 |
I had planned to use this color palette,
but forgot when it came time to play |
Game 72
Title:
Ninja Boy 2
Released:
April 1993 (November 1991 JPN)
Platform:
Game Boy
Developer:
Culture Brain
Publisher:
Culture Brain
Genre:
Action RPG
Exploration -
Top-down
Combat -
Action (turn-based bosses)
Series -
Super Chinese (Japanese name)
 |
| So, we're stuck with the default colors of the Game Boy Player |
Released as the second action RPG of the series in Japan, from all I can tell the localization on this made it the third in the US. Even so, it's difficult to place them along a timeline. There's no indication other than the NES title being the first. The story began after the boys have been away from Chinaland for a few months. On board their starship with their friends, they were attacked and need to abandon ship.
 |
| I don't remember them going off to travel in space |
Warriors of the Galaxy attacked the ship. Jack and Ryu escaped in a life pod that crash landed on an unfamiliar planet. All of their friends missing, assumed dispersed around the galaxy, Jack and Ryu set off to find them. They also took some time to blame the Galands for their current situation. Prior to starting the game, there's a difficulty option of normal (default), easy, and hard. Whenever I start a new game, I usually go for the default option unless I know that'll prove too simple.
 |
| *Plop* |
Strangely without gear, and luckily a small amount of gold, I made my way to the first town of Sandstar. All of the parents were kidnapped by the Galands to work in Egymid, the capital city.
 |
| Some blatant advertisement |
 |
| and additional marketing |
This game follows Super Ninja Boy in nearly every mechanical way. Random battles pepper dungeons and overworld exploration. These battles are all action based where Jack (or Ryu) can punch, jump, and even swing a sword once one is acquired. There are no more than two enemies spawned at a time, and each battle ends as soon as a set number are defeated. Throughout the adventure they collect different kinds of magic throwing stars and other abilities that consume ninja power (NP).
 |
| Some special NPCs have a close-up view when speaking |
The escape-leaf magic helped to cut down on the number of random encounters when I failed to flee, and there were many. The encounter rate is a bit high, and after the first dungeon my standard response was to run, fight when I couldn't, and use the escape leaf when winning wasn't worth it. I met with a resistance movement (there always seems to be one, and always open to new membership). They provided a bomb that I used to open up the tomb where the Libra Ring rested, the first of seven treasures (to collect and hand over to the big bad guy eventually I'm sure).
 |
| Some indication of the timeline -- Blu Boltar makes an appearance as leader of the resistance and references the battle in Chinaland |
I rented a camel, and made my way west to a warp zone that had just been repaired. The next area was Dinostar, which had its own issues. It was on this trip that I realized I picked up the Vitalizer magic that restores HP, but I'm not sure when or where. In the capital city, White Castle, I met Ragyu who gave me a Bonzebot. This along with the capsules purchased at the store remain a mystery--whenever I tried to use them I received a message saying it wasn't the time to do that. Emperor Tyranno directed me south to retrieve the Orion Ring from Sanjo Castle; strangely it lacked a boss fight.
 |
| Seriously, it was just sitting there behind a door |
With the ring in hand, we had apparently defeated enough of the Galands to open up the interstellar train line that allowed the boys to reach Mecha Colony. This world was being forced to create weapons for the Gallands. Freeing them, and Dr. Justice, rewarded Jack and Ryu with a spaceship.
 |
| Translation errors are always fun to point out, but I can't be too choosy about space transportation |
Every town has an inn where it's free to rest, an item shop to purchase healing items and equipment, and a convenience store to find out the password and switch to two-player mode. The NPCs there offer a nice variety of hints and levity. Most have a building where the more important plot triggering characters reside. Dr. Justice took up residence in one of those while the party ventured further to destroy the Dreadstar weapon, and retrieved the Aries Ring (again without a boss fight).
 |
| In a few dungeons the battles occur in tight corridors |
The next planet (which is a bit of misnomer, as the view from my spaceboat shows them as disc shaped) was Fantaland. There I learned the secret to riding dragons from a dragon knight, and faced off against the evil Robo Doc. Only the second boss (although fourth treasure), and I hit a wall. Apparently I had been escaping from a bit too many battles, as I found myself under-leveled. Dying is a small set back of half gold and reviving at the last convenience store. With no other options to explore, I needed to grind. One battle in particular helped offset my experience deficit. The normal enemies in this encounter were slow, and shot fire, but if I waited long enough a dragon appeared worth 6 times as much experience as the entire battle would normally award. They also didn't count towards the kill total, so I could consistently grind on them alone.
 |
| Capable of doing half current health, and going first is a bad combination |
With just two more levels ahead of that first loss, the defense boost reduced the damage by 1/3. Such a dramatic change was unexpected, and the battle at that point was like all previous ones, easy. Boss combat is much different from the action battles. I get to choose Jack's actions, and Ryu randomly selects from bout or sword strikes (had I a second player connected with the Game Boy Link Cable, we could use that ninja power pool that goes to waste). Bout randomly punches, jumps, or kicks. Kicks tend to be weaker, while jumps and punches cause about as much as sword strikes. Sword use is hidden under Items, and with 6 M bubbles collected during normal battles I can summon the Might Ball under Magic, which is disappointing in this game. I'm not even sure what the Run command would do, I never attempted it.
 |
| Robo Doc enters his second form, which acts exactly like the first form |
Magic might be a bit more interesting if it weren't too costly except for the healing spell. Defeating Robo Doc rewarded us with an antidote, which I used on the kingdom to restore their sanity. The princess rewarded the party with the Virgo Ring. The king allowed us passage to Wood Planet. It makes me wonder what prevented me from it at all.
 |
| Traveling to the "planet" Wood |
The main town on Wood was Beatle, and I expecting some kind of Ringo joke, but I think it actually might have just been a spelling mistake. I picked up Magidoor (exit dungeon) and Magiport (warp to last starport) spells, which made backtracking on a single planet much quicker. Wood had an impossible forest maze that required a guide. The current guide had grown too old to travel, so I received an egg of a creature that could show me the way. We hatched it thanks to Dr. Justice's incubator, and it showed us through the forest in a short cutscene.
 |
| The magic password for getting through the lost forest |
On the other side, we contended with the Galands that had taken up residence within King Wood, a giant tree. We received the Capri Ring, and nothing else. This time, strangely, there was no direction to the next location. It was simple enough to find, as I traveled the mostly linear space path to find planet Water World. Flotown is an underwater town that required I visit Dr. Justice once more for a submarine.
 |
| There is also the only gambling establishment in the game, but I was never hurting for money |
The game dumped a bit more plot than normal as it told me of Fort Mars where another resistance movement, led by someone named Sanada, was battling against Ninja Master Puma with the stealth six. This has nothing to do with the current planet. To get the Quasi Ring I had to visit a fortune teller in order to learn I had to backtrack to Dinostar to get Ragyu, return to King Wood for some reason, and finally plug the hole on Water World that's slowly draining the water. Why are the Galands doing this? It's never discussed; they're just bad.
 |
| She also gave me the errand bot, which gave me access to purchase healing items from anywhere |
Ragyu helped pull out a cork tree, and plugged the hole with it. Someone in town passed on the Quasi Ring as a reward. The fortune teller congratulated me, but didn't walk me through the rest of the game. So, I headed further along the path to find Fort Mars.
 |
| Nearly caught up in the battle -- I wasn't hit, so I'm not sure what happens; maybe I should experiment a bit more for this blog |
The solar cannon firing from Fort Mars once again required me to consult Dr. Justice for the solution. Outfitting the spaceboat with a radar deflecting material prevented the cannon from firing. I'm not sure how I feel about the short back and forth "quests" involving Dr. Justice, which don't require anything more than visiting him. At least they're short, but at the same time he acts as a Dues Ex Machina with all the answers, stepping in to solve nearly every obstacle by his mere presence.
 |
| I found a shrine in the bottom left corner, and it's apparently somewhere I have to visit later |
With a short trip to Dr. Justice out of the way, we're back in the game fighting our way through the Stealth Six. This set of six bosses (all action based) are some of the hardest or longest fought battles. Luckily they don't have to be defeated back-to-back. At end of the spiral space station we destroyed the solar cannon, and retrieved the Leo Ring. We tracked Puma to the King's Planet, which I missed somehow on my first pass of the surrounding area of Fort Mars. Upon entering the prince's hut in Bunnme on King's Planet we found Puma holding him hostage.
 |
| Guess what he wanted in exchange for the prince's safety |
He locked up Jack and Ryu before heading out with the treasures. A bunch of their friends showed up after an indeterminate amount of time to set them free, and move the story along with some additional plot. Apparently there's supposed to be a slate in that bottom left corner temple that details the whole point of the treasure: to control the stars. I returned to Dr. Justice to better understand what that meant, but he only gave me another flying machine capable of entering the sun. There I faced off against Puma in a real turn-based battle, and trounced him. With rings back in hand we could finally control the comet that allowed us to cross some space dust to the final battle.
 |
| That is the Apollo Temple, and the comet I couldn't take control of until now |
All that remained was the final battle. The final dungeon didn't offer much challenge, but General Lion was something else. It all came down to getting lucky as even when I grinded a few levels I didn't seem to do any more damage or take any less. With some lucky shield placements, and a lot of dodging, I won. In the end, General Lion escaped, vowing he'll get us next time, and all the friends flew back to Chinaland as if this was just another wacky adventure where nothing actually mattered.
Elapsed Time: 8
h14
m (
Final Time: 8
h14
m)
 |
| Don't you mean spaceboat? |
Combatant - Out of all the Ninja Boy/Chinaland games, the combat here is by far the most streamlined. It's challenging while not overwhelming so, with random battles' encounter rate on the high side, but enough options to escape that it's not terribly obtrusive. Rewards aren't well balanced; grinding later levels takes quite a while as the combats take much longer. The variety in enemies and their attack patterns keep combat fresh through most of the game. It's too bad many of the special attacks are worse than just using the sword, or don't function at all.
Rating:
6
 |
| If only... this would be a couple hours shorter if that were the case |
Admirer - I doubt we'll ever see a Game Boy game where the player character changes in appearance or have much of any customization. Here there's none. It's always the same Jack and Ryu with the same abilities. In fact, it's actually only Jack since Ryu is only playable by a second player. The controls are solid throughout the whole game, without any slowdown during the active battles.
Rating:
3
 |
| Seems we have at least one admirer |
Puzzler - The main quest is well laid out, but there's a definite lack of side quests. The mini-games are missing compared to past titles. There aren't any puzzles really. That one gambling game is rather useless as money is so generously rewarded.
Rating:
2
 |
| Until next time... |
Instigator - The story is quirky and lighthearted. Plenty of on topic NPCs keep it moving. There aren't many descriptions or lore though, and most of the names are descriptive rather than speaking to some deep history. These really aren't deep games.
Rating:
2
 |
| This is confusing, do you mean I'll win again? |
Collector - Items available are either consumable or equipment to obsolete previous purchases. There's not a whole lot to find. Money isn't a problem; usually I purchased everything available upon entering a new town. I still don't know what the capsules are for, but I bought 8 of them just in case.
Rating:
4
 |
| Credit where it's due |
Explorer - The area covered, with all planets, overworld, and dungeons, borders on the side of excessive. Each individual place doesn't feel too large, and most are linear. Every place found is used for the main quest though, so there's no reason to explore unless directed as there's nothing to find early or extra.
Rating:
3
 |
| Actually, with a team of six this game is a little more impressive |
Final Rating:
20 [33%]
Tying with the previous title in the series is probably on point, although I had more fun with this. The battle system was a more fluid, but the story and puzzles suffered a bit. Some obvious places to put boss fights were left unfinished, and I'm not sure why so many rings were simply found at the end of dungeons. Overall it was fun, but it's nowhere near a standout title, and as the last Culture Brain RPG we'll see here it's unfortunate they didn't go out with more of a bang.
Next up we'll see how Dungeon Explorer II doesn't add enough elements to trick me into playing it this time, followed by Dungeon Master. This'll be my first experience with the title, having played Eye of the Beholder some time ago as the only similar style of play. It'll be nice to get back into some graph paper mapping.
 |
| Until next post... |
