I'm sure the original developers are rubbing their hands with glee knowing a whole new generation are playing through this fiendish little gem... loving it

I love this game so much now, I just bet The Sword of Hope II today, I spent 40 hours on this game alone and it's a GB game! Plus over here it's only $5.75, where as most GB games are like $7.50. I didn't max level my characters, but I certainly didn't see the need to, My characters were level 29 when I reached the final boss and I was surprised by the ending. I don't wanna give away any spoilers who may've not yet picked this game up, but this game, although considered pretty primitive for an RPG, is AMAZING in terms of quality and value for money. I adore old-school games as much as the rest of you, but this is the best turn-based RPG i've played in a while, this considering I have been playing quite a lot of Action-RPGs and others among those lately.

To be fair, I need to point out why it still didn't ring a 10/10 for me, otherwise you'll be just reading me as another fanboy. I didn't particularly like how they named some of the monsters, for example: BONE GLM, what does that stand for? Bone Golem? It looks nothing like a golem to me (look at the sprite). Some of the names were excusable because you could guess instantly what it was, like MTL KNT (Metal Knight), but yeah sometimes I just wanted to know what the monsters were called. I know old school RPGs do this a lot, but i'm a little nit-picky.
Another thing that annoyed me was when your third party member keeps changing, why is this bad? earlier in the game, you get hardly any money whatsoever and you go and spend a few hundred on equipment and then bang, they're either "Dead" or they leave the party, for good, along with all your hard earned 'ment.
Some old RPGs I know deposit the party members belongings in your bag, or you can store them in computers (i.e. Pokemon), but this one is of that very same era, circa 1996- present), so it's kinda/sorta unbelievable, especially when you find out the first time.

But otherwise, this game is full of WIN for me and certainly the first and best proper RPG on the eShop, I've completed games like Zenonia, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords AE and Gargoyles Quest off the eShop, but none of them are true RPGs in the context i'm speaking about SoH2. I love RPGs as you know, but my love extended from my first ever RPG, Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow, they introduced me to this genre and I identify them as RPGs because they're turn-based not action oriented. But believe me, I like pretty much any kind of RPG, except for strategy-rpgs, i'm just not very good at those, otherwise i'm pretty much open to pretty much any RPG.
One more quick thing, really good quality 8-bit music in this game, yes the main battle theme is repetitive like most turn-based rpgs, but the mini/final boss music is just the shiz, I love it and it gives you the sense of an epic battle, but whether you agree or not is up to you, I liked it.

I'd give this game an 8.5/10. Enjoy

Apparently the Japanese version was released in 1992. It was kind of common then for characters to just walk off with your stuff. Though by that point, it was common to have a shared inventory, so at worst characters would only leave with a few pieces of equipment. It's unfortunate, so I guess the best you can do is save often and then reload when that happens if you're concerned enough.

When playing this game, I like to think what it would look like with modern graphics but with the same gameplay. You would actually be able to see the full area of your current location, not just a tiny screen. You would actually be able to see your characters in battle. Text wouldn't take up that much room. Menus would show more info on one screen than having to view different screens on the GB. Walking is still menu driven but you would see your characters walk in a direction and reappear in the next area or room.

@Bass_X0 Yeah, I like your idea, but I'd rather have the game still in first person to be honest. What i'd like to see in a remake (if they ever made one) is just more of the characters, even if it was just on the start menu or an End Battle screen of all three party members, similar to the Final Fantasy III & IV remakes on DS, and on that note, it would be cool to see the actual change in armour/costume when you equip new equipment to your party similar to DQ IX.
I'd really be interested to see a remake of both SoH games, prefurably on one single cartridge, since companies like Square Enix and Atlus have done this respectively in the past with FF1 & 2 Dawn of Souls (GBA) and Legacy of Ys Books 1 & 2, plus it makes sense since SoH2 is pretty much a direct sequel to the original game, though i've yet to play it since it hasn't been made available on the 3DS VC.

Yea..it wouldnt hold up that well today if the graphics were all that was updated. The enemy balancing is bad and progression curve throughout the game is dodgy. It would need to be a lot more refined to hold up today.

@Geonjaha I think the enemiy balancing was fine, I think there needed to be that there so it would make it more 'grindy', otherwise the game would've been too easy. Believe me, I wouldn't have bet the final boss unless there was at least a bit of grinding involved.

The lastest Nintendo Power rated SoH2 "Hmmm" on their 3DS VC list, I couldn't disagree more, I think they may've easily overlooked this game because I felt this game was on par with Metroid II, the last brilliant 3DS VC I played, not to mention this game was the same price here as Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and that recieved a 'recommmended' rating in Nintendo Power. I would definitely say this game is a Hidden Gem, because not many people are praising it enough and it hasn't been downloaded as much over here on our eShop (NZ/AU). I recommended this game to a friend of mine and he's downloaded it, i'm hoping to hear back from him when he's completed it.
Well even if you don't agree that this is one of the best VC games on the eShop, it's still the best RPG on the store so far and i'm hoping we get more in the future, which they shouldn't be too far off. We had good news about 3-4 months ago about at least two RPGs, both for the Sega Game Gear, Defenders of Oasis and Shining Force: The Sword of Hayja, both which i'm excited for, but unfortunately we haven't heard yet when those games are going to be released, so that's a bit of a bummer, but i'm not too fussed, we got SoH2 and that kept me going for a while.

So just out of curiosty, how long did you guys spend on The Sword of Hope II? I spent 40 hours on this game and got the maximum amount of enjoyment I could out of it. I'm a little bit of a completionist, so I pretty much canvassed the entire game and found several of the useless items like the fish fossil, which I don't think even have a use at all in the game, but I think they're just there for fun.

It seems NP has fallen in line with both IGN & Nintendo World Report, who both put the game in the "maybe" category. Nintendo Life is the only place I've seen that truely recommends it. Like you, I think it's fantastic, and one of my top 3 VC games (I spent around 20 hrs on it, and have everyone decked out in all the special armor).

Also, despite almost universal panning elsewhere, IGN gave Johnny Kung-Fu a "get it" in the same article they reviewed tSoH2, lol.

@RR529 Yeah I agree, Nintendolife does a more thorough review of download and retail games in general, more open-minded too I guess. I would've shook my head and said no if it hadn't been for that 8/10 review. But then again I don't always go on reviews of course, they're just someone's opinion and that's fine.
IGN, don't even get me started, but Nintendo World Report i'm less familar with, so I don't have an opinion for or against them.
Speaking of my favourite VC games, most of my favourite VC games are made by nintendo, but there have been a few quality third party games i've bought like Gargoyles Quest, Catrap, Trip World and of course, The Sword of Hope II, let's just hope nintendo is gonna feed us more VC games soon, i'd like to have two at least every week.

@RetroGBHippie92 - 15 hours and 30 minutes to see everything in game and beat it. All that is left is to max level my party at some later date.

@Aqueous Wow are you sure?? Did you see everything? did you find those items like the fish fossil etc? Are you sure you haven't played this before? I had so many random encounters it slowed me down so much, I don't think 15 hours sounds right to me, after all my characters were level 29 (max level 32) when I faced the final bosses. Then again I did get confused sometimes as to how I had to progress, but that's because I didn't use a walkthrough guide. I hardly ever resort to walkthorughs by the way, sometimes if it's like a secret path in say a game like New Super Mario Bros. 2, that I can't find, I'll use one but otherwise I tend not to cheat.

@RetroGBHippie92 - Yup, my first time. I found the fish fossil and various other things. I was in every room and hit/open/looked at everything. I had the best armor and weapons. My party was level 25, 25, 24. I never had trouble progressing and did not wind up confused or lost. Though I did look up things when I hit the last dungeon, like what the pliers were for and mushrooms. Also I think how to get the fish fossil, which involved some back tracking. My grind time was likely not much more then 30 minutes and was only required to add one level on everyone for the last boss. I wasn't going to look up help till I hit the final dungeon and I scratched my head over a few items and what they did and needed help. But yes everything, as a guide suggested, item wise and I explored everywhere. My activity log does say 15 and a half hours, so I'm very sure.

Oh without a doubt it's the best RPG on the eShop so far, but that's pretty much because it's one of the only ones. Dont get me wrong - it's a great GB title, but it really doesnt hold up against Defenders of Oasis, and the Dragon Quest/ Final Fantasy games for the GB/GBC.

@Geonjaha Yeah well I'm pretty sure that we won't get the GB Dragon quest or "Final Fantasy" games, plus as I said before I've been holding out for Defenders of Oasis, but there's been eShop listing for that yet.

eShop Gamers gave it a 7/10.

They said they really enjoyed it, but it will only appeal to retro RPG fans because it has "no sense of direction" (getting lost happens way too often), and it's really annoying that there are no in-game descriptions of what items do (saying that switching out to the manual became tedious).

I'll somewhat agree that finding out the purpose of items was a tad bit annoying, but I don't think the game lacked a sense of direction (outside of the final dungeon, the game was so linear in progression that it's impossible to get lost).

@RR529 Yeah but who are these "eShop gamers"?, boy this game is pretty linear compared to games like Metroid II (and it's about as linear as you can get for a metroid game) and most people consider 2D Metroids confusing without a map system.

eShop Gamers is a video game news/review site (like NL), but focuses soley on the eShop.

Had this game for weeks but did not even play it once, gotta do it soon.

Got this game a month or two ago and did not play it once...must be lazy against playing gb games.

@undead_terror Come on, it's a good game, play it if you have nothing else to, it's the only true turn-based RPG on the eshop at the moment. I don't know where you live, but The Denpamen comes out in NA soon, but us PAL gamers will have to suffer until Nintendo of Europe or Australia caves into our demands, I so want to play The Denpamen: They Came by Wave, i've heard quite a lot of good things about it already.