Game Boy #3: Great Greed

Developer: Namco

Publisher: Namco

Release Date: 4-1-93

Now I know what the best non-Pokémon or Final Fantasy RPG on Game Boy is. Great Greed is an excellent game that pushes the limits of the console. Of course, it’s also one of those games that was $20 five years ago and now goes for about $150. I really hate the state of retro gaming these days. Luckily this is 2022, so it’s not hard to find a cheaper way to play. It’s certainly worth checking out though. It just shows what can be accomplished when a high-quality developer puts their heart and soul into a game.

 

Great Greed is a classic turn-based RPG, which of course is my favorite kind of game. Most RPGs on Game Boy are slow, but this one moves surprisingly fast even when level grinding. There is quite a bit of level grinding involved so be warned if you don’t like that sort of thing. They are able to speed things up by getting rid of the menu screens during battles. All the actions are mapped to specific buttons with the control pad used for spells which you have to equip. It works very well even if it means the options in battle are somewhat limited. The spells are mostly typical in this game, and I didn’t use offensive ones very often. I mostly used healing and status spells.

 Great Greed is one of those games that starts out silly but gets more serious and difficult as it goes on. The first person you meet is named Microwave, so you know it’s going to be a weird game. Most of the characters and places have food related names. It has both a fantasy and technological setting. In one area you have to save a pop singer from a record store which includes giant spinning records on the floor. However, Bio-Haz, the villain in the game, is menacing enough to never let things get too silly. It is well-balanced in its presentation. It also has a large amount of narrative for a Game Boy game. It’s very impressive in that way.

 

Be careful though, the last third of the game gets very difficult. Once you’ve passed through an area you can never go back. That means that when you get to the last town you are stuck there. Of course, it’s just about the only town in the game with no inn, so I struggled for a bit, especially since the final dungeon was full of difficult monsters. There is a person that sells healing items, but he’s not in a regular shop so I didn’t find him for a long time. Luckily leveling up fully recovers the hero, so I figured out how to time my level ups so that I could recover at just the right time. I thought this was going to be yet another RPG that played through the first two-thirds of only to get stalled and never finish. Luckily I was able to persevere. Hopefully I can do the same with The Sword of Hope II. I don’t have that many more Game Boy RPGs to finish after that one.

 There is one moment that is a little creepy though. At the end of the game the king lets you get engaged to one of his daughters. After the credits are over you can read biographies of all the sisters. It turns out that only one of them was over 18, and the youngest was only 11. Imagine accidentally getting married to an 11 year old. At least no marriage takes place, and is implied that the hero and his betrothed weren’t going to be married for a while. Still, it’s one of those semi-gross moments that comes up in JRPGs from time to time. It doesn’t ruin the game, but it was a weird thing to discover at the absolute last second.

 So this one is going high up on the list. It’s at a very respectable 22^nd right behind Tails’ Adventures. It’s one of the better 8-bit RPGs that I have played, and it’s a shame that it has gotten so expensive. It’s the kind of game that only the most dedicated RPG players have probably ever heard of, and the high price tag certainly doesn’t change that. I don’t think it was ever on the 3DS store either like so many other old handheld RPGs. It’s definitely a game that deserves some more attention. I feel like I’ve gone a little easy on Game Boy so far. All three games I have played have been high quality ones. I need to play some licensed crap just to even things out. Perhaps I will do that in the near future. Stay tuned!

 

Game Boy Quality Percentage: 3/3 or 100%

images are from mobygames.com

Game Boy Rankings

1. Great Greed

2. Knight Quest

3. Super Mario Land