Crouching Tiger, Hidden GemThe Game Boy had an enormous, incredibly expansive library - not surprising, given how many years it was on the market for and how many of the little gray bricks were sold! Pretty much any game that could be on Game Boy was on Game Boy - and surprisingly, the Game Boy versions of these games sometimes excelled in their own little ways. What we're talking about this time isn't a port of a home console game, though. This is an original game, albeit part of a series, made specifically for the Game Boy! Not only that, it's a JRPG released in the West, something that often comes with many issues. So then the question arises - why did I rate this game so highly?
To start with, I think the presentation is fairly nice for the Game Boy. There's enough unique stuff to look at, and the battle animations are particularly nice - I can't help but love the goofy expressions both the enemies and your character make in response to being knocked around. They're also simple enough to easily tell what's what, something that's important for a portable game.
The sound is slightly weaker - there's only so many tracks, and some are a bit repetitive. Personally, though, I do really like the music, and I like the sound effects used for fighting. Really gives an extra punch to your punches.
Now, for the gameplay, this one is actually quite unique, and this is the thing I loved most about the game - you've got overworld and dungeon exploration, like you'd expect in a standard RPG, alongside stats, a leveling system, equipment, magic, and an item inventory. What you wouldn't expect, though, is the battle system. When you do get into a battle, instead of something turn-based like you'd expect, it jumps into a beat-em-up scene! It's actually comparable to the Game Boy version of Double Dragon, albeit this game's fighting works a little differently. It expects you to perform punch combos to knock the enemy down, then pick them up and toss them around! The way it works is that battles simply end once your HP reaches 0 or once you've knocked out a certain number of enemies, indicated by the encounter's KO stat that you see before it starts. Honestly, this battle system made fighting a lot more fun than I was expecting - it's a system where your stats matter, but where you can substitute raw skill in place of stats.
Over the course of the game, you'll travel across multiple planets. Yes, planets. This is a sci-fi themed JRPG, a very uncommon thing even at the time. The game's setting is bizarre, a combination of ancient China for the home planet the main characters are from and a variety of time periods for the planets you visit, ranging from ancient Egypt to a futuristic area full of robots and super-weapons to medieval fantasy worlds. Bosses change things up significantly when they come along, since they're fought in a standard turn-based system! You'll have to make sure you're sufficiently prepared, since these battles are a lot more reliant on your stats. Each world's got its own pint-sized story to tackle, and I honestly feel like it works really well for a handheld title that's intended to be played in bursts.
That's not to say there aren't any issues to be had, though. There is some clunkiness to the battle system, especially with certain enemy types that are capable of seemingly stunlocking you if you're unlucky or mechanics that aren't immediately obvious that are needed to defeat them. The random encounter rate is also incredibly high - this means you certainly won't be underleveled as long as you fight, but you'll also need to have plenty of patience and get good at the game's combat system. By far, though, the biggest issue I can point out is the way the game handles saving - it relies on passwords. Now, this wasn't an uncommon thing for games of this vintage to use you to save data by just having you write a passcode down, but I feel like RPGs are unacceptable to use passcodes for since they are NOT meant to be played in one sitting and those passcodes are often long. This game's passcodes, surprisingly, aren't very long, but it's still a major negative - one that can thankfully be bypassed through emulator save states, at least.
As much as the game's storyline is well-told, there isn't much to write home about. It's a very simple plot, and the translation doesn't do it any favors. It's a perfectly serviceable translation, without any major issues, but you can tell it was constrained by money, time, and cartridge space. You can tell this is a much earlier JRPG, one well before we started getting proper localizations.
And now, something unfortunate that I felt - a lot of the gear and magic upgrades just don't feel like they do much. I honestly didn't use the battle magic...at all, outside of the Vitalizer spell that restores HP, and most of the gear upgrades you can grab feel like they provide token stat improvements at most outside of the punch upgrades. For what it's worth, the punch upgrades at least let you punch harder, or later punch with fire, and I say that's worth it.
I think one of the most disappointing things, if not the most disappointing thing, is that the dungeon exploration is as bland as it is. You know how most dungeons feature puzzles, treasure, twists and turns? Well, these have none of those things. There are paths and exits, but you won't find any dungeon puzzles, nor will the game ever reward you with treasure for exploring. Dead ends are just that - dead ends. Honestly, this is a good example of how the unique battle system carries this game - if this game had a traditional battle system or something more forgettable or clunky, it'd be really hard to rate this game this highly.
Overall, this game does manage to be a hidden gem despite its flaws and obscurity. If you feel like emulating this or somehow find a copy of the game, I'd say it's worth picking up. Especially if you find a copy of the game, considering it's pretty rare! I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this one, and it's a good example of how going outside the boundaries of the "best games on X console" lists can often be very rewarding!
Graphics
8 Sound
7 Addictive
8 Depth
7 Story
6 Difficulty
7
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