I am playing the first "Glory of Heracles" game on NES (Heracles no Eikou) and it's pretty funny how this game works (precursor to Dead Rising / BoF Dragon Quarter system?).
- No Battery Saves. Only Password (save states baby)
- The password doesn't actually save your "progress" but instead carries over your current level and items.
- Make progress, but decide to stop and write your password? All of your progress is gone! Go kill those bosses again
- The goal of the game is the do the 12 heroic labors of Hercules
- The game is open-ended (you can literally go anywhere you want - unless you don't have X item). Of course, some areas and dungeons have stronger enemies than others.
- The game is very "hint" specific so you need to talk to anyone and write down everything they say.
- The game has a durability system!
- You can actually sell "key items" and if you do, you have to do the quest again to get it back.
I just finished this game. I honestly wouldnt recommend it, I just really wanted to try it out. I used a guide the whole time.
Anyway,
- You can actually run away from "boss encounters" and majority of them aren't required unless they have an item you need for progression.
- Since you always get first action (unless the rare time you don't), you can just run away from pretty much every encounter (sometimes you get blocked - but this is also pretty rare).
- Around 3/4 in the game you access the Pyramids, which have a certain enemy that you can pretty much kill in 1-2 hits, and it gives you the most XP in the entire game. You can use this spot to grind up to pretty much max level in about an hour. Since you can run from every enemy first turn, you can just wait until you get this enemy and grind.
- Similarly there is an area (Amazonia) where there are enemies that drop a shitload of cash. At one point in the game you need 10000 to buy an item required.
- Even if you beat the final boss, if you don't have a specific item, you literally cannot beat the game. Imagine finally beating this boss, only to find out you don't have the item to win. Unfortunate
- The encounter rate is [terrible]. There seems to be a way to manipulate it, but sometimes it's just terrible no excuse.
I will try out the second game, which definitely seems more "traditional" dragon quest and hopefully not as "open ended"