Great Greed is one of those oddities in the world that most people disregarded because of the lack of advertising that the game had during its launch. There is another reason why this game is so rare and unheard too...Great Greed is an RPG that is published by Namco. Namco was not known for old RPGs, especially in North America. With that being said, I was quite surprised when I heard about Great Greed for the first time. After actively seeking the game out for a year or so, I finally found a cheap copy of the game in a pawn shop.
The game starts like this: You see an old lady and a hunter fighting. The old lady, Microwave, comes from an alternate dimension and resides in the kingdom of Greene. To escape the fighting, Microwave casts a spell to jump into the 3rd dimension (human world). The hunter follows suit. You see your main character (SAM by default...better known as Sierra Sam) and his dad in a forest after the event. Microwave appears in your dimension and accidentally pulls you into her world and your adventure begins as you try to save the Greene Kingdom from Bio-Haz (Also known as Bio-Hazard Harry) while meeting King Greene and his daughters. The game is very old-school and the translation is not the greatest. One thing that really bothers me is that there is someone named Cadnium, but he is also called Cavity somewhere else in the game. While there are numerous errors all over the place, that one still sticks with me. I also found Candy Greene's reaction to the death of one of her soldiers at the start of the game to be a bit cruel (and humorous)..., she simply says: "How lame..." While the plot is a bit unusual and the characters have funny names, the dialogue isn't exactly that great. This is typical to a lot of old RPGs, but I thought that Great Greed laid it on a bit thick, but in its defense, the game has multiple endings that are worthwhile, even if the dialogue itself is more or less typical to other earlier RPGs.
When it came to graphics, I had a tough time deciding what would define the visual presentation of this game. The enemies look quite detailed, but the background design needed a little more polish. Enemies have different states in which they do different poses, but it's sad because a good deal of the enemies don't have different poses for different states. Some enemies react when they are hit while some react when they are dying and such. It normally wouldn't bother me, but the direction this game headed made it clear to me that there should have been more and the ones present could have been better. The attention to detail to the select few enemies should have been given to all enemies. The overworld graphics looks very reminiscent to many other Game Boy RPGs and after taking a good long look at the game, the visuals are pretty decent, though nothing truly out of the ordinary.
I can't say too much about the audio in the game. I found some of the music to be annoying. The reason is probably because the some of the sound effects and such that accompany the music are awful, not so much the music itself. Loud bleeps and bloops are done in a style that isn't all too rhythmic or stylish and for me, it greatly detracts from the otherwise decent music. Some tunes are composed rather nicely such as town music and the overworld map theme. I also like the theme that plays on the title screen, even though some notes in it screech due to how high pitched they are and after playing the game for a third time, I got over the battle theme which originally annoyed me. However, I'd still say that the music needed fine tuning and it could have been better in some areas, though the music is a little better than I previously gave it credit.
The gameplay is a mixed bag. First, let me talk about battle. It is a one-on-one RPG, so it's some sort of caveman game. Basically, if you bonk me, I'll bonk you back. It seems like this at the beginning, but it would be extremely linear if that were the case. You have magic and you can run from combat. While the game sounds typical, Great Greed was a wee bit different from other Game Boy RPGs at the time. You see, while the combat is typical to other standard RPGs, you don't actually select from a list of commands. Instead, you must press different buttons to initiate different commands. For example, press the A button would make you attack while pressing the B button will make your hero attempt to dodge an enemy attack. If you dodge successfully, enemies can slip and you can attack them while they are down. You have traditional RPG spells too, but you must equip them and set them to a directional key. You can set fire magic to the "left" directional key so that when you press left on the Game Boy D-Pad, you would cast fire magic. Magic can also have additional effects. Fire magic burns enemies which causes them to lose additional damage per turn while Ice magic can freeze enemies and immobilize them which allows you to attack them without fear of being attacked back. There are spells that boost your abilities and other such magic such as instant death and the like.
However, while that sounds well and good, it isn't all too impressive in actuality. While it makes the game to seem faster in pace, the game basically still plays like a turn-based RPG. If you wait too long to take an action, the enemy will automatically attack, but in all honesty, you have to REALLY be trying to let the enemy get an attack in if that happens. Generally speaking, you attack and then the enemy attacks. You have secondary party members at times who can do various things from attacking to assisting, but they are usually very temporary. To add to this, they cannot be controlled and usually only serve one purpose. The encounter rate can be ridiculous at times as well. Whenever you enter a new region in the world, you get pounded on like a weakling and you must find a town pronto. The enemies you fight are statistically stronger than you later on and have lots of health. Thankfully, it seems as though your magic lasts a while because you will have to heal maybe once or twice every battle in the later portions of the game. I didn't find attack magic to even be of much use around the middle of the game as I would hit for excellent damage with my sword and use magic to heal.
My verdict? There is some good to the game. Overall, I liked the battle system for what it was worth. As stated before, the game does have multiple endings and the game still plays like many other traditional RPGs. While the game is fairly challenging near the end of the game, Great Greed isn't completely broken. Still, I've enjoyed earlier Game Boy RPGs like Final Fantasy Legend I and II because they introduced some interesting concepts for their time, but Great Greed is still a suitable RPG for RPG fans looking for a traditional RPG experience. I've certainly played better but I'll say that I've played worse too...and yes, I like Family Guy.
- Written by Vyse the determined -
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