Morrowind

I really should have thought about reviewing this one sooner rather than later as this is a game I've found to be one of the main reasons I upgraded my computer's graphics card just to get the pixel shading effect on the water surface and was amazed by it as the first true example I'd witnessed of what a decent/good graphics card can DO to a system. (Back before the internet was common place to buy stuff online and having to purchase items based on whether a store had one and the hefty price tag accompanying the graphics card too). But in having played Daggerfall previously to Morrowind, I'd had an idea of what they were going to do with the game and the size/scope but even then, I was still blown away by the openness of the game.

It starts, as almost all Elder Scrolls games do, you wake up somewhere and realise "Oh shit, I'm here and this is a thing now". Daggerfall had you shipwrecked, Morrowind has you as a slave on a ship, Oblivion as a prisoner with no past and Skyrim you're on your way to be executed for the crime of having your head and neck firmly planted on your shoulders. In Morrowind's case, you awaken next to a nearly naked man who may or may not have recently decided you were the prison boat’s bitch, it's not entirely clear, but he does seem rather overly concerned to the point of asking how well you slept and what your name is... Some sort of "hump first, question later" approach it'd seem.

Before stepping off the ship, a guard approaches to check names etc, then you're frog-marched into a registry office and further details are asked of who you are, your star sign (generic stat boost/drain) and what kind of person you are either through generic questions like "If you were an animal would you be a) a pig, b) a cat or c) An Ocean Sunfish" which somehow concludes that your character class is nothing akin to what you answered. I prefer to pick my own for the fact I like to hit things with swords and clubs and knowing that some people out there will hurl fireballs at me, be a little resilient to magical attacks. You could go the potion making route, or thieving bastard route and pinch everything not nailed down, though you tend to find you do that anyway.

Here you can also select your race with its own racial bonuses ranging from being rather strong but dumb, to being gifted with magical power but unable to regenerate it or just being small and very annoying. In tandem with this, not every creature/race can wear every piece of armour either (unlike later Elder Scrolls games) and as such the beast type races can't wear standard boots or full helmets. Probably because the models would look dumb if they did that.

Once you're out the building, that's it. Save for a message saying to meet with Mr "X" in a town at some point, and this is where the game can be a make-or-break situation. You're free to do what you want, when you want and how you want with usually very few consequences. Want to do the main quest? Go ahead. Want to join up with various bands and groups and do odd-jobs and chores for them? Do that instead. Want to go raiding temples and burial chambers? Do that. Want to serve the dark gods and become their champions? Do it. You can even decide that living is for the strong, you're the strongest so GENOCIDE is the best course of action and can systematically slaughter EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the game... though some will put up a staunch defence even when you're maxed out on levels.

While you progress through the game you'll level up skills by using them successfully, slashing with a sword does very little, but striking someone will gain some exp. Running everywhere will drain stamina but you'll gain running exp and level up there, likewise with jumping until you're able to leap over buildings and take big falls with minimal damage. Need to learn how to use light or heavy armour? Get hit while wearing it to increase effectiveness on using it but you'll need to repair it soon too.

This can be a case of falling at the first hurdle though, with some people not realising that having level 15 swords is NOT a good thing if you want to actually hit people with the swords. Thankfully there's places to learn and level up skills for cash to save you wasting your time flailing like a madman on fire while a worm systematically kills you via death by head-butting your ankle. Incidentally, the same can be said for throwing items, archery etc. There's a LOT of levelling to be done here and gaining levels in sub categories counts towards the bigger character level upgrades where upon you can designate boosts to other aspects of your character with extra bonuses depending on what you did a lot in the previous level upgrade. Just be warned that short sword skill and long sword skill are 2 different skills and you need to be careful which weapon you use, it can be fatal to be mistaken in that regard.

Main plot wise, you're "possibly" the new born arse-kicker god in "mortal" form. If you're really the god re-born, you cannot be killed, but that doesn't stop people trying/failing. You will investigate into various factions around the volcano-island of Morrowind and meet with various Gods and Demons to try and work out if you are the reborn god, reunite the parted Houses of the Island to then wage war (by yourself) on the demon-god and his immortality machine. With lots of backstabbing, skulduggery and walking around the lush countryside and burnt out ash plains of the land.

And fight Cliff Racers. The game's constant harassment in the form of a flying bird that can follow you anywhere.

There's a whole host of guilds to join from Fighters Guilds, Mages, Thieves (honour even amongst them), Assassins, Temples, Imperials and such all having their own jobs and systems, ranks and privileges and rewards upon reaching the upper echelons of the system. Though the jobs can be rather unbalanced or unfair in that the first mission for one guild can be just to kill some rats (and it's always rats) to using unheard of stealth skills to steal something in which you'll invariable fuck it up and look like a prick while running from the guards or losing some stats in prison.

Amongst all this are the specific missions from people you'll meet and encounter. The odd pervert that wants to see you naked. Someone that wants his ring found. Taxes and debts to be collected. Dungeons to be braved. Slaves to be rescued. Floating rocks and prisons to be visited. Mad cults to be torn apart and rent asunder. Flowers to be picked.

And Cliff Racers to fight.

As a character though, you can do a whole host of things. Become a magician and cast various types of magic from destructive fireballs and ice-blasts, to lock picking and telekinesis, addle people's minds, turn invisible, and negate damage and case shields of elemental types. Make and mix up potions to boost stats, or create poisons. Begin your own line of enhanced magical armour or clothing. Develop magical weapons and shields. Repair everything and sell it. Steal EVERYTHING. There is very little limit in what one can do within the game and even going so far as to explore the more seedy and darker regions of the game to own your personal slaves (and liberate them too). Travel from one place to another and...

Kill Cliff Racers...

That is a rather large gripe in the game. You can't sleep (and heal... usually..) if there's enemies nearby and with Cliff Racers they can fly and therefore follow you a long distance and over most terrain obstacles that every other enemy cannot do. They tend to attack in swarms and with the repeated hitting and staggering, will knock seven shades of shinola from your body and kill you before you can even begin offering a retort. Some gamers will employ the use of a mod that removes them completely from the game and find it becomes and much more enjoyable experience. Though I personally found it hilarious when meeting several barbarians in the game that had encountered a witch and needed help, one was basically an obnoxious man who "claimed" she was a witch, another actually was a witch, and the third took the piss out of me for assuming there's always a barbarian fighting a witch. A wonderfully amusing inside joke within the game at itself.

Getting married to a cat-girl however was a bit odd. Though I can think of a multitude of idiots that would relish that prospect. While rising to the head of a guild only to fight and kill the leader was a good chuckle. Incidentally, the conversation aspect of the game is all based around talking to people and clicking keywords they (might if they like you enough) tell you about and inform you of upcoming events. Alternatively you can scare them if you're convincing enough but they'll hate you later, and bribe them a lot of cash to make them like you like some sort of emotional happy pimp. Or taunt them into fighting you and making it easier to kill them for free with no consequences (unless it's someone key to the story/plot) in a sort of "you swung first, I get to do what I want" kind of ruling.

The game however, for all its flaws and bonuses, reeks atmosphere almost from every pore of its fine and slightly pock-marked skin. The ambient music adds almost perfectly to the theme and setting of the game and giving a subtle grandeur to the game's production, to the point that the key theme features in later games too, most noticeably in the Skyrim add-on that takes place in an Island just off Morrowind itself, a wonderful little throw-back nod to this game. Music changes gradually to fit pace and setting, so a quiet wander through the lush forests and mountains will be rather soft in approach, while combat and fighting takes an almost faster pace with heavier drum accompaniment but nothing that ever becomes overbearing or taking the forefront in the game, always as a quiet aside to whatever it is featured before yourself.

The game does leave us with various choices throughout, some of which are obvious, others are a bit more judgemental and not as clear cut black/white in the morality issues. Most people will free every slave they find though one or two might play as in character as they can and keep slaves for themselves as pack mules in carrying around large amounts of loot and treasures from the dungeons. Other choices may leave you racking your brain over whether either decision is really the "better" choice, especially if there's not a clear cut solution to the situation and very little indication to the rewards either. "Take this diamond to my sister" and get mugged by their compadre who lifts the diamond back and returns it in a sort of star-crossed lovers idea. You can look past the misdemeanour and help them, or butcher the pair of them in their sleep, steal all their items and clothes and sell it for profit at the local trade/exchange for a nice new pair of shoes with +1 "fuck you" factor. (And -2 charisma, berk). But maybe helping them out well enough will net you a perfect, flawless diamond and their grace and favour.

Or kill some cliff racers.

Invariably some will compare this game to Oblivion and to be fair, that is the next game. But we can't compare an old game to a new game like that; we can only really compare to the previous game and showcase improvement. From the generic lands and awkwardly broken realms of Daggerfall, we've now this fully mapped, fully 3D world (Island...) with some of the most mind-blowing views and visions to grace a computer at that time (more so with the better textures sets available out there) While I shouldn't strictly do this, but the involvement of further add-ons that are officially made, open the game up into looking into the 2nd and 3rd of the "mortal" gods and their involvement and development since the end of the main game (or not as the case may be), or a huge sprawling Island just off from Morrowind where it's based more around a colder climate with its own setting featuring werewolves that haven't really made a return since the Daggerfall game, until the final big update from Morrowind's extra mods.

It's said that variety is the spice of life and there's certainly a lot going on in this game, various different weapons and materials to make those weapons from iron, steel, glass, obsidian etc, long swords, short swords, daggers, knives, axes, spears etc, magic as mentioned before, potions to boost any and every statistic, armours and makes of armours in great variety while also there's every precious metal one could expect to locate and find from steel plate to "demonic" sorts of armours (weapons too for that matter). A virtual library of ingredients to play around with to make potions, and all within a solidly made, gaming environment that doesn't utilise randomly generated areas.

Enemies range from worms and bugs, to larger lizards and beasts, to ... Cliff Racers... demons of fire, ice, storms, poisonous creatures, draining creatures, enemies to be made and defeated, of which, each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Buildings to take over and purchase, populate with your own decor and use their bonuses and extra features to impress... yourself. There's no online function or series here it's just you and the game and while in this age of online participation and social gaming, it can be a little daunting to be JUST yourself in this situation and nothing really coming in from the outside world.

Though to others, it's ideal.

There is a lot of game under the surface with a very well written storyline and plot progression if you can stand to read it, rather than being told it through voice actors. Meaning there is likely a LOT of information regarding the story on the assumption the gamer has the patience to read, tolerate, comprehend and deduce the situations. Such a sentence likely scares off a lot of people but that's how it goes here. It's not for everyone and will require some people to accept some big initial failures until they realise the way they wish to play and tweak boosts and initial staring points until they get the character that works best for them.

And killing Cliff Racers.

SNES Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Here's where I get into a little grey area known as "Twatty Fan base". That wonderful little area games tend to fall into where some fans of a series will disown the game and label it "A Gaiden Game" or "A non-canon game" or will disregard it as being part of a series because it's "too different" or "not the same kind of game". This is why I turn around and simply ignore these pricks because it's quite simply, a game. These people need to stop being whiny little fucks and either enjoy the game for what it is rather than what it's supposedly not being.

"It's not part of the series" So fucking what? It's still a game, it's still released with that title whether you agree with it or not for whichever little bullshit excuse you can muster up even if it's "Executive meddling" doesn't detract from the game itself, look at it for what it is rather than what it is part of.

"It's too different" No... shit... It has to be different otherwise you're playing the same game as before and then it becomes "It's too similar!” Your on-the-fence little position only shows you're whining but not with a specific reason other than it wasn't the game you wanted it to be. Tough shit, now grow a pair so I can kick them up through your body and have them blast out of your shit-spouting mouth.

But enough of my social commentary on these elitist pricks, there's a game here to see. Not the game many people wanted or many fans of the Final Fantasy series want to acknowledge but a game nonetheless. Sometimes I prefer when a game doesn't have the same fans as the others in the series because sometimes, those fans are annoying idiotic people, and I've no time for those people.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest... Now begins the internal debate of whether to compare it to other games in the series. I shall not. I shall rate this game on its own merits rather than what it does better or worse than other games. I'm not going to add fuel to the fire by saying inane shit like "Yeah but Final Fantasy 1 did this and Final Fantasy 4 did this blahablahabjahjdahailovecockblahahla" like some pissy little ingrate.

FFMQ is an RPG with a wide audience as its target. The story is fairly simple and throws you into the middle of it. Your hometown is under attack, being destroyed and you leap to safety before you're attacked by a monster. (A fight you can lose... as I found out on my first go when it hit me with a critical attack and killed me outright, seems the AI plays fair, in that it can do what I can do with lucky rolls). Upon killing the monster an old man fills you in on the events and tells you that to save the world from suffering the same fate, you'll have to restore the balance of 4 crystals (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water but thankfully not Heart...Go Planet!) and restore the world to order AND stop a doomsday prophecy.

All before you realise your home town is gone and in a sniff of grief, off you go.

You control your character by the main compass points of movement, North, South, West and East and jumping for the occasional puzzle while on the maps that navigate the world and within towns, cities and dungeons. Battling is done with a menu system similar to turn based combat where you and sometimes an AI partner, will take on up to three enemies in combat where you can select a weapon with which to smack them in the gob, cast magic, defend, use an item or run off (if you can).

As a character, you level up with experience earned from beating the shit out of monsters. Some monsters are weak to various attacks and weapons, some are strong from other attacks and weapons but all are rather well illustrated and show various stages of damage to let you know how badly you've been beating on them. Particularly evident with bosses that have 4-5 different frames of animation for showing the kicking they've taken.

Progressing through the levels and towns, you'll be able to buy and find bigger and better weapons, armours from people or inside hidden chests, sometimes in out of the way places or shown behind locked doors you'll have to come back for later.

Enemies are shown on the world map as either battlefields where you can fight up to 10 enemies (or more if you know how to glitch it) or icons that depict the main enemy, walking into these enemies will trigger the fight, giving you the chance to check and prepare for the enemy and cure ailments like being blinded, which drops your accuracy in combat. Spells have maximum casting for each spell and are replenished when using seeds, the higher the level your character is, the more of each spell they can use... assuming they've found the particular spell. Most spells hit one enemy or can hit them all for a slightly weaker attack, some spells just hit everyone anyway in a more "meh, slap them all" kind of attack.

In this RPG, your most powerful weapons are already available assuming you've found them, ranging from swords, axes, bombs and claws, which can cause status changes in enemies including instant death but by the time you're using that one hit tends to kill the enemies anyway. Armours follow the same suit; your most powerful will be automatically equipped for you to save grief.

During the game you'll encounter various allies that will team up with your character for a while, the AI can be used for them to fight as they'd prefer or you can take over and use their attacks and spells for yourself. All depending upon how you'd like to fight or whether you feel the AI isn't focusing upon the enemies in ways you'd prefer. Essentially they offer the very useful helping hand against the new areas with the new tougher monsters.

It can take around 13 hours on a serious run through of the game.

Story wise, the game jumps and shifts from trying to take itself seriously in building up a situation with someone suffering from something, a monster being the cause and giving credence to the idea that battling the evil monster will save the innocent sufferers. Which does pay off well in some cases but then is destroyed when in one particular event, the heroes fight their way to the top of a mountain where they think the winds are being used to attack a town, meet the main monster and this little exchange takes place.

"So you're the one causing these problems!"

"Nope, it's boss X"

And they fight anyway. All the suspense, build up and it falls down to "Nope, it's that guy" leaving you to think that you'll just head over there to kick his arse as well. Some bosses will take the time to talk to you about how futile what you're doing is, others are just bigger, tougher creatures that are more than happy to get into a slap fight with the main character (and comrade, if you have them, usually you do). The downside to this is that unless you're paying attention to the ONE LINE of information telling you what to do, you can end up not knowing where to go next as the character you just spoke to now reverts to a loop of "Good luck" "I have faith in you" or "Come back later for a good time, bring money" though I might have imagined that last one.

The music within the game is beyond good, at times close to being a shining example of the SNES's audio capabilities while fight music and boss music have their own epic qualities and each one enriches the experience, while music in the fire town is significantly more upbeat to get the shoulders bobbing along with the tunes.

The game moves along at a steady pace though in some of the latter dungeons you need to start thinking in 3 dimensions with floors over floors being an issue, which can be a little jarring at first just to hit switches to trap a boss between floors then you can fight him and likely have your arse handed to you on a silver platter, which begs the question, why have him running away if he's that powerful in the first place? The last few dungeons of the game lose their linearity that the earlier ones had and you're left feeling that you're running in circles looking for the one exit you've not tried just to get the hell on with the next bit of the story. Levelling becomes moot once you're around level 30 with only the final dungeon and the revamp bosses and MAYBE the final boss being a challenge (if you know the glitch... great)

Some dungeons have puzzles beyond just "Walk up to enemy, fight, walk up to boss, fight" in that there's sliding block puzzles, jumping puzzles and later in the game, hook shot puzzles that come right out of a Zelda game with working out how to manoeuvre around the dungeon, grabbing all the treasures and then getting to the boss being a different take than the earlier puzzles of the aforementioned "fight boss, lose, try again", speaking of which, dying in the game lets you refight the same fight at the stats you had at the start of the fight while ending a fight with one of your party dead, the other not, brings the other person back on 1 health point rather than requiring you to get them resurrected in some obscure manner.

To coin a meme, Simple Game Is Simple. A lot of other RPGs (not just Final Fantasy games...) have more complex fighting mechanics, more complex plotlines and more developed characters but on the flip side it's a wonderful step into the RPG era, I know some people are going to whine "It's made that way for certain audiences" and my answer to that is that the game does its job VERY well. It is exactly the kind of game to get people into more evolved RPGs who may have only known platform games or top-down adventure games like Zelda. It gets the mind starting to think on things rather than throwing them in the deep end on an RPG that will only be accessible to people who already know the types of games or are Mensa champions, which is hardly a fun way to spend time playing a game.

Personally, I like the game. It's got this quaint little charm that I find endears me to the game itself and yes, people will draw comparisons to expel the game as a Final Fantasy game because it doesn't fit in with their view of what a Final Fantasy game should be, or slate it for being too simple while not realising that's the POINT of this game, to be simple, to readily accessible to all involved and to encourage people into playing a game type they might not have tried before.

Completitionists might have to resort to a guide to make sure they get every single little treasure as some are really well tucked away, purists will bitch and moan about how this game shouldn't be a Final Fantasy game though it's written on the box and the screen, has a battle system in line with the series and uses the 4 elements as a plot point like almost the whole series does, while people like me who can appreciate a nice fun game will likely enjoy a while with the game exploring RPG mechanics and getting a taste, like I did when I was kid, for something new. While today I still play this game just for the enjoyment of playing it.

In closing, fuck fan-boys for ruining the reputations of good games solely because they don't like them. Oh and try this game out if you get the change.