prfsnl_gmr wrote:If you get the chance, try out the Gameboy remake/sequel sometime.
I'm planning on playing Kid Dracula, and Gargoyle's quest (emulated--ew) on my PSP, before the end of the month.
So, for anyone who (wrongly) thought life was better lived not watching someone play through After Armageddon Gaiden on the Sega CD--I mean, unless you have small children, in which case, probably a smart move--I thought I'd give a taste of what you're missing. This is maybe the most appropriate game I can think of for this month's TR. The basic premise is that human civilization was mostly wiped out by a nuclear event, which ushered in the dawn of a new era, ruled by demons and monsters. Over the course of 100 years of war, a demon lord named Volzarg consolidated power, and turned the remaining humans into domesticated animals, so to speak. Emulating human civilization, he also constructed a government/statehood, and forced the demons to dwell in towns and cities.
After Armageddon Gaiden follows a group of five mercenaries, who were employed by Volzarg during the wars: Radyun, the wind dragon; Jakos, the ifrit; Dalzam, the golem; Freya, the succubus; Ropels, the gooey slime monster dude. They're sort of tormented by the fact that Volzarg has made this monster civilization in the spirit of human civilizations, because it's so 'unnatural.' Early on they also sort of have this moment of uncertainty about why they always work together, as a quintet, when it's in their nature as demons to want to vie for supremacy over others.
At first the group responds to a task from Volzarg, and his general, to take out this petty thief who's been stealing a bunch of livestock (ie. humans). They do so, and while in the ruins of a human city, where the thief was hiding out, they find a beacon to an abandoned human research facility on the other side of the world. They decide that this is somewhere they absolutely must go because it 'feels' right. So, they do, after taking a pit stop at the museum to pick up an old ID Card. After pluming the nether depths of the research facility, they find an ancient temple, where statues of Gabriel, Uriel, and Rafael welcome the main characters as their descendants. They also meet Ra-Mu, who orchestrated the mass extinctions of the dinosaurs, the monsters (a first time), and then the humans. Now he's tired of seeing the way monsters are living, and wants to kill them off again. He asks the characters to join with him in the destruction, but they refuse, and Ra-Mu unleashes Armageddon, anyway.
After arising from the underground, and witnessing the aftermath of hellfire, the "heroes" head back to Volzarg, only to realize that he's been a desciple of Ra-Mu's this whole time, and actually making the monsters that the group has been fighting against, in some sense to gauge the demons' fitness to continue to exist on this planet. It's at this point that the game's main hook becomes accessible. In their initial forms, the party is limited to stat levels of 20, but after giving them a human to eat, and letting them evolve, their stat level maximums begin to increase as well. The goal is to achieve an ultimate form, I suppose merely to be able to strike back against Ra-Mu. It's not really clear what triggers the option to continue to eat humans, and evolve again, though. It's also unclear why there are something like ten forms each character can take on at each evolution.
It's a really weird game, and there's a lot of other stuff going on with the story that's--I don't know. It's told in a way that always kind of defies expectations, but not really in a good way. Right now I'm headed to Atlantis, to meet with the King of Atlantis, King Sol. The Will of Fire told me to kill King Sol because he defies the will of the planet, and all living things must be removed from the planet in order to save it. The Will of Water, on the other hand, tells the group not to be deceived, and that the King of Atlantis will tell them how to save the planet if they meet with him.
Yeah--.
It's interesting, anyway.