"Those"

In an earlier review I had made of another Capcom game, Breath of Fire 2, I bagged on the game several times for not having a decent translation. Thus, you can imagine my annoyance when I take it upon myself to review this little jewel, then realize that it is plagued with the same exact problem. *Sigh* There is no justice...

Gargoyle's Quest, a spin-off of the successful Ghosts 'n' Goblins series, is a perverse tale of an unusual hero saving an unusual group of characters. Yes indeed; the lines between good and evil are extremely blurred in the game of Gargoyle's Quest.

''So we have this village of monsters, right?'' A writer says to another, ''And they just got the living heck beat out of them by some OTHER monsters. Man, that kind of sucks, doesn't it? So anyway, we have these poor, down-on-their-luck demons, and they need someone to help them with these other demons. Enter this hulking red (or green; we'll work on that later) gargoyle guy that had just recently been fighting this Knight in Ghosts 'n' Goblins. So obviously, he's none too pleased with these bullying monsters and takes it upon himself to take them all on single-handedly thus saving some monsters from the other monsters.''

Case in point: Gargoyle's Quest has one of the more original game plots I've seen.

So, what about the two factors everyone always talks about, graphics and gameplay? Well, I'm getting to that. First, I have to again badger Capcom (though less so, since it's an older game) for not only a bad translation, which doesn't even feature question marks; but something I didn't think I'd have to worry about: the slow text speed! Seriously, if it takes 7 seconds for one dialogue box to fill up, you know you have a problem. There are plenty of people to talk to, but I soon got so sick of reading the text that I only talked to something if a ABSOLUTELY had to. Fortunately, although the text still had me wondering what my next step should be, this problem is less poignant in this more action-based title, which generally consists of ''Go to this place on the world map, then beat the level on the side-scrolling map.'' Still it shouldn't take me 70 seconds to get a password and leave the room.

When the action finally does get started, it's usually well worth the wait. Firebrand (the gargoyle that you play) utilizes some gameplay techniques that simply don't appear in other games. Sure, we've seen weapon switching and projectiles in the Megaman series (also by Capcom), but this one ups the ante with the flying/hovering and climbing factors. You see, because our dear Firebrand has wings, he can suspend his height to make larger leaps, and because he has claws, he can hang on to walls with no trouble. Unfortunately, with all these sweet moves, the challenge had to be bumped up also. Believe me, it was. They have plenty of the ''inescapable death'' parts, when for instance jumping off a wall would make you jump right into some spikes on the ceiling. What a pain. Still, it's this tear-jerking difficulty that we love about Capcom.

While I won't say the graphics are SNES quality, there's certainly plenty to look at. Firebrand looks just like he did in the prerequisite series, and there is plenty of detail (at the expense of some reused sprites) to go around. Also, even on the original Game Boy system, you should have little trouble seeing what's going on.

So, to know if you should try this game, ask both how well you can deal with frustration and how long you're willing to wait to play a really good game.

(Scores based on a 1-10 scale)
Concept
Try a new storyline with a twist for once.
8.5
Graphics
Very detailed considering the system and the age.
9
Sound
No complaints here. some of the tunes are actually catchy.
8.25
Playability
Very frustrating, but that's why you're playing it.
9.5
Entertainment
Very worth playing, but long text pauses and a poor translation are more frustrating than the play itself.
7.25
Overall
8.5 (rounded down to 8 for GameFAQs.com)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/02, Updated 08/21/02