When I bought my first gaming console, this was one of the four games I purchased with it. It wasn’t a tough game to find at the time, which was lucky, and it wasn’t terribly expensive. This was on my “purchase” list after I spent HOURS playing it at my friend’s house in Florida. In fact, many times I had to be pulled out of the game kicking and screaming when it was someone else’s turn. I was well and truly hooked on this game.

Game Info:

This game came out in July of 1998, so when I was playing it at my friend’s house, it was a new game. By the time I bought it, it was several years old. It’s a single-player “Action Roleplaying Game” according to the Wiki, and it got an 81 from Metacritic. It was never ported to any other platforms, as far as I know, and remained a slightly niche game. It is owned by Square Enix, which I’m sure is a name you’ll recognize, but this was extremely early for that company .. and was listed as being by “Square” when you load the game. It was hugely popular in Japan, and it’s one of the very few JRPGs on my gaming lists (as you’ll see). However, as you will also see, this is an adorable game. The player controls the title character, who is a sword-wielding boy, who is mysteriously summoned to a magic land to save the princess. (Not a very original premise, I know. LOL!) But that’s not all that the game is. It also features a nifty system of absorbing powers of your enemies to use against others, and a day-night system that actually affects the world around you. But, best of all, in my opinion, was the Toy-collecting part. As you played, you collected little toy versions of characters in the game, and could choose to keep them closed as collectibles, or open them and “play” with them. (There was no “real” reason to keep them in the box, but I remember being very silly about insisting I kept all my toys in the boxes.)

After all these years:

I have to say I look back on this game very fondly. While I was getting things ready to capture the game, (and testing out the emulator, as well as figuring out whether the game would work on the controller, and whether it would save….) .. I was able to quickly remember the controls and yep, predictably, it took me several tries to get past the first boss. (I don’t think I’ve EVER gotten past that darn boss in one try before! … GRR) In fact, I’ve never finished the game.. but it holds the distinction of being the game I got the CLOSEST to beating without being able to take down the final boss. I remember spending WEEKS trying to get past it, but was never able to. On stream, I assure you, we won’t be getting anywhere close to the final boss, but I hope the game holds up well enough (despite the, admittedly, rough graphics) to be worth playing both Monday and Tuesday. (Web searches quote the game as being around 15-20 hours long, and with my lack of coordination and the age of the game, I have no doubt that it would take me longer.)

After-thoughts:

(Will be posted after the final “play” day for this game.)