Modern Gamers' Guide to 8-Bit RPGs #5 - Chaos World

I bumped up my rating of Lagrange Point after playing this because, to me, Chaos World is the very definition of mediocrity.

There's very little separating this from the likes of Dragon Quest I or Final Fantasy I. High encounter rate turn-based battles (actually, it's not even really turn based. You press "Fight" and the game auto battles based on your chosen strategy preset), an overworld map that gradually opens up, a few maze-like dungeons . . . Your party is even referred to as the Warriors of Light and the big bad is named Chaos, for crying out loud!

Perhaps the only worthwhile difference to mention is that you have a total of 16 recruitable party members--most of whom will spend the remainder of their days getting plastered in the bar you leave them in. Once you have a party of 4 there's very little reason to change them out. There's a replayability factor thanks to the 8 different classes your party can be comprised of, but the Thief and Shaman classes are woefully lacking in late-game weapons and, let's be honest here, you're unlikely to want to replay this anyways.

My Enjoyment - 4/8 Bits. Chaos World is a mundane RPG that came out 5 years after Dragon Quest I and did little to evolve that game's formula. If fast-forwarding wasn't available to me I highly doubt I would have finished it.
Difficulty - 3/8 Bits. Grind up around a town with a cheap inn every once in awhile and you'll be fine.
Modern Accessibility - 3/8 Bits. Your mileage will vary depending on how much you can stomach random battles that, in this case literally, play themselves. There are also no in-game maps so you'll be relying on memory or shuffling through various maps online.

Final Verdict - Modern gamers need not apply. While I didn't outright hate my time with this game, I didn't really enjoy it either. It's a very safe entry in the JRPG timeline by developer Natsume. I love quite a few of Natsume's later games but this one ain't it chief.

Modern Gamers' Guide to 8-Bit RPGs #1 - Lagrange Point

Barring one dramatically shocking pre-rendered cutscene, only die-hard old school RPG will enjoy travelling back in time to the Lagrange Point.

There are also 4 "overworld" areas to explore which, while impressively sized for the time, quickly become a chore to explore and constantly backtrack through thanks to the 2-10 step encounter rate.

Battles are a turn-based affair revolving primarily around basic attacks and buffs/debuffs. Each party member has a a signature special move they can use, but these moves cost 1/2 of that character's Maximum HP value. Thanks to the high encounter rate and all basic attacks pulling from the same BP (read: MP) pool as your healing abilities, special abilities are rarely worth the cost outside of boss battles. Speaking of boss battles, they almost all come in the form of invisible encounters that you're likely to walk into without warning. If you're caught off-guard while low on resources, expect to watch your party fall.

Luckily death won't completely set you back. If you die you lose your temporary money, but your character growth and items are retained. (Temporary money is money earned after a battle. To keep your cash you have to bank it in a town. If you die before doing so you lose every cent of your battle earnings since your last visit to town.)

Before I wrap the review there are a few cool features I want to breeze through. There's a basic weapon fusion system that manages to feel ahead of its time thanks to a consistent upgrade tree with no RNG involved. There are 10 playable characters than can be swapped in and out of your 4 person battle party at your home base. They're totally undeveloped and have less than five lines of dialogue each, but at least there's some variety to break up the slew of random encounters. The OST is definitely worth a listen on YouTube or something if you dig chiptune tracks, too.

My Enjoyment - 4.5/8 Bits. I played this with 3x fast-forward, online maps and a guide, and it still felt too long. The setting and music are pretty cool though, and at least Konami tried some new things instead of cloning Dragon Quest.
Difficulty - 5/8 Bits. Difficulty mainly comes from inevitably running out of HP+BP healing items thanks to limited inventory space.
Modern Accessibility - 2/8 Bits. Modern gamers need not apply. Lagrange Point will bore you, piss you off, or both.

Final Verdict - Not worth the Bits for the modern audience at large, but old-school JRPG fanatics might be able to enjoy what Konami was trying to do here.

Modern Gamers' Guide to 8-Bit RPGs #3 - Faxanadu

NPCs are helpful enough to get you through without a guide, and thanks to death penalties being incredibly lenient (and sometimes beneficial) you don't get the ol' NES Rage that plagued so many platformers on the console.

Relies on password saves and there's no map to assist with navigation, so be prepared for crust of that nature.

My Enjoyment - 6/8 Bits. I enjoyed my playthrough and the game never outstayed its welcome.
Difficulty - 5/8 Bits. Challenging at times but balanced out by the lack of an impactful death penalty.
Modern Accessibility - 6/8 Bits. The lack of a map and a password based save system don't muddy the experience as much as one might think; especially if you use save states and look up maps online.

Final Verdict - Kickback, relax and enjoy all 8 of these bits.