This certainly seems like an RPG of its time.
It's got the typical 8-bit graphics that were still fairly common in the late 80s, and the menus look a lot like the ones in the first Dragon Quest/Warrior game, and possibly the first couple sequels on the NES. It's also a bit sparse on hints and clues as to where you need to go and what to do, which was also common at the time. I'll get into that more in a bit, though. I'd better start off with the basic backstory and that fun stuff first.
When we start a new game, we're prompted to name four characters: the hero, which I named Jesse, after myself, as I often do; a girl and a boy I named Ashley and Wendell, respectively, after some neighborhood kids I grew up with; and another boy I named Biff, after Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future movies because that's kind of who he looks like. After that, the game asks for our favorite food, so I went with pancakes, because they are one of my favorites. That factors in later.
Before we get to the game itself, we're given a little backstory about this weird shadow falling over a small town in the early 1900s, which caused a married couple named George and Maria to vanish, only for George to show back alone some time later and start doing what I've heard referred to as hee-hoo inadvisable science. Maria's fate is unclear beyond that she just never came back from wherever she and George disappeared to.
From there, we flash forward to sometime in the 1980s, where we see the hero, Jesse, in his bedroom a minute before things get weird and he has to fistfight his table lamp. From there, the hero goes to check on his two sisters, one of whom needs to be rescued from her table lamp, while the other is being chased around by her doll. Once we kick the doll's ass, that sister tells us to check it out to see what's going on. It's got a music box in it, and Jesse memorizes the tune. After that, that sister starts giving us orange juice to drink. It's a healing item that restores ten health. Not sure if there's a limit other than inventory space.
Once everything upstairs is taken care of, it's time for a trip to the main floor of the house we're in. Our mom is down there, worried about what's going on because our dad is gone for a reason I'm not sure is ever stated, at least not yet. We can get him on the phone, which is how we save the game. It's also how we get money, which seems linked to the fights we're in, which is another thing I'll get to in a bit.
What we need to do from there is get into the basement to find a plastic bat, some bread, and something from our great grandfather's journal. It may be because I was playing a little late at night, but I can't recall if we were told that's where we need to go or not. Turns out the basement door's locked, and I didn't find any clues as to where the key was this time. I knew it was on the dog outside the house because I'd played a bit of the game awhile back. I'm not sure I'd have figured that out otherwise.
From there we need to go to town, and I'm not sure there are any clues about that either. On the way, there's a lady who says she's looking for somebody named Pippi and we should talk to the mayor about that.
There's also random battles along the way, with stray dogs, centipedes, and some dude called Wally this time around. I'm not sure I get this game, to be honest.
When we get to town, there's people telling us about zombies and to avoid the cemetary to the south. There's also zombies in town that we have to fight if we're not careful.
Eventaully, we find the mayor in the town hall. He says there's a child lost in that cemetary people were warning us about and he wants us to go save him because it's an election year and he wants to look good. Sounds about right.
There's some interesting mechanics in this game, but I'll try to get to those next time, as it's getting late and I should wrap this up. Luckily, there was a save point in the hospital nearby that I took advantage of, so I'll see you soon. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.
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