Rudolf

@Cia I agree: I talked about Castlevania Advance Collection 5 comments before this one.

@Cia I think Metroid games lack Action-RPG elements to be called Metroidvania.

@smeggysmeg They should release PSP's Dracula X Collection because it includes 3 games: Rondo of Blood, its remake, and Symphony of the Night.

@thiswaynow I would have said Castlevania Symphony of the Night, but this game is still unavailable on Switch.

It is not in this list, but maybe you could purchase Castlevania Advance Collection and try Aria of Sorrow: this game is good, rather short and quite easy.

@Kasparius You are free to disagree with me. I just think "Metroidvania" does not mean anything nowadays since we tend to consider all 2D side-scrolling action/adventure games with overworld as metroidvania. As for me, that is not enough at all to consider it as a Metroidvania as I imagine, containing ALL of the following elements:

• exploration of an openworld with interconnected zones
• Zelda's/Metroid's concept of accessing new areas by acquiring different skills
• platformer gameplay
• Action-RPG elements

If just one of those elements is missing, this is not a metroidvania for me. As for Monster Boy, it lacks a true openworld with interconnected zones to consider it as a metroidvania. But this game has big dungeons with true puzzles to solve, as well as Action-RPG elements and the concept of acquiring new skills allowing us to access new areas, so I consider this game MUCH closer to Zelda.

You consider Monster Boy as one of the very best metroidvania: fine, I disagree, but ok, why not. As for me, I consider this game as one of the very best Zelda-like games.

@chefgon In fact, the true direct ancestor of Castlevania Symphony of the Night is another Konami game that was released on MSX in 1987: The Maze of Galious (aka Knightmare II). Almost everything came from The Maze of Galious (which was not inspired by Metroid, but by The Legend of Zelda). The true innovation brought by Symphony of the Night is the concept of getting new skills allowing the player to go to new areas (a concept that we can also find in Zelda games).

So, the true basis of Castlevania Symphony of the Night is The Legend of Zelda.

@Kasparius I think not because Monster Boy's overworld is just a hub a la Zelda from which we access to different zones that are not interconnected. If game's map is not like Super Metroid's map, it can't be a metroidvania as I imagine. So I consider Monster Boy rather like a Zelda-like: gameplay focuses much more on puzzles than exploration in maze like environments.

In my opinion, Cave Story, Dead Cells and Monster World/Wonder Boy games are not really metroidvania. They lack a real interconnected world with a sense of exploration.

Anyway, I am playing Ender Lilies and I am really enjoying this game.

I read everywhere that Oracle of Ages is more focused on puzzles and Oracle of Seasons more focused on battles: I did not have that feeling at all after completing both games some years ago. For me, there is no big difference (I struggled on some battles in Ages and on some puzzles in Seasons). The only difference I noticed is that Season's overworld is larger thanks to Subrosia's subterranean world, so I think there is more exploration in Seasons.

Excellent. Both are very good games, especially Oracle of Seasons (but I think Minish Cap is the best Game Boy Zelda game).

Now, I am waiting for "For the frog the bell tolls" (Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru).

@theModestMouse True.
That reminds me another word's misunderstanding: piracy. That word normally means "breaking onto someone's place and stealing its content" (like real pirates that attacked ships and invaded it to steal its treasure). But we use this word to describe people that download illegally games/movies/books/etc without breaking onto another server.

You can add Marvelous: Môhitotsu no Takarajima. An excellent game that I completed recently. The first game whose Eiji Aonuma was the director, before Zelda Majora's Mask. Since its release on Super Famicom only in Japan, it was then released again only on Japanese's eShop on Wii U, but now the service is closed.

Dream Team Bros is, by far, the best game of the series.
I have never been an fan of Superstar Saga, nor of Partners in Time. Bowser Inside Story was fun though, but it was like a rough draft of Dream Team Bros.

Anyway:

• best combat system of the series;
• best OST (the forest! The final bosses themes! Some dream world's themes!);
• best gameplay and level-design;
• longest game of the series;
• Luigi's hidden psyche, loving his own brother;
• the most villain, sinister and devious Bowser of the whole series (as frightening as Ganondorf), whose dreams are insane (with excellent disturbing music).

@Bunkerneath The hero is named Nigel only on American and English versions. In Japan and France, he is named Lyle (transcribed to "Ryle" in France). In Germany, he is named Niels von Ahorn.

If some European people have never heard about Crusader of Centy, this game is called Soleil in Europe (and Shin Souseiki Ragnacenty in Japan). Besides, the NSO+ allows players to play the French, German and Spanish versions (and Korean) too.
We can also play the French and German versions of Landstalker.

Anyway, this time, this is a great selection. I think Ghouls 'n' Ghosts and Centy/Soleil are not playable on Mega Drive compilation on Switch.
I am also glad to play the Japanese uncensored version of Landstalker.

@Polvasti Sorry if I offended someone, but I genuinely don't understand what was inappropriate or "racist" in my message. But no problem, it has already been removed. Case closed.

@PtM I prefer the one with the bra instead of bikini.

@leahcimali In fact, this first game (Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei) is very loosely inspired on the first or two first books as a (somewhat) sequel (different of the other books written after this game was released). Then, the series departed completely from the book with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II on Famicom (the two Shin Megami Tensei on Super Famicom are remakes of Megami Tensei II).

That is why the player should place the girl in last position of the party (so that she gets less damage from attacks) and watch out her HP.

And the most important stat to increase is agility (きびんさ in Japanese), so that she can cast her spells before enemy's attacks (this is the first stat I maxed-out for the 2 human characters, because I think it is too important to act before enemies).

Luck (うん in Japanese) is also an important stat (in fact, all stats are important, even Intelligence for the male hero, so that he can recruit strong demons more easily).

Except the first hours of my play, the girl never died.

@KingMike On the contrary, I considered the encounter rate as a good point. I used the doors a lot, so that I could fight a lot of enemies in less time, so I could level-up very fast. When I didn't walk through doors, encounter rate was quite low, so dungeon's exploration was quite comfortable. I could get max level before completing Inferno's stage, by walking through a lot of doors in the final stage (Infini Palace) where it is very easy to go thanks to Bien's moving air castle.

Apart from that, I didn't really understand your concern about magic. I am used to playing other Megaten games, so I considered normal the fact that human's death is a serious punishment.

I purchased Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei on Switch (as a DLC on Namcot compilation) and completed it last year. For an 1987 RPG, it was an amazing game. And its length surprised me: I needed 75 hours to finish it (by drawing myself all dungeon's maps), which is incredible for a Famicom game! 8 bit RPG are much longer than we think.

That game was released just few months before Phantasy Star (and Final Fantasy) in Japan. After completed both games, Megami Tensei was more complex and better for its 1st person dungeons, level-design, fights, RPG elements. Phantasy Star was better in graphics, characters and story.

Only FF VI's Pixel Remaster is interesting to me. Otherwise, I prefer playing PSP version of FF IV, and original Famicom and Super Famicom versions of the other games.

But something is not clear to me. I've read the Japanese tweet, but they don't say if already purchased EGG games would be available on Switch without paying again? Because I purchased quite a lot of EGG games to my PC.

By the way, I kinda know some old Japanese computer games :

• PC-88: I finished Ys and Ys II (I also finished before PC Engine's and Chronicle's versions);
• PC-98: I finished some "eroge" (erotic games) like Steam Heart's (nice shoot'em up) and Night Slave (very good action game that looks like "Assault Suit Valken, and nice story - there are also hot erotic scenes that are 100% lesbian ones, but it it possible to deactivate those if we are disturbed by that);
• MSX: I finished Golvellius, The Goonies, The Maze of Galious (a true masterpiece), King's Valley), Gradius;
• MSX2: I finished Usas, Shin Maou Golvellius (and the Master System version as well), Super Cooks, Vampire Killer (aka Castlevania, a masterpiece as well, very different to the famous NES version).

There are still many other Japanese computer games I would love to play (especially Konami, Falcom and Compile games, as well as T&E Soft, and even eroge that are surprisingly very good, and other unknown games among RPG and Adventure games/Visual Novels).

@KingdomTears Maybe you didn't heard about it before, but Xevious is one of the most famous shoot'em up in game history.

I don't really agree with some points of the review. First, I was stucked several times in the game, although I already finished Super Metroid before: although the AI helps us, it doesn't show us the mandatory secret paths to use, so it took me some time to me to discover the true path (especially the aquatic zone).

Then, I think enemies and boss are much harder than Super Metroid's ones: we get much more damage from them. Besides, the Japanese exclusive hard mode (that you did not even mention) is not a piece of cake (we get twice less life and missiles or bombs than in normal mode, and even twice more damage from enemies).

And I don't think this game is particularily shorter than other games like Super Metroid. Besides, Metroid Fusion is by far the hardest 2D Metroid to discover all items (whereas Metroid Zero Mission is the hardest 2D Metroid to achieve all secret rooms because of very tricky moves to achieve like Shinespark).

Nevertheless, it is an excellent game, but I prefer Zero Mission because Metroid Fusion really lacks of sequence breaking that I enjoy in Zero Mission and Super Metroid.

@JohnnyMind Thank you, you're welcome. I'm glad you seem satisfied with those Japanese books.

Good. But don't forget that you can download the Japanese app too, so that you can play the Japanese exclusive hard mode (perhaps there will be a special save file with unlocked hard mode on the Japanese app). I've never understood why that hard mode was absent on Western versions.

Meanwhile, no 2D Tales of was released in the West since... 2006, I think (GBA's version of Tales of Phantasia and PSP port of Tales of Eternia).
It's a shame because the last version of Tales of Phantasia (Cross Edition on PSP in 2010 - included in Narikiri Dungeon X) is BY FAR the best version of that game (Japan exclusive, no translation patch) and my favourite game of the series (Tales of Symphonia is also Phantasia's prequel). And Tales of Rebirth on PS2 looked very good, and PS2 version of Tales of Destiny too, but no release in the West. Namco may consider Western players have no interest in 2D Tales of.

@Handheld_TrifectAce Maybe you should know that emulation's quality of Sega Genesis Collection is inferior to NSO's emulation. I don't really recommand that collection, unless we have no other choice.

@JonEnumber5 It is possible to play Chrono Cross without playing Chrono Trigger. But honestly, it would be a shame, because you wouldn't have the optimal condition to discover Chrono Cross which is definitely Chrono Trigger's sequel. A part of the emotion comes from the fact you already know Chrono Trigger and the links between both games.

In fact, the best thing to do might be playing Radical Dreamers after Chrono Trigger and before Chrono Cross.

Anyway, there ls absolutely no Square-Enix game on NSO, so I'm afraid there is no chance to play Chrono Trigger on NSO. Perhaps it might be released at eShop though, but when? They should have included Chrono Trigger in that Switch version of Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross.

@JohnnyMind A Japanese exclusive N64 game I really want to discover is Wonder Project J2. But first, I want to play the first game on SNES. Both games have now translation patch in English, I think. I also want to play "Nanatsu kaze no Shima Monogatari", developed by the same company on Saturn (the 2D graphics are absolutely gorgeous).

By now, my main weak point is the listening. Since I didn't really listened anime's or movie's spoken Japanese without subtitles (I become easily frustrated not understanding what is said), I haven't done what I did with written Japanese from games and short stories. But I am doing much more efforts for one year, especially by speaking to 2 or 3 native Japanese people each week (so I feel the progress I did, but it's still very difficult to me to understand spoken Japanese of anime or movies and to listen without subtitles).

Thanks for the recomandation about German book on Japanese written by Buske:I never heard about him till today. That's a good idea, I'll think about it.

You are learning a lot of languages, that's amazing.
Maybe I'll learn Chinese, but later.

Speaking of Persona, I have intention to play again Persona 4 in Japanese (5 years ago, I played only 15 or 20 hours on PS2). I don't want to play Persona 5 before (I already finished Persona 3 on PS2, but I don't think I'll play it again in Japanese, that's too long).

I started playing entirely in Japanese 3 years ago. First, I started with games I knew very well like Ocarina of Time, so that I wasn't frustrated by language barrier (my first goal was getting used to reading kana and recognizing some kanji, instead of trying to understand entire sentences).

But since I started playing in Japanese, I can't deny I played far less games than before, because I was much slower: that's a sacrifice I accepted to do, because now, that's really worth it.

My first goal in learning Japanese was playing some Saturn or PC Engine RPG that were never been translated. Now, I am also interested in Japanese Adventure games and Visual Novels. I also started to play unknow games on old Japanese computers, like PC-88 or PC-98 (I am using "EGG" which is like GOG, but for old Japanese computer games).

@JohnnyMind So, if you can understand written French, I can recommend you the excellent book I use: "Manuel de japonais classique - Initiation au Bungo", from Jacqueline Pigeot (we can buy this book on Internet). It is well explained, step by step... but it's not an easy task, because a very good knowledge in modern Japanese is mandatory. Sometimes, I read again some explanation of modern Japanese in my grammar book (it is "Grammaire japonaise systématique", from Reiko Shimamori, but it is a more difficult book if we can't read French very well), so that I can understand the other book better.

Someday, I would like to learn Italian as well (I have more interest in Italian culture than in Spanish). But now, I focus on Japanese, German and English.

Anyway, have fun with Zelda games in Japanese.

@JohnnyMind Yes, adjectives were more complicated in Kobun. The verbs groups, forms and tenses too. In modern Japanese, the 終止形 and 連体形 have the same form, except the 形容動詞 ("na adjectives").

I can imagine conjugation is complicated in Italian, like other Roman languages.

Anyway, one of the best points of NSO is that there is no regional lockout, and that we can access to all version by using just a single NSO's subscription. Before, on Wii, I never bought any Virtual Console game because of the 50 Hz version on PAL Wii, except some PC Engine games (Castlevania Rondo of Blood and Ys Book I&II) that were the only ones in 60 Hz. Besides, to play that much games than I did on NSO, I would have paid much more money on Virtual Console or eShop (and I really don't care about "buying" dematerialised games because it is not definitive at all (if my console definitely breakdowns) and I never take my Wii from the attic to play again Virtual Console games). Still, that NSO is far from perfect, but I consider it much more convenient than in previous Nintendo's console (I'm also lucky to have bought an N64 controller just in time).

So, have fun to play again Zelda games in Japanese on NSO!

@JohnnyMind Exactly, 買う is a good example.
We can also understand the origin of some words, like 無し (なし). Recently, I understood much better what "volitional form" really is, by discovering the ancient forms む (often contracted as ん) and じ.

In fact, when Japanese used old spelling of kana till 1945 (歴史仮名遣い), when the kana は, ひ, ふ, へ, ほ weren't placed at the very beginning of the words, the [h] sound disappeared and they were prononced wa, i, u, e, o. The particles は and へ subsisted (maybe to "highlight" them in written sentences), as well as を (all other words using を, that kana was being pronounced [o] and not [wo] for many centuries ago). Since particles doesn't exist by themself, they are considered to be part of words they mark, so they weren't considered to be "at the very beginning of a word": that's why the particles は and へ are pronounced [wa] and [e]. That old spelling was also used in "modern Japanese" since Meiji era (sometimes, when I read rather old novels and short stories on the website named 青空文庫 (Aozora Bunko), the only version we can read is with unsimplified kanji and historical kana spelling).

That's why nowadays, except for one or two words, there are no more simple words (I don't talk about composed words) with kana は, ひ, ふ, へ and ほ that are placed elsewhere as the very beginning of the words.

I'm glad I found a very good book that explains kobun and uses old poetry as examples (there is also Imabi, but I think the Kobun part is too difficult to understand). It's very fascinating to me.

In Link's Awakening DX, here is some sentence we can read when checking owl's statues (all written in katakana):

"トゲ　スルドキモノ　タテニテ　ハジキ　トバスべし"

I think にて is the ancien particle で. And べし means べき.

I advise you playing again Zelda games in Japanese: that's definitely worth it. I think the writing is much better than in other Western languages. I feel a better "legend feeling" by reading such a text inspired by Kobun.

As for Italian, true: plural forms seem to end with [i]. Like "spaghetti" or "paparazzi". It reminds me some groups of words or "cases" in Latin.

@JohnnyMind I see. Thank you for explanation.
Speaking of "Pikkoru", I wonder if this name comes from Italian, something like "Piccoli" that means "small". Buy I'm not sure at all because I didn't study Italian (yet).

Yes, I might have heard "Vaati" before, that's possible. In Japanese, Gufû (颶風) means "tornado" or "hurricane".

Actually, I am playing again all Zelda games in Japanese. With NSO, I played the FDS versions of Zelda 1 and 2, Japanese versions of Majora's Mask (there are significant differences in gameplay and level-design compared to the Western versions, that's very interesting), Ocarina of Time and Zelda 3. One week ago, I finished again Twilight Princess in its Japanese Gamecube version. Later, I would like to play again Switch's remaster of Skyward Sword in Japanese, and Japanese Gamecube version of Wind Waker. Of course, the day both Oracle games are released on NSO, I'll play it again in Japanese.

Now, I'm busy with Link's Awakening DX and Minish Cap. Speaking of Link's Awakening, there are some text written in somewhat "kobun" (ancient Japanese) that are not that easy to grasp if we have no knowledge in Kobun (especially the hints of owl's statues in dungeons). Occasionally, we can read some Kobun inspired text in other Zelda games like Twilight Princess, Minish Cap or Skyward Sword, when we meet very ancient gods or when we read tombstone's writing. So I'm glad I studied that a little.

Nowadays, I use NSO a lot, playing Game Boy games and Game Boy Advance games. Especially, I play again Link's Awakening DX and Zelda Minish Cap.
I've never thought to say that, but now, I think Minish Cap is the best hand-held Zelda game (even superior to Link's Awakening, the Oracles and A Link Between World), and that Flagship did a better work than Nintendo.

The gameplay is excellent (rolling, the different attacks we learn, the items). The level-design is amazing, with an incredible overworld (the dungeons are very good too) and I love the concept of "Joy's pieces" (that is the meaning in Japanese, but I don't know the official English translation). I love the fairy-tale atmosphere (I love the "Pikkoru" - I think it was translated as "Minish"). We have a new enemy with its own story ("Gufû", I don't know the English name) and an interesting new background: it changes from usual Triforce ans Ganondorf. The graphics are very cute, and the music very good (the music of Pikkoru's village makes me somewhat nostalgic).

Now, I understand why the director Hidemaro Fujibayashi became Nintendo's employee and director of both Skyward Sword (there is similarity between this game and Minish Cap, e.g. an overworld that looks like an open air dungeon, or the fact that Zelda is Link's childhood friend), and Breath of the World (and now Tears of the Kingdom): that guy is very talented, damned underestimated (and Minish Cap is underrated in my opinion).

@Drmarioland I realised I was wrong about Capcom, because Gargoyle's Quest is planned soon.

@DeePad "so why should I pay for a weak NSO?": Because it's a legal way to play those games?

For the Frog the Bell Tolls (I don't like the official English title that doesn't respect the stylistic syntax of Hemingway's novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls") is not at all a "precursor to Link's Awakening": its gameplay is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, and even the atmosphere and progression are very different. This game is rather a precursor of DS's game "Freshy-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland".

Anyway, Donkey Kong 94 is one of the best Game Boy games, so it definitely deserves to be available in NSO... but with the Super Game Boy feature, of course.

Wario Land, Wario Land II, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Zelda Oracles are excellent games too.

I don't expect to see any Squaresoft, Enix, Capcom or Konami games on that service: there are no NES or SNES games from those companies on NSO.

So, like Grandia's remaster that is a port of the inferior Playstation port from original Saturn game, this remaster is a port based on the PS3 version that was based on the inferior port of original Gamecube's game: everything is normal.

Like Grandia's remaster, this ToS's remaster makes me savings for everything else.

Still, it's a shame that we can't play Link's Awakening DX as it was on classical Game Boy (the DX cartridge was compatible with classical Game Boy, except the "color dungeon" that was inaccessible on classical Game Boy). I would have prefered to play that version on Switch in black and white.

And, of course, the Western DX version on Switch is the censored one, based on the American censored classical Game Boy version. But fortunately, I can play the Japanese uncensored one.

@Sisilly_G : So, can we suppose Frog's cartridge was bigger than other Game Boy's cartridges, so that kanji could be displayed? Because the other Game Boy RPG I know, including Link's Awakening and Mystic Quest, have no kanji at all.

When Metroid Fusion will be available, I'll play again the Japanese version which contains an exclusive Hard Mode (that was suppressed in Western versions for a reason I don't understand at all).

Speaking of "For the Frog the Bell Tolls", there is a very interesting thing to notice to people understanding Japanese. Normally, classical Game Boy games (those games in black and white only) display Japanese language only with Japanese's syllabary, without using any Chinese characters (those characters are a great help to read Japanese). But in that game, there are Chinese characters (as well as syllabary), which is very, very rare on classical Game Boy games (in fact, for now, I don't know any other classical Game Boy games that used Chinese characters, but there are more Game Boy Color games that used it). I wonder how they made that possible on a Game Boy game (they just used simple Chinese characters that have a few strokes though, maybe 100 Chinese characters at most), but that made that game quite easier to read.

"For the Frog the Bell tolls" (I don't like the official English title that doesn't respect the stylistic syntax of Hemingway's novel "For Whom the bell tolls") is really excellent. One of the best Game Boy's games. It is a shame that it will not be translated. So, the best thing I would advice to people that are interested in a significant number of Japanese games that were never translated, is learning Japanese. That doesn't allow Nintendo and the others to not translate their games though, but instead of waiting an highly uncertain day when thoses games would be ever officially translated, it is now the best solution to play thoses games without being frustrated (and we become more independent on what games we want to play).

Still, that game did not really "inspirated" Link's Awakening, contrary of what I've read in comments. Both games have the same graphics, and Prince Richard appears in both games, but that's all. I'd think there is more similarity between this game and Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland on DS.