Sword of Hope

""What have you done? It hurts me!""

You can tell just by hearing the name that this is going to be your typical and cliché RPG full of the same skeletons, ogres, goblins, and bats as ever other RPG... Sword of Hope. You'd probably think off hand that some princess needs to be saved in some far away kingdom ruled by an evil mage/dragon/sorceress/king/queen/diva/network exec. While that's not exactly right, it's not far from the truth. One thing that many gamers, new and old, must keep in mind is that most RPG's around the time of Sword of Hope's creation followed the about the same formulaic design, like a lot of today's popular music. Give us a hero of legend, have him find a powerful weapon, pit him against some evil being(s) of sorts, he restores the kingdom, everyone is happy, the end. This game, developed by Kemco, is yet another attempt by them to make another superlative RPG that turns out just about average (see also: Legend of the Ghost Lion).

Once upon a time, there was a king who was corrupted by an evil dragon- See! Told ya'! Told ya'! It's always some evil being behind all this. Anyway, the king likewise becomes evil. OOO! A slight schism from the formula. We now have two evil beings! Whether or not it was the dragon's sly charm or his hot body that convinced the king to become evil is not fully known. However, a prophecy has risen that a chosen man will find the Sword of Hope and defeat the evil dragon, thereby restoring the kingdom. As it turns out, the main character just so happens to be the chosen one. ''Why couldn't I have chosen to be a farmer... or a porn star?,'' the young man asked himself. He now begins his mission for the search of the legendary Sword of Hope... For being such a powerful sword, you think they could have come up with a more original and elating name. I suppose it's better than Staff of Good Stuff or Dagger of Empathy.

So, the young man sets off on his quest to find the Sword of Hope. Oddly enough, he can only move one frame at a time (a la Shadowgate). While this does capture the Shadowgate feeling, it can become incredibly annoying to have to advance the game picture by picture. Looking at the arrows on the bottom of the screen tells you which way you can go. Black dots will appear near the arrows, symbolizing enemies. Enemies...? You mean, this is like Shadowgate with a battle system? Yep, pretty much. Except it's really not a battle system worth snorting a line and crying for. Simply put, each battle should only last a few turns; Either you die or the enemy dies (or you run away like scared sissy girl). After a while, the battles become almost effortless. Then, out of nowhere, the difficulty takes a huge slope. The battles become almost effortless for the enemies. At this point, Kemco throws in the same element that made Legend of the Ghost Lion almost completely uninteresting. You have to rely almost solely on magic to win battles. Sure, you do eventually gain levels and get better weapons, but by the time you do and you can actually kill the new enemies by fighting, it's already time to move on to the next area and get obliterated by the enemies there. Thus, the cycle repeats itself.

However, this does serve as both gift and curse for the game. On one hand, lesser battles become so pathetic that you can win them without even noticing you were in the battle. The battles flow so quickly that you do not have to wait an incredibly long time for it to end. As such, you build experience fast and gain levels fairly easily. On the other hands, this makes the game almost uninteresting and boring to some degrees. The only way it can challenge you is by immersing you in ridiculous and difficult battles. You may think that boss battles can't be that bad. Honestly, once you know a boss's weakness or you attain a high enough level, you can pretty much walk all over the bosses, even the final boss. Usually, whenever something thinks of an RPG boss, they think that there will be a tough strategy forcing you to make some critical decisions and critical timing. Not here. If you're not beating a boss, simply raise your level a bit. All the bosses pretty much fight the same. When playing through my first time, I was able to kill the second to the last boss with two hits and the final boss with maybe 4 or 5 hits. All it takes is hit, heal, hit, heal and the deed is done.

The only other thing that battles could have used would have been better enemy designs than the typical ones depicted here in the game. Yes, you had some decent looking ones, like the centipedes, but look at the goblins or the bats, or even the skeletons. Oh my, it's just a flaming skull! Anything that you think could have looked ferocious or just plain mean looks dinky and dopy. Grand example, the cyclops, which you would think you be a bulky, muscular menace. Rather, it's all skinny and bony. Am I fighting a cyclops or Fiona Apple? Another one, the ape, looks like a cross between a cartoon bull and one of the bosses from Dragon Power. Now, this is not to say that all the designs are totally ill-created. It's just that many of the designs could have been done much better.

The game is not all about fighting, though. You see, the environment is set up just like Shadowgate. Sadly, there are no pools you can throw yourself into and melt or not items you can just thrust into you chest like SG. Each screen is developed with exquisite clarity (as far as Gameboy goes). Unlike Shadowgate, you won't have to pick out minuscule objects out of the tiniest pixels. The only unfortunate thing is that the game does not require you to think as much as you would in Shadowgate, at least not as logically. There does not seem to be much of a logical flow of puzzles or events in the game. They do throw you some clues here and there, but you are left to guess quite a bit of the game. This can extend the length a little, but it can also create a bit of unnecessary frustration.

What RPG is complete without spells? This one gives you a rather odd spell system. It seems certain first level spells have a certain probability of hitting you as well as the enemy. However, second level spells only hit the enemy and strangely cost the same amount of MP. So the question is what good is keeping the older spell around? Why not just delete that spell once you gain the newer one? They would save a lot of space in the spell menu if they would just cut out a few unnecessary spells once the infinitely improved ones arrive.

This game has all the marks of a Kemco game, no doubt. One of them, probably the most distinguishable trait, has to be the music. Kemco rendered some of the best and most basic music for NES, and they continue the trend of simplistic, yet well rendered music here in Sword of Hope. Each of the music selections in the soundtrack has a very bright and mythical sound to it. The battle music, for example, brings out the best feeling of a heated battle (the best you can for Gameboy, that is). Unlike a lot of game music today, however, this is not the type that would be neat to download, much less to burn and bump in car CD player. I'd actually like to see someone play something from this in their CD player and try to get a girl's attention. ''Hey girl! You fine! Guess what I'm listening to... That's right! The battle music from Sword of Hope! I'm the only one freakin' this!''

Disclaimer: As you can tell, BG does not get many women.

Kemco gave an honest attempt at trying to be one of the greatest RPG companies. However, their stiff competition in the form of Square and Enix (now strangely one company) was too much for them. Sadly, Kemco could never produce that hit RPG that made everyone talk for decades. Instead, they always made the average, b-level RPG's like Sword of Hope. However, that's what happens when you produce just average elements. The battle system, moving around, the storyline, monster concepts... They're all something you can play in just about any other game, many of which you can just easily download (as in abandonware games, not ROMs).

The only who would really get a kick out of this are those who can enjoy old school RPG's. This one can give you a great thrill just for it's horrible dialogue (the dialogue with Martel is priceless). Any of those who are only cultured towards the newest RPG's with stunning graphics, elaborate and twisty plots, flashy 10 minute CG scenes, just as flashy spells and summons, and the like may not enjoy this game as easily. Not to discriminate, but this just does not seem like the type of game that would wow any casual gamers.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Well drawn environments, boring looking monsters (for the most part) 6/10
Sounds: Classic Kemco sound 9/10
Controls: There really is not much to control, just menus and such 10/10
Plot/Storyline: It's not save the maiden, but it really isn't that interesting either 5/10
Gameplay: Has its ups and downs. The battle system's high speed can make the game seem a bit too easy (lack of strategy), however, you fly through tedious battles all the quicker. 7/10
All Together: 7/10

Perks
*Environmentals...!
*A hint of Shadowgate
*Tedious battles go by quickly
*Superlative audio
*Bad dialogue (as in fun to laugh at)

Downers
*Bad dialogue (as in makes you want to say, ''Oy, vey...''
*Lack of strategy in battle system
*Magic system needs a bit more thought

Recommendations
Hardcore and old school RPG'ers only. If you're searching for a good Kemco game, I'd say go with Shadowgate or Tombs and Treasure, as both of those are much better than this (even though this still has a better battle system than Tombs and Treasure).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/20/03, Updated 05/20/03