Ghost Lion

The Good
Legend of the Ghost Lion is a fairly unique experience even though it doesn't stray too far from the Dragon Warrior mold that most early JRPGs clung to. You play as a young girl whose parents set out to kill the white "ghost" lion of legend. When they don't come back, you decide to set out after them and almost immediately get knocked unconscious and transported to a far away world of wonder.

As you travel through this strange and colorful land, you do battle against many monsters (some of which seem to be D&D inspired) while finding artifacts imbued with warrior spirits who can aid you in battle when called upon. It's a nifty alternative to the usual party system in most RPGs. Battles reward you solely with currency, as the game eschews the typical experience-gaining level-grind of most other RPGs in favor of something more akin to Legend of Zelda. No, you don't find heart containers; you find pieces of hope which increase your Courage (hit points) and Dreams (magic points). This makes the game a bit more challenging since there's no way to increase your level without moving forward. You can also call on as many spirits to help you in battle as you want (so long as you have enough Dreams cough).

It's also impossible to actually die in this game. When you run out of Courage, you are transported back to the last save point and can keep everything you acquired. You just lose half your money. There are a few times when "dying" in this fashion is actually a good strategy.

Graphically, Ghost Lion is neither good nor bad. The graphics are representative without being overly detailed. Everything in the game is colorful, but they aren't generally colors you'd associate with the thing in question. It might just be my TV setting but is the water purple in this game? I really don't know. The whole thing is meant to resemble an LSD flashback to begin with, so it's possible. I actually really enjoyed the look if only because it's so unique. If you've played Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games long enough, the medieval settings can start to get old. While Ghost Lion doesn't totally eschew this environment, you'll spend more time in mushrooms than anywhere else. Because, you know, fairies live in mushrooms and they can restore your Courage and Dreams. ... Oh dear god... what has this game done to me...

The Bad
As much as I liked Ghost Lion it isn't without its fair share of flaws. The most glaringly obvious is how long random battles take before they're over. Particularly late in the game, you'll find yourself using an item to create a shield around you so you take less damage, calling a spirit into battle (or two), and then using your weapon over and over again as you and the spirit attack and miss the enemy. Yes, you will miss with about 1/3 to 1/4 of every swing. It can be very frustrating.

Also, there's no way to keep track of what you're meant to be doing other than to remember it or keep it in your head. Traveling around talking to people can be a chore until you get the broom and even then it only transports you to certain locations and not others. And since you don't get anything besides money from battles, you'll want to avoid them as much as possible, a task the game makes as hard as it can. Sometimes there won't be a random encounter for quite awhile, other times it will happen every three steps (and totally at random, not really based on where you are or anything like that). Fighting battles is essentially useless late in the game because you have more money than you know what to do with and the items in the game never get better. The bread that you buy to heal your hit points in the first ten minutes of the game heals you as much as it does at the very end. Considering how little space you have in your inventory for healing items AND all the junk you end up picking up, this is a real problem. But the bigger problem is that you have lots of money and nothing to spend it on (which is why "dying" can be very helpful if you've gotten what you needed to get from a dungeon and just want to save your game without the hassle of traveling all the way back to the fairy).

Besides that, the game is frankly one long series of fetch quests and there will be times when you have to go somewhere and you have no idea where that place is. (Here's a hint: the boat in the first town has three destinations. Every single time I was supposed to take a boat ride somewhere, I had no idea that's what I was supposed to do.) The storyline is pretty boring in this regard, but it never gets boring to the point where the game itself isn't fun to play. Mostly the story is just there to get you from one point to the next.

My final complaint is with the new-age self-help patter that makes up the message of this game. "Believe in yourself!" "Don't give up!" "Do your best!" Gee, thanks, I really need encouragement from an LSD-damaged video game.

The Bottom Line
All in all, this is a very unique game that every "old-school" gamer needs to experience. It isn't without its flaws, but at least the developer set out to mix things up a bit rather than turn in the same old tired rip-off. It's a fun game that doesn't worry about being different, and that's pretty refreshing.

The Good
You have to find fragments of hope to increase your courage and dreams. In the end, you wake up as if it were all a dream.

The Bad
They never made a sequel to it.

The Bottom Line
We all need hope in our lives to give us courage to live out our dreams. That's the lesson this game taught me. In my opinion, no game has ever been created after this one, that ever out did it. No one can ever take away our hope, courage, and dreams. That's what makes this game so great.