Thoughts on Kemco RPGs The Sword of Hope & SoH II (GameBoy, 3DS virtual console)

[Victar]

According to Wikipedia, Kemco developed The Sword of Hope and The Sword of Hope II, although both games were published by Seika Corporation. Both games were originally released for the black-and-white GameBoy, and were on the very short list of RPGs on that system. I played both of them decades ago, and found them mildly enjoyable, albeit very simplistic.

The story premise of both games was "there's an evil thing menacing the kingdom, go beat it up". SoH II tried to add a little more panache to its story, but I don't think it succeeded.

Today, The Sword of Hope II is also available on the 3DS virtual console in the US, but The Sword of Hope is only on 3DS virtual console in Japan.

Both SoH and SoH II had turn-based combat, but SoH only had one playable character. SoH II had a party of three characters. SoH was basically the original Dragon Quest - grind experience levels, collect gold to buy useful battle items, solve the occasional puzzle, fight bosses, pray you don't die. SoH II was the same, but the three-person party offered a little more opportunity for strategy in battles.

Exploration in SoH and SoH II had an overwhelming "adventure game" feel to it, because the first-person view was almost identical to that of the classic MacVenture point-and-click adventure games (Deja Vu, Uninvited, Shadowgate), which incidentally were also published by Kemco.

Encounters weren't exactly random; enemies could be seen as a dot covering certain door, blocking the transition to another room. Enemies respawned as one moved about. I remember moving back and forth to grind moths for experience. Many, many moths.

Both SoH and SoH II are so primitive by today's standards that they are hard to recommend, especially since obtaining hardware to play GameBoy cartridges on might be substantially more expensive than the games themselves. I would suggest that anyone curious to experience this piece of Kemco's RPG history start with SoH II on the 3DS virtual console. Even though The Sword of Hope II is technically a direct sequel, the plot of both games is so bare-bones that I don't think playing them out of order detracts from them in any way.