I made a comment in the NES introduction on how much variety
you could find within tis library, specifically to genre mixing
and experimentation that took place during the system's life.
I thought this would be an interesting first game to try
to show that, which is also the first game I talked about
when I opened my Spanish blog back in 2015. Time flies.
Anyway, ready your spells, polish your weapons,
grab your multi-sided dices, and pray to the RNG gods,
for we're going on an adventure!
-Wait, no, come back, this won't be about Dungeons & Dragons, I swear!
Not yet at least...
I was talking about Sugoro Quest - The Quest of Dice Heroes!
Produced and published by Technos Japan Corporation, Sugoro Quest is a game that combines several aspects of both Role Playing Games and mixes them with board games to create a single player experience.
Technos Japan Corporation, or just Technos, was a Japanese developer studio that lived through the early days of Japan's rise in the video game industry, born in 1981 and founded by people from Data East.
If the name rings a bell, that's because they're the creators of Double Dragon and tue Kunio-Kun franchises (although the second one probably is better known as "River City Ransom and those games that look similar"). They made games until 1996, when sadly they went bankrupt. Another company, Million Co. would buy their franchises and later release more games based on them. In fact a Kunio-Kun collection will be released in the future.
Anyway, Sugoro Quest is an original idea they had for the Famicom. This game wasn't released outside Japan (I can understand why), but thankfully was fan-translated by Alan Midas, and also King Mike is to be named for adding some fixes to the original translation.
So, to both of them, thank you. I will show images of the fan-translated game.
Now, let's start properly with the game!
 |
| ...Amazing magic, you say? I'm all ears, then! |
The game takes place in the magical world of Siland, your typical European Fantasy setting, that also happens to love board games a bit too much.
But Siland has seen better times, as several places have been attacked by evil monsters that nobody knows where they came from. The King (a pretty classy-looking man), looking for a way to end these problems, has summoned four heroes across the world to ask them to solve these evil monsters.
Using the King's Castle as a base, they are asked to go place by place righting wrongs and to find the cause of all this evil.
Now, I mentioned four heroes, and as you may expect, each one offers something different. Here they are:
Fighter: Actually more than a simple Fighter, as, besides hitting things with weapons, he has a selection of spells to add variety to his actions, although he puts more focus on his physical side and his spells are mostly support ones.
Dwarf: This guy is for those who don't like magic that much, and only trusts in their weapons and items. Has the most HP of the heroes, and only learns a few spells quite late.
Elf: This lady is the Mage of the group, which means what you expect: weak but with many spells, which make her very versatile both inside and outside of battles.
Half Elf: This spunky woman is kind of the opposite of the Fighter, meaning she is decent at attacking physically foes, but also has a nice selection of spells, giving her a rather nice balance.
The game starts proper once the introductions are made, and you're left in the main menu of the game, inside the King's castle.
You can do several things here, as any base worth their name would offer:
King: Here you'll have a small audience with the King himself. If you talk to him as you progress through the game he'll tell you different details about your next goals, or about the story and world of the game.
Curt's Items: Here is your consumable item shop! From healing items, to throwing weapons, and also a nice variety of board-related dices that can come in very handy. Also has Exits, which let you escape the board you're in and come back to the castle, and Elixirs, which you should always have in case you fall in battle! Also, consumable items are shared between characters.
Rantana's Weapons: Because even if you're here to save the world, you still need to pay for your gear... *Sigh*. Anyway, Rantana has lots of equipment, and will thankfully inform you if the character you want to buy something for is not available to equip the item you choose, so you don't pay for items pointlessly.
Escargo Records: Here you can save your game. Always remember to save after buying equipment, items, and both before and after going on an adventure. (If you turn off the game on a board, it won't save there!). By the way, you can have two different save files!
Status: Here you can see all related to your heroes! Their stats, their experience, how much money you have (Gold is communal, not per-character), and of course, change their equipment and revise what spells they have (both, Battle Spells and Board Spells).
Begin Quest: It brings you to the gates of the Castle, where you can choose which destination are you going to, and start the game proper. You can't access harder destinations if you haven't beat the prior ones (Board 3 is not accessible without beating Board 2, which you can't enter without beating Board 1, so you understand this).
Let's say that we want to start right away, and we go directly to the first board with Fighter. This is the first Adventure Board:
Each Board represents a self-contained adventure with its own story, setting and design. This first scenario, for example, deals with a friendly kingdom being attacked by goblins and orcs, under the orders of a King Orc that hides in the blue cave in the lower part of the map.
Your character moves around by rolling a dice (1~6, a normal one) and moves as many squares as you roll. Now, as you see, there are many types of "squares" you can land on, here's a small summary:
Yellow Squares: The majority of the board is composed of these. Landing in one will trigger a Random Encounter! More about this later.
Town: They are the small house & tower icons. If there's one in your way, you'll stop and enter it, even if you can move further. Here you'll talk with NPCs, and get information, quest-related items, or even be asked something that will change your route (as there will be branching paths in future adventures).
Ponds: The world of Siland is full of weirdly positioned ponds, but you'll learn to love these, as every time you land on one, you'll drink from it and you will recover HP & MP, depending on what character you are and which level you have. For example, Dwarf would get the most HP but least MP, while the Elf would be the complete opposite, and the higher level the more they heal. More on this later.
Sword / Armour / Shield: When you land on these, you'll find an NPC that will improve slightly your equipped gear; increasing their stats while you're wearing them (once you equip something different, that enchantment gets removed).
Castle: Here you'll talk to the other kings in this world, which will give you information related to the quest, big bad boss... Or you'll just hear the king whine like cry babies...
Person: These red squares cause an encounter with NPCs. They can give you consumable items, offer you a tip, or other things like that, but unlike Towns, you will pass through them if you don't land right on this square.
Big Blue Caves: These are the bosses' lairs. Your mission is to reach these places and fight them.
Retreat: The R square. This exists for the sole reason of fleeing the board if you lose against the boss (and you revive by using an Elixir), as you'll be put on a alternate route that will let you escape, or try again to take down the boss. Of course the board won't be completed.
Finish!: Well, guess what it does! Here you finish your adventure after defeating the big bad boss!
There are more than these, that will be introduced as you play other scenarios. These are the basic ones.
Travelling through the board, at least in this first adventure, is as simple as keep advancing by rolling dices and moving forward, entering towns, drinking from ponds when you land on them, and fighting whenever you fall on a yellow square, that last one will eat most of your time on a board.
Now, going back to the playable characters before going to the first adventure board, the way you play with each one will change based manly at what they are good at... And before you say "Understatement of the year", I mean, beyond the typical RPG rules. Remember, this is also a board game.
I'll explain this:
Characters have two dices that reign over how well they perform their actions. You have one for physical Attacks, named Attack Dice, and the other for using spells, named Magic Dice. As you may expect, the higher, the better, but how high the dice is depends on the character and their level.
Above, Fighter starts with a 3 Attack Dice and a 1 Magic Dice, meaning he'll be somewhat okay at attacking with weapons, but is horrible with magic (to the point he would fail any attempt at casting a spell). The maximum value a dice can achieve is 9 (although not all characters get maximum dices!).
Well, higher than your enemies, of course!
Thus, the battle system is quite simple to understand: The point is, whenever you and your enemy attack physically or cast a spell, you both roll a dice at the same time. The one who rolls a higher number, wins the round and is able to do the action he/she/it selected.
In the screenshot above, Fighter won against the Giant Wasp, giving him the chance to attack, and also prevented the enemy from doing anything. This goes the same if the enemy had rolled higher, Fighter couldn't do anything for that round.
So, simply put, roll higher and you'll be fine. But there's more than that!
Let's say that you roll a 5 and your enemy a 3. Now, mathematically speaking, "5-3=2".
Because you rolled more than one higher than your enemy, you'll do extra hits!
In case you both roll the same number, you'll keep rolling until someone ends up higher, even if you have to roll four times. This situations are very, very tense, for one reason only.
This is a take all-lose all scenario. The one who wins will trash the other BADLY.
In the screen above, you'll see I won. The enemy dices will be destroyed and I'll do full damage: I'll attack the enemy three times, with one of those being base damage, and the other two having extra damage for rolling a 2 (2 vs 0, because the enemy dices were destroyed).
In other words, that slime will get its ass kicked so hard that probably will need counselling for decades (and probably pay for its psychiatrist's grand-grand children university).
Thing is, it could have been the complete opposite. If you're on the losing end, you might die just as easily.
So yeah, be careful (and also bring ELIXIRS)!
Now, there's a bit more than just rolling dices to attack and pray to the RNG Gods.
Casting spells use the basic same rules (although I've never had a "same-roll" experience using magic), so the higher the better, but the different effects magic can have, bring a new perspective.
You see, besides damaging spells (which also do more damage if you roll higher, and are affected by enemy elemental resistances), spells can heal, support you, or "debuff" the enemy, dices included.
If you use a character with a decent Magic Dice, healing while in battle can be much more useful than healing outside battle, as you have chance to restore much more health that way. For example, the second healing spell restores 35 HP outside battle, but while in one you can restore up to 80 HP!
Also, you can paralyse enemies with the conveniently named spell Paralyse, which can stun the enemies' Dicemen and give you what are essentially a few free turns as long as the Dicemen keep stunned (they get up after some time). You can, on the other hand, protect you from physical or magical damage too.
Though, the enemies' Dicemen can also be monumental jerks and do the same to you by chucking their dice in your face and leaving you unconscious for some time, which can be annoying as hell (bosses' Dicemen are more prone to do this. Pricks, all of them).
Lastly you have spells that deal with Dice-related stuff! This ones are quite fun to use, as they can increase your maximum dices and decrease your enemies'. Some enemies use them too, so be careful, but for example repeated successful uses of Dice Drain can make your life much easier with certain bosses (control your MP consumption, though!). Board Dice Spells have Retry, which lets you have a second roll if the first one didn't make you happy, and Dice Call that lets you choose which value the dice will roll, which is, as you imagine, reaaally useful.
Items are also important, as the better prepared you are for an adventure, the less luck you need to advance comfortably!
Getting better equipment is always recommended, but please don't ignore bringing a good selection of consumable items! Having HP & MP healing stuff, a couple of Shurikens, an Exit, Elixirs, and some special Dices will make your life much easier and the game much more fun.
You have limited space, so it's not like you can win by item-spamming, but when the odds are against you (and they will be, as bosses can be rather tough), is better to have tools on your side.
Also, remember that the only bad thing that happens by leaving a scenario is having to start it again, you keep your items, experience and such, which can be useful to level up.
Oh, and I almost forgot: You also have your own Dicemen!
This is the last command you can perform in Battle. Whenever you exit the castle, you'll see a small animation where your selected hero will go out on an adventure, and a bunch of orange things folling him / her. Those are your own Dicemen!
When you choose that command, you will roll a 1~6 Dice. There is a Dicemen for each number. For the most part, the higher the roll, the better the Dicemen will be (In fact Dicemen 1 is... quite oblivious to everything, and Dicemen 2 will run away letting you behind like a coward).
What they do, mainly, is to throw the dices for you. Now, of course, there's more to it. Each one has different abilities that you may see enemy Dicemen do, like throwing the dice to stun the foe, or jump and cause a small quake to change your opponent's dice (re-roll), but they also have unique supportive moves. They do them at random, and I also know that each one seems to have different attack ranges, and I heard that some even stack with your characters' stats, but I have not played enough with this mechanic to be able to inform much about it, as they can be quite random.
They have their uses though, and they can be used just for fun too. That said, they're completely optional, so if you don't want to use them, you can play the entire game without them.
And... Well, that's the basic gist of the game.
During my first playthrough I found it to be quite a novel and fun experience. I'm not that big into board games, but because this is structured and design as a single-player based board game with RPG elements, like levels, classes, spells, shops and such, it ended up being enjoyable, as I didn't need to wait for more people to been able to play it, and it had enough meat for me to "get nerdy".
The visual design of the game is quite charming too, with a very late 80's japanese super deformed aesthetic. The monsters have fun designs, animations are decent (for example, spells have different animations depending on how much higher your roll is), each scenario has its own design and setting (complete with events having different backgrounds depending the board), and its just around pretty solid.
Sound-wise, it's also decent. The Castle hub is quite classy and catchy, each board has its own theme, the different events have different themes, and the victory music once you finish a board I find super catchy too. On the other hand, the battle theme can get a bit old for me.
Sadly this game has not much information around the internet, but under the sound credits in the end of the game, I think we should thank "Sonic Sky" Nanako, "Monopoly" Kameoka and "Daitikun Hirasawa"... Yeah, the credits have the developers with nicknames, for some reason! All around is a decent package.
Sadly I can't give you a link to listen the music, as it seems every instance of the OST has been erased from Youtube... Nice.
The translation made by Alan Midas is also good, but there are a few instances of script errors, where letters can go beyond the text-box and be hard to read, or stay on screen by replacing the text-box itself. Quite unfortunate, and you can see a bit of that on some screenshots I made, but, oh well.
And I think that is all for this game.
Sugoro Quest is a pretty neat package for me, it brings something unique for the system (and actually, unique, period). It has charm, the mix works, and as long as you're playing attention and prepare accordingly, the luck aspect of the game is not going to harm you that much, although I must say that from time to time is nice to feel that intensity that luck and chance can bring, not to mention that having 4 different characters brings some replayability as playing as the Dwarf is completely different as playing with the Elf, for example.
With all that said, I hope you give it a try if it tickles your fancy!
But Siland has seen better times, as several places have been attacked by evil monsters that nobody knows where they came from. The King (a pretty classy-looking man), looking for a way to end these problems, has summoned four heroes across the world to ask them to solve these evil monsters.
 |
| Mah boi, all true warriors strive for RNG Bless! |
Using the King's Castle as a base, they are asked to go place by place righting wrongs and to find the cause of all this evil.
Now, I mentioned four heroes, and as you may expect, each one offers something different. Here they are:
Dwarf: This guy is for those who don't like magic that much, and only trusts in their weapons and items. Has the most HP of the heroes, and only learns a few spells quite late.
Elf: This lady is the Mage of the group, which means what you expect: weak but with many spells, which make her very versatile both inside and outside of battles.
Half Elf: This spunky woman is kind of the opposite of the Fighter, meaning she is decent at attacking physically foes, but also has a nice selection of spells, giving her a rather nice balance.
The game starts proper once the introductions are made, and you're left in the main menu of the game, inside the King's castle.
 |
| Rantana looks quite suspicious... And green. |
You can do several things here, as any base worth their name would offer:
King: Here you'll have a small audience with the King himself. If you talk to him as you progress through the game he'll tell you different details about your next goals, or about the story and world of the game.
Curt's Items: Here is your consumable item shop! From healing items, to throwing weapons, and also a nice variety of board-related dices that can come in very handy. Also has Exits, which let you escape the board you're in and come back to the castle, and Elixirs, which you should always have in case you fall in battle! Also, consumable items are shared between characters.
Rantana's Weapons: Because even if you're here to save the world, you still need to pay for your gear... *Sigh*. Anyway, Rantana has lots of equipment, and will thankfully inform you if the character you want to buy something for is not available to equip the item you choose, so you don't pay for items pointlessly.
Escargo Records: Here you can save your game. Always remember to save after buying equipment, items, and both before and after going on an adventure. (If you turn off the game on a board, it won't save there!). By the way, you can have two different save files!
Status: Here you can see all related to your heroes! Their stats, their experience, how much money you have (Gold is communal, not per-character), and of course, change their equipment and revise what spells they have (both, Battle Spells and Board Spells).
Begin Quest: It brings you to the gates of the Castle, where you can choose which destination are you going to, and start the game proper. You can't access harder destinations if you haven't beat the prior ones (Board 3 is not accessible without beating Board 2, which you can't enter without beating Board 1, so you understand this).
Let's say that we want to start right away, and we go directly to the first board with Fighter. This is the first Adventure Board:
 |
| Short and lineal, this is obviously a beginner's adventure! |
Each Board represents a self-contained adventure with its own story, setting and design. This first scenario, for example, deals with a friendly kingdom being attacked by goblins and orcs, under the orders of a King Orc that hides in the blue cave in the lower part of the map.
Your character moves around by rolling a dice (1~6, a normal one) and moves as many squares as you roll. Now, as you see, there are many types of "squares" you can land on, here's a small summary:
Yellow Squares: The majority of the board is composed of these. Landing in one will trigger a Random Encounter! More about this later.
Town: They are the small house & tower icons. If there's one in your way, you'll stop and enter it, even if you can move further. Here you'll talk with NPCs, and get information, quest-related items, or even be asked something that will change your route (as there will be branching paths in future adventures).
Ponds: The world of Siland is full of weirdly positioned ponds, but you'll learn to love these, as every time you land on one, you'll drink from it and you will recover HP & MP, depending on what character you are and which level you have. For example, Dwarf would get the most HP but least MP, while the Elf would be the complete opposite, and the higher level the more they heal. More on this later.
Sword / Armour / Shield: When you land on these, you'll find an NPC that will improve slightly your equipped gear; increasing their stats while you're wearing them (once you equip something different, that enchantment gets removed).
 |
| The small pictures are quite adorable, and usually change for each board. |
Castle: Here you'll talk to the other kings in this world, which will give you information related to the quest, big bad boss... Or you'll just hear the king whine like cry babies...
Person: These red squares cause an encounter with NPCs. They can give you consumable items, offer you a tip, or other things like that, but unlike Towns, you will pass through them if you don't land right on this square.
Big Blue Caves: These are the bosses' lairs. Your mission is to reach these places and fight them.
Retreat: The R square. This exists for the sole reason of fleeing the board if you lose against the boss (and you revive by using an Elixir), as you'll be put on a alternate route that will let you escape, or try again to take down the boss. Of course the board won't be completed.
Finish!: Well, guess what it does! Here you finish your adventure after defeating the big bad boss!
There are more than these, that will be introduced as you play other scenarios. These are the basic ones.
Travelling through the board, at least in this first adventure, is as simple as keep advancing by rolling dices and moving forward, entering towns, drinking from ponds when you land on them, and fighting whenever you fall on a yellow square, that last one will eat most of your time on a board.
Now, going back to the playable characters before going to the first adventure board, the way you play with each one will change based manly at what they are good at... And before you say "Understatement of the year", I mean, beyond the typical RPG rules. Remember, this is also a board game.
I'll explain this:
 |
| Those dices in the top right are as important, if not more, than the stats. |
Characters have two dices that reign over how well they perform their actions. You have one for physical Attacks, named Attack Dice, and the other for using spells, named Magic Dice. As you may expect, the higher, the better, but how high the dice is depends on the character and their level.
Above, Fighter starts with a 3 Attack Dice and a 1 Magic Dice, meaning he'll be somewhat okay at attacking with weapons, but is horrible with magic (to the point he would fail any attempt at casting a spell). The maximum value a dice can achieve is 9 (although not all characters get maximum dices!).
It's very important to remember this: to succeed in Sugoro Quest, you need to roll higher!
Higher than what, you ask?
Higher than what, you ask?
 |
| Aha! Sayeth thy lasteth prayethrs for I defeated thee in a game of chance! |
Well, higher than your enemies, of course!
Whenever you fall on a yellow square and start a fight, you'll enter a Final Fantasy-esque battle screen, with your hero on one side and your enemy in the other.
Here you can attack, cast magic, use items, try to flee from battle, and another thing I'll take later.
Anyway, enemies are always accompanied by these orange creatures named Dicemen. who are given the task to roll the dices for the monsters you fight. Because even if they are evil monsters doing bad things, they are gentlemen enough to play be the rules of the land.
When I said that this world takes board games seriously, I meant it!
Though, the Dicemen can be complete pricks.
Here you can attack, cast magic, use items, try to flee from battle, and another thing I'll take later.
Anyway, enemies are always accompanied by these orange creatures named Dicemen. who are given the task to roll the dices for the monsters you fight. Because even if they are evil monsters doing bad things, they are gentlemen enough to play be the rules of the land.
When I said that this world takes board games seriously, I meant it!
Though, the Dicemen can be complete pricks.
Thus, the battle system is quite simple to understand: The point is, whenever you and your enemy attack physically or cast a spell, you both roll a dice at the same time. The one who rolls a higher number, wins the round and is able to do the action he/she/it selected.
In the screenshot above, Fighter won against the Giant Wasp, giving him the chance to attack, and also prevented the enemy from doing anything. This goes the same if the enemy had rolled higher, Fighter couldn't do anything for that round.
So, simply put, roll higher and you'll be fine. But there's more than that!
Let's say that you roll a 5 and your enemy a 3. Now, mathematically speaking, "5-3=2".
Because you rolled more than one higher than your enemy, you'll do extra hits!
Extra hits are not multiplied damage per se, but they add extra damage for each single number above the enemy's roll. So:
5 VS 3 would be 2 Hits.
5 VS 3 would be 2 Hits.
6 VS 3 would be 3 Hits.
8 VS 3 would be 5 Hits.
And so on. The higher the better, not only to damage your foe with physical or offensive spells, but also to heal yourself during battle with magic or causing status effects on the enemy!
8 VS 3 would be 5 Hits.
And so on. The higher the better, not only to damage your foe with physical or offensive spells, but also to heal yourself during battle with magic or causing status effects on the enemy!
You need to pay attention to what your character is best at, and don't let enemy take chances. For example, using magic with the Dwarf on battle is not very smart as he will always have a lower Magic Dice, thus you have higher chances to roll lower. The same would be with the Elf Attack Dice.
Of course, there are ways to help you in these cases, but let's leave that for later.
Another interesting thing to point out, is that you and your foe can actually roll the same number!
Of course, there are ways to help you in these cases, but let's leave that for later.
Another interesting thing to point out, is that you and your foe can actually roll the same number!
 |
| Aha! Prepare to kicketh the bucket, thee foul beast, for I has't proved to has't slightly exceeding fortune! |
In case you both roll the same number, you'll keep rolling until someone ends up higher, even if you have to roll four times. This situations are very, very tense, for one reason only.
This is a take all-lose all scenario. The one who wins will trash the other BADLY.
In the screen above, you'll see I won. The enemy dices will be destroyed and I'll do full damage: I'll attack the enemy three times, with one of those being base damage, and the other two having extra damage for rolling a 2 (2 vs 0, because the enemy dices were destroyed).
In other words, that slime will get its ass kicked so hard that probably will need counselling for decades (and probably pay for its psychiatrist's grand-grand children university).
Thing is, it could have been the complete opposite. If you're on the losing end, you might die just as easily.
So yeah, be careful (and also bring ELIXIRS)!
Now, there's a bit more than just rolling dices to attack and pray to the RNG Gods.
Casting spells use the basic same rules (although I've never had a "same-roll" experience using magic), so the higher the better, but the different effects magic can have, bring a new perspective.
You see, besides damaging spells (which also do more damage if you roll higher, and are affected by enemy elemental resistances), spells can heal, support you, or "debuff" the enemy, dices included.
If you use a character with a decent Magic Dice, healing while in battle can be much more useful than healing outside battle, as you have chance to restore much more health that way. For example, the second healing spell restores 35 HP outside battle, but while in one you can restore up to 80 HP!
Also, you can paralyse enemies with the conveniently named spell Paralyse, which can stun the enemies' Dicemen and give you what are essentially a few free turns as long as the Dicemen keep stunned (they get up after some time). You can, on the other hand, protect you from physical or magical damage too.
Though, the enemies' Dicemen can also be monumental jerks and do the same to you by chucking their dice in your face and leaving you unconscious for some time, which can be annoying as hell (bosses' Dicemen are more prone to do this. Pricks, all of them).
Lastly you have spells that deal with Dice-related stuff! This ones are quite fun to use, as they can increase your maximum dices and decrease your enemies'. Some enemies use them too, so be careful, but for example repeated successful uses of Dice Drain can make your life much easier with certain bosses (control your MP consumption, though!). Board Dice Spells have Retry, which lets you have a second roll if the first one didn't make you happy, and Dice Call that lets you choose which value the dice will roll, which is, as you imagine, reaaally useful.
 |
| The Dicemen of the bosses have different AI compared to normal foes, so be vigilant! |
Items are also important, as the better prepared you are for an adventure, the less luck you need to advance comfortably!
Getting better equipment is always recommended, but please don't ignore bringing a good selection of consumable items! Having HP & MP healing stuff, a couple of Shurikens, an Exit, Elixirs, and some special Dices will make your life much easier and the game much more fun.
You have limited space, so it's not like you can win by item-spamming, but when the odds are against you (and they will be, as bosses can be rather tough), is better to have tools on your side.
Also, last comment on items, you can consume items in battle without wasting your turn, meaning you can eat a few items to recover HP / MP, or even throw things like Stones (found by using the "Look" command while on the board) or Shurikens to do low-but-safe damage to enemies, before attacking or casting a spells.
Because of the limited inventory, you can't abuse it that much, but can be a life saver. As you can see, while there's some deal of luck involved in the game, you have tools to help yourself whenever you're in trouble (or, even better, prevent to get into those situations).
In Scenario 2 you start to see branching paths, which can hamper, help or just change the In Scenario 3, you need cross a bunch of Islands, and you'll have to swim (losing HP), or, if you're lucky,
way you go through a board. Here, I was sent to a village where people give me items! you'll find a boat to travel (while recovering HP)... I didn't have much luck, as you can see.
Each new board gets bigger, and also more and more complex, each one also having unique gimmicks, something that always keeps you on your toes and I find quite fun. Also, enemies get progressively harder and trickier, so getting well versed in spells, items and each monster strategies is quite recommended. Levelling up is, of course, important, just like most RPGs. The maximum level is 30, which is thankfully not very hard to achieve by playing normally.
One big tip I can give you is this: While each characters' HP & MP increases as they level up; in this game it works differently. Characters don't have a "max. HP & MP" as much as they have "starting HP & MP".
Elf can have, lets say, 50 HP and 90 MP at the beginning of a board, but you can increase them up by using items and specially, drinking from Ponds, without any class / character limit (I think the cap is 999 but good luck getting there, not that's necessary). This is pretty great because if you try to land in many Ponds as you can, your progress will be much easier because you would have big HP & MP reserves for when you really need them, for example, in boss fights.
Also, if you find Medicines, don't waste them! They are rare, and they would be much more useful later in the game (they heal 99 HP & MP), when things get serious!
Because of the limited inventory, you can't abuse it that much, but can be a life saver. As you can see, while there's some deal of luck involved in the game, you have tools to help yourself whenever you're in trouble (or, even better, prevent to get into those situations).
In Scenario 2 you start to see branching paths, which can hamper, help or just change the In Scenario 3, you need cross a bunch of Islands, and you'll have to swim (losing HP), or, if you're lucky,
way you go through a board. Here, I was sent to a village where people give me items! you'll find a boat to travel (while recovering HP)... I didn't have much luck, as you can see.
Each new board gets bigger, and also more and more complex, each one also having unique gimmicks, something that always keeps you on your toes and I find quite fun. Also, enemies get progressively harder and trickier, so getting well versed in spells, items and each monster strategies is quite recommended. Levelling up is, of course, important, just like most RPGs. The maximum level is 30, which is thankfully not very hard to achieve by playing normally.
One big tip I can give you is this: While each characters' HP & MP increases as they level up; in this game it works differently. Characters don't have a "max. HP & MP" as much as they have "starting HP & MP".
Elf can have, lets say, 50 HP and 90 MP at the beginning of a board, but you can increase them up by using items and specially, drinking from Ponds, without any class / character limit (I think the cap is 999 but good luck getting there, not that's necessary). This is pretty great because if you try to land in many Ponds as you can, your progress will be much easier because you would have big HP & MP reserves for when you really need them, for example, in boss fights.
Also, if you find Medicines, don't waste them! They are rare, and they would be much more useful later in the game (they heal 99 HP & MP), when things get serious!
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| A confusing forest? Of course... |
Also, remember that the only bad thing that happens by leaving a scenario is having to start it again, you keep your items, experience and such, which can be useful to level up.
Oh, and I almost forgot: You also have your own Dicemen!
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| The Dicemen are something I've never touched much during my playthroughs. |
This is the last command you can perform in Battle. Whenever you exit the castle, you'll see a small animation where your selected hero will go out on an adventure, and a bunch of orange things folling him / her. Those are your own Dicemen!
When you choose that command, you will roll a 1~6 Dice. There is a Dicemen for each number. For the most part, the higher the roll, the better the Dicemen will be (In fact Dicemen 1 is... quite oblivious to everything, and Dicemen 2 will run away letting you behind like a coward).
What they do, mainly, is to throw the dices for you. Now, of course, there's more to it. Each one has different abilities that you may see enemy Dicemen do, like throwing the dice to stun the foe, or jump and cause a small quake to change your opponent's dice (re-roll), but they also have unique supportive moves. They do them at random, and I also know that each one seems to have different attack ranges, and I heard that some even stack with your characters' stats, but I have not played enough with this mechanic to be able to inform much about it, as they can be quite random.
They have their uses though, and they can be used just for fun too. That said, they're completely optional, so if you don't want to use them, you can play the entire game without them.
And... Well, that's the basic gist of the game.
During my first playthrough I found it to be quite a novel and fun experience. I'm not that big into board games, but because this is structured and design as a single-player based board game with RPG elements, like levels, classes, spells, shops and such, it ended up being enjoyable, as I didn't need to wait for more people to been able to play it, and it had enough meat for me to "get nerdy".
The visual design of the game is quite charming too, with a very late 80's japanese super deformed aesthetic. The monsters have fun designs, animations are decent (for example, spells have different animations depending on how much higher your roll is), each scenario has its own design and setting (complete with events having different backgrounds depending the board), and its just around pretty solid.
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| Yeah, that's a giant "anime girl" cosplaying as a bear. It's Japan, you get used to it. She may look silly, but boy those claws are not joking around. |
Sound-wise, it's also decent. The Castle hub is quite classy and catchy, each board has its own theme, the different events have different themes, and the victory music once you finish a board I find super catchy too. On the other hand, the battle theme can get a bit old for me.
Sadly this game has not much information around the internet, but under the sound credits in the end of the game, I think we should thank "Sonic Sky" Nanako, "Monopoly" Kameoka and "Daitikun Hirasawa"... Yeah, the credits have the developers with nicknames, for some reason! All around is a decent package.
Sadly I can't give you a link to listen the music, as it seems every instance of the OST has been erased from Youtube... Nice.
The translation made by Alan Midas is also good, but there are a few instances of script errors, where letters can go beyond the text-box and be hard to read, or stay on screen by replacing the text-box itself. Quite unfortunate, and you can see a bit of that on some screenshots I made, but, oh well.
Sugoro Quest is a pretty neat package for me, it brings something unique for the system (and actually, unique, period). It has charm, the mix works, and as long as you're playing attention and prepare accordingly, the luck aspect of the game is not going to harm you that much, although I must say that from time to time is nice to feel that intensity that luck and chance can bring, not to mention that having 4 different characters brings some replayability as playing as the Dwarf is completely different as playing with the Elf, for example.
With all that said, I hope you give it a try if it tickles your fancy!
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