showing 3 games
| name | publisher(developer) | year arrow_downward | description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secret of Mana | Square | 1993 | [media=youtube]https://youtu.be/IhkrKmANoik[/media]***[b]Development History:[/b] Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur was planned to be a massive 5 disk, 4 player RPG for Nintendo's Disk System that reached a stage of development that had Square confident enough to accept payments for pre-orders. But it never quite came together before financial troubles threaten to bankrupt Square in 1987. As a last magnus opus, Square published Final Fantasy before closure. Surprise, FF rescued the company from financial demise. Square was reluctant to give up Seiken Densetsu because they had spent resources setting up the intellectual property rights associated with it (and taken pre-orders). The Seiken Densetsu project was reopened, this time as an cartridge based game, due to the waning popularity of the Disk System. But other projects kept occupying their people, such as Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy III. At one point, the title was referred to as ファイナルファンタジーIV (Final Fantasy IV) in the press; but internally, the massive project seemed doomed, so much so, that Square slapped the name on a Final Fantasy spin-off for Gameboy, 聖剣伝説 ～ファイナルファンタジー外伝～ (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden/Final Fantasy Adventure/Mystic Quest) that was originally named Gemma Knights. This is where the NES version of the game ends. Then came the announcement of the Super Nintendo CD-ROM add-on. Final Fantasy Gaiden did well enough for a sequel, so Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur was reinvigorated as a CD-ROM project. Some elements of Final Fantasy Gaiden were added to the design. Finally, the project was finished, then Super Nintendo CD-ROM venture collapsed, Seiken Densetsu was over, sort of. The game was speedily chopped down to cartridge size and published as Seiken Densetsu 2/Secret of Mana. DOG was a cooperative venture between 7 videogame companies that developed games then published them under the Square brand. During the "ファイナルファンタジーIV" stage, all materials used the DOG Square label.*** [100]*** [32]***Once upon a time, the power of Mana was used by all people and helped their civilization grow. But as evil forces took control of Mana Fortress, there was no way out but a war which destroyed the Mana-based civilization but eventually brought peace to people. The events of the past became but legends to the new generation of humans. But history repeats itself... One day, a young village boy finds a rusty sword stuck at the bottom of a river. He doesn't know this sword is the famous Mana sword, the one that won so many battles before. By drawing the sword out of the river bottom, the boy unwillingly summons hordes of monsters, and is expelled from his village. A mysterious knight Jema is the only man who helps him and gives him instructions for the future. First, he must repair the sword, and then, with its help, take control of Mana seeds which can be found in eight great castles.*** [45]***European version [29]***Japanese version [29]*** [27]***[b]Tags[/b] While developed as the first game in the Seiken Densetsu series, it ended up becoming the sequel to [game=#8669]Final Fantasy Adventure[/game]. Each player (up to 3) controls a member of a cooperative group. Uncontrolled characters are played by computer AI according to strategy set by the lead player. There are sprite like characters in the game. A good portion of the game takes place in forest areas. androgynouscharacter? There are rooted and unrooted plants that move rapidly to attack the player. There are unrooted plant based creatures that move freely as if they were an animal. Ther are sprite like beings in the game. Killing enemies gains personal experience points for a player but a strike gains points for the skill level of the weapon that are holding during deed. [Zerothis]***Good and evil battle for a young warrior's heart. There is one force in the universe that keeps good and evil in perfect balance. It is called the tree of Mana. But a magic sword has tricked a young warrior into upsetting this balance, spreading evil throughout the land. Thus, the warrior must undertake a dangerous journey to find the seeds of the Mana tree, which have been hidden for centuries. Only then can perfect harmony be restored. In this incredible adventure, things are not as they seem. Magic swords release evil as well as fight it. Treasure chests hold booby traps. Monsters are friends and friends are enemies. Potions give power, black magic takes it away. Dragons fly, weapons change. It's a world turned upside down that you must help the warrior make right. And the only way to succeed is to solve the Secret of Mana.***Ahhh, old school SNES RPGs... aren't they great? And Secret of Mana (henceforth SoM) was, and indeed still is one of the best. An action-orientated RPG along the same lines as the equally wonderful Zelda games, SoM is one of those games that I can keep playing through without getting bored. The plot is good, if a little unoriginal, and it has a great multiplayer option, a rarity in SNES RPGs.***One of the greatest RPG's ever made for SNES. It comes in English and a few other languages, like French, German and Spanish. [DjOuL]***I likeit.It's the best!! ... thats all [WOODY] | labelimagesubject |
| Metal Combat | Nintendo (Intelligent Systems) | 1993 | The time is the 21st century. In the wake of natural disasters and social unrest human society has collapsed. The only amusement left for the inhabitants of this grim Earth of the future is the Battle Game. This contest of advanced arena combat pits giant armored riot suits known as Standing Tanks (ST's) against each other in a fight to the finish. The winner gains power and prestige while the loser faces humiliation dishonor and low class citizenship.*** [45]*** [27] | labelimagesubject |
| Secret of Evermore | Square | 1995 | Late in the game the hero fights a boss named Coleoptera which is a palette swap of the first boss Thraxx (see the package shot for a drawing of that boss). Thraxx is probably a corruption of the word thorax, whereas Coleoptera is the scientific name of the order of beetles. The boss that goes by that name bears however no resemblance to a beetle at all. The literal meaning of the word Coleoptera does not make much sense either, as "coleo" comes from ancient greek [i]κολεός[/i] (koleos) which means sheath and "ptera" from [i]πτερόν[/i] (pteron) which means wing, referring to the chitinized front wings (elytra) which are characteristic for beetles and serve as a protection ("sheath") for the hind wings. Coleoptera from Secret of Evermore has no wings however.***When waiting a long time on the "The End" screen another screen appears which credits Brian Fehdrau for Dolly Grip. In movie production the Dolly Grip is responsible for operating the camera dolly. Brian Fehdrau revealed that he added that message for his wife Dolly.***In Dr. Sidney Ruttleberg's old, decaying mansion, a boy and his dog stumble upon a mysterious machine. By sheer accident they are propelled into Evermore, a one-time utopia that now has become a confounding and deadly world. A world of prehistoric jungles, ancient civilizations, medieval kingdoms and futuristic cities. During his odyssey, the boy must master a variety of weapons, learn to harness the forces of alchemy, and make powerful allies to battle Evermore's diabolical monsters. What's more, his dog masters shape-changing to aid the quest. But even if they can muster enough skill and courage, even if they can uncover the mysterious clues, they can only find their way home by discovering the Secret of Evermore.*** [46]*** [27]***[b]video games[/b] — the world of Evermore was originally a "video game" itself, but something apparently went wrong and became a reality of its own (based on the description in Wikipedia)***Secret of Evermore has a really involving story but is definitely directed towards a younger audience. The gameplay is almost completely the same as the Secret of Mana series, but the one thing that truly stands out about this game is the Alchemy system in which the spells you learn take ingredients for you to cast them, making the challenge level a lot better than games like FF3, where your characters basically become gods(at least in my opinion).***Decent RPG. If you want to play this game with your buddy in 2 player mode like Secret of Mana, you can do so by getting FuSoYa's patch: [[link:http://fusoya.panicus.org/ http://fusoya.panicus.org/]] [cjlee001]***Watch out for extremely cheesy humour within. [Haoie] | labelimagesubject |
