So Kiwis, let's talk about the games from when you were growing up. Whether you're among the oldest of oldfags or just started gaming this generation, all are valid in the realm of nostalgia, and this is your chance to discuss things you remember from gaming as you were growing up. Whether it was beating the Second Quest of Zelda or beating Final Fantasy the first time, whether you managed to best Ninja Gaiden or no-sold Contra by your lonesome, this thread is for you. Share your thoughts, your stories, and your experiences!
To get you started, I'll give you a story that I told dear @Shuu Iwamine earlier:
The American art is pretty damned cool IMHO.
See, back in the day (1989 or so) I got an NES, and one of the games I remember strongest was the NES port of Dragon Quest, called Dragon Warrior. This game is an old-school and very simple RPG. Honestly, most of it is grind - fight the monsters to earn XP to become strong enough to do the various little things you have to do to beat the game. Straightforward enough.
But the thing was, this game was very different because it didn't dumb anything down and was openly geared towards older players. In an age where most games were aimed at little kids, there was this game, which featured a lot of reading and was very reminiscent of old D&D books. For someone like me, who was just entering middle school when I first got it, it was a stunning thing to play a game which didn't talk down to me. There was no hand-holding, and you had to do all your own grunt-work. I remember writing down clues, locations of interest, and notes about enemies in a big notebook when I first played it. It was a game that genuinely felt immersive, and engaging.
Fuck the hell yes.
The story and presentation were very dark, with the game using olde English for conversations with characters and even system dialogue (Wouldst thou like to use thy Inn?) The characters told a very dark story of a world that was essentially proper fucked due to what happened with the princess getting kidnapped and the most important artifact in the game world stolen by the game's antagonist. Talking to the townsfolk cowering in the castle meant they had harrowing tales to tell, often of how their friends and loved ones had met grisly fates at the hands of the Dragonlord's minions.
The bulk of the game was exploration-based, so a lot of the game centered around you wandering around, seeing what you could find, running into monsters, and seeing if you were strong enough to fight them. If so, you beat them up for a while to level up and earn cash for upgrades and items. Rinse, repeat, occasionally enter a dungeon or two to find treasure, clues, and useful items. Learn powerful magic, find out how to reach Castle Charlock on the Isle of Screams, and kick evil's ass.
A big part of this game was pushing the limits. You'd be stronger, so you'd move around looking for new challenges, new dungeons to explore, new things to fight and new places to see. Every time you crossed a bridge, the game got harder, because bridges marked where tougher enemies lurked. An ongoing meme with friends of mine in this game is that you always remember the first monster in it that outright kicks your ass.
From the GBC version. Dragon Quest 1 has been released and re-released dozens of times and marks one of the most popular game franchises in the world. To this day, a law forbidding the games' sale on school days is in place in Japan.
I remember once, I had gotten relatively far in the game, and had found a little area, south of the Marsh Cave, where there were (surprisingly) powerful monsters that were a cut above anything I'd fought before. So I wound up grinding there for a while. Most of the enemies, eventually, I could kill, except for two: the Wyvern (a high-damage asshole that tended to overwhelm you quickly), and the disturbing-and-evil Demon Knight:
Fuck you.
These shadowy fiends were the toughest of the Skeleton family, boasting phenomenal agility that lets them almost always surprise you, dodge like crazy, and makes them incredibly hard to flee. They also have immunity to magic. The first time they showed up for me was along the eastern cost of the western branch of the map, where they'd show up alongside Wolflords, hard enemies that could be managed with the sleep spell. After some heavy grind, I had gotten to level 10 or so, could usually handle the Wyvern with the Sleep spell, and was feeling confident in my abilities, so, armed with a Hand Axe, Half Plate, and a Large Shield, I decided to cross the bridge nearby in search of new lands, new treasure, and new places to explore.
I was not disappointed. Almost immediately, the local color greeted me as I crossed the bridge:
Like a Wolflord with a different sprite.
The knight was notably tougher than the Wolflord but was otherwise almost the same enemy. Able to cast Stopspell, he spent most of his turns trying to block my magic, allowing me to wail on him and eventually put him down. He hit sort of hard for an enemy at this stage, but I was confident, so I healed up and pressed on. The next enemy to challenge me was a Rogue Scorpion:
Like a sting-equipped tank.
I learned to hate Scorpions as I leveled up; if monsters are character classes, then these assholes are fighters. They have very high defense and attack but relatively low health and speed. I ran from this guy and escaped easily. I then saw a town to the south, and thought: "Hey, a town! That's something I didn't know was here. I'll go towards that and resupply!"
Five steps later, I ran into this despicable motherfucker:
RUN BILLY, RUN! SAVE YOURSELF!!
Wyverns are not to be fucked with. I learned that the hard way leveling up fighting them earlier. But when this asshole shows up, acts before I was ready, casts Sleep (which fails) and then slams me for 24 damage, I realized I was in over my head. A quick run and I was clear, and I devoured an Herb to heal up before I was faced with a choice: Do I run back to the bridge, and to familiar territory? Or do I risk it and go for the town?
Perhaps foolishly, our brave hero chose the latter, and soon reached the settlement.
However, something was wrong, for this was the music that greeted me:
And this was the town itself:
One might imagine, faced with such a situation, a player might concievably decide "this is a whole lot of NOPE going on and maybe I shouldn't be here," but our hero was a power thinker, and so, advanced into what would later turn out to be the town of Hauksness. I was confused about the lack of people, the ominous music, and prevalence of swamps in this town, but it wasn't until I entered that shop in the center that the screen flashed indicating an enemy encounter, shaking me out of my investigation:
Growl.
A Werewolf attacked me before I was ready, doing 45 damage to me and immediately depleting 90% of my health in a single attack. I barely escaped with my life. It's worth noting that in this first game, if your HP is low, the screen's textboxes turn an ominous red color. As I gobbled the last of my herbs, I came to the horrifying realization that I was now in the dead-center of a dead town populated by the strongest enemies I had ever seen, surrounded by hostile territory with enemies only a bit weaker than this, and without Wings of the Wyvern or the always-useful Return spell, I was trapped. Words cannot properly describe the amount of shit-spewing fear I was feeling at that exact moment.
With no way to go, I decided to see if I could head east and cut a way out of town. If I had had the common sense to go a little higher or lower, I might have made it out all right. Instead, I foolishly wound up walking onto the one forest square you see marked by a number on that map - a square that marks a specific encounter.
I immediately ran into this:
This fucker has
many an adventurer.
The Axe Knight is a mini-boss, who happens to guard the most powerful armor in the game. None of this I was aware of at the time, because it was the days before internet. He immediately acts first, casts Sleep, and I go down before he two-shots me and kills me in my sleep.
I was horrified, and had been thoroughly chastised for thinking I was strong enough for this area.
But I wanted to find out more! I had found something new!
I immediately wrote it down in my notebook, and this came into play when a friend told me that the Erdrick's Armor could be found there. Eventually, around level 14 or so, and equipped with a Broad Sword and Full Plate, I returned and fed the Axe Knight his own ass, claiming the best armor in the game for myself and feeling like a complete badass.
I think things like this entire scenario and how it played out are why I became such a buff of both horror games and RPGs with exploration elements like Dark Souls, Etrian Odyssey, and Bloodborne. It also led me to do stuff like my Not the Hero run in the game years later.
To get you started, I'll give you a story that I told dear @Shuu Iwamine earlier:
The American art is pretty damned cool IMHO.
See, back in the day (1989 or so) I got an NES, and one of the games I remember strongest was the NES port of Dragon Quest, called Dragon Warrior. This game is an old-school and very simple RPG. Honestly, most of it is grind - fight the monsters to earn XP to become strong enough to do the various little things you have to do to beat the game. Straightforward enough.
But the thing was, this game was very different because it didn't dumb anything down and was openly geared towards older players. In an age where most games were aimed at little kids, there was this game, which featured a lot of reading and was very reminiscent of old D&D books. For someone like me, who was just entering middle school when I first got it, it was a stunning thing to play a game which didn't talk down to me. There was no hand-holding, and you had to do all your own grunt-work. I remember writing down clues, locations of interest, and notes about enemies in a big notebook when I first played it. It was a game that genuinely felt immersive, and engaging.
Fuck the hell yes.
The story and presentation were very dark, with the game using olde English for conversations with characters and even system dialogue (Wouldst thou like to use thy Inn?) The characters told a very dark story of a world that was essentially proper fucked due to what happened with the princess getting kidnapped and the most important artifact in the game world stolen by the game's antagonist. Talking to the townsfolk cowering in the castle meant they had harrowing tales to tell, often of how their friends and loved ones had met grisly fates at the hands of the Dragonlord's minions.
The bulk of the game was exploration-based, so a lot of the game centered around you wandering around, seeing what you could find, running into monsters, and seeing if you were strong enough to fight them. If so, you beat them up for a while to level up and earn cash for upgrades and items. Rinse, repeat, occasionally enter a dungeon or two to find treasure, clues, and useful items. Learn powerful magic, find out how to reach Castle Charlock on the Isle of Screams, and kick evil's ass.
A big part of this game was pushing the limits. You'd be stronger, so you'd move around looking for new challenges, new dungeons to explore, new things to fight and new places to see. Every time you crossed a bridge, the game got harder, because bridges marked where tougher enemies lurked. An ongoing meme with friends of mine in this game is that you always remember the first monster in it that outright kicks your ass.
From the GBC version. Dragon Quest 1 has been released and re-released dozens of times and marks one of the most popular game franchises in the world. To this day, a law forbidding the games' sale on school days is in place in Japan.
I remember once, I had gotten relatively far in the game, and had found a little area, south of the Marsh Cave, where there were (surprisingly) powerful monsters that were a cut above anything I'd fought before. So I wound up grinding there for a while. Most of the enemies, eventually, I could kill, except for two: the Wyvern (a high-damage asshole that tended to overwhelm you quickly), and the disturbing-and-evil Demon Knight:
Fuck you.
These shadowy fiends were the toughest of the Skeleton family, boasting phenomenal agility that lets them almost always surprise you, dodge like crazy, and makes them incredibly hard to flee. They also have immunity to magic. The first time they showed up for me was along the eastern cost of the western branch of the map, where they'd show up alongside Wolflords, hard enemies that could be managed with the sleep spell. After some heavy grind, I had gotten to level 10 or so, could usually handle the Wyvern with the Sleep spell, and was feeling confident in my abilities, so, armed with a Hand Axe, Half Plate, and a Large Shield, I decided to cross the bridge nearby in search of new lands, new treasure, and new places to explore.
I was not disappointed. Almost immediately, the local color greeted me as I crossed the bridge:
Like a Wolflord with a different sprite.
The knight was notably tougher than the Wolflord but was otherwise almost the same enemy. Able to cast Stopspell, he spent most of his turns trying to block my magic, allowing me to wail on him and eventually put him down. He hit sort of hard for an enemy at this stage, but I was confident, so I healed up and pressed on. The next enemy to challenge me was a Rogue Scorpion:
Like a sting-equipped tank.
I learned to hate Scorpions as I leveled up; if monsters are character classes, then these assholes are fighters. They have very high defense and attack but relatively low health and speed. I ran from this guy and escaped easily. I then saw a town to the south, and thought: "Hey, a town! That's something I didn't know was here. I'll go towards that and resupply!"
Five steps later, I ran into this despicable motherfucker:
RUN BILLY, RUN! SAVE YOURSELF!!
Wyverns are not to be fucked with. I learned that the hard way leveling up fighting them earlier. But when this asshole shows up, acts before I was ready, casts Sleep (which fails) and then slams me for 24 damage, I realized I was in over my head. A quick run and I was clear, and I devoured an Herb to heal up before I was faced with a choice: Do I run back to the bridge, and to familiar territory? Or do I risk it and go for the town?
Perhaps foolishly, our brave hero chose the latter, and soon reached the settlement.
However, something was wrong, for this was the music that greeted me:
And this was the town itself:
One might imagine, faced with such a situation, a player might concievably decide "this is a whole lot of NOPE going on and maybe I shouldn't be here," but our hero was a power thinker, and so, advanced into what would later turn out to be the town of Hauksness. I was confused about the lack of people, the ominous music, and prevalence of swamps in this town, but it wasn't until I entered that shop in the center that the screen flashed indicating an enemy encounter, shaking me out of my investigation:
Growl.
A Werewolf attacked me before I was ready, doing 45 damage to me and immediately depleting 90% of my health in a single attack. I barely escaped with my life. It's worth noting that in this first game, if your HP is low, the screen's textboxes turn an ominous red color. As I gobbled the last of my herbs, I came to the horrifying realization that I was now in the dead-center of a dead town populated by the strongest enemies I had ever seen, surrounded by hostile territory with enemies only a bit weaker than this, and without Wings of the Wyvern or the always-useful Return spell, I was trapped. Words cannot properly describe the amount of shit-spewing fear I was feeling at that exact moment.
With no way to go, I decided to see if I could head east and cut a way out of town. If I had had the common sense to go a little higher or lower, I might have made it out all right. Instead, I foolishly wound up walking onto the one forest square you see marked by a number on that map - a square that marks a specific encounter.
I immediately ran into this:
This fucker has
many an adventurer.The Axe Knight is a mini-boss, who happens to guard the most powerful armor in the game. None of this I was aware of at the time, because it was the days before internet. He immediately acts first, casts Sleep, and I go down before he two-shots me and kills me in my sleep.
I was horrified, and had been thoroughly chastised for thinking I was strong enough for this area.
But I wanted to find out more! I had found something new!
I immediately wrote it down in my notebook, and this came into play when a friend told me that the Erdrick's Armor could be found there. Eventually, around level 14 or so, and equipped with a Broad Sword and Full Plate, I returned and fed the Axe Knight his own ass, claiming the best armor in the game for myself and feeling like a complete badass.
I think things like this entire scenario and how it played out are why I became such a buff of both horror games and RPGs with exploration elements like Dark Souls, Etrian Odyssey, and Bloodborne. It also led me to do stuff like my Not the Hero run in the game years later.
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Was really hoping to play that with my brother again, we aren't as super close as we were as kids.
. One thing I managed to eventually accomplish was encounter the Sword Master who was now dead (damn scalies and their snake queen did him in I guess). I took his sword and eventually found out it was the Moonlight sword. From then on, I got most of Lord Myu's set minus the helm. There on, I managed to reach the final area, fighting against a scythe wielding demon lady accompanied by archers (that looked similar to dark seducers from Shivering Isle). Most memorable part was returning the evil idol after killing scythe lady only to fall into the Abyss below. That lead to one of the most memorable places I ever visited in a 
