Retro Releases - Week of 2/28/11 - The Golden Age Continues

We knew Xenogears was in the works for weeks, so last week's releases weren't much of a surprise. But Sony delivered a one-two punch by releasing Vagrant Story, another classic Square RPG, this following week! Let's hope we get the rest of the Square PSX RPG collection in the next few months!


Nintendo Virtual Console:
No retro releases this week.

Sony Playstation Network:

Vagrant Story (Playstation, 2000)
One of the more unique titles developed by Square, Vagrant Story is a dungeon crawler with a focus on puzzle solving and weapon modification. You are Ashley Riot, a Riskbreaker who is sent to investigate a mysterious cult. Your success ultimately relies on developing powerful and effective weapons to unravel and navigate through the deep, dark dungeon. Vagrant Story is available Tuesday on PSN for $5.99.


Xbox Live Arcade:
No retro releases this week.

Awesome Retro Finds of the Week 06: Filling the Gaps

I'm not really a completionist when it comes to video game collecting; there are a few key pieces I need on my shelf and the rest I usually just sell once I've completed it. But for those of you who ARE completionists, trying to obtain every little title published for your console of choice, I definitely recommend checking out the used retro titles on Amazon. The great thing about Amazon is that with all these sellers competing against one another, you'll often see some titles available for as low as a penny + shipping. If you're looking to just fill some gaps in your collection, give Amazon a browse.

I did just that this week and wound up picking up Syphon Filter for $0.99. This shipping was $3.99, bringing the total to $4.98. My rule of thumb is to never pay more than $5 for a retro title, so this was great for me. I've never played this game, but I've heard decent things.

As for thrift store finds, I picked up a MadCatz Game Boy AC adapter to cut down on battery costs when using my Game Boy Pocket. It was $2. A lot cheaper (and more environmentally friendly) than constantly replacing the batteries!

Next week I'll be going to four new thrift stores in the neighboring city. Hopefully I find some great stuff!  

Retro Releases - Week of 2/21/11 - "Because WE! ARE MEN! OF THE SEA!!"

Holy Hallelujah folks, after weeks of harassing Sony, Xenogears finally hits the Playstation Network! This classic Square RPG boasts 80+ hours of giant robot goodness and is definitely my pick for this week. Totally worth the $10 price tag!

Nintendo Virtual Console:
Faxanadu (NES, 1989)
Faxanadu is an adventure platformer with RPG elements. The strange title is a combination of "Famicom" and "Xanadu". You are a warrior who comes home to his kingdom of Eolis, only to find it in ruin. You then embark on a quest to restore glory to the kingdom. And no, there are no roller-skating muses or Don Bluth animated segments to be seen -- so just download and enjoy this Virtual Console title for 500 Wii Points.






Sony Playstation Network:
Xenogears (Playstation, 1998)
Possibly one of the greatest Square games ever made, Xenogears combines the traditional RPG elements with giant robots. At the time, this game was especially controversial, with scenes of sexuality and heavy religious overtones. You are Fei, a young man with no memory of his past. After his village is burned to the ground, Fei sets out on a journey to discover who he is. Xenogears utilizes a unique combo-based system and boasts a cast of interesting characters. Get it Tuesday for $9.99 on PSN.


Xbox Live Arcade:
No retro releases.

And in other retro news....
- Ys I & II is available on PSP. This is a remake of the original Ys I & II.

- Dreamcast Collection is a compilation of some fan-favorite Dreamcast games, like Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi. It is available on Xbox 360.

Awesome Retro Finds of the Week 05: Music from Star Wars, DUN DUN DUN DUNNNN

When I was in high school band, my favorite music to play was anything from Star Wars.

Playing Star Wars games are a little more hit or miss.

My only find for the week: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. It was $2. Quite frankly I'm not really interested in any games based on movies... they're generally pretty lackluster. I think I only picked this up because it's actually still in the original packaging which struck me as notable at the time. I think I'm going to try to sell it, though I think its more likely fate involves gathering dust on my shelf. Sigh.

This past Friday was in the 50's! I'm really itching for yard sale season!

Retro Releases - Week of 2/14/11

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! Let's spread some retro luuuuv!

Nintendo Virtual Console: 
No retro releases this week.

Sony Playstation Network: (prices will be added on Tuesday)

Saiyuki: Journey West (Playstation, 2001)
The classic Chinese novel, "Journey to the West" is made into a tactical RPG for the Playstation. You are Sanzo, a buddhist monk, who is on a journey from China to India and encounters many misadventures along the way. This classic game from Koei may have been missed out as its release in North America was very close to the release of the Playstation 2. It's available for $5.99 on PSN.

Destrega (Playstation, 1998)
Destrega is a 3D fighting game that utilizes the classic rock-paper-scissors form of fighting - in other words, each attack is powerful against another, but weak against a different one. The storyline involves the Strega, a race of magic-inclined people who share their powers with the weaker humans of Zamuel. The people of Zamuel thank the Strega by trying to conquer everything around them. Now the Strega must fight back to stop the people of Zamuel's threat. It's available for $5.99 on PSN.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (Playstation, 1996)
This long-running turn-based grand strategy game is now available on PSN. Stop China from invading your country by enlisting the help of over 500 officers. It's available for $5.99 on PSN.












Xbox Live Arcade:
No retro releases.


Other Releases:
- Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is an enhanced remake of Tactics Ogre, originally for SNES. It's available this week for PSP.

- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is the long-awaited next installment in the classic Marvel vs. Capcom series. It's available this week for Xbox 360 and PS3.

- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation is the latest port of the Dragon Quest series. This also marks the sixth installment's first appearance in North America. It's available on the DS this week.

Awesome Retro Finds of the Week 04: After the Storm

We actually went a week without a storm! Yay! You know what that means - happy awesome thrift store time!

With a name like "Patriotic Pinball", how could it be bad?!?!

First off, I found these two Playstation games. I've decided 2011 will be the "Year of the Playstation" as I'm going to especially focus on building up my PSX library. Here we have Star Wars: Rebel Assault II and Patriotic Pinball. $2.99 and $1.99, respectively. I dunno about that pinball game, I just bought because it was there and only $1.99. Well, whatever...

Then I went to the Goodwill on the other side of town. Wow, what a great day for finding stuff! They had just put out a TON of new games! It looked almost as if some college kid's mom dumped off all his old Genesis and N64 games. The best part was that almost everything was in the package, even the N64 games which had that terrible cardboard packaging. The bad part was that the Goodwill seems to get that the packaging makes the game worth more money: cartridges only were $4 each, full package games were $8. I saw a copy of Street Fighter II which I absolutely wanted, but I try to stick to a no-more-than-$5-a-game limit. They also had a complete Perfect Dark, but I already have the cartridge, so it seemed wasteful to pay $8 essentially so I could get packaging.  

I only wound up getting four Genesis games:

Cartridge only Genesis games.

I got Ecco the Dolphin, The Lion King, Mortal Kombat, and Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf. Each one was $4. I really liked The Lion King when I was a kid, maybe next time I can find Aladdin! Hwah!

Legend of Mana (Playstation, 2000)

Square has always been the juggernaut of the RPG scene, and no era displayed this better than the Playstation years. Leading the charge with Final Fantasy VII, Square released two more Final Fantasy titles, launched the Final Fantasy Tactics series, and also released several great non-franchise titles, such as Xenogears and Vagrant Story. Because of the critical and financial success of these titles, it seemed that any Square game was a safe bet – which may explain the success of some of the lesser quality titles, like SaGa Frontier.

The magical mysterious plot.

Legend of Mana falls somewhere in the middle. It's certainly not fantastic, but it's not terrible either. You can choose between a male or female protagonist, though, aside from aesthetics, there really is no difference. Your job is to restore mana to the land, and you do this by helping people on various quests. When enough is restored, you will revive the magical Mana Tree, which withered and died long ago.

Did I mention catgirls are involved?

This is the kind of game that will drive people who enjoy structure absolutely nuts. Contrary to most Square titles, Legend of Mana is completely non-linear, and has no overarching plot line (aside from the vague “quest to restore mana”) to tie everything together. You open up areas by placing artifacts on the world map, which magically sprout into different towns and dungeons. Talking to NPCs in these areas initiates the various quests in the game. Once a quest is completed, the Mana Tree gets just a little bit bigger.

Placing artifacts causes new locations to sprout.
This means that every game you play will be a
little different depending on where you place each artifact.

Battles are executed in real-time, and with the aid of one of the many NPCs you meet, who can be controlled by a second-player. This technically makes Legend of Mana a two-player game, but I wouldn't recommend it, as battles are the only time the second player has any control. Battles are more repetitive than difficult; though you can create combos and use special abilities, it is little more than button-mashing.

A second player can control whoever your party member is.

There is a large degree of customization in the game, in terms of creating things like magical instruments, raising monsters, and even creating golems. The problem with these features is that because it is so non-linear, you may not uncover these abilities until several hours into the game. For example, one of the first quest you can complete is opening up the Mana Orchard (which allows you to combine seeds to produce items) in the back of your house. This can be done after the first hour or so of the game, but I didn't do it until about fifteen hours in.

You can combine items to make magical instruments,
which give you magic abilities.

The graphics are quite lovely, opting to use watercolor-style art over pixelated sprites. The towns are varied and each have their own charm, and the music, per most Square games, is beautiful. The game also offers a high replay value, as it is impossible to obtain all the quests in one play-through, unless you are somehow attuned to Mana yourself and know exactly where to place all artifacts on the map.

This is the town of Domina, where many of your early adventures begin.

I guess my real problem with Legend of Mana is the lack of an overarching plotline. Even the most open-ended RPGs have a prominent main storyline, with dozens of side quests to keep you busy. Since Legend of Mana doesn’t have a main storyline, or a backstory to your character, or really, any development around your character at all, you often feel like you’re drifting through the game as a spectator rather than a player. There are several interweaving storylines going on around you at once, but your involvement is little more than doing the dirty work of the NPCs, killing monsters and bosses to keep them alive. Perhaps this doesn’t bother some people, but as an avid RPG fan, I can honestly say it’s the one genre where plot matters.

Always talk to the cactus after completing an adventure,
so he'll record it in his cactus diary.

But still, I would recommend Legend of Mana for a once playthrough. It’s a Square classic at this point, and despite its shortcomings, the various side-stories make it entertaining enough to finish. After all, even when you’re just a spectator, it’s still fun to watch the players.

Legend of Mana is available new and used on Amazon for varying prices. It’s an out of print Square RPG, which means it’s a little pricier than most retro games. But legend has it that Square-Enix has plans to bring this title to the Playstation Network soon, and you can bet that this blog will let you know when that happens!

Retro Releases - Week of 2/7/11

These are the upcoming retro releases for the week:

Nintendo Virtual Console:

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team (NES, 1991)

S.C.A.T. is a shoot 'em up action game in which aliens invade New York in the year 2029. You are part of S.C.A.T., a special team of cybernetic soldiers assembled to defeat the alien threat. S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team is available for download on Wii's Virtual Console for 500 Wii Points. You can also purchase the original cartride, used, for varying prices on Amazon.com.

Playstation Network: 

Pocket Fighter (Playstation, 1998)

Originally an arcade fighter in Japan known as Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, it was renamed to Pocket Fighter upon its U.S. release for Playstation. This is one of my favorite PSX titles. You play as various super-deformed Capcom characters from different franchises and fight in a traditional 2D scenario, however, you can collect gems to power-up your moves. Really cute, and really fun game. It's now available on PSN for $5.99, and it is also included as part of the Street Fighter Alpha Collection for PS2.

Reel Fishing II (Playstation, 2000)

Love to fish, but got the winter blues? Try out Reel Fishing II to sate your need to fish until the sun comes out again. With 19 levels and a plethora of fish species, this should tide you over for awhile. Buy it now on PSN for $5.99, or purchase it used from Amazon.com. 

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (Playstation, 2000)

In this famous farming sim franchise, you play as a boy who just inherited his grandfather's farm. Naturally, the place is in total disarray and you need to fix it up by planting a successful harvest and creating a good relationship with the citizens of Mineral Town. This game is available on PSN for $5.99, and it was also ported to PSP under the title Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl, with the added option to play as a female. 

Xbox Live Arcade

No retro releases this week. 

Pretty nice week for PSN, if you ask me. Pocket Fighter is highly recommended, and if you like sims, Harvest Moon is one of the best franchises for it. 

Awesome Retro Finds of the Week 03: Apparently Nothing

Another terrible blizzard, leads to people not venturing out to get rid of their stuff and me not going out for fear of icy death. I only went out over the weekend and found nothing but original Xbox games and a plethora of sports titles.

I did, however, go to a different thrift store that I don't normally patronize due to their weird hours. They had all their games locked up in a case, and lo and behold, I found a copy of Star Ocean: The Second Story for PSX!! It was only five smackaroos! 

Quick rule of thumb: if you EVER find old RPGs for under $10 (especially Playstation-era), they are almost always worth picking up. They become increasingly difficult to find as time passes and generally become worth more than what you paid for it.

So I asked the lady behind the counter to open the case for me, and she just kind of stared. "Uh, I don't know if I have a key for that," she admitted. Huh? You put things in a case and now you don't have a key? You had to open it to put the things in it first, so SOMEONE has to have a key. So first she was digging through drawers at the counter trying to find this key. She proceeded to bring out THREE DIFFERENT KEYCHAINS with like ten keys on each one and tried every single one. Of course, the right key was on the third keychain, seven key down. Geez. Shows you how often people buy things out of that case!

So anyway, I got the game out of the case, and opened it, and naturally, it was missing a disc.

I apologized and said that I was sorry to put her through the hassle of finding the key, but it's a two-disc game and I couldn't take it missing the disc. She stared again, and said, "Okay, but leave it out so we can re-price it." Re-price it? You're still gonna sell it missing the disc? Okay....

I mean, I could've bought it, but what's the point? I'll probably never see Star Ocean again in the wild, and if I do I assume it'll be complete, rather than only having one disc - conveniently, the OTHER disc I need.

Though if I do find such a thing later, I will certainly kick myself.

Suikoden (Playstation, 1996)

So here's what I have to say about Suikoden: it has some of the worst box-art to ever grace a game. How bad is it? It deterred me from ever wanting to play it for months, until finally, it was the only title left at the video store that I hadn't rented yet. I grudgingly picked up, not even knowing what the game was about, and guess what: I was pleasantly surprised.

None of these people depicted actually show up in the game.

Suikoden is a traditional RPG in which you assume the role of the "Hero" (who you name), the son of a celebrated war general. The quest begins with you trying to follow in your father's footsteps, but while on a mission for the empire, you realize the government isn't as nice as your father makes it out to be. You wind up being declared as a criminal and while on the run, you fall in with a group of resistance fighters. The game follows you as you build a Liberation Army to eventually take down the evil empire.

Suikoden's disgraced general Valeria bares minor resemblance to
Final Fantasy VI's disgraced general Celes.
The plot may not be the most original, but it's still pretty entertaining. 

Okay, so it's not the most original story, but there are enough twists to keep you interested. Though the main character is a silent protagonist (probably my least favorite type of character) the supporting cast is personable enough to make some of the game's more poignant moments carry an impact.

Misty water-colored memories....

The graphics are nothing to write home about. Being released early in the life of the Playstation, Suikoden boasts graphics that are on par with a high-end SNES game. Everything in the game is flat and two-dimensional, but the towns and maps are colorful and vibrant. Unfortunately, many of the towns you travel to are aesthetically similar-looking, with towns usually differing in design only when you travel continent to continent.

Your hometown is one of the prettier ones in the game.
Too bad you're a rebel and can never go back there again!

The battle system is straight-forward. You can have up to six characters in your party at once, and combat is turned based. Any ability or magic your character may possess comes from equipping various rune crystals that you find throughout the game. To some, the battle system may seem boring, but I personally appreciate the simplicity.

Good old fashioned turn-based goodness.

The real meat and potatoes of the game involves the actual building of the army. This is where Suikoden brilliantly employs the "gotta catch them all" mentality of the later-launched Pokemon games. There are exactly 108 recruitable characters in the game, most of whom are playable. When you recruit a certain amount of members, your army base grows accordingly, adding shops, armories, and even a sauna.

Just one of the 108 characters to recruit.

The characters themselves are all uniquely designed in terms of visuals, and there are no simple "palette swaps" to create "new" characters. Stats change accordingly, from magic-users to power-houses. Your army will engage the Empire's army in skirmishes, in large-scale battles that utilize the mechanics of "rock-paper-scissors". This is where spending the time recruiting the 108 Stars of Destiny pays off, as your attack power is linked to how many members you have recruited. 

Preparing for the next battle.

All in all, Suikoden is one of those games where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Despite being a relatively basic game, it is still quite entertaining, and probably one of the best "starter" RPGs I could recommend to someone. A boxed copy of game is relatively difficult to find, so it's pretty awesome that you can now download this classic RPG on PSN for a mere $5.99. Now if only we could get Suikoden II up in here. 

Suikoden is currently available on the Playstation Network for $5.99. It is also available used and new on Amazon.com for a variable price. And it's pronounced "Soo-ee-KOH-den". Psycho Mantis told me so.