Happy Halloween!

It's October 31st, and that means that people all across the US (and maybe even other parts of the world) are celebrating Halloween, either by getting dressed up in costumes to go solicit neighbors and strangers for candy, or by getting dressed up in costumes to go party in the streets and in their friends' houses. Whatever your preference, have a happy and safe Halloween, and don't go overboard on the candy and/or partying!

New post tomorrow!

RGR011 - Welcome to Gibea... and Sidon

As I left my hometown and began to wander about the countryside, I noticed a distinct lack of random battles. I'm not complaining, at least not yet; it's nice to not be repeatedly accosted by enemies as I'm trying to figure out the path to my next objective, but I'm a little worried about the dent this will put in my vial collection. I think I've found a place where I can repeatedly get into a fight with the same set of monsters and keep winning vials, so it might be okay.

After tossing some enemies aside and crossing a broken bridge over a river of flames, I reached the town of Gibea, where I had been told King Barr ruled. But the Black Light ruined everything here as well, and although most of the people seem to have survived, they're in bad shape, and it appears King Barr has had his power sealed away, much like Barone Jark in the first game. One of the ghouls in his palace suggested I seek a man named Samuel in the next town, Sidon, to figure out how to snap King Barr out of his stupor.

Yeah, wanna fight about it?

But... but what?

I'll bet you were always that ugly.

Yeah, we leave for five minutes, and it's chaos!

A barrier? What a cop-out!

Do you can tell me the password?

Jeez, you scared me.

But at least you lived long enough to tell me.

What, are you blaming ME?

Hey, I'm pretty good at rivers of flames.

Um, you're drooling a little.

I love it when the vitality increases.

The section of the river leading to Sidon was tricky, consisting of a vast lava pit populated by several moving pillars, which serve both as invincible bullet-spitting enemies, and also as platforms. It took a few tries to get used to their patterns, but they're well-coordinated, so once I figured them out, crossing this part of the river became a simple task. The town of Sidon was very rural, with just a few small houses and a natural wall of trees surrounding it. Inside one of the houses, I found Samuel, who told me... here it comes... that I'd need to find the Gremlin Stick in order to break the seal on King Barr's power.

It smells like manure.

Really? A desert? So creative.

Are you making this up on the spot?

I bet I'll need the Night Drop first.

And that'd be my lead.

It is also said that I want both of those.

It seems like the staff on this game spent too much time coloring everything in, and waited until the last minute to work on the story.

And all they had time to do was change a few names.

RGR Game #011: Gargoyle's Quest II

Firebrand: always creepier in the logo.

That's one menacing-looking tree.

Welcome to game #11 here at Retro Gamer Ryan! Gargoyle's Quest II: The Demon Darkness is, of course, the next game in the Gargoyle's Quest series, starring Firebrand the not-gargoyle-but-actually-Red-Arremer. The story begins in the town of Etruria, where Firebrand is still training to become a warrior. One day, he departs for the training grounds, and when he finally completes the training necessary to be recognized as a true warrior by the king, an evil force called the Black Light descends on the Ghoul Realm, raining destruction down on everything and everyone. Armed only with the newly-acquired Fingernail of the Spectre (which, like in the previous game, gives him a jump height upgrade), Firebrand must set out to find the source of the Black Light and free the Ghoul Realm from its grasp.

You might remember someone in the first game shouting "Black Light!" when spoken to, and I suppose this is what he was talking about.

WHAT HAPPEN ?

A true warrior wouldn't need that fingernail.

Maybe they're just tourists.

They probably find nicer towns to live in.

Gee, thanks, Mr. Motivation!

Are you coming on to me?

Hi,ZombieGuy!

Yep, that's basically what the king said.

Then this town needs a mall
or something.

You don't sound too glad...

The first stage takes place on the training grounds, where the goal is to obtain Argob's Pot. The stage really is just training, where tall trees and platforms give plenty of chances to get used to flying. But coming off the first game, everything is very familiar, and I was easily able to reach the pot, which is suspended high above the training ground, ending my training.

Once I exited the training ground with Argob's Pot, a dying ghoul begged me to hurry to the king's side immediately, and when I did, I found him also nearing death. The king gave me the Fingernail of the Spectre, and told me to head west to the town of Gibea to see King Barr there. Then, with a groan of some sort, he died, leaving me alone in the town. I started to feel lonely right away, so I left town to begin my quest, only to be greeted by another action stage, this one with more obstacles and actual enemies. I had some trouble with the enemies at first, since they pop up as you approach, and some give you little chance to react. I spent a couple of lives getting used to dealing with them, and just short of running out of lives, I made it to the end.

First Boss: Nagus

The battle with Nagus takes place in a smallish room with a couple of platforms that he jumps to occasionally, shooting little fireball things whenever he lands. His patterns are pretty simple, but I misjudged his movements a few times early on, and it cost me my last life. After continuing, I made my way through the stage and defeated Nagus with little trouble.

All right, prepare to get beat down!

Ow.

What, no "magic resurrection spell"?

BOOM! Ker-POW! BAMF!

Aww, I didn't get a chance to thank him.

Is it warm out here, or is it just me?

You know, the water in the first game was probably lava too. It's just a little hard to convey the whole lava thing in four shades of gray.

RGR010 - The Red Blaze

I was warned that the Naga's Path, which leads to Rushifell's palace, was a series of traps, where only one path entrance was the correct one. Fortunately, I was also told that the correct entrance was the fifth one down, from the north. The area is quite a bit larger than the Game Boy's screen, though, so I had to guess a little. Fortunately, I found the right one quickly. On the other side, I entered Rushifell's palace and confronted him, but he wanted to test my powers before fighting me directly. I think he was really just trying to tire me out to gain an advantage.

So I was instead dropped into a gauntlet of long flights, spike-lined floors and wall-mounted drills. The stage was actually surprisingly difficult, since the game's hit detection made avoiding the drills nearly impossible at times, and the drills do 2 points of damage, leaving me unable to take two hits without dying. After countless deaths and continues, though, I was able to reach Rushifell's throne room.

Fifth Boss: Rushifell

Unlike the previous bosses, Rushifell doesn't fly or teleport around the room; he doesn't move at all. He sits nearly motionless in his throne in the center of the room, letting his magic do the work for him. Small platforms dot the room, and Rushifell occasionally fires bolts of magical energy at them, but his main method of attack is the homing spark, a ball of energy that slowly trails you, forcing you to stay on the move. His weak spot is his head, but it's often blocked by his arms as he fires his magic bolts around the room. With patience, though, he's not too difficult; just keep moving in circles around the room, and open fire when his arm is down on your side.

Upon defeat, Rushifell happily gave me the Eternal Candle, recognizing me as the true Red Blaze. At that point, the full potential of my power was unlocked, including jump and flight upgrades, as well as the power of Darkfire, my most powerful weapon.

Wow, his palace is as nice as Darkoan's!

Have come. Past participle. I'm here now.

Put your hand down so I can hit you!

I can't believe he actually did it.

You're a nicer guy than I expected.

Ooh, I'm at least five times more awesome now.

With my powers fully awakened, I exited the back door of Rushifell's palace to find it led directly to Breager's. Inside, the palace was tower-like, and included paths that looped into each other; however, as long as you concentrate on the ascent, it's easy to stay on the right path. Thanks to the power of the Eternal Candle, I now have unlimited flight capability, and with the Power of Claw, I was easily able to scale the spiky walls of the palace and reach King Breager's throne room.

Breager was obviously afraid of me, as he tried to convince me to join him instead of fighting. But that's an old trick that goes back at least as far as the first Dragon Warrior, so I'd never be fooled that easily. With no other choice, King Breager prepared himself for the final battle.

Final Boss: King Breager

Like Rushifell before him, Breager was suspended motionless in the center of the room, attacking me with homing sparks and other projectiles. However, with the heft of his armor and pattern of his attacks, Breager's head was a much more difficult target to hit. If I managed to outrun a homing spark and force it off-screen, he would throw his hands up in order to create another one; this meant that I had to keep the spark close in order to ever have a chance of an opening. In addition, King Breager is only vulnerable to my newly-acquired Darkfire, which is a larger and more cumbersome fireball, and of which only one may appear on-screen at any time. This made the assault slow and frustrating, since I had to avoid the homing spark, draw it close, then jump up to line up a shot at Breager's head; and there was a good chance he wouldn't let his guard down until after I was forced by the homing spark to break away and move to the other side.

Several attempts later, I finally managed to defeat King Breager, after which I was whisked away to King Darkoan's throne room. Amidst the cheering monster-things was the little imp I defeated earlier, waiting to congratulate me. With Breager destroyed, King Darkoan was able to regain his remaining power, and he offered me the entire Earth Realm to rule if I could conquer it. I doubt it'd be much trouble at this point.

Everyone hired the same palace-building company.

It's on, Breager!

Ha, did you think I'd fall for that?

Bring it!

Oh, so Rushifell was practice for this.

And it paid off!

You'll what?

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Or at least until the sequel.

Was there ever any doubt?

The whole earth? Sweet!

This story is happy end.

That's it for Gargoyle's Quest! See you next game!

What game, you ask? Well, here's a hint: it's the sequel to a game I've played through recently. Very recently.