Well, it’s time, the final installment of this dark and horrible (In the good terror way) shall be narrated, but first a brief recap of what cooked:
In the Gameboy, the mythos of the inner Demon Realm cooked with the legend of a chosen Demon called Firebrand
In NES, the story is continued, now bigger
And Now in SNES… it’s even bigger
As we shall see, rather than being Gargoyle’s quest 3.0 like The Demon Darkness was to the GB game, we have lots of refinements, movement is different, the Breath system gets reworked, money gets expanded, and way more than this single paragraph cam fit into, for many this one is the better of the franchise and with good reason, but now, let’s see what is about the grand journey to fix… the Demon Crest
In 1994, this excellent SNES game did a great overhaul to the engine, not only the game is bigger in gameplay, but there is more plot and characterization to be done, there is more to explore to a… mediocre reception
Yup, nowadays we love the game, a cult classic in all regards, but sadly at the time of release the game was deemed as mid, heck it reported NEGATIVVE SELLS, yup, people refunded it, most people attribute this failure to the game being too dark and gloomy, while others declare this fail to the fact certain station was looming in the horizon, a sad tale, but not our focus, so let’s cheer ourselves by reviewing the game itself
HISTORY
A long while ago, a set of six stones called the Crests was told to give ultimate power to the welder, a single one can allow the lowest demon to wreck hell into entire armies, the Demon Realm in its entirety fought over them, until Firebrand got control over most of them, however while in his way to get the sixth one, a rival demon called Phalanx (Like the SNES game that famously has the cowboy as the cover) wounded Firebrand fatally, fortunately he made it, but Phalanx took the five Crests Firebrand got and, in a surprisingly clever twist of the usual Evil emperor, he splits them to his army and builds his power to become Emperor of the Demon Realm, Firebrand, rather than out of justice, wants Phalanx ‘s head in a platter and his precious Crests back, and so his journey begins…
And that is merely a resume of the Manual’s story, the story gets Deeper, starting with a dozer of our hero in a cell, having to kill a dragon as intro boss, shattering a demon bird into pieces and facing his rival, Alma, our rival that frequently antagonizes Firebrand, with a simple goal, Firebrand heads to recover the Crests, get the Sixth one and uncover some hidden secrets said Crests has brough to light
That said, the series’ continuity is kinda wonky, maybe they were never intended to be directly continued and instead each one is its own continuity…eh, Demon Realm issues
GAMEPLAY:
FIREBRAND: KUKUUUUUUUU...HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (I can kill that armor, he gave me back my wallet when i dropped it... but you... i own you money, so die)
The RPG overworld is axed in favor of a more unique Literal flight camera, Mode-7 allows us to see all at once the Demon Realm, anytime you leave a sidescroller area you are flunged into a map, a Little grip I have is that when the first four levels are blatantly marked, the places you really want to visit (Shops and cities for Lore and Clues) are your problem to find, they are slightly obvious in hindsight, but since you can barely see a thing, you Will be pressing land blindly until you get used
Regarding the Sidescroller, stuff stays the same, but even more polished:
For starters, money buys more than lives now, you now got spells and potions, granted, you need an item called Veil and bottles Zelda-style to buy them, you can also attack the background with an separate button, kind of useless in base game, but if you want the 100% (And for reasons we Will discuss later you WANT it) better get used, the Breath System is totally reworked, after each crest is attained, you get to use it Megaman Style, oh, ¿And remember the History blurb where I mention Phalanx getting all five Crests Firebrand got? Turns out he was keeping the initial one, the fire crest in his… invisible pockets or something, it is the base form, but as we advance, you get more Crests with neato skills that Will sabe the day and in true Metroidvania Fashion allows you to keep exploring, but also giving us new weapons, default attack aside you get the aforementioned spells, basically simple use special attacks that you can buy in the stores, granted, to be fair, they are useless, the one I used actually was the IMP, and only because it summons the original imps from the Ghost and Goblins games, you are better sticking to potions and the other McGuffin of the game: Talismans, basically hidden items that acts the same way Crest do
ENDINGS:
Unlike the two past games, you have three full endings, to get them you need a certain amount of completion percentage, you see, the game opens four areas to explore as soon as you finish the tutorial (After the first meeting with Alma), you can flow basic Megaman Rules and beat them and go for the fifth one, but that Will end you Will end you with, first of all, painful humiliation and second, bad stuff, as you Will see
Bad Ending: Firebrand decides to call it quits and leave the Demon Realm, with no leader and no Crests’ the Demon World ends up effed, attained by simply “Beating” the game
Medium Ending: Get all the Crests and finish the game as you want, Here Phalanx instead of allowing himself to be beaten hides inside one of the Crests, flipping Firebrand its middle talon in the process
Good Ending: Get EVERYTHING: Crests, Talismans, Bottles, Veils, anything, is worthy, since the ending feels the most satisfactory, With the Crests not falling in wrong hands
And with all said, the games end in various forms that Will task you with your knowledge of…¡WHAT YOU MEAN THERE IS A FOURTH ONE)
That’s right, beat the game with the best ending, and after credits you get a password, I don’t want to spoil it, but it is floating around Internet, so if you want a grueling finale from the get go, goa head, speaking of gruel ink
Bad Ending: Firebrand decides to call it quits and leave the Demon Realm, with no leader and no Crests’ the Demon World ends up effed, attained by simply “Beating” the game
Medium Ending: Get all the Crests and finish the game as you want, Here Phalanx instead of allowing himself to be beaten hides inside one of the Crests, flipping Firebrand its middle talon in the process
Good Ending: Get EVERYTHING: Crests, Talismans, Bottles, Veils, anything, is worthy, since the ending feels the most satisfactory, With the Crests not falling in wrong hands
And with all said, the games end in various forms that Will task you with your knowledge of…¡WHAT YOU MEAN THERE IS A FOURTH ONE)
That’s right, beat the game with the best ending, and after credits you get a password, I don’t want to spoil it, but it is floating around Internet, so if you want a grueling finale from the get go, goa head, speaking of gruel ink
DIFFICULTY
Firebrand: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (Kid you not reader, this time the difficulyu will be... crushing)...Uuuum (tough crowd)
Make no mistake, the game may add lots of upgrades to the formula, but the game is still far from a Kirby game, in fact, the game is easily the hardest one not only of the trilogy, BUT OF THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN SNES, ¿See the 100% requirement? Most of the Life upgrades are very obtuse to figure out, you need to approach the stages in particular ways if you don’t want a premature bad ending, you only get passwords by getting game over, and most importantly enemy patters are painful, and the level design at points feels play tested by serial killers
Don’t let the relatively easy first three levels to fool you, the game Will make you pull your hairs a lot, the very tutorial stage has precise jumping sections with collapsing platforms and AIR PROJECTILE ENEMIES, and no, you can’t couch even if the enemy is too low to get hit by your base shot, the bosses range from relaxing reprieves to far harder than GnG’s ones, and the les I talk about the secret ending boss, the better
GRAPHICS
Firebrand: EEEEEEEEEEEEEIEEEEEEEEEEEE (WHEEEEEE, Look mom, no Blast Processing)
Let’s recover some of our sanity by talking about something calmer, the graphics, the SNES is a HUGE jump compared to the NES’ better looking games (As long as they knew what they were doing obviously) and Capcom didn’t disappoint, the already macabre Demon Realm of Demon Darkness is updated into something you would expect from a nightmare, the usual spooky bedsheet ghost enemy here looks bloodied, some enemies are melting, and your dying animation, rather than a relatively safe explosion is Firebrand literally decomposing… yeah
The overworld map showcases the true potential of Mode-7’s rotatory sprites, with a map that looks almost 3D even when the illusion breaks when you land, by contrast the Sidescroller maps finally can have some variety aside of the basic “haunted forest and eerie mansion” of its predecessors, we have a forest, a swamp, a lake, and even a temple, the bosses, never losing their charm, show why only someone like Firebrand could hope to scratch them
MUSIC
Once again, Toshihiko Horiyama set a piano in fire while composing, but here, he had the advantage of the SNES’s even better sound chip, ¿Remember the awesome tracks of Super Castlevania IV and the fake orchestra of Final Fantasy VI? Think of the soundtrack like that, the ever-present organ Will ensue this trip to a world full of demons Will fell…well, demonic, highlights to the first song f the 2D sections you hear
BITTERSWEET ENDING: A FAREWELL IS NOT A GOODBYE
With all said, ¿How a game with this formula could fail so bad?
As mentioned in the article’s review, the game’s reception in its release was a lot less than what we praise the game nowadays, some people attribute it to the game being too gloomy and visceral, other plausible factor is being released nearly when people were already anticipating the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, signaling the “death” of “primitive” 2D games, since people were more hyped by the 3D novelty, but the one I can agree more is the game’s difficulty may was too much, some of the bonkers stuff you need for the Good Ending Will make Dark Souls Fans shudder (One of the levels need you to fly offscreen and grab in a ledge to finish it “properly”) not only in clues but also in difficulty, with all those factors, the sub-series’ fate was sealed, reporting refunds in a single week that costed Capcom lots of money, even axing a proposed GBA port (Considering their work with Super GNG, the what could have been is great), Firebrand’s flame was snubbed…
However, this wasn’t not a full loss, Firebrand got to appear in some crossovers like SVC Chaos and most recently in Marvel VS Capcom Infinity, the game’s cult status was also finally acknowledged by the big N, since you can get the game in the NSO store, so by the end of the day, Gargoyle’s Quest may be gone, but the Firebrand keeps soaring the black skies of the Demon Realm, frustrating thousands of players up to this day
CONCLUSION
Most definitively not a game for everyone, with obscure methods of achieving the 100% and a difficulty in combat far greater than anything even if you just want to beat it with what you can get, those that enjoy pain however Will find a game which forces them to be on their toes every single second, I can’t blame those that bring flaws to the table when discussing the game (Heck, I brough some here) neverthness the game still remains an epic game of gothic horrors that you may want to pop in Halloween, and with that this Fire Trilogy closes its doors, we don’t know when or if we shall visit his point of view of the Demon Realm, but the time spent there shall be good, sayonara Firebrand, my your legacy never goes forgotten *Goes to sleep in his cloud, a gargoyle shaped shadow covers him, after that a gargoyle shaped shadow lurks in the moon, surrounded with six stones*
Firebrand: ZZZZZZZZZZZZ KEEEkEEEkyaaaa (Worry not friend, people remembers me thanks to emulation now, and that is enough for me, Sayonara)
Bakuma out
Pros
- + The peak of Graphics
- + Gameplay is polished
- + Barely any slowdown (In my playthough at least)
- + Music is peak
- + Hardcore difficulty for hardcore gamers
Cons
- - Difficulty may be too much
- - Spells S U C K
- - Good ending requires 100%... in a game with zero chill with secrets
- - having to swap forms constantly can be draggy
9
Gameplay
Perfect save for diffuculy spikes and spells being lame
10
Graphics
I am playing a videogame or watching a Gothic painting slideshow?
8
Story
Basic, save for the hero for once doing good for his own amusement (And some revenge) and thick enough
10
Sound
Simply epic religious tunes... IN A CART
9
Replayability
Relatively brief (Longest longplay i found was 2 and a half hour) and the four endings being progress based kinda limits it, still comparable to a book you reread because you loved it
9
out of 10
Overall
Still with some minor flaws, a great way to say goodbye to a iconic trilogy
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