Welcome to my requisite "welcome to my blog" post. My name is Callie and I'm a lifelong retro game enthusiast! To give you some of my "credentials", my first consoles were the original PlayStation and the Game Boy Color. I've been playing and collecting games that came out before I was born since I was in middle school, and my history with game emulation started even earlier.
During the COVID pandemic I bought my first dedicated "retro handheld" for emulation, the Anbernic RG351P, and my love affair with retro gaming has never been hotter. My goal with this blog is to write a review for every game that I beat, and handheld that I buy, to provide some guidance for those looking for games to play and systems to play them on.
P.S. Check out my HowLongToBeat profile to get a quick overview of what I've played recently, and see the games that I beat before I started this project!
System: Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Release Date: Sept. 17th, 2002
Genre: 2D Metroidvania
Developer / Publisher: Konami
Playtime: 6.7 Hours (In-Game Time)
Story: In Harmony of Dissonance you play as Juste Belmont, grandson of legendary vampire hunter Simon Belmont, 50 years after Simon's quest to break Dracula's curse in uhh...Simon's Quest. Juste's best friend, Maxim, was recently found injured, and suffering from memory loss. What Maxim does remember, is that his and Juste's mutual friend, Lydie, was kidnapped and taken to a mysterious castle. Juste and Maxim head out to save Lydie and vanquish her kidnapper, but as they venture into the castle the questions surrounding Maxim's lost memories, Lydie's disappearance, and the appearance of the castle begin to pile up until things reach a boiling point. The barebones plot is a relic of the franchise's old school style, as even its best games have little in the way of story, but even compared to it's contemporaries it's a snoozer.
Presentation: Harmony ain't a looker. The GBA Castlevania trilogy are some of the biggest offenders of brightening their color palettes to make up for the GBA's notoriously dark screen, and this game suffers the most for it. Almost everything is garish, especially Juste with his bright blue outline and shadow, killing the potential for gothic moodiness that the setting offers. Ignoring the color issues, the game's visual design is still the art equivalent of gruel, bland and utterly uninspired. Even Ayami Kojima's usually stellar character designs fall flat here, though the game's promo art is some of her best work. Audio-wise, everything is perfectly fine. Nothing stood out as particularly bad, but some sounds could've used a couple of variations due to how repetitive they get. Music is likewise just fine. The track that plays in the castle entrance is kind of a banger though.
Gameplay: At this point in the review I've run out of ways to say "bland" that don't sound like I'm reading from a thesaurus. Harmony successfully replicates the Symphony of the Night formula that led to the "-vania" part of "Metroidvania", explore around, level up, unlock new areas, etc. Much like it's predecessor, Circle of the Moon, the game eschews a varied array of weaponry in favor of the stalwart whip (with subweapons). It makes sense given the Vampire Killer whip's importance to the Belmont clan, but it's an undoubtedly boring decision. The game has two features that separate it from other Castlevanias. First is the spellbook system, which allows Juste to cast different spells depending on which spellbook is active and which subweapon he's holding. There are some incredibly overpowered combinations, including one that allowed me to tear through the secret final boss in about a minute. The other is the game's dual castles. The castle has two "layers" that you can switch between in certain rooms. The big problem is that the the two layers use the same layouts, which weren't that good to begin with, with only minor changes. It all feels like something that could've been spat out by Dead Cells' procedural generation.
Conclusion: While I have almost no good things to say about it, Harmony of Dissonance isn't bad, it's just being hard carried by the efforts of it's predecessors. It would've been impressive to have a mini-Symphony on the GBA when the game launched, but not only is that not enough nowadays, Aria of Sorrow would launch on the system less than a year later, and that game is better in literally every way. Skip this one unless you're looking for some slop to fill your time with.
System: Sony PlayStation
Release Date: Sept. 10th, 1998
Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Developer / Publisher: Capcom
Playtime: 7.5 Hours (In-Game Time)
Story: Mega Man Legends takes place in a world covered by oceans, with humans eking out a living on small scattered islands. You play as MegaMan Volnutt, a young boy who works as a "digger", someone who scavenges ancient ruins. MegaMan is joined by his "spotter", Roll Gaskett, her grandfather, Professor Barrell Gaskett, and a robot monkey named Data, as they fly across the world looking for ancient treasure. The story of the game starts after their ship is damaged and forced to crash land on Kattlelox Island, a small island with a mysterious past, that is under siege by the Bonne pirate family. From there, MegaMan must defend the island and it's inhabitants from the Bonnes while uncovering it's secrets and trying to find a way to repair their ship. Though it might not seem like much, this game's story is wonderful! It's so full of heart and charm, reminding me of all the best parts of old Pokémon episodes, including a few serious moments with the kind of pathos that you'd see in the Pokémon movies. Throw in some surprisingly well written jokes, and a classic JRPG-esque twist, and you've got a story that'll keep a smile on your face throughout.
Presentation: Carrying on from the story, the voice acting in this game is a pleasant surprise. Considering the caliber of voice acting that Capcom's other PS1-era games had, like the cheese factory that is Resident Evil and the spectacularly awful Mega Man X4, the fact that there is any good voice acting is a miracle. The main trio all being solid, and Tiesel & Tron Bonne being kind of amazing, makes this game a beautiful anomaly. It's not all perfect though, many of the side characters and some main cast lines are rough, and a handful of voices, including the final boss', are mixed far too low, making them difficult to hear. Graphically, the game is peak PS1. While most models are very low-poly, the texture work throughout is fantastic at making the game look like it just came off the TV screen. A lot of shading is baked in to these textures as well, bringing some much needed to depth to what is otherwise a fairly flat game. Character faces in particular use some great tricks to make it look like the models are much more complex than they are. The biggest disappointment is definitely dungeon design. The game's underground sections tend to blend together, which is a shame given you'll spend about half the game gallivanting underground.
Gameplay: Legends is a typical 3rd-person shooter of the era, featuring clunky non-analog controls, and heavy auto-aim. I recommend not trying to change the controls too much. It's very tempting to try to modernize control schemes when playing on emulators, but the game will work a lot better if you learn to adapt to it, rather than the other way around. The basic gameplay loop ends up feeling surprisingly similar to a Zelda or Metroidvania experience. You'll explore around the surface, solve a puzzle or two and gain access to a new underground area. Once underground you'll explore further, filling out your automap and finding money, weapon parts, and items that can be taken back to Roll to give you an upgrade that allows you to access new areas and new bosses. The game's early sections, as well as it's bosses tend to be the most difficult parts, but if you spend some time clearing out the underground, you'll eventually get strong enough to turn the latter half of the game into a bit of a cake walk. With the game's cozy atmosphere, that's mostly an upside.
Conclusion: Mega Man Legends is a joy of a game. While it might not have the tightest gameplay, the best graphics, or the most grandiose story, it's a game that's full of 90s charm, fresh ideas, and plain old fun. I highly recommend the game to anyone who can handle a little bit of PS1 jank, whether you've ever been a fan of Mega Man or not.
System: Nintendo GameCube
Release Date: Oct. 17th, 2005
Genre: Tactical Role-Playing
Developer / Publisher: Intelligent Systems / Nintendo
Playtime: 32.7 Hours (In-Game Time)
Story: Having recently finished it's direct predecessor The Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance's story was a massive improvement. Character writing has always been where the franchise shines, so giving characters extra scenes without having to use the archaic "support" system allows the writers to show off that great work, while also weaving the main story's narrative in with individual party member's. Path of Radiance provides a huge breath of fresh air to said main story by having the main character, Ike, not be an aristocrat, a first for the series. The first third of the game really shines as Ike and his band of mercenaries rush to stay ahead of the invasion of their home country, witnessing the uncaring nature of those whose lives have yet to be effected by the war. This ends up being one of the game's major themes, as we also see this same attitude in the elites of Begnion, and many of the distant Laguz tribes. The story's handling of racism, prejudice, and the propaganda of both, is surprisingly subtle, paralleling Jim Crow-era America, as well as Japan's own imperialist history.
Gameplay: The pacing of the campaign is fairly breezy, although it does start to drag after it's false finale. Level variety is great, with a number of new gimmicks, varied locales, and new clear conditions adding some much needed life to the aging Fire Emblem formula. Battles have a nice flow to them, and as with many other strategy games, it's easy to keep thinking, "one more turn", until it's 2:00AM. Later chapters rely quite heavily on siege weapons/spells to disrupt your game plan, which can be very frustrating with the zoomed in view. You think you're all set until your Pegasus Knight eats a ballista bolt. Despite this, the game is fairly easy. You have all the information before you have to commit to any actions, but making any mistakes or getting bad luck can be very time-consuming due to the series' signature permadeath.
Presentation: This is decidedly the game’s weakest area. The CG cutscenes are wooden and fall into the uncanny valley of neither being realistic nor committing fully to an anime aesthetic. On top of that the audio mixing on them is atrocious, rendering the poorly dubbed characters nearly inaudible. Having stylized, anime-esque cutscenes like Three Houses would've been ideal. The 3D graphics for the map and combat are serviceable, but undoubtedly lack the charm of Fire Emblem 6-8’s gorgeous pixel art. The combat animations feel especially lacking compared to the electrifying animations of those games. Speaking of combat animations, I ended up playing most of the game with them turned off, as the small load times before each one cratered the pacing of battles. The last presentation style the game has are visual novel-esque dialogues that take place in between chapters. The character portraits here feel flat compared to Sachiko Wada's previous work. This style ends up being functional as the conduit for the stellar story, but definitely reflect the game's transitional nature.
Conclusion: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is among the best that the franchise has to offer, and among the best strategy RPGs of all time. It’s an easy recommendation to anyone that has even a passing interest in either category, and a great entry point for series newcomers. I'm personally excited to move on to Radiant Dawn in the future!
