Question Wednesdays #1: Holy Grails

[moon_hotel]

Hi, everyone! I'm so pleased with how rainbowgames has been growing and how welcoming y'all have been! To encourage discussion and act as an icebreaker, I'll post a question or two every Wednesday that you can answer in the comments.

The first is an easy one, and one that I'll probably include every week: What are you currently playing? (if the answer is "nothing," that's fine too, you can skip this one if you want.)

The second is: Do you have (or have you had in the past) any "Holy Grail" games, that you've never been able to play or own but you've always wanted to? If so, what are they? I'm really curious to see the answers to this one!

Comments

[moon_hotel]

I'll go first! I've got a couple answers for this one.

First, I'm currently playing...nothing, actually, at the moment. I've recently finished up The Sword of Hope II for the Gameboy on Nintendo 3DS, which was a really fun point-and-clickish RPG. A week or so ago I was also really big into NieR for the PS3, but I played it for hours on end and kinda burnt myself out on it on the second go-round. I'll get back to it soon.

Second, Holy Grail games: when I was younger, I really, really wanted to play Bubble Symphony (one of the sequels to Bubble Bobble) more than anything in the world. I didn't know much about emulation at the time so I just kind of pined for a Playstation/Saturn copy of it for years. Eventually I figured out emulation and played it, and then I actually got a few volumes of Taito Memories on PS2 so I could play it on an actual console. Unfortunately, the game is really hard for me to get through, haha...but still, I'm glad I have it now!

Nowadays, my Holy Grail is definitely an English copy of Burning Rangers for the Saturn, but good luck finding a copy that isn't over a hundred dollars 🚬

[modernmodron]

I always really wanted to play NieR, but my RPG attention span is, like, in the negative numbers

[moon_hotel]

NieR starts off with a bang which really helped to get me into it, but the first half of the game kinda drags, and there are soooooo many optional sidequests that I always felt some pressure to put off progressing the plot so I can get all the rewards and stuff u_u; Maybe that plays into my short attention span too though??

[tepidsnake]

Oh yeah, those Taito Memories sets are great! I've got just the first one at the moment which I got for kinda cheap at a convention, but I'd love the later ones where they have all the weird stuff like Typhoon Gal and Warrior Blade.

And yep, Burning Rangers is just as expensive in the EU as it is in the US. Weirdly, the PAL version of Mr. Bones is super-expensive too.

[moon_hotel]

Man, that happens with a lot of Saturn games, apparently. I remember back in the day when I bought Clockwork Knight and Clockwork Knight 2, I imported them because they were less than ten dollars apiece, and the English versions were like $30. Wild.

I'll let you know if I run across any cheap copies of the later Taito Memories stuff, though! :^)

[tepidsnake]

It sure does, I did the same with Last Bronx and House of the Dead (even though, as I found out later, you can only alter the blood colour in the US/EU versions)

And thank you!

[modernmodron]

What i'm currently playing : a few games, but i'm most invested in Dreamfall Chapters right now. Haven't had a lot of time to play it recently, but I cant wait to get back to it - im two chapters into the latest episode and it's shaping up to be fantastic already. we're finally getting characterization on Kian that's not just HONOR and REDEMPTION. I also just finished the latest Tales of the Borderlands and it was hilarious and I can't wait for the next one.

as for my holy grail games they use to be Rez and Vib Ribbon but I managed to get copies of them so yay :3

[moon_hotel]

Ooh, I haven't heard of Dreamfall and it sounds neat! I'll have to look it up :^)

Oh dang I haven't actually played Rez but I hear it's fantastic. I bought a copy of Vib Ribbon at a convention years ago and I like it a lot, so I'm extra happy to hear that it came out on PS3 as well! I'm so glad more people have a chance to play that game (esp. with the full music CD functionality).

[modernmodron]

If you want to play dreamfall, I recommend starting with The Longest Journey, some of the puzzles are very "oldschool adventure games" but it's worth it to get into the feel and world they set up. Then there's dreamfall, which I loved and then the Dreamfall chapters. The series has amazing voice acting in it too, and that always helps

[tepidsnake]

I've mostly been playing Helen's Mysterious Castle (PC) lately, a really cute RPG you can buy on Playism. My track record for RPGs is terrible and Twitter friends are playing RPGs this month so I'd like to join in with something short. It's different, with each action having a different wait time for both you and the enemy, so you can, for example, pelt enemies with quick bow shots while they charge a magic attack. Definitely worth a try! Also been playing Earth Defence Force 2017 Portable because I accidentally deleted my save~

As for holy grails, one of the biggest for the longest time was Planet Harriers, the arcade-only sequel to Space Harrier (that's actually more Panzer Dragoon-ish, but anyway). After visiting as many arcades as I could over the years to no avail, it appeared in an arcade in Prestatyn, Wales that I'd been visiting every now and then (we had relatives in Wales, and my name was on the Metal Slug machine there). It was only there the once, but it was so great to finally see it in the flesh.

Nowadays, the main one is Twinkle Tale, a witch-themed Commando-style shooter for the Mega Drive. Sadly, it's prohibitively expensive to get a real copy. Some of the others are Contra: Hard Corps, Burning Rangers and just any of the Cotton games (they're all so expensive!). One that I know I'll never play but just want to know exists at all is the Famicom port of The Fairyland Story which appears on a few cancelled Famicom game lists but I've never seen anything else. I just wanna know if it was in the works!

[chocomarsh]

i played through twinkle tale just last month with a friend! (playing a translated ROM, unfortunately.) It's a really fun game to run through!

[tepidsnake]

Nice, glad it was fun! I'm sure I'll eventually just emulate it instead, but I'd still love an original copy as I really like witch-themed games and I'd love to see the manual.

[moon_hotel]

Oooh I keep meaning to try Helen's Mysterious Castle! I bought Artifact Adventure from Playism when it came out recently (it sounds exactly like my thing: Dragon Questey RPG with an explorer class...!)), so I should really just sit down and have a Playism day where I just try to burn through a bunch of these.

Oooh, I hadn't even heard of Planet Harriers before! That's incredible, I'm so glad you managed to find one in the wild O_O I have no idea what the arcade scene is like in Britain--have you found a lot of good stuff around you in general?

I find it interesting that you mention Contra: Hard Corps, because I remember hearing that that particular game was really poorly received when it came out. Maybe I'm thinking of a different Contra game, though, since I'm not too familiar with the series...I'm curious what attracts you to it!

That reminds me--are you familiar with Harmful Park? I saw it on a HG101 article recently from somewhere (maybe from you??) and I think you might dig it. I haven't tried it yet but I've downloaded it, and I really dig Parodius so I'm interested in trying it out sometime.

[tepidsnake]

Oh, I haven't heard of Artifact Adventure myself! I haven't explored Playism myself either, so I need to really browse it too. I think you'd like HMC- it's light on story but has a lot of neat little touches (like what I think is a boss just hanging out in a bar, casually mentioning he guards a later area) you'd like.

I'm not really an expert, but there isn't much of an arcade scene here anymore. Most of the well-known arcades in London, aside from Heart of Gaming, have closed down- they used to have a Sega World there which had actual small-scale rides but that closed many years ago. Most of the time you'll find them in seaside towns (I live in one) and they're usually in poor condition, like in Blackpool (which once had a Darius cab with one of the monitors broken, argh!). You really have to look but sometimes you find a gem (like the times I found Lucky & Wild, a co-op lightgun/driving game).

There is a pretty local convention that has a big arcade selection every year though, so I always try to go (this year they had Quartet and Power Drift), so that's something!

As for Contra: Hard Corps, I think part of the fascination is how much I love Konami's Mega Drive output- the Castlevania on there is one of my favourites, and their MD games just feel different from what they were doing on the SNES. The other part is it's a very over-the-top game- one playable character is a wolfman with a gun-arm who shouts "It's payback time!!" every time he respawns and there's a bizarre secret boss based on Castlevania's Simon Belmont. I can get behind that. As for negative reception, might be the difficulty- the Japanese version has a three-piece health meter while the US one and the EU Probotector version have one-hit deaths. All three versions are very expensive, though! Either that or you're thinking of Contra Force on the NES which has little to do with the previous games.

And yeah, I've seen a lot about Harmful Park! I'd really like to try it, but thankfully it's on the Japanese Playstation Network Store, so I just need to set aside a points card for it :)

[thegaygamer]

Ah! I, too, would love to play a Famicom port of The Fairyland Story, tepidsnake :) Maybe someone will let us know some day that such a game was at least in the works...

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

What are you currently playing?

I've been re-playing Virtual Console games that were downloaded on my Wii. Mostly Kirby and the Crystal Shards and Smash Brothers 64.

The only niche game that I've been playing via Virtual Console is Pulesman. I played Pulseman a lot during my high school days, I pretty glad that I'm still good at it after all these years.

I tried to re-play Star Fox, but the game glitched when I played though Bolse

Do you have (or have you had in the past) any "Holy Grail" games, that you've never been able to play or own but you've always wanted to? If so, what are they?

I always wanted play Gamefreak's cancelled game: Jerry Boy 2. I love the colourful graphics and the different abilities of the different characters makes the gameplay more varied. I know there are roms floating around on the internet, but I'm worried about viruses.

[tepidsnake]

Oh, neat, Pulseman! That's one I've always meant to play but never got around to. I have the VC version but it runs slower than it should on the EU VC (it's running at 50hz when it should run at 60)

And the original Jerry Boy is the one that was renamed Smart Ball for the US, right?

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

Probably has to do with the emulation. I heard they also reduce the flashing lights in the Virtual Console version(in both the North America and Europen versions) because the background art in some of the stages have too much flashing lights. However, I played both the VC and the original and I don't really notice those changes.

Yes Jerry Boy was renamed Smart Ball in North America. The localization team made some more changes when they brought it over. They removed the beginning cut scene and I think you can't talk to NPC in that version.

[moon_hotel]

Oh man, I have a friend who's REALLY into the Jerry Boy games. I actually watched a longplay of the first one (I can't remember if it was Smart Ball or Jerry Boy though) and was kind of bowled over by it? It gets really dramatic and tense at some points, it's really interesting!

If you'd like, I could try to drum up a clean ROM of Jerry Boy 2 for you. I don't mind downloading it and checking for viruses, if you're interested :^)

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

Cool. Now that you mention it, the Jerry Boy series(if it counts as one) is the only pre-Pokemon, non licensed Game Freak game that I haven't played yet. I might try the original sometime too. Some of the stages(the moon stage in particular) looks like a fun stage to play though.

In terms of the Jerry Boy 2 ROM, I really appreciate your willingness to help. You can feel free to check to for a safe place to download the ROM if you are conformable with it(if you don't then I understand). I think there's a English translation patch floating around but I'm unsure.

[chocomarsh]

hmmm ok!

First, I'm playing Wario Land 2 for GBC, which is wonderful. I love the detailed life they give to Wario; in my favorite level so far, you have to retrieve his escaped chicken in a hilly field. I like all of its strange quirks of movement, like how holding Up makes Wario jump a tile higher. some part of me wants to call that Bad Design, but I love it. It reminds me of playing games as a kid, where you didn't quite know how the game worked, and you had to try everything.

Second, I've always wanted to own Soukyugurentai, a forced-scrolling shooter for the Saturn. I've always been entranced with how it looks, but it's Japan-only, and I don't own a Saturn...

[moon_hotel]

oh my god!!! Wario Land 2 is so good!!! The sheer variety of paths you can take through the game is enormous, and I like that each of the paths is linear, so you can puzzle out how to unlock them but you don't have to worry about backtracking like in Wario Land 3. (WL3 is cool but feels a bit too big and intimidating for me; I think 2 is just the right size.)

[peppertsuki]

I'm very slowly making my way through Earthbound! I haven't actually played in a couple weeks. I'm still in Twoson.

As far as Holy Grail games, perhaps an actually well-written version of Fate/Stay Night. For a less jokey answer, I really wanna try No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!

[moon_hotel]

Ooh, I hope you're enjoying Earthbound :^) I'm playing through EB Beginnings with my mom at the moment, actually...I completely forgot to mention that one!

God, I don't know that much about Fate/Stay Night except that the original H-game version has some really incredible writing. (INCREDIBLY NSFW TEXT IN THAT LINK THERE)

[peppertsuki]

Huh, thanks to that I have learned that the mollusk line is in a different Nasu game! I always thought I'd see that if I got to a certain scene in the Heaven's Feel route.

I am enjoying Earthbound! This is actually my second attempt to play it. I think I quit my first time when I lost to a boss and felt I had to grind a lot. (The game is a lot easier than I thought it was.)

[thegaygamer]

Ooooooh, look at all of these posts. I love it! ^^

As for what game I'm currently playing, the main one is Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu! for DS. It's kind of a Metroidvania aimed at the younger set and stars an adorable penguin who I believe is a fairly well-known manga character? Anyway, it's far from the prettiest DS game you'll ever come across, but there are some lovely sprite-based enemies here. Plus, the game is fun, which is the most important thing, if you ask me.

Oh, and my holy grails? At the moment, Coryoon for the PC Engine is one, and LSD for the PS1 is another. I could name about 20+ more, I'm sure, but those are the two I'd really like to find for less than, oh, $200 each at the moment :)

[itsamellama]

I'm currently playing Walkr on my Phone, basically an app that encourages you to walk so you can gain energy to fuel your planets (WHICH ARE ALL SUPER CUTE) and get cuter space ships and aaaaaa I love it so much

Holy Grail games... probably anything and everything new, haha :) ;;;; I own a 3Ds but I only own like... 2 games? I was able to play others, but those were technically Aiken's. I'd love to play Legend of Mana though... it looks gorgeous.