The other month I had come across culdcept (but not played) then i randomly decided to play this japanese famicom game. In many ways this is a charming pick from this era. As it heavily predates Mario Party (and lacks mini-games, but anyone who plays this going forward is going to think of mario party for a minute) It is most likely inspired by PnP games of this era. Also, the high contrast bright colors look nice, especially for a pixel game (it's a bright palette and looks sharp) and most of the art style is somewhat anime like, a bit cutesy. The enemies in battles all look decent too. I found myself wanting to see what every enemy looked like.

The battle mode is the highlight of the game. The player throws a D6 and the enemy throws a D6. you can pick from 4 classes which have different Magic and Attack Dice. ('Warriors' get little bonuses to their attack) There are also other rather inventive quirks for the battle mode that are quite nice, such as when ties are rolled, and you roll again the final winner scores a free attack on all their rolled dice:

In addition to this mechanic there is a small chance of critical hits as well as 'throwing' a die at opponent knocking them down/stunning them for a free attack until they get up, In addition to other various elements built around dice mechanics. While, this game has a rather good and creative combat system, it's a bit basic in some ways that are noted by anyone who has played a bit of these games, and lacks a lot of perks other games have (such as more robust magic system and RNG) However the fun theme of it was enough to keep me going. ( It's also fairly short if using save states to overcome bad dice rolls!)

characters wander around several mario party looking boards, hoping not to land on bad spaces and trying to get to the end of the board.

There are a few rigmarole-feeling quest/events that must be passed, most often mean you just have to do a few passes around the board and come back to it, or finally land on the necessary square. This is the part of the game that just isnt much fun really, and is more or less 'grinding' (as you get combat xp and level up in the process)

Wandering around can be the main part of the game that is most frustrating with no translation/bad translation. For the most part the game can be played without english translation (and the english translation I played more or less made things up, and eventually just quit completely towards the end of the game) One map though (the lost woods) has several twists and turns that really would require a guide or a proper translation.

Had I played this when i was 4, i'd have been hooked on RPGs once older, and probably played every single one i could find (instead of having backlogged dragon warrior for 7-8 years.) In some ways this is a fantastic game. Given enough time anyone could complete it, regardless of age (or even language) the battle mechanics are really fun and creative. and the game looks nice, especially the enemy encounters. I wish there were more.

however it's aged and it's clunky. wandering around maps isnt really fun and there arent many surprises (like in mario party) where random things happen. For time investment it's not a bad oneto play with save states and I look forward to the ++ sequel for snes