Game 17: Destiny of an Emperor (NES) - Building an Army

Game 17

Title: Destiny of an Emperor
Released: September 1990 (May 15, 1989 JP)
Platform: NES
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: RPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn-Based (Random order)
Series - Destiny of an Emperor (sequel only released in Japan)

Well, based on a true story maybe

Capcom has now (in eyes of a US consumer) entered the realm of a turn-based RPG developer. While known for Mega Man at the time, Capcom had at least one champion for the genre. It's interesting that Destiny of an Emperor was released in Japan before Willow, but took an extra year for the translation to come out here.

A brief background for some characters are displayed while the game waits to start

There are a few games in the genre developed by Capcom that never made it to North America. It's hard to say what enabled some games to make it to the states while others were left without an official translation. The sequel to this game was one such title. Another is Sweet Home, which is considered a precursor to Biohazard (i.e. Resident Evil). Still a third example is El Dorado Gate: a seven part episodic game released for the Dreamcast. But, I digress.

I believe these are the guys we'll fight

Destiny of an Emperor is based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. My limited knowledge of this time period or the novel is through my exposure to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms video game series released by Koei. Even then, the story was rarely a sticking point as these were mainly strategy games. I remember some of the names, but this is mostly all new for me.

Their oath: "...[we will all die at the same time]"

The game opens with Liu Bei,  Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei coming together to form a bond of undying loyalty. As described by Liu Bei's mother, the local area is plagued by rebels called the Yellow Scarves. They've been terrorizing the people, and our sworn oath behooves us to quell this rebellion for the glory of the Han Dynasty of which Liu Bei is a direct descendant.

*Plop*

So, we set off from the comfort of home to unite the people and restore the glory of the Han. I'm already a bit overwhelmed. I have three party members with a combined force of 500 soldiers and zero food or gold. How in the world am I going to make it through the day?

I'm not sure what I was expecting

Thankfully I ran into Zhang Shi Ping: a horse merchant who believed so much in my cause that he donated a portion of his wealth. Well thank goodness for that. I now had a food supply so my soldiers wouldn't desert me. Outside Cui Zhou Ping's house (he's never home) I picked up Song Ren and Song Yong. I'm guessing they're brothers.

No relation?

I set off west towards Xu Zhou, the of castle of Tao Qian (the regent to the area). I arrived without incident. At some point I found my equipment, equipped it, and set Liu Bei as strategist since he seemed most qualified. Those who've played this before probably already know where this led.

Did towns really have an announcer or could they not afford a sign?

At Xu Zhou I learned that the castle to the north, Qing Zhou, was held by Zhang Liang and his Yellow Scarves. I also picked up Mi Zhe, doubling my starting force. The game uses a record keeper for saving progress, an inn to regain health (soldiers), and separate shops for equipment, items, and food.

How have all these people heard of me already?

Each general (or warlord as your preference) has set equipment that increases the attack or defense power for their units. There doesn't seem to be any limitation to what weapon, headgear, or armor any one general can use. From what I can tell, food decreases by one unit per step on the over-world and in dungeons (luckily this doesn't happen in town). Running out of food causes soldiers to desert (similar to being poisoned in other games).

Beginning my quest with Liu Bei as strategist (i.e. a bad move)

Tao Qian, leader of this castle, declared that having no heir he would bestow the right of succession upon me should I succeed in ridding the land of the Yellow Scarves. Not trusting my current ability to take down the Zhang Liang, I headed further west along the road and found a small encampment. "Must be a small village," I thought to myself.

This seems like a friendly place; just look at that welcoming spiked fence

Well, I was wrong. Apparently there are three Zhang brothers leading the Yellow Scarves. One was camped to the west, and another to the south. I thought it was strange to have a scripted fight so soon, but maybe I could pull it off.

Maybe I have a chance...

Yeah, not really

I really never had a hope. I set myself up to fail from the very moment I put Liu Bei in the strategist spot. Not very well explained in the manual, appointing one general as the strategist allows the army to utilize the tactics known by that individual; however, their army never enters the battle. Instead of participating directly, their tactics (which I currently had zero of) are available to any of the generals fighting. There are only five generals allowed in any one battle.

Look at all those tactics

After this blunder I set Song Ren as strategist, and he's worked out quite well. I grinded up a few levels, ensured my food levels were stable (I seemed to use about 200 by the time I could afford the minimum purchase of 300), and attempted to face off against Bao again. This time went much better.

First tactic learned: fire

I noticed during random encounters that I ran into other named generals every so often, Yellow Scarves I presume. Cheng Yuan Zhi, Zheng Mao, and Han Zhong (Han! fighting for the Yellow Scarves?) were either in the area or fought on the side of the Zhangs as I faced them in their strongholds. Defeating them didn't seem to result in their death. I guess they managed to retreat.

Some foreshadowing

To the south was the fortress Tie Men Xia, where I easily defeated the next Zhang brother, Jao. I think I got lucky in this fight as Jao focused on using his tactics rather than attacking my army. Liu Bei with his 300+ force also managed to take the brunt of the damage. I had the healing tactic by this point, which kept my damage potential up as well.

These look like generals I get to recruit

In addition to attack, magic (tactics), and defense, battle options include items (each general has their own items), all-out (which is an auto-battle and about as smart about it as expected), retreat (doesn't seem to work at set battles), and report (this gives full stats for enemy generals). I received a helpful hint from Unfy (a Twitch stream viewer) that soldier strength increases every power of 10. I've confirmed this is true, as once a unit drops from 100 to 99 they do about half damage, and the same is true for dropping from 10 to 9.

Can't wait to meet these guys

I learned from the people left behind at the fortress of Tie Men Xia that Qing Zhou had a hidden mountain pass behind the castle. One of the Zhang generals, Han Zhong, knew where this pass was, but I needed to find a way to recruit him. I read in the manual that some NPCs when captured could needed a steed to join my forces, so I bought one. I still have it.

Yeah, I had trouble with it as well

I ended up facing off against the three sub-generals in one random battle. At the end I was informed I'd captured Han Zhong. I don't know if this was scripted, or if I needed to defeat him a number of times before capturing him. I was looking forward more to one of the other stronger generals, but even after fighting them many times I haven't received the same dialogue.

Oh, you just want gold? What about this lovely steed?

I added Zhong to the main battle party, kicked Song Yong, and passed on the equipment to the new general. I looked for the secret passage, but didn't find it. Running headlong into the castle I fought against Zhang Liang alone. He was the easiest of the bunch. I think I did this out of order.

I thought the castle would have the hardest battle

After the battle the passageway opened up and I could now clearly see a path in the mountain. Of course, I tested what would happen if I should enter the castle again. This time I faced off against all three brothers.

This went about as well as the first battle against Zhang Bao

Either I could grind some levels, or follow the plot into the side of the mountain. I wonder if the passage wouldn't be there had I not recruited Zhong. I guess I'll use the plot approved route.

That wasn't there before

In the passage was a river blocking my way, and a guard who threatened my life. I pondered how to cross. I was stumped; it was late. I thought maybe I could use the battle tactic for digging trenches since it required me to be near a river to use. I tried to get into a battle near the river, but the game prevented random battles next to the water. It's at this point, late, blocked by water, that I called it a night.

Maybe I could ride his body across...

Sessions Time: 2h42m (Total Time: 2h42m)

Game 4: Willow (NES) - Introduction

Many of these games feel like visiting old friends. I remember the week or two we had rented Willow; having watched--and adored--the movie, I jumped at the chance to play the game. Like many games during my youth, I don't recall with any accuracy if I completed this game. My memory of this is about as good as it is for Ultima: Exodus.

This is a cooler title screen

Willow is based off the film of the same name. The movie was a pet project of George Lucas that took over a decade to come to fruition (conceived in 1972, released in 1988). While it did make a profit, it failed to meet the high expectations a Lucas film had, and the planned trilogy was finished in book form. The story follows Willow Ufgood who finds a baby, tries to give it back to the big people, and gets caught up in a magical adventure.

From this beginning, two games were created by Capcom. An arcade game with side-scrolling action, and the NES a top-down action-RPG. It may be strange to see an RPG coming from a company best known in the US for the Mega Man series at the time, but their RPG legacy had already begun with Destiny of an Emperor (not yet released in the US), this game, and Sweet Home all in the same year. At the start of the year, Capcom had just merged with another company, and started using small development teams to create multiple games targeted at the NES.

There is a PC game, which we'll just ignore; please pay them no attention (I hear they're dismal). The review at hardcoregaming101 is much more detailed, so check it out if you're interested in knowing more.

Actual title screen

While the game was well received, there was no sequel in the cards for Willow. This I suppose may have been a combination of using a license that didn't continue in its original form, and a licensed game even in these early days was a red flag for many potential buyers.

Here's a handy recap of the Willow story from the manual:

It is a time of great turmoil to the world. Bavmorda, a former messenger from the Spirit of the Skies, has turned towards evil. Her plan is to rule the world through her twisted magics. Her force is incredible and her armies are unstoppable. She even dared to transform Fin Raziel, the messenger from the Spirit of the Earth, into a small animal. Bavmorda believes that there is no one that can stop her.


But she had not heard of the tribe of the Nelwyns. There had been a prophecy among these people that one of their tribe would help lead the world out of its darkest hour. The High Aldwyn, the wizard of the Nelwyn tribe, recognized Willow Ufgood as the chosen one. The adventure begins for Willow as he leaves his family and friends and sets out to stop all of the evil that Bavmorda has created.

Magic? I've never head of this before...

Wait... what? What happened to the Willow I know from the movie? No mention of Elora Danan? I tend to agree with with the review linked up that suggests Willow might have been a mostly complete game that only sought to take advantage of the film license by inserting familiar names and graphics. I guess I didn't realize the difference because in my young mind I was playing through Willow instead of watching it.

I don't think there are any games I'm particularly not looking forward to--even some of the bad have an  appeal in understanding where they went wrong--so to avoid repeating myself every introduction, I'll say for the last time that I'm really looking forward to playing this game.

Let's begin

Making the Cut - Part 5 (Strider 1989)

(NES) Strider - Rating(5)
1) 1 - Character advancement: stat or level increases
2) 0 - Combat: none
3) 1 - Items and equipment: item decisions
4) 2 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore
5) 1 - Exploration: visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles: none

I didn't see leveling up connected to fighting enemies or swinging the sword around, and from what I remember it's linked to fighting set encounters and completing missions. The combat doesn't appear to have any stats involved, and I didn't notice any side missions or puzzles.

When I first saw this game on the list I thought to myself, "how in the world could anyone confuse this game with an RPG." All I could remember of the game was "running" around (have you seen this game in action, it's more like walking) and slashing everything. Looking at some videos, I can see how someone could consider it having "RPG elements." Now-a-days it seems any game with an inventory, HP, MP, and a story claims to have RPG elements, but nearly any game can add elements of RPGs without being an RPG.

This is another game I used to play quite a bit. I never actually owned it, but I rented it multiple times. I don't recall if I actualy beat it, but I don't really have a desire to revisit this title, so I'm glad it's getting cut. I'm sure it wouldn't take long to get through, but I'd rather keep the focus tight for now.