I wonder if every
Final Fantasy Legend game ends with a tower? Now I'm really curious. The third definitely does, and now we know the first one does. Admittedly though, I've not played a great deal of JRPGs, so maybe
a lot of them end with towers.
And
Shinobi III sounds so awesome. I've never played any of the Shinobi games. What's the opinion on which one to start with as someone new to the series?
1. Out of This World (GEN)
2. Journeyman Project: Turbo! (PC)
3. Theme Park (GEN)
4. Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA)
5. NHL Hockey '95 (GEN)
6. Lethal Enforcers (GEN)
7. Prince of Persia (NES)
I finished up with
Prince of Persia a while back, but I wanted to give the thread a bit of breather from me, haha. But with this, I've actually already accomplished what I set out to do -- complete the Veteran Mode goal! Now I'm excited to really settle into
Harvest Moon and cozy my way through the rest of the summer.
One immediate thought I have to put out there about PoP on NES. Through cultural osmosis I was aware of and looking forward to a Big Deal moment in this game, something that lives on in people's minds as a really awesome and unexpected experience unprecedented for its time. What I'm alluding to is
However, this seems to be absent from this version? I would almost think I'd missed it somehow, but this game is very deliberate about funneling you through routes to discover particular things, so I don't think this would be an optional situation I could just... miss. If it's really not there in this port, I'm super curious as to why it was left out. And if it wasn't left out, I'd love to know why a player's missing it was considered acceptable here. I have to assume it's not optional in any other iteration, right? Maybe?
I don't want to watch a runthrough to confirm this because I don't want to see anyone else's techniques, but I've found at least one FAQ purporting that the NES version does indeed leave this encounter out -- and moreover that it was the only port of the game to do so. That said, if I hadn't known about this event ahead of time, I probably wouldn't have felt like a thread was left dangling. I just would have thought, "Oh wow, what a mystery," and wondered if a sequel was going to expand on it.
As for my personal experience with the game, I did really enjoy it once I learned how to deal with long jumps immediately after screen breaks and how to suss out if ledges were above me or doors were to the side of me that weren't visible. There were certain jumps that were truly ridiculous; I save stated before one particularly terrible one to see if it was even possible, and only managed to succeed one time out of maybe fifty attempts. (Then I discovered that this specific long jump was technically not required, but just saved time.
) But if you're good with memorizing levels and testing, testing, and retesting your timings without succumbing to frustration, the game feels great to succeed at. You never really get to a point where you can rely on your instincts to see you through entirely; it's about inching your way through levels until you iron out all the details, then going back for a good run. Every time I made my way to an exit door I think I said something quietly to myself like, "heck yeah" or "all right all right," just because I was continually pumped about it.
I'm surprised to say that I do have the itch to go back and polish my runs more. I thought I'd finish this game and be done forever. But something about it keeps calling to you. Maybe it's because along the way I sometimes discovered some really clever and interesting routes that weren't immediately apparent to me, and that maybe more epiphanies like that are waiting for me. Maybe it's just how the game generally entices you to be awesome all the time instead of fumbling your way to the finale.
Oh, and the finale! I really loved the last level. It was intentionally designed to make you think, "Is this it? Did I do it? DID I DO IT???" instead of just plunking you into an ending. A really cool concept that affected you through narrative instead of just action or standard gaming logic, you know?
Anyway, what a fantastic bit of gaming history to experience and look back on, especially in the current gaming climate that seems to be flush with climbing/parkour elements in many different genres and settings. Really interesting how this kind of mechanic became a thing of longevity even without having to be the selling point of a particular title. And Jordan Mechner's games are all incredibly special in how they use different approaches or unexpected setups to move you emotionally and create tension. They always feel like gems, things to appreciate having played due to how they mix storytelling with interactivity to create something that reaches beyond both.