Sylvan Tale

Another obscure Sega IP, with its one and only entry being a late release for the Game Gear exclusive to Japan.  Kind of a shame, as it's a solid Zelda-like for the platform. You venture through various dungeons, find items and powerups that let you get past certain obstacles and reach new areas, upgrade your health with oranges, and battle enemies and bosses.  The plot is pretty minimal, just having your character track down six magic macguffins that can vanquish evil, but it's serviceable enough for a portable game.  The game controls smoothly and plays well, has colorful visuals and smooth animation, and even has some pretty solid music for the hardware, and you can save your game at (almost) any time, which keeps the frustration factor to a minimum.  Sylvan Tale is pretty fun little game while it lasts; maybe not worth the prices it goes for secondhand nowadays, but certainly one to check out emulated, especially since there's a fan translation available.

 

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu

Super Saiya Densetsu for the Super Famicom is actually a remake of two Famicom games - Dragon Ball Z: Kyōshū! Saiyan and Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza, combined into one title with the filler elements from the anime removed. This is also a bit of an odd one for me, as while I played those games back in the early days of emulation quite a bit, I never really considered reviewing them on here for whatever reason.  Super Saiya Densetsu is a considerably better experience, though - while the core gameplay is largely unchanged, the animations for attacks are much shorter (they ran upwards of 15 seconds in the original game) and visually it's a much more appealing game, making good use of the Super Famicom's sharper animation and mode 7 effects to capture the dynamic feel of the anime series.  The combat system is based around cards; you can carry up to five at a time, and each has an attack and a defense rating numbered 1-7 or "Z" (representing 10).  Each card also has a symbol - if you match it to a particular Z fighter's fighting style, they'll attack all enemies in the current battle, or do a charge attack against a single enemy for some extra damage.  Choosing a card with the Ki symbol allows that character to do one of their flashy energy attacks from the show (at the cost of some Ki points), while numerous character cards serve as expendable items and grant various advantages.  Restoring varying amounts of HP or Ki, boosting a card's attack or defense (or both) to Z, changing the symbol on said card, or even tossing out your entire hand for a new one.  The game is also faithful to the show, kind of to a fault - Goku is far and away your most powerful character for about 90% of the game, with the rest of the playable characters usually being average at best and useless at worst unless you spend an enormous amount of time grinding random battles to power them up.  Training centers can also boost a character's maximum Ki, though you only get so many "training points" to spend at any given location.  Progression is also pretty linear - while you do get a bit of a chance to explore and find items, train up and places to rest and recuperate, the only real goal for any given area is to grind out some levels, go to the end and fight the boss.  If you're a big fan of Dragon Ball it's probably a game you'll enjoy in spite of its shortcomings (add a half-star to the rating in that case), otherwise you can probably skip it.

Developer: TOSE
Publisher: Bandai
Released: 1992
Platform: Super Famicom

Märchen Veil

Initially released on Japanese computers in 1985, Märchen Veil got a Famicom Disk System port in 1987, combining it and its sequel together into one game.  Visually and design-wise it's a bit reminiscent of other early Famicom action-RPGs, though the one that immediately came to my mind was Deadly Towers - not exactly a great start.  Moreso because the very first thing I did was walk into what looked like a rock formation only to learn it was a cliff face; I fell off and died instantly, forcing myself to restart and sit through the opening cutscene again.  Speaking of cutscenes, there are quite a few of them throughout the game, and they're fairly elaborate for the time period, with animation and scrolling dialog to tell its story.  (Fittingly, the game's title roughly translates from German as "Folktale Veil".)  The gameplay and animation is rather slow and choppy, with one button giving you a stubby jump and the other swinging your sword, which also fires out gear-like projectiles.  Defeating enemies causes them to drop fairies, and collecting enough will extend your maximum health.  Health itself can only be restored by destroying certain obstacles in the environment.  Puzzles are also pretty cryptic, requiring a lot of wandering around and trial and error, and items aren't always obvious in their use until you just take a leap of faith at whatever obstacle currently stifles your progress and hope it gets you across; for example, the cape lets you fly while boots let you cross certain types of terrain.  There are eight stages in total to experience in Märchen Veil, but given how primitive and unintuitive it is, I can't imagine the game had too many dedicated fans even when it was new, let alone in a post-Zelda world.

 

Developer: System Sacom
Publisher: Sunsoft
Released: 1987
Platform: Famicom Disk System