Gargoyle's Quest

Gargoyle's Quest

Cover art

On the North American box art, the game's character Firebrand is green, however, the Japanese box art and all box art for the later games depicted him as being red.
Developer(s) Capcom
Publisher(s) Capcom
Producer(s) Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer(s) Kenshi Naruse
Composer(s) Harumi Fujita
Yoko Shimomura
Platform(s) Game Boy
Release

Game Boy

  • JP: May 2, 1990
  • NA: July 1990

3DS Virtual Console

  • JP: June 29, 2011
  • WW: August 25, 2011

[1]

Genre(s) Action, platform, Metroidvania[2]
Mode(s) Single player

Gargoyle's Quest: Ghosts 'n Goblins (Japanese: レッドアリーマー 魔界村外伝, Hepburn: Reddo Arīmā Makaimura Gaiden, lit. Red Arremer: Demon World Village Side-Story), is an action, platformer game for the original Game Boy, with role-playing video game elements.[3] Developed by Capcom, it was released on May 2, 1990, in Japan, then North America in July, and lastly Europe in 1991. The playable character Red Arremer (Firebrand in the U.S.) made his debut in the video game series Ghosts 'n Goblins as an antagonist character.[3] Gargoyle's Quest was followed by two sequels, an NES game Gargoyle's Quest II in 1992 and Demon's Crest for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994.

Plot

Storyline

According to the fictional content of the game, Firebrand is a gargoyle predestined to carry on the namesake and identity of the Red Blaze – the powerful force that fought back the Destroyers long before this game takes place. As his destiny foretold, Firebrand saves the Ghoul Realm from evil wrath by traversing the Ghoul Realm, building his powers, and preparing to fight against the Destroyers' King Breager so as to ensure the protection of the Ghoul Real once more.[4]

Characters

Allies

  • King Darkoan - a king of the Ghoul Realm. Usurped by King Breager and imprisoned in his own tower, unable to move from his throne.
  • Barone Jark - baron of the first city you come to; bears a striking similarity to Satan from Ghosts 'n Goblins. He asks Firebrand to obtain his Gremlin Stick, which was given to him by King Darkoan, by using the Fingernail of the Spectre. He can predict the future when in possession of the Gremlin Stick.
  • Majorita - female historian who lives in the Cave of Darkness and tells Firebrand the legend of the Red Blaze.
  • Barone Bymon - has the Candle of Darkness, which is needed to find Majorita in the Cave of Darkness.

Enemies

  • King Breager (final boss) - known as the King of Destruction. He wants to destroy the Ghoul Realm, but had failed once on a previous occasion when he was stopped by the Red Blaze. He is the commander of The Destroyers, an invading army.[4]
  • Zundo Druer (first boss) - fought in the burning town. It guards the portal to the Ghoul Realm, and looks like a giant blowfish who spews forth living flames.
  • Four-Eyes (second boss) - this collective creature is the boss at the top of the Tower and is guarding the Gremlin Stick. The four eyes are placed on the walls: two on one side of the room, two on the opposite. They shoot sparks from their irises.
  • Bellzemos (third boss) - the demon that is holding King Darkoan prisoner in Darkoan's palace. He or she is a skeletal demon that flies and can break his or her body down into bee-like creatures before reconstructing somewhere else.
  • Zakku Druzer (fourth boss) - he appears in the Desert of Destitution. Resembles a giant skeletal snail with two smaller demon heads below his main head; these shoot projectiles at Firebrand. He is guarding the Candle of Darkness.
  • Rushifell (fifth boss) - a demon who believes himself to be the Red Blaze and keeper of the Eternal Candle. Once he is defeated, he gladly hands over the candle to the true Red Blaze. His name appears to be a deliberate miss-transliteration of Lucifer and is the same character as Lucifer from Ghouls 'n Ghosts (who was renamed Loki in the Genesis version).

Gameplay

The game consists of two variations of gameplay. One part has the player traverse an overhead view, either on the world map or in towns. This is broken up by the other type of content: individual, action platforming levels which sometimes feature a boss at the end. While traversing in the sections with an overhead view, the player is able to talk with residential, harmless ghouls and is susceptible to random battle encounters. The player then must defeat the enemies in order to return to the overhead-view map. While returned, the player occasionally comes across ghouls who want to fight so as to test Firebrand.[5]

Firebrand can walk, jump (progressively higher with time), cling to walls using his claws, hover for a period of time (progressively longer with time), and fire offensive projectiles.[6] The player starts with a weak projectile which does not travel far, and progressively gains new ones. Firebrand starts with two hit points, but gains more throughout the game based on items or blessings obtained; various enemies and objects drain different amounts of his health, represented by the hit points.

Throughout the game, the player gains various items including passive ones that increase Firebrand's abilities outright. Eventually, Firebrand acquires an item that allows the player to hover without ever needing to rest on the ground. A healing vial can be reused to restore health. Additionally, several types of offensive projectiles are learned over time, all with unique traits or specialized uses. The Blockbuster, for example, is more powerful than its predecessor, travels further, and can destroy special walls blocking the player's path. Another projectile temporarily covers sharp vertical surfaces allowing Firebrand to reach higher locations. These abilities leaves a use for such projectiles, even after more powerful projectiles are obtained. Projectiles are selected one-at-a-time from a drop-down menu, same as the healing vial.[3]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[7]
Nintendo Life9/10[5]
Nintendo Power3.5/5[8]

Gargoyle's Quest was warmly received by contemporary and later critics, alike, and sold well enough overall to warrant a direct sequel for the NES.[8] Allgame editor Brett Alan Weiss called it a "ghoulishly entertaining, though undeniably challenging experience."[7] Nintendo Life editor Kaes Delgrego, who gave a higher score, stated the game to be "Beautiful in its simplicity, satisfying in its depth [...], Gargoyle's Quest is almost a painful reminder of how good games used to be, and is a solid indication of [how much potential] the Game Boy had, even during its fledgling years." He also found the music and art to do an impressive job at vividly conveying the drab, macabre world, especially given that the game came out close to the start of the Game Boy's lifespan.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Gargoyle's Quest (Game) - Giant Bomb". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
  2. ↑ Dominowski, Victoria (September 30, 2013). "Interview: WayForward’s Matt Bozon talks Shantae". Snackbar Games. Retrieved July 12, 2016. Snackbar Games: . . . What was the impetus behind the use of Metroidvania mechanics? / Matt Bozon: . . . At the time (1994), Super Metroid had just appeared on the scene, and the Castlevania series had only Simon’s Quest in terms of an exploration-style approach . . . This has become more formulaic as of late, but back then there were very few examples of how to make a game like this. We looked at Goonies 2, Rygar and even Gargoyle’s Quest as examples.
  3. 1 2 3 "Hardcore Gaming 101: Ghosts 'n Goblins / Makaimura". www.hardcoregaming101.net. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "GARGOYLE'S QUEST". www.nintendo.com. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  5. 1 2 3 Life, Nintendo (2011-08-26). "Review: Gargoyle's Quest (3DS eShop / GB)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  6. ↑ "Gargoyle's Quest for Game Boy (1990) - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  7. 1 2 Weiss, Brett Alan. "Gargoyle's Quest - Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Gargoyle's Quest Critic Reviews for Game Boy - GameFAQs". www.gamefaqs.com. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
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