Despite Wonder Boy III The Dragon's Trap being one of my favorite games on the SMS, I somehow didn't play this follow up. It's a direct evolution of the series along action-RPG lines, continuing the series mix of side-scrolling puzzle solving, exploration and action.
The size of the world has expanded to include multiple towns with more space for varied environments between them, all of which feature unique gameplay elements and visual styles. The boss fights are much improved - and more challenging - over WBIII, making defeating them feel like an accomplishment. As with the rest of the series, the sandtrack is another highlight.
The gameplay is on the more sedentary side of the spectrum, with a moderate movement speed that caters to deliberate, careful play rather than frenetic action.
I found a few of the dungeons challenging for the wrong reasons - one in particular is a made of nearly identical passageways and doors that warp you around them that require complex weaving to navigate (I took to some graph paper to diagram it out). And the final boss serves as a big plot twist (yay) and a horrible gameplay experience (boo!).
But on the whole this a very fun, challenging action-RPG that is much more fleshed out and feature-rich that earlier games in the series. If you are wanting to discover what the Wonder Boy games are all about, this is a great place to start.
Played on Genesis Mini.
The size of the world has expanded to include multiple towns with more space for varied environments between them, all of which feature unique gameplay elements and visual styles. The boss fights are much improved - and more challenging - over WBIII, making defeating them feel like an accomplishment. As with the rest of the series, the sandtrack is another highlight.
The gameplay is on the more sedentary side of the spectrum, with a moderate movement speed that caters to deliberate, careful play rather than frenetic action.
I found a few of the dungeons challenging for the wrong reasons - one in particular is a made of nearly identical passageways and doors that warp you around them that require complex weaving to navigate (I took to some graph paper to diagram it out). And the final boss serves as a big plot twist (yay) and a horrible gameplay experience (boo!).
But on the whole this a very fun, challenging action-RPG that is much more fleshed out and feature-rich that earlier games in the series. If you are wanting to discover what the Wonder Boy games are all about, this is a great place to start.
Played on Genesis Mini.