Doraemon: Giga Zombie no Gyakushuu (1990)

Preliminary: Wow another Doraemon game. They popped these out. Uggggh not a good sign that it doesn't auto-target living enemies, but it has a nice beginning sound. Hopefully the dated NES RPG elements don't bog it down, too bad that Sharp X68000 A-RPG Lagoon didn't work for me. Hopefully this game's good tunes will get me to push through (and the usual RPG hook)

Early Game

Dated Look, but cute colors and nice Sound so far

The random battle frequency is pretty obnoxious, and other dated stuff (neat idea of a pouch separate from inventories, but wound up just being tedious giving items around and the lack of clarity on which items are helms/accessories etc, some are clear some aren't), but I do like that healing in towns is free... so there's that I suppose. And dang, the music keeps being so good! Without that, I'd def just move on with this one since it's quite a generic NES RPG otherwise.

Wow the free healing even revives the dead. Convenient. But already I'm feeling quite burned out despite the great music. Because of the frequent random battles and the usual NES RPG statuses. Might turn into a 3 star and move on type situation, with Final Fantasy Legend quickly approaching.

Yeaaaa, there have just been too many games already like this. The Look and Sound are special but beyond that, just another tedious NES RPG in an era I want something like the Ys remakes!

Look: 8/10 Cute and great colors, otherwise just another NES RPG look

Sound: 8.5/10 This is what almost got me to push through.

Play: 7/10 Even tho I usually get the RPG hook, and I did for about 2 hours there, something just felt amiss. So when I got to the usual frustrations (a super hard boss, plus the usual frequent random battles and status effects), even the great music couldn't get me to push through. So that def says something negative about the Play.

Feel: 7.5/10 Great music and Look, average NES RPG for play tho. If I had a connection to the franchise, this would be different.

Attachment: 7/10 If I want to delve fully into all the NES RPGs that at least had some good aspect, this would definitely make the cut thanks to the great music, and I can always push through with an RPG hook. But it wasn't worth pushing through in the context of this chronology project.

Overall: 7.6/10

Completion: I was fighting Grimlock back at Startown. I used the Orb and everything but no matter how many times I reloaded my save, the same exact pattern of attacks happened so RNG couldn't help me. I could have grinded more (I was level 12/13 so that seems pretty high tho...) but meh. Not worth it.

Playtime: ~2 hours

I have no clue about just about anything to do with Doraemon, but apparently it's a pretty big thing in Japan. So unsurprisingly, there's a Doraemon RPG. Also unsurprisingly, it's a Dragon Quest clone. There are some nifty quirks in the game, but much like Dragon Quest and other RPGs of the day, plenty of tedium to be had.

The story starts off with Doraemon and his crew going off to fight the Big Bad, Giga Zombie. But then Giga Zombie scatters Doraemon's crew, and Doraemon goes to your character (boy or girl) to enlist their help in rescuing his crew and fighting Giga Zombie. (Or you can tell Doraemon to sod off, but that ends the game.) And thus begins your and Doraemon's journey throughout four areas. Unlike many RPGs, Doraemon has a sort-of stage system, where you go to each area in sequence and can't return to prior areas. At first it's just you and Doraemon, who'll probably end up the strongest members of your party by virtue of having the most levels, but you'll eventually be joined by the series's main protagonist, Nobita, and each area also has a temporary member that joins you until you beat the last boss of each area. (They don't vanish with your gear, sort of—spell items are returned to Doraemon's pouch and their gear carries over to the next person who occupies the slot.)

Exploring the world and battles are quite simple. Doraemon's most unique aspect is how it handles equipment, money, and spells. Remarkably for an NES/Famicom RPG, the game lets you store an unlimited number of items in Doraemon's pouch, with an eight-item inventory for each individual member. Much like the MOTHER games, you aren't rewarded with gold immediately after battle, but receive it from Dorami, whom you can contact in towns through the menu to refill HP, get money, and save the game. All that money isn't going to new gear, because none of the stores sell gear—all of your equipment will come from chests in towns and dungeons. Everyone can use every weapon and armour, which typically leads to an awkward chain of hand-me-downs every time you find a killstick with 2 more points of Attack. (Eventually gear does start giving better boosts. You'll sing like an angelic choir once you get the Katana.) So what's the main purpose of money? Magic! You can obtain various magic spells throughout your journey, from attack spells to healing and buffs, which can be used freely out of battle but must be in a character's inventory to use during battle. Though magic might seem pricey, you do end up with a lot of money if you play well, and thus spamming spells late in the game, like the single-target full-heal spell, is no problem at all.

You will need to do that often, after all. Doraemon is a grindy game. Granted, level-ups do give a fair bit of power, but you'll need to grind up your party at a few points if you don't want to get squished. The most notable instance is when you get the third permanent member, Nobita, who joins at Level 1 at the beginning of an area where the weakest enemies can one-shot him from full health while guarding. (There's no "revival" spells or items—knocked-out party members are revived with 1HP after battle.) The game also has a harsh encounter rate, with monsters potentially attacking every few steps. Late in the game, groups of enemies can do hundreds of damage to your party every battle, making for plenty of time spent in the menu casting CureAll between battles. These things aren't even the greatest frustration of the game, no—that dishonour belongs to the goddamn rats and mice, since any time you encounter them in battle, Doraemon starts off paralyzed—and having your second-strongest member temporarily incapacitated gets very old, very fast.

There's a certain charm to this game, but it doesn't completely negate the old-school annoyances of early JRPGs. If you've got the patience for this kind of game, it's not bad. There's even a nice twist near the end, after four chapters of "go kill the evil guy". It can be tedious and frustrating, but I had fun.

The game rewarded me for beating the first major boss (i.e. nickel-and-diming the first major boss until it let me use the Arrow for 500 damage) by taking away one of my starting party members, replacing them with a Level 1 weakling, and throwing me into an area with monsters that could kill said Level 1 weakling in one hit while guarding. Hooray.

The encounter rate's a pain, but at least I have a healing spell, a decently-powerful attack spell, and a spell that reduces encounter rate. It's just that I really don't know how much money I'm really making from fighting, so I'm kind of reluctant to use anything but Cure often. (That, and that Nobita is still a wimp. He's apparently the main character of the Doraemon series, but he's a loser there too.)

I have absolutely no knowledge of the JAPAN! thing this game is based off of, but so far this game is kind of interesting.

Like MOTHER, instead of getting money dropped by monsters, you have to contact this "Dorami" character in towns, who restores your party's HP and gives you money for being awesome. I'm not sure if the money you get is based on your level, but it seems like Dorami gave me a ton of money early on and is getting kinda cheap at this point. Then again, none of the stores seem to have weapons for sale and healing items are very cheap. (And akin to later Dragon Quest games, you have a pouch that items can be stored in, which is either unlimited or very generous in capacity, kind of notable for an NES game when you think about it.) Apparently you use also use money to cast magic, but I haven't found any magic yet and my party splats everything in one or two hits anyway.

Also, there are rats that look just like the rats from Krusty's Fun House. (They're the most annoying enemies thus far, because whenever one is present, Doraemon starts the battle paralyzed.)