Presented in Retrovision: Legend of the Ghost Lion
Like most childhood memories, some things are just not quite as great as you remember them. Television shows and games sometimes tarnish over time, and looking back, there is a sense of wonder in what you were thinking. I have had a number of these realizations, like Thundercats and Rainbow Bright. This week I decided to reflect on a game that I loved when I was growing up, but in hindsight, it is not the blockbuster that I had once thought it was. This week I present you to Kemco's Legend of the Ghost Lion.
Much like my previous retrospective on Bubble Bobble, this recollection begins with a weekly trip to the rental store. Browsing the shelves eventually lead me to find what, at the time, was an intriguing title, Legend of the Ghost Lion. Amazingly, for the early 90s the cover of the game did not seem out of place. The busty girl with permed hair, wearing a loose tank and a blue tube top/brazer was essentially the standard dress for the time. Flipping it over, I discovered that it was actually a role playing game. I had only been able to experience RPGs passively through my brother, because he was not generous enough to let me play his copy of Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. I immediately paid the rental fee and made my way to my parent's car.
Interestingly enough, Legend of the Ghost Lion had little to do with the cover. The endowed, stereotypical 80s hair metal devotee was replaced with a more demure, traditional girl named Maria. The only real similarity between the cover and the game itself was the presence of a heroine and the white lion. The game opens with the curly-haired heroine showing off to her parents on a trip to research the ghost lion. The ghost lion is a mythical beast that is said to have once destroyed their village, killing most of the inhabitants. A young boy named Moja, wielding a spear, chased and killed the lion.
Unfortunately for Maria, her parents did not return. Picking up the spear of Moja, she ventures off on a quest to find her estranged family. The game itself begins in a rather uncomplicated dungeon, which is more-or-less just a tutorial area to let you get used the feel of the game. It is only after falling off a collapsing bridge does the story truly begin.
Maria awakens in a spring populated by fairies. This would became a common occurrence and reoccurring theme, as "fairy springs" would act as the save points, rest spots and general delta hubs of the world. From this point on, the game is essentially on par with other RPGs of the time: Overhead world maps, tile-based dungeons with random battles and treasures scattered about. Graphically speaking, the game was rather drab. The music and sound effects are reminiscent of Shadowgate, even though the games were developed independently of each other by an entirely different staff. The game would only get interesting in it's play mechanics.
Initially, the game is simple. So simple in fact, that the game almost seems like it was designed for a much younger audience. This is actually one of the primary complaints from most players, who quickly get discouraged and drop out prematurely. Maria does not gain levels by mindlessly grinding through battles, in fact, this almost works to your disadvantage. You gain experience by finding "Fragments of Hope," which are essentially a level up in a chest. Most of the statistics follow a similar theme of slightly beatnik names, health is "courage," magic is "dreams" and player level being "hope." These weird names further cement most opinions that the game is childish.
The game continues to break the mold by relying heavily on item usage in battles. Rather than equipping armaments, you use a weapon as an item during a battle. Armor (of which there are only two pieces in the game) must be used at the beginning of every battle to remain effective. Maria begins each battle alone and must summon various allies to battle by using dreams and a respective totem. Moja's spear, a genie's lamp, crystals and the like all produce an assistant which can either attack, protect or cast spells. The allies are summoned with full health, making them effective damage sinks and can be re-summoned no matter how often they are defeated. The only real disadvantage to summons are their tendency toward self-nullification. Each action reduces their energy, as well as taking damage. Once they are out of energy, they leave the battlefield as must be re-summoned. Summoning also steals valuable time away from Maria which can be used to consume bread (the only HP restorative item in the game) or to use equipment.
By the time you've gathered enough totems to summon six characters, the difficulty curve has reached almost a critical point. Maria is almost constantly feeding new people into battle in an attempt to stifle the constant barrage of damage being thrown at her from spells and corporal abuse through random attacks. Only being able to hold 32 items, including equipment, key items and totems, Maria's inventory can usually only hold enough bread to bring her back up to full health once, maybe twice, and with no restorative spells to speak of, the challenge quickly ramps up. The game, however, is very short by RPG standards. This is most likely for the better, as the frequency of battles almost reaches the point of absurdity, and making the game any more challenging would drive a normal person batty. Playing the game at triple speed, I managed to clear approximately 75% of the game in about 2 hours.
I'm not going to say this is the greatest game ever created, it is far from it. Legend of the Ghost Lion happens to be one of the more quirky RPGs I've played, and it is one of those many things that I loved when I was young but failed to age well. It is a good game to play through once, simply to experience the play mechanics, but I'm not going to suggest that anyone rush out and buy it new in box. During the course of the week I had this game rented, my parents had apparently discovered my interest. Later that Christmas, I received a new copy of Legend of the Ghost Lion in my stocking. It, amusingly, is one of the few NES games I still own from my childhood, full-size poster of the cover and all.
Side note: I'm not sure about this, but the game also appears to be very loosely based on a 1988 film titled: Piramiddo no kanata ni: White Lion Densetsu. The movie features a young blond girl's trek across the Egyptian desert with a young Egyptian boy with a spear (the cover is a fantastic picture of a glowing white lion silhouette). The Japanese release of this game was simply titled "White Lion Densetsu". While I cannot speak of this conclusively, I have not seen the film, the game appears to share several similar traits and could quite potentially be a licensed title. If you can conclusively confirm or deny this, please send me an e-mail or post a comment here.
Asterick
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 31 January 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: Best Cover Art Ever, Kemco, Legend of the Ghost Lion, Mostly Average, Presented in Retrovision, RPG
That box art is both the visual definition of epic and awesome.
I can't believe that hair/clothing like that was at one point considered cool. Like the mullet, it completely blows my mind that people would willingly do that to themselves.
Oh trust me, one day you will look back at at those myspace pics that people take and think, "my god what were we thinking." Meanwhile I shall keep my Hypercolor t-shirts and my acid washed parachute pants clean and pressed, ready to be worn the moment they come back in style. :)
::sniffle:: Asterick, you're the first person I've even virtually met who has even heard of this game. I agree with you on "back in the day this felt so amazing", but I will give it more props than you did for battle mechanics because it's a battle style I cannot recall ever being replicated (but you're right on how it did not age as well as others).