Africa is really like this: Let's Play Legend of the Ghost Lion

The Legend of the Ghost Lion

Part 1 - Prelude to Dreamland





Legend of the Ghost Lion was a Dragon Quest clone released in 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Three years after the Japanese release. Why producer and distributer Kemco decided it would do well in America I'll never know. In fact I've never known anyone who owned this game or even seen a copy in real life. Lord knows I probably would have passed it up even if I had. Look at that cover! The Japanese one fares slightly better but Moses there isn't doing it any favors. Some internet sources suggest that the game is based on an animes but I couldn't find anything to back up those claims. If anyone knows the truth pipe up. It'd be nice to know where this strange and unique take on Dragon Quest came from.





The game doesn't specify its setting but we can infer some things from the intro. For example: pyramids.



..."Once upon a time, a great white lion attacked our village. May soldiers tried to subdue it, but to no avail. But one young soldier summoned all his courage, and threw his spear at the lion. The white lion disappeared into a cave at the edge of the village, never to be seen again. We are about to embark on a journey to solve this mystery," said Maria's parents.

Already we've learned a few things: One, Ghost Lion loves improper commas, and two, our main character Maria grew up in some rural village. She certainly doesn't look very village-y. What with her light compextion and blond hair. Her parents don't seem the rural types either. Given pop's pith helmet they're most likely anthropologists or archeologists doing field work who brought their daughter along. And like all nerdy science times they just had to poke their graduated flasks where they didn't belong.



...please wait for us until we return. If you have any problems, go and see the village elders." With that, the parents left. But, they were never heard from again.

What horrible parents. First they up and dragged Maria to darkest Africa and then up and got eaten by lion. They didn't even think of Maria's feelings enough to get eaten by a proper lion. No they had to go and get devoured by a insubstantial one. How embarrassing! And now I've probably got to go and save them. Lame.



...visited the village elders. "You finally decided to start on a journey. This spear holds the spirit of the young soldier. If you call upon the spirit, he will appear and help you. First, you should search for a special lamp. It will protect you." The village elders gave Maria the spear and the wood key. "There is a rumor that the white lion is at the gate of evil. Be careful Maria." Maria left the village elders and went into the cave.

So we head to the cave on the edge of town (which also is down a river riven Maria's parents departure). Armed with nothing but a spear and a key we are well prepared for a spelunking adventure in search of the Gate of Evil.



The same starts with Maria in the cave. How she got in is a mystery as she is trapped in a locked room. Let's pretend that she fell from above a la Final Fantasy III. Yeah, that seems like a enough of a hand wave to move forward.



Here is our inventory goods. We have the spear and wood key that the elders gave us. Maria must think this an afternoon's chore if she didn't even bring any food along for the trip. I guess that makes a bit of sense. It's just a leisurely stroll to the nearby cave to kill a legendary spirit. No need to get overloaded with unnecessary equipment.



Here's Maria's vigor: Hope, Courage, and Dreams. Hope is our current level, courage our HP, and dreams acts like MP. Just like in real life.



We unlock the door and proceed deeper into the Gate of Evil.





What ho? A chest already? Don't mind if I do.



And what a bountiful haul it is. Here's the lamp the elders tasked me to find. Using it doesn't do anything though.



And right away we come to a door that requires the gold key. Very convenient this cave of evil.

What a twist! Oh well you know what the Africans say in situations like this.



And as Maria slips into unconsciousness she dreams...



Of fairies?

...If we had found you later, you would have drowned. If you are going on a journey, please search for this kind of spring. Our friends will increase our courage and magnify our dreams.

By which she means that she'll heal Maria and save our game. These fairy ponds will be our inns and churches for the rest of the game.



...If so, be warned. This is the world of dreams. You can no longer return to the ordinary world.

So... wait? Did they rescue Maria from the river or is this the world of dreams? Can it be both? Or is Maria drowning in the heart of Africa somewhere and her oxygen starved mind has conjured up this world in her final moments? Could this game even pretend to be so sophisticated?



...If you have dreams, many spirits will help you. Hmm... dreams bring spirits. I hope they also don't bring ghosts. Lions.



And so we venture out into the wider world. Giant mushrooms? Yep, we're in FantasyLand� alright.

A bit to the west of the pond is a cave. It's as good a place to start looking for my parents as any...

In a dream world...

At the bottom of a river.



In the cave Maria encounters her first baddie: a generic kobold. I kinda like the monster art for this game. It's retro-terrible-cool in a way. Reminds me of the designs in Guadia Quest or Dark Spire.



The battle system in Ghost Lion is rather unique. First, you don't ever equip items or armor. Remember the first time you played Final Fantasy and you selected the sword in the item menu to attack and were told it does nothing? (No? Must have just been me then.) Well all attacks in Ghost Lion work just like this. As long as you're holding something you can use it. This will allow us to use two weapons without re-equiping them if we ever want to (we won't).



Ha! Dager pokes do 4-6 damage. Not very strong against the various kobolds, skeletons, and zombies that rome FantasyLand�.



The kobold smacks Maria and makes her cry and also a little less brave. Surely there's a better way of fighting than with just a measly dagger.



In addition to using tools Maria also has the call command. Selecting it brings up our spear and lamp. I'll try using the spear first.





It's Moja, the hero who defeated the Ghost Lion the first time around. By sacrificing her dreams Maria can summon the spirits of various things to fight with her. How progressive for an NES title. Summoning takes a turn but spirits can act the first turn they're summoned. They are ruled by "Power." Both getting hit and attacking uses Power and when it runs out they disappear. They can be summoned back though, assuming Maria has enough dreams.

Moja doesn't have any skills but he can hit hard. He fells the kobold in one hit. I know I'd cross to the other side if I saw him walking down the street.



*wink*

However, the battle didn't net me any experience. Just rubies. Oh well. I'll take precious gems any day.

A little further into the cave and we find this jolly scene. Woah! Unique sprites already. Well... I assume they're unique.



...But, a goblin took the stardust from the dais in the cave. Since then, the cave has been closed.

Five minutes in FantasyLand� and we have our first fetch quest.



The only thing left in this cave is a lonely treasure chest. I'm always down for more loot.



What's this? Hope? All you need is hope?



It feels strange to put a number on the amount of hope I have. Courage and dreams fine. But hope? I always thought hope was something you had or didn't.





Level up! That's right. In Ghost Lion you don't level up from fighting baddies but from bits of hope you find lying around.



Moja has also gotten stronger. The lamp's spirit has learned new spells as well. I forgot to summon the lamp's spirit before the hope surge. Let's look at him now:





Twana can't attack but comes with a verity of useful spells. Flash and Dark lower the accuracy of one or a group of monsters respectively. As for the other two?





Twana, you're kinda awesome.

Next time: Gingerbread Towns and Dwarf Dust.

Never heard of this before, but the mechanics look very interesting.

To deliberately attempt to play a Kemco game, one must be very brave. Or very foolish. Which are you, sir?

man, that's the most hair metal coverart i've ever seen.

I love this game.

1) it does the "summons are your main form of damage" character a la FFX, which is one o' my favourites, and the summons aren't your typical monsters or mythical beasts.

2) The renamed character stats that mesh with the world you're in. Hit points? Pfah! When the girl gets hit, she loses courage. And it's the power of dream and imagination that lets you do crazy powers. And I like the idea of finding level-ups in the form of hope. The game never explains what hope is, so you're kinda left to your own devices. Does she find reminders of her parents? Well-wishing notes from the faeries? Who knows! It's cool, anyway.

Minor irritation: she's brunette as an overworld/map sprite, but blonde as a battle sprite. Why you gotta hate on brunettes, Japan?

Anyway, thanks for running this game, Loki! The public expect amusing illustrations to go along with this, by the way, don't think you'll get away with Disney clipart.

The graphics of this game remind me a lot of Guadia Quest (i.e. GQ looks more like this than DQ).

I imagine hope as some kind of crystalline fragment. I'm lame.

I love how Maria is this super blond white girl decked out in the pinkest of pinks. Not the first thing that springs to mind when you think fantasy RPG hero. Thank goodness too, I'm sick as hell of battle panties. Give me a girly girl any day of the week.

"Battle panties" is my new favourite phrase and I'm glad to see it being used so soon in the wild. But the girly girl is subverted! Because while she is a magic user (or.. dreamer.. or something..), she doesn't use a bow and she doesn't use healing magic. Just summons big strong people to defend her.

So.. so.. not that subverted. But maybe a little. At least she's got a lion-killin' spear, with which to tame darkest Africa! (I feel like we're getting back into heavy-symbolism territory here...)

Well one of them's Moses. And there's the D&D races also, along with a couple o' monsters. (I'm not really worried about spoiling the game so much, but I'll let Loki reveal them with wit and verve at the appropriate times)

Licca-chan conquers the Dark Continent with rainbows and kisses.

I like to think that Maria found someone elses discarded hope to level up.

Also; sacrificing dreams to have a big, strong Black Man show up and kill skeletons for you might be the most unusual, yet awesome, game mechanic I've seen in any NES RPG.

I've never heard of this. I know the NES was still very around in '92, but I wouldn't have thought someone would have bothered with an rpg that late in it's lifespan. I mean, except for Dragon Quest I suppose, but that had already firmly established itself in the niche by then.

and lol the boxart

This game is from 92? With that box art?

It's fairly cheap over at the game store around the corner from me. This may deserve a looksie.

I have to say, The Maria battle sprite looks fantastic.

I would buy this game a hundred times over for that cover.

Those commas are totally proper! I don't know what you're talking about.

There's one on the game box. That, or the game's name is GHQST LION.

That's more of a tilde that's been turned on its side than a comma. But now that you mention it, which title is the real one? I've never seen a professionally released game that was so inconsistent about its title.

I can't get over the juxtaposition of the girl on the box art and the pretty, pretty pink princess in the game. I wonder how racist this game was in Japan? Though, thankfully we haven't seen any racist art (ala Black Man in Mega Man powered up) or the stereotype of crazy gun wield black man that pops up over and over

Looks to be fun

So man, am I really the only one who's ever seen this game in the wild? I remember seeing that box art on the rental shelf and having a good laugh. Then I looked at the screens on the back and said, "Yeah... no." It was four years late in coming to the U.S., and looked every inch of that datedness.

Also, much <3 at the immediate propagation of the term "battle panties." I'll know I've truly arrived when someone in Japan creates a Flash game called バトル・パンツ, though.

Oh no, I remember seeing this quite vividly. I didn't bother to look at the back of the box or anything though. I was a youngin' and could still tell this wasn't worth my time.

And now I'm slightly curious. The copy at my game store is 12 bucks, though. I'll just stick with the LP, thanks.

Part 2 - Dwarves and Giants

You would think that along with all the fairies and giant mushrooms that stardust would be lying all over the place. Alas we must seak out a theiving dwarf.



Just north of the fairy pond we find a castle and another cave. With that shard of hope I’m feeling a pretty badass. But I suppose we should follow RPG conventions and explore the castle before doing any spelunking.



I’m going to avoid making any jokes here as they would probably be crusty and stale. Also, I like to imagine that the houses are made out of the finest of sweetbreads. Mmmm.... delicious!



Remember this kids when life has crushed your dreams under the heavy heal of reality. But I'm sure she means that tears will refill our dream catch. I'll keep this in mind for the next time I have one of my uncontrollable sobbing fits.



Speaking of tears this gentleman is selling some right now. Tempting as they are I opt for the club. Bashing heads is better than lightly stabbing them. With any luck there will be a spirit of the club which will either be a big burly man or some sort of playing card.



...at the southern part of the island and reaching the werewolves’ territory, drop by Davis, which has mushrooms.

Lady, have you been outside? There's giant mushrooms everywhere. Saying that Davis is special because of the mushrooms is like saying that Bread is special because it has air and not the fact that its buildings are made out of hearts and brains.



That's not a bad price for sea passage but I’m not ready to take a trip. There’s a whole continent to explore yet.



...could you give me some of the bread that makes one brave?

Even if I did have any bread I'm not sure I would give it to you, lady.





Oh no!!!

Alright, let's beat up a dwarf/goblin and get some dust.



Also there's plenty of opertunities to try out the new club.



FUPPO! Never underestimate a little blond girl with a big stick. With the club I can now one shot baddies and don't have to rely on summons to win battles. Which means I can save my dreams... for a brighter future.



Inside the cave immediately splits into two paths. To the right we find a nice little catch of jewels.



And to the left there's a little side room with another fragment of hope. With 3 hopes Moja gets a little stronger and Twana learns a new spell.



S-Plate... Spirit Plate? Spegetti Plate? Super Metroid Plate?



Using it causes a mystical barrier to appear and increases defense. It's not very useful right now as nothing lives long enough to hurt me but it might come in handy later on.

And just a bit further in the cave we find our mark.



...If you really want it, steal it from my treasure box!

O-okay!? Yet despite his permision the little tyke still attacks us.



I start things off by summoning both Moja and Twana to help out.





Twana uses one of his magical cartoon bombs.





And Moja just ups and stabs a spear in its head. The goblin doesn't last long.



Yay! Dust in hand it's time to find a shortcut to mushrooms.



On the way back to back to the giant's cave I stop by Bread to pick up some... bread. I get a loaf for myself... and what the heck, one for the old woman as well. She's grateful but immediately demands more.



And after the second loaf even more. A loaf of bread is filling. Have you ever eaten a loaf by yourself? How about three? This lady is either the worlds worst (best?) glutton or else the final boss in disguise.



...generosity still existed. Kind girl, please deliver this letter to my son in Davis.

Filled with the sacred duty of a letter carrier I make my way south.



Along the way I ran into a zombie. I've fought them before but this is the first time I remembered to grab a screenshot (as you can see, I had to rewind to get it). These guys don't look so much like zombies as they do radioactive swamp things. I can't decide if this is awesome. Living dead or living moss a clunk on the head and they go down.



Back in the Giant's Alcove it's time to dust the alter.



...the entire cave was filled with light, and the giant’s statue began to speak: “You who lit the fire on the dais should walk down the path which has opened. I will protect the town from evil once again.”



And so the Giant disappears and the way to Davis is opened.

Back in Bread I also splurged and picked up the mysterious Bluering. An Orc on the path to Davis provides an opportunity to try it out.



It creates a magical shield and combined with Twana's Silly-Plate I now have a fair amount of defense if I want to use the turns to get it up.



Ah! A whole new realm to explore. What's this over here? Mushrooms! That's... not unusual at all.



Oh well. Might as well check out this not-conspicuously-placed one.



Wha- What's this?!


Oh right.

Next time: Werewolf Human Monster Castle!

So you feed the old lady THREE LOAVES of bread, and she rewards you by making you deliver a letter for her?

That is a terrible gift, she is a terrible gift-giver!

So I'm guessing this game is emblematic of a whole cottage industry of NES RPGs that I don't know anything about, which were amalgamated into Guadia Quest, yes?