Some thoughts on Ghost Lion, an old Kemco RPG for the NES

[Victar]

A long time ago, a friend temporarily loaned me a copy of the RPG Ghost Lion for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I'm grateful they did, because I have fond memories of playing it.

According to Wikipedia, Kemco developed and published Ghost Lion. It was released in 1989 in Japan, and 1992 in North America.

Unfortunately, Ghost Lion was never remade, nor was it added to Nintendo's virtual console listing. It wasn't on the NES Classic Edition either. Working Ghost Lion carts sell for $50 or more on eBay today.

Ghost Lion's story was about a young girl named Maria, whose parents disappeared while searching for a mysterious white lion. Maria is transported to a fantasy world, where she embarks on a journey to learn the truth about the Ghost Lion and find her parents.

The game system had some unique features. Battles were turn-based JRPG combat, but Maria didn't lead a traditional JRPG party. Instead, she gained the ability to summon party members in battle, each with their own abilities. She always started battles by herself.

In Ghost Lion, levels did not come from winning battles. Instead, Maria gained levels through exploration and finding specific items.

Ghost Lion had a modest amount of challenge, especially in the final boss battles, but it wasn't extremely difficult... it was definitely easier than, say, the Dragon Warrior games on the NES. Ghost Lion was also a fairly short game. The story wasn't especially deep or complex either, although it was rather charming.

Since Ghost Lion is so expensive to obtain, it's very hard to recommend to modern Kemco gamers. Perhaps its most notable feature is that it had a female protagonist, an extreme rarity among the RPGs of 30 years ago, and still fairly uncommon today.

[Nemomon]

Makes me sad that you didn't mention the Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle crazy series .