Poll of the Day > GameTok with Lok: This is about Guardic and The Guardian Legend

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm considering this as one of my hobby projects.

Upon viewing some speedruns and let's plays I'm not seeing the *particular* appeal of the game... I do see the general appeal, it's a cool shmup with an interesting level set up, but I don't see how it beats other dedicated shmups or other dedicated adventures

Of course, Miria has a cool design and the Landers are aborbable
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It was an early attempt at genre mash-up, and they pulled it off brilliantly. One of my favorite NES titles. Music is fantastic, too.

When I was a kid I thought it was so fucking cool turning into the spaceship.
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Guardic is kinda weird. Guardian Legend is a classic.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Guardian Legend is a classic.

I'd like it if you would pontificate.
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It's a vertical shooter, that's a Zeldaclone the rest of the time.

And it is one of the most graphically impressive games of the 8-bit era. Check out several of those bosses.
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I'm hard debating between 4 projects right now, which is awesome since I've been in a creative slump for close to 3 years... (essentially, since moving)

Not sure which to pursue
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I'm interesting making a remake of either The Guardian Legend or The Immortal, but not sure which
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@BTB

I wouldn't mind your opinion, I like your gaming opinions... but if you haven't played Shadowgate/The Immortal The Guardian Legend or whatever then that's ok
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Oh, The Guardian Legend... good call.

So, the shortest possible answer is that it beats out dedicated shmups because it's much more than a shmup. It combines a shmup with a top-down explorer in a similar vein to the Legend of Zelda and is most frequently compared to Blaster Master which was a very similar hybrid of two genres (replacing the shmup portion with a platformer). There's also the fact that you play as a six foot bitch dressed as a stripper with a gun and a lightsaber who can transform into a spaceship and there's no part of that premise that isn't totally awesome.

But that alone really doesn't explain why it consistently tops pretty much any "Hidden NES gems" list out there. If it were just a standard shmup (or even a standard top-down game), then it would have fallen pretty flat. What really sells it is how well it blends the two genres into a cohesive whole - the subweapon upgrades you get from the main exploratory portion of the game are the X-factor here. the provide the primary incentive to explore beyond just getting from point A to point B, and from a developer's perspective I found them all to be at least somewhat interesting and mostly well-balanced. Also from a developer's perspective, the game was technically light years ahead of its time: a bullet hell game on a system that could not *do* bullet hell. That the game didn't just cause your NES to burst into flames was perhaps its greatest achievement.

Finally, one last factor that I believe contributes to its enduring legacy is just how well-suited it is for modding and randomization. Randomizers are big things these days, but so many of them exist for games where they just make no sense existing (Final Fantasy VI being a primary example). Randomizers are best suited to a game like the Legend of Zelda or TGL where what you will end up with will be a fun new experience and not just a damned mess, and I think the framework that TGL provides modern developers to work with is amongst the best that the NES days have to offer.
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Shadowgate is sick. I wish I could forget it all and play through without having every solution memorized.
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guardian legend?

-great adventure overhead scenes
-great shooting with awesome multiple weapon choices and unlocking more weapons and power ups as you go
-gnarly stage music
-actual adventuring/exploring and getting good shit for going to areas you dont need to finish or doing stages you don't need to complete
-did I mention the music?
-difficult enough to require trying some things more than once or refining your tactics, but never unfair or too hard (excepting those fucking giant demon face guys)
-extra mode that you can access if you only want to play the shooting stages? (good for couch co-op and switching off each boss)

great game, and if you don't like it that much you probably didn't grow up with it like some of us did

I only discovered TGL a few years ago and I loved it immediately.
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Ya, I didn't grow up with it - I didn't even hear about it until a few years ago - never played it.
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I'll keep this bamped a couple more times while I mull over my decisions
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Ok, HUGE development!

Apparently the Guardian Legend uses a 24x24 map, perfectly fine - not unreasonable... but there's mapDATA for a 32x32 map, and these extra rooms are accessible via the password system. Corridors up to 127 have been discovered exploring these corruption land

Kinda like the hidden worlds in the original Metroid
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I have lost interest in the project... I could probably still do it:

The source of this loss is the discovery of "Secret Edition" which is a hack of the game done better, as well as The Guardian Legend: Legacy which is a 3D remake... so, like, my joerb is done

Idk
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Oh, and Nier Automata is basically Guardian Legend anyways
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