the monster of course). A fun time waster as when the soul swirls around after the final strike it feels so satisfying to collect it. And thank god for the bestiary so you can keep an eye on it. Otherwise the game plays just as the other two GBA Castlevania games. 

Still, sure miss playing as the Belmonts

The story then. Soma Cruz happens to walk near his girlfriends Mina Hakuba's temple on the day of an eclipse and both are transported to Dracula's castle that was sealed away there when the count was finally vanquished in 1999. There he discovered that he has the power of rule, to collect the monsters abilities and set out to get out of the castle. On the journey he meets Arikado, a shady governmental official that seems to know far more about Dracula and the castle that he lets on, Hammer, an army soldier that works as a supplier, Yoko Belnandes, a witch in the employment of the church (and dependent to the Belnandes family that has strong connections to the Belmonts). Graham Jones, a missionary who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Dracula and the castles true master and finally J, an amnesiac who turns out to be Julius Belmont, the last descendant of the vampire hunter clan, spoilers I guess. So how does Soma fits into all this? The twist of the story is that Soma is actually the true reincarnation of Dracula and after fulfilling certain requirements before defeating Graham the dark powers awakens and you must stop them from taking you over.

And he looked like a nice boy!

So a decent story and with gameplay elements that works and plays well, what is there not to like? Even the graphics are good enough so why don't this just evoke fun in me? Maybe its the randomness of the souls. It is a real grind to get them all and certain ones that are necessary to progress to the true ending is just a pain to get. You can get an item to increase the rate of Souls, but it cost a fortune and you need a lot of money acquiring items and souls (or just start over in New Game + over and over again until you get it). So the extras then? You get to play as Julius Belmont with his kick-ass team music and it feels like old school Castlevania... if you look past flying around the rooms and such and having all the sub-weapons all the time. That is the real improvement, all sub-weapons and you switch between them with a button. This makes a rather fun mode, sadly you need more skill than level grinding or using potions to finish of harder bosses. And maybe that is another problem with the main game, with all the improvements the game feels to easy. Of course you can choose your own handicaps if you like, but the easiest for me was to get max potions and use that when needed during boss fights. And they can all be bought in Hammer's shop. Maybe this is the reason I can't afford the soul ring, I spend the gold on potions.

Me at Hammers shop, lucky they put a cap on 9 items per stack

Metroid: Zero Mission

I wonder what they would call a prequel?

Metroid: Zero Mission, the remake of the original game. Besides better graphics and enhanced music they added a little bit of story-telling via cutscenes and put up an extra challenge after the end of the original game. Also, better controls and a map system, the best improvement ever for the original.

Challenge in the old days was to start the map so it didn't went of the paper

Basically the story is that the space pirates lead by Mother Brain has taken newly discovered metroids and plan to use them as biological weapons so the federation sends out their best bounty hunter, Samus Aran to stop the plan. We also learns that Samus grew up on Zebes (as the planet is called) when she was being under the protection of the Chozo, a mythical and ancient birdlike race of aliens that have travelled all around the galaxy and furthered civilisations everywhere and left their mark, ruins and artefacts for others to find. If I remember my lore correctly Mother Brain is actually a "security computer" created by the Chozo that aligned itself with the space pirates and either killed or drove of the Chozos from Zebes. So you have a bit of a grudge against them, doesn't help that Ridley, the leader of the space pirates killed your parents so the Chozo had to take care of her. Oh, big spoiler, Samus is actually a girl. Maybe in 1986 that was considered huge, not so much today. Still, it could have shocked someone.

I found out by reading this comic, now Kevin is the Game Master right? So haven't he finished Metroid to get the secret ending or what's the deal?

So it is pretty straight-forward. I played it on the Wii U, but I bought the original release back in 2004 for the GBA. It wasn't the first time I tried to play the original game though since it was unlocked as a feature on the first Metroid Prime. It's also released here by playing through the game once so I can always try that. But playing that feels rather archaic. No map so you either memorise or download from the internet (who's so stupid to write your own? I mean, yeah it makes for a better experience and immersion in travelling the desolate corridors of this alien world, but come on), you don't start full heath and have to grind to get more of it. Same goes for missiles. But I've actually finished it old style... twice, all so I could get the ending screen with Samus without the suit.

She's a brunette?

Remembering Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2)

And we begin the game with a text recap of the last game, which you can't skip!

Did I say Thursday? I meant Friday. So the story begins just before the climatic battle atop Venus Lighthouse and Jenna, Kraden and Alex are escaping the impending disaster following the lighting of the lighthouse. As they reach Idejima the beacon is lit and the shockwave throws the peninsula out of sea and Felix and Sheba are flushed upon the shore, somehow surviving the fall from the top of the lighthouse (either miracle or maybe a passive psynergy ability as the one shown in Kolima, then again Sheba survived falling from the moon so anythings possible I guess). Trouble ain't over since a flood wave appears and pushes them into the continent of Indra that itself been wedge between Gondowan and Ossenia. So You need to find a boat. Which Piers has, but he has been looked up as a pirate of Champa. He himself is a Lemurian that was thrown out of Lemura by the tidal wave so you decide to help this fellow adept. Which takes you from Madra to Alafhra confronting Briggs the pirate captain of Champa, then you round Ossenia meeting werewolves that gives you more depth of the working of Alchemy (the werewolves in this game are weaker jupiter adepts as they've been exposed to particles of psynergy stones from Air's Rock just nearby. This tie in to the last game were many people became adepts after being hit front and centre by a synergy stone from mount Alephs eruption. Anyway, you return to Madra and what do you know, the Black Orb that controls his ship is stolen by the Kimbombo in Gondowan and Piers gone after them. Great, a stealth mission, reminds me of Lunpa.

Be vevy vevy quiet, we've hunting crystals!

Meeting up with Piers gives you your new Mercury adept and after solving the Kimbombo troubles you are rewarded with a ship. And this opens up the game for your own exploration. You can tackle most places in any order, but to sum it up you need to take Gaia and Aqua Rock to learn the psynergies within in order to climb the three trident ruins and take the three pieces. With them return to Alafra, fix the ship and Briggs escape to Champa, confront him and get his grandmother to reforge the trident. With the trident you now have the weapon to defeat Poseidon which is guarding Lemuria in the labyrinth in the Sea of Time which you need Yepp's nursery rhymes from the village of Yallam.  And in Lemuria you finally get a reason to do this quest. The world is ending as a consequence of mankind sealing of Alchemy and the world slowly fading away with its nourishment. Finally, a reason to play the villains of the last game. I know that around here they also told us that Felix and Jenna's parents were alive together with Isaac's father. Great, halfway through the game. A bit late don't you think? I mean, I'm just told to continue the quest, but no one explains why. Especially important since I played the first game were I strived for the opposite. Great twist and all, but really. Doesn't help that the only reason we need to get to Lemuria is to get the psynergy Grind to reach the other side of the world. 

Welcome to Atlantis... I mean Mu... I mean Lemuria

So you now know why you are doing this and you now can reach the lighthouses. So you head off to Contigo where Jupiter Lighthouse stand, but you can't enter it. Now, by playing the first game I know that the Shaman's rod need to go to Hesperia, the continent north of Atteka. But they don't say anything about it, but they speak about the war between the two continents so that must be were I'm going. And when I find it... how do I know that by lugging the Shaman's rod with me will gain me another psynergy? Isaac and co knows since that what Hammet told me as I rescued him, but how do Felix and the rest knows? Hell, how does a player who didn't played the first game know? Anyway, I get it after humiliating the shaman leader in a colossi styled battle. And they hint that this will be a future strife between the people of Atteka and Hesperia. Of course we didn't see that in Dark Dawn. Back to Contigo and up the Lighthouse. And this is one of the better dungeons in the game. Really, both game have the lighthouses as great dungeons as you climb and figure out the mechanics of it and in this game you have to start them as well. Which again, could have been used for Mercury and Venus in Dark Dawn as we didn't see that. Anyway, after climbing the tower and open the beacon we again see Isaac and friends who we have heard all things about during the game as these great warriors. And this is the scene we see them again:

They were right to warn me of Garret's clumsiness in the first game

So I have to save them as they are attacked by Agiato and Karst, the proxian threat in this game. Really, if I had grinded my characters to 99 as planned this scenario wouldn't have worked either way.  Isaac entrust the Mars star to you as you head up to lighten the beacon. There Agiato and Karst steals the last star from you as they see me as a liability. Thankfully we beat them back, but they get away with the star. And now it's time for the reunion with the old gang. Eight adepts are out to save the world in their newly upgraded ship that has wings. A flying ship. Fantastic. Of course it hardly moves the plot since it just for backtrack and getting some cool items here and there. But you travel faster and neutralise the random encounters. A blessing. So why couldn't you go to the last area before? Because an ice wall which you need a cannon from the dwarves (yes, there is dwarves here) and a psynergy and magma ball from Magma Rock. And to reach Magma Rock you need lift that only Isaac and friends have. Time to bring the fight to Prox... oh right, all their actions were totally justifiable in saving the world. So we come in peace. And this dragon people are rather nice if you avoid all their warriors, although they seems to have misplaced your parents. Up the Lighthouse we go. And boy, this dungeon. It took me more time than necessary due to some mistakes from my part. First the damn ice block above a hole. Supposedly you would instantly think grind as useful here (I guess this is the reason they gave the Insight ability in Dark Dawn). The second one was due to me not reading the text after defeating Agiato and Karst dragon forms and therefore miss to awaken the Lighthouse before returning to the starting area so I had to go down there again. My fault. And then we climb the lighthouse and meet The Wise One again that will be our last obstacle... or rather the three-headed Doom Dragon. As Garret said "we already defeated a two-headed dragon what difference does a three-headed make?"

Oh, should have seen that coming

Yes, after the battle it's revealed that the Doom Dragon was Felix and Jenna's Parents and Isaac's father. More or less killed by there own children. That is pretty dark for a children's game. You still throw the Mars star in and ignite the Lighthouse. This causes the forming of the titular Golden Sun and grants Alex the powers he desired. Just before you communicate with the other three lighthouses that shows you that he Wise one isn't as cold hearted as he appeared and thanks to the light their parents are revived and (as told in the next game) the heroes themselves are granted longer life (and maybe greater powers?). You travel home to Vale and finds it destroyed due to the forming of the Golden Sun, but even here the Wise One saved everyone... well, except Alex, instead he body slammed his body onto the mountain peak so he couldn't move and almost was dragged into the earth. F***ING Amazing. 

Almost cried here

So why didn't I like the game as much? Looking through here I guess is that I don't feel as much for Felix compared to Isaac and he don't show up again until the last 3/4 of the game.  They don't motivate the character of Felix and he has a habit of knowing things me as a player don't know which is brought forward with Kraden all the time. The parents still alive is an obvious point and had they told me in the beginning I might have connected better and actually justify my actions. Gameplay is better, scope is larger and the world is even more fantastic, all accompanied with a fantastic soundtrack. Yet the main characters don't give me anything to work with. Isaac was given a mission (it was wrong in the end, but it worked for me) and tried to fulfil it, all actions could be measured to that goal... what was Felix goal before the reveal? Sad to say, Dark Dawn also had a clear goal, but they somehow screwed that up. Wonder how that experience will be, since I still had fun with this game, otherwise I wouldn't have put 40 hours into this game yet again..The others don't get off scot free either. Sheba waits until gaining the flying ship in order to tell us why she wanted to join us in our journey, that is to find out where she belongs as she fell from the sky in Laliviero. You get to know that she probably comes from Anemos, the city of wind adepts that took to the sky and become the moon. Jenna then, I guess they talked about her rescuing her parents and following her thought dead brother during the first game, but at least I could expect her to follow her brother for whatever reason, but I wanted more. Really, the only one that has a decent story arc is Piers. You know he wants to find his ship, then reach Lemuria and then tasked by King Hydros to lighten the beacons. Each step is explained and you can follow the logic behind his decision. You might have missed the reason he set out in the beginning, but that takes a backseat to him getting home. Really, he's mother actually dies in the game. He actually lost someone dear to him compared to the others who saw all their family survive. His only problem is that he doesn't get playable until 1/4 through the game. The games ace in the hole is the villain Alex... or is he a villain? He never killed anyone, he duped everyone and wanted ultimate power, but for what reason? Some point to him trying to destroy Vale at the end, but others point out that he might have known the village was abandoned due to the Wise One and therefore saw it as a harmless demonstration of his new powers. Really wished they explored more of Alex ideas and motivations in Dark Dawn.

There is a reason why I use him as my avatar

Remember Golden Sun: The Lost Age (1)

99, 100... eh, fudge it, let's continue the story

After 40 hours of play I finished of this game, and it still feel as satisfying doing it as when I did it the first time back in 2003. It was a long wait back then, but I was hyped, especially after getting a promo CD from an now defunct Swedish gaming magazine that had clips from all kinds of games, including this one and if I remember right it was this one:

Listen to that music. That bombastic intro alone sold me on that this game was a much have. And now I played it on the Wii U. 40 hours more docked into that game. So what is better? It's larger first of. The original was rather railroaded as you had little choice to get anywhere else than the plot demanded, here they allow you free reins once you get the boat to do the elemental rocks in any order you want or tackle the trident towers (or whatever they are called). I guess the preferred order from the game designers where water than earth to be honest due to some dialog choices and needed powers, but it really doesn't matter.

Look at this map and you only visited the northern continent in the first game

Other improvements was forgeable items with a smith in one of the towns (rng based as well so you could fool it to give you one of the better weapons in the game). Also a lot more items to get from random drops so you know what that mean, ring-grinding. Although I think the designers realised their miss since it is harder to get the desired monster to appear since you need to cycle through them. If you find a correct spot that is. Also a lot more psynergies to use and some really useful ones like teleport (which took me a play through to realise that you could use outside of dungeons as well to get to any town on the map you visited). Also the world itself felt deeper with the different stories and legends you uncovered together with the ruins of the ancient world, the titular lost age of man. One of the better introductions was also the New Game + future that allows you to replay the game with your ending level. It clearly beats playing from scratch and level grind the hell out of low level monsters. And playing through it I can't say I didn't enjoy it and in many ways far superior to the original. And yet there is still some things I find disturbing me enough that I prefer the original over this. And they are all story related so I will bring that up in the story post on Thursday so I can collect my thoughts and better present them.

Well, except for the password, damn thing is 6 pages long and you can't even use the link cable like the original, if you had both games, two GBA's and above mentioned link cable. And if you had two of one game you could even duke it out!

Remembering Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (2)

The best JRPG ever made!

So after going through the leveling for the game let's talk about other aspects of the game, why do I like it? Let's begin with the story since that is what I get from most RPG's, an interesting story. And this one is simple to follow. One night a storm hits the village of Vale and as the towns people evacuate a boulder from Mt Aleph falls and kills Isaac's father and Jenna's brother and parents (Isaac being the main protagonist and Jenna, confirmed as of Dark Dawn, is his girlfriend).  You as the player knows that the storm was conjured somehow by Saturos and Menardi as they entered Sol Sanctum, the most holy place on Weyward, but Isaac and Garret (Isaacs best friend) are mind wiped by the fiends as they stumble upon the duo. 

How beating you to an inch of your life causes amnesia the game doesn't tell

Three years later the duo returns and Isaac, Garret and Jenna race toward Sol Sanctum with their mentor Kraden to uncover it's secret. All it does is getting Jenna and Kraden taken hostages as they reach the inner chamber, finding the Elemental Stars, gems so powerful that with one you could rule the world... not that they ever used that in the story sine Isaac dragged along the Mars star for two games while Felix dragged the Jupiter star. Oh, and during the capture it is revealed that Jenna's brother Felix survived and has joined forces with this dangerous duo. All in the first half-hour of game. Removing the stars creates the dormant volcano to erupt and awakens the guardian of Vale, the Wise One. This forces your foes to flee without the Mars star and leaves you at the mercy of the Wise One. Fear not as He gives you the quest to stop the intruders and return the Elemental Stars to Mt Aleph before they releases the forces of Alchemy that threatens to destroy the world. A clear goal with great motivation.

The All-Seeing Eye!

And that is probably why I enjoy the first game more than the sequel. Clear goals and motivations. Isaac wants to stop Saturos and Menardi for kidnapping Jenna and Kraden (as well as getting answers from Felix) and you as the player knows that they indirectly killed Isaacs father. Add the epic quest of saving the world above that and it's a relatable experience. I will go in a bit more detail why I don't like the Lost Age as much when I finish that game... whenever that is. You continue the journey and meet Ivan that needs your help and finding his masters rod and since he can read minds he knows of your quest and since he can't give it to his master he follows you to save the world as you would help him even though you had an more urgent quest (and not that I needed Ivan's powers to enter the next area). You catch up to your enemies at the top of Mercury Lighthouse with the help of the healer Mia that is the last guardian of the Lighthouse after she was left by Alex, another of Saturos followers. They fail stopping Saturos and Mia joins you to stop this from repeating itself and get answers from Alex (which also have learned stronger synergy abilities since leaving). The party is complete and all has one goal, to stop Saturos and save the world.

Confrontation atop Mercury Lighthouse

Really, after this the story is just chasing the group towards Venus Lighthouse. You see how the eruption of Mt Aleph created new adepts and monsters, changed environment and Saturos groups mischief as they try to delay your advance upon them by destroying roads and causing destruction on those standing in their way. The world building is also rather subtle in that a lot of ruins appear, only traversable by Adepts and not until Tolbi does another important player enter the game, in Babi, the 150 year old ruler of the empire of Tolbi. He sent out Kraden to study Alchemy, he enslaved Laviero and forced them to build a Lighthouse so that he could reach Lemuria, and he give Isaac and co another quest, to find Lemuria and give him more lemurian draught so he can live even longer. The end game lies in his shadow really as you have to amend his wrong, like saving Sheba who he took hostage and lost as he was releasing her. At the top of Venus Lighthouse the party defeats Saturos and Menardi, but Felix wants to continue their quest. But disaster strike as the lighting of the beacon causes the Lighthouse to split and Sheba and Felix falling to the ocean. Isaac and co regroup and after getting Lord Babi's ship set sail towards Lemuria. 

That's the ending? It's 2 more Lighthouses god dammit!

A good story, and then you add wonderful music, eye-popping graphics and enjoyable gameplay elements. A big plus was that magic you had could be used outside of battle by manipulating the environment. Like move rocks or stones, make yourself invisible, reveal the invisible or reading the minds of the NPC's for hints or just learn more of the game world. Of course that took me 2 play-throughs before I learned you could equip artefacts for psynergies like Catch or Douse. Especially douse since you need it at Suhalla desert were I had to change class in order to get that psynergy. The effect was a greatly weakened party. Saddest part I should have known since I got both Force and Carry and you need them. The reason I didn't get douse was that I got it as a drop from a boss and catch was given in the beginning in the game which I didn't register first time playing.

This is me figuring out one of the easiest RPG's created

And I even read the manual over and over. Well, it at least forced me to learn the class system. If I wasn't so stupid that I believed that the growth psynergy would come by levelling up. So I went the whole game without realising you had to change class in order to get growth.... which I think they showed in the Djinn tutorial or at least in the manual which is where I got the douse class change tip from. And really, even the developers knew it was kinda backward to have a class change to get growth which sounds so f***ing basic for an earth adept that they fixed it in Dark Dawn. Of course, giving me an artefact wouldn't have helped since I clearly wouldn't have guessed you could do it. A bit hard to explain why I carried all that ¨junk¨ around without any obvious purpose.

It was a beginners RPG you said? Could have fooled me!

The last parts of the game is the class system and djinn which I mentioned above. And as you guessed I hardly used it. The djinn I captured I set to respective adept and got their standard classes. No problem, I researched the best classes, but with the last bosses of the Lost Age that became rather unimportant since the ability to put all djinn in wait status screwed up the usefulness and could even hinder you since you wouldn't know the effects of each djinn resetting. Better a simple one element approach as the differences is 4 or 6 djinn. 4 gives the mass-healing psynergies while 6 gives the ultimate attack psynergies for the fighter adepts. Simple. At least the choice is there if you want to experiment or try new combinations and get new experiences through each play-through. What is a djinni then? Small elemental creatures that boost your stats and abilities. Changing around gives you different classes and setting them gives you the ability to summon some great attacks. Also each djinni is unique and can support you with stat bonuses, healing, attacks or various effects. Also, by killing each monster with a corresponding elemental attack djinn you get bonus exp and gold and a higher chance for item drops and such, called the Dark Panther Method in the community (named after the user who found out about it. That is pretty much it for this game, we shall see when I finish the Lost Age... if I ever gets out of the grinding.

Eh, close enough!

Remembering Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (1)

It's Back, my Golden Sun ramblings post, enjoy all ye gamers or despair!

My God have mercy on our souls!

All right hopefully I won't ramble on for ever as I did building up my own hype for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, which incidentally just felt flat. Heck, I didn't even try to review it just saying it was good and that I would play it again (which I did). So maybe I should go back, try the series again and see if it still holds up, like 13 years after release. So I bought the first game again at the same time I could upgrade my newly bought Wii U. Started playing and somewhere at the end I stopped playing until this Friday. At that moment I was level 28 and standing outside Suhalla desert trying to get the droppable armour Aura Gloves. Probably did something wrong with the RNG-method as this time it worked without a hitch. First a little explanation, the RNG-method is a way to fool the game into letting it give you droppable items and equipment as if you hard reset the games it goes back to zero and doing certain actions you can hit the desired RNG-value over and over again, giving you the best equipment in the games. Now, is this cheating? In a sense yes, as you exploit something in the games to make it easier for you to win the game (or in some cases be more fun, as grinding for certain weapons and items can take forever, especially since they only exist as droppable). Then again, they should have made it so simple to exploit that even I could figure the system down and replicate it over and over again for favourable results.

Well, that sounds just like me!

Really, without that exploit getting the best weapons, which incidentally I didn't know about until I researched the games in forums back in the day, you can hardly get them. Doesn't help that certain items like the prophet's hat disappears after certain event (interestingly they don't mention that in the link so did that ever happen?). Interestingly, while grinding my level 28 to 42 that I did for 10-12 hours, I actually received the best weapons and armours completely legit for the first time playing this game. Also, I was originally gonna grind my level up to level 56 since that is as I got on my cartridge. Luckily I can't check how many hours I wasted grinding since the problem is that at the most the encounter in the final dungeon gives around 1000-1500 (with some going as 2000) exp. So in a bout 20 encounters for a single level at level 42. Now, back in the days I used to battle the first phase of the final boss over and over again which gives 6000 exp (with possibilities of over 7000 exp). The trick being that if you get defeated at the second phase (which doesn't give you any exp) you are transported to the nearest sanctum and could do it again. Sounds profitable... until I did the calculation yesterday. Now, the exp isn't bad... if it wasn't a very story crucial moment which drags on with plot and characters in which I could fight smaller encounters and earn more than the 7000 exp I could at best get. And I did that up to level 56, that is 14 more levels. So I said screw that and finished the game.

S Club 7 never tried to grind for the end levels of an JRPG

The sickest part of this? I read somewhere that one person actually grinded up to level 99 in this game (which given the 1 1/2 year until the sequel hit the store is probably a good time frame). So why is it such a chore? The split game that continues in the sequel. This wasn't meant to be the end game of the story and therefore the enemies reflect on it. Also, there is hardly any reward for leveling beyond 56. With reward, beside the stat increase, I mean getting new psynergies to devastate your enemies with. At level 54 you run that well dry so all you grind for is numbers... that still are above the final bosses of the Lost Age (of course, there I grinned up to level 89, but you could play a New Game + with intact levels if you restarted). Really, the game is fun and I should probably talk more about the story and other gameplay elements in a forthcoming post, but the level system is a bit flawed and took a bit longer to talk through... and incidentally I just learned that the lizard at Crossbones Island gives over 1700 exp per encounter and it is triggered meaning it is guaranteed. Damn, be back later!

17, 18, 19... level up!... 1, 2, 3,

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

The sequel has arrived on the Wii U virtual console and I finished it in 3-4 days. It took me like a year the first time. And that was just to get the middle ending. Anyway, this game didn't mash with me when it was out. I thought the music was awful, the colorful graphics missed out on the spooky dreaded feeling and so on. Basically, it wasn't Circle of the Moon. Playing again though, I find it rather enjoying. Probably cause they fixed the gameplay problems I had with the first game. I have a monster encyclopedia making it easier keeping tracks on where to farm for stuff and such if need be. The magic is a bit simplified and is tied to your sub-weapon so depending on which weapon you have and which magic book you have equipped it causes different attacks and such. The complexity of the original is missed, but here you can easily discover what each combo does. Another great thing that held the magic system back in the former game was that you could only equip one magic ability and when you have to choose between poison or curse resistance it takes away some of the fun. Here they solved it by finding certain relics that gave you the permanent effect, rewarding discovering them. Also, they have stores all around the castle giving you much relief if you, like me, suck at the game and need some extra potion. Also, I apparently misremember the amount you could carry, since I could buy 99 of the things on sale. Great!

The story then. You play as Juste Belmont who meet his best friend Maxim that have been away for a while, telling you that Dracula's Castle has returned and your girlfriend (?) Lydia has been kidnapped so you set out looking for her while searching for the evil in this castle. The spoiler here is that it is actually 2 castles and Maxim, due to exposure to Dracula's remains, have a split personality. The evil one being possessed by Dracula kidnapped Lydia and prepares a resurrection. To stop this (and get the best ending) you need to gather Dracula's five remains and his ring. Then take everything to Castle B, equip Maxim and Juste's bracelets and defeat evil Maxim so that he can expel Dracula's evil spirit and being reanimated by his remains and then you put him to rest... again. Really, Castlevania is worse than Legend of Zelda with Ganon being the final boss. Castlevania always ends with Dracula as the final boss (well, maybe with exception of Lords of Shadow since, well, spoiler, you become Dracula). Had I played Castlevania II: Simon's Quest I might have appreciated the nods to that game at the time... or even played Symphony of the Night with the two castle system.

So all in all, I liked the game. It was more fun than I remember (or maybe forgot how fun it was). The music while definitely lowered quality had some nice tunes (not as good as the previous game, but anyway). The castle itself looked amazing and the psychedelic backgrounds was amazing to look at and that you could use the environment to solve certain puzzles was really fun. You have the guardian you push into a meat grinder, the pinball machine and so on. A more lively castle that is. Less hidden rooms, but more puzzles works fine. Also, after beating the game you can play a boss rush mode or even play the game as Maxim. A bit better than Circle of the Moon when you just replayed the game with a code changing stats and how you played the game like a magician, shooter or thief. Sadly the only time you played as a Belmont as the main character in the portable Castlevania games for GBA or DS. 

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

 

Castlevania: Circlke of the Moon, more commonly known as Castlevania for the Game Boy Advance was the second game I bought for the Game Boy Advance and the second Castlevania game I ever played (the first one being Castlevania 64) and it's one of my favorite Castlevania games. The design of the castle and enemies, the magic system and best of all the best music of any Castlevania game that I've played (might be due to reusing much music from Castlevania: Bloodlines on a better hardware). The story is that Dracula has been resurrected by Camille and you as Nathan Graves have to stop him and rescue your master Morris Baldwin to be sacrificed. You aren't a Belmont so instead of the Vampire Killer you have the Hunter's Whip.

This is Metroidvania game so you run around the castle looking for artifacts to give you special abilities so that you can traverse more of the Castle. Things that stand out from later games is that you can hold 99 things of anything (compared to max 9 in later portable Castlevanias) and your magic system is card based. You gather attribute and action cards and combine two to make a magical effect like summoning familiars or damaging screen clearing spells, changing weapons to swords or punches etc or boosting attributes or enhance thing like exp and so on. The bad thing about this system is that the cards is randomly dropped from certain monsters and there is no clue to which one so you must be rather lucky to get them in some cases. Worst are the false candles that reappears in the two first bosses rooms after defeating certain bosses. So an item walkthrough is recommended. Also a walkthrough for each cards combination effect since they don't say what it is until you done it, for example it doesn't show protecting against poison until you have that combination activated and run into a poisonous enemy. And this game came out in 2001, glad I had Super Play that gave me the basic rundown of where to find the cards and how to use them. Worst are the summoning cards which needs a button combo to perform. How would you know that without looking it up on the internet?

So those things can be a bit annoying. The same goes for the item drop system. You don't have a monster collection book so you yourself have to remember which monster drops what. Where do I get the super potions? Those are a must if you are going through the arena since you don't have any magic there and it's rather impossible otherwise. The arena also has two unique monsters caring a card each. Thanks for that game designers! Luckily the following games fixed that problem by having both a store and a monster collection book with item drops in them (together with a percentage so you know which monsters to fight for the best item drop).

Why do I bring it up? It was released a couple of weeks ago on the Wii U virtual console and I had to have it and replay it, this time on a screen that I actually could see on (compared to the original Advance where I had to point a light directly on the screen to see what was going on. And it still looked amazing and the sound, the sound was fantastic. 8 hours to run through this game (of course this time I knew what I was doing but still) and then I looked at the electronic instruction manual (a scanned version of the one that came with the game) and so many memories followed when I read through the manual over and over again so that the pages fell of. Still has the game, box and manual in the attic at home (maybe a bit squashed, but still). It was so fun. Expected the sequel one week later, but it took them a bit longer to release.