Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei

Cover of the Famicom game

デジタル・デビル 物語女神転生 (Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei) is a role playing game released for the Famicom 11 September 1987 by Atlus and published by Namco (At the time known as Namcot).
For those unaware, Famicom is the Japanese game console that was named Nintendo Entertainment System in the west.
There is another game released the same year (two moths earlier) with the same title by Telnet Japan for the PC88 and MSX computers, but it is a different game and is a top-down action rpg.

The title of the game (and the first novel) "Megami Tensei" means Goddess Reincarnation, and is a reference to the female protagonist, Yumiko being a reincarnation of Izanami.

It is not strange if most of you haven't heard of this game since it was only released in Japan (and neither was the novels for that matter), but the franchise it spawned is vast if you consider all the spin-off series.
Some of the spin-offs you might have heard of includes "Digital Devil Saga" (PS2), "Devil Summoner" (Various consoles) and "Persona" (PS1-PS4).

The third game in the series was named 真・女神転生 (Shin Megami Tensei). Shin meaning "true", but another character with the same pronunciation 新 means "new", so it may be a pun referring to the novel series following the original trilogy, called "New Digital Devil Story".
However it is only the first game that has any connection to the novels by Aya Nishitani.

Engaging a Goblin

The game was released after Atlus bought the video game rights to the horror novel series "Digital Devil Story" by author Aya Nishitani. It is a dark cyberpunk horror story with contents such as gore and rape, so it was clear from the beginning that the games wouldn't be targeted at children. The game is not as graphic as the novels however.

The original novel series comprises of three books:
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
Digital Devil Story 2: Warrior of the Demon City
Digital Devil Story 3: Demise of the Reincarnation

The game takes place after the two first parts of the trilogy as an alternative ending to that in the third novel.

The first game in the franchise that was released outside of Japan was the spin-off game "Jack Bros." in 1995. Don't feel bad if you never heard of it since it was released for the failed Nintendo console Virtual Boy.
So perhaps the first one released outside of Japan that anyone actually played was "Revelations: Persona" (PS1 1996).

The first game in the franchise released in Europe was "Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call" (PS2 2009). Known as "Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturn" (2008) in the U.S. and "Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturn" (2007) in Japan. Despite the fact that it technically was the fifth "Shin Megami Tensei" game.

Cover of Lucifer's Call (2009, PS2, Europe)

Known as "Megaten" to fans, the series is considered the third most popular role playing series in Japan, following "Dragon Quest" and "Final Fantasy".

The novel was also adapted into a 45 minute OVA anime. Allegedly it is really bad (not that the original novels seem to have been great works of fiction). It was based on the first novel.

Cover of the anime

It is interesting to me that almost everything unique to the series started here, in the first game.
The cyberpunk/horror setting in modern day Japan. A mixture of mythological creatures from most cultures around the world. The game world being influenced by the moon phases. The ability to talk to monsters and recruit them and later summon them as allies. As well as the ability to fuse demons you control into new ones.

Another interesting thing is that the series remained relatively unknown, despite basically having a very similar core mechanic to Pokemon, although much more sophisticated despite being released almost a decade earlier. Of course I am thinking of the capturing and utilization of monster characters as a core mechanic of the game.
Interesting, yes, but perhaps not very strange, considering "Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei" had a much smaller demographic, with its dark horror theme and really challenging game-play (another aspect retained throughout the series).

Before summarizing the plot of the game, perhaps a summary of the first two novels is in order, since the game takes place directly after that story-line. If you are fluent in Japanese and plan to read the novels consider this a spoiler warning.

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei novel summary

Cover of the first novel

The protagonist Akemi Nakajima is a computer genius and student of Jusho High School in Kuniritsu, a suburb of Tokyo.

He is assaulted by the less gifted student Hiroyuki Kondo by the orders of Kyoko Takamizawa. Kyoko was angered by Nakajima rejecting her romantic advances and she told Kondo that Nakajima had been flirting with her to make him jealous.

The less gifted students were rarely punished for their actions against the more gifted students.

Battered and bloody Nakajima comes home and decides to finish his Demon Summoning Program, a combination of his knowledge of computer science and occultism. He finds his computer is not powerful enough to use the program however, so he decides to use the computer in his school's Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) room.

After summoning Loki from Aziluth to the school computer, he helps Nakajima kill Hiroyuko and Kyoko.

At first Nakajima begins to comply with Loki's request for female sacrifices and offers him his female professor Ohara. However one of his classmates, Yumiko Shirasagi witnesses the rape of Oahara by Loki. Permanently damaged by the encounter she eventually becomes Loki's servant and helps him assume physical form in the human world through Nakajima's program.

Loki then demanded his next sacrifice to be Yumiko, which Nakajima doesn't agree with since he feels a strange connection with her. He warns Yumiko to stay away, but she doesn't listen.

Loki summons himself into the physical world through the CAI room computer and goes on a killing spree and rapes Yumiko, free from Nakajima's control. 

Nakajima summons a lesser demon, Cerberus, to help him fight Loki, but is unsuccessful.

During the fight, Yumiko is possessed by Izanami, of whom Yumiko is a reincarnation, and burns Loki with her powers. In addition to dealing with Cerberus, Loki is distracted enough so that Yumiko and Nakajima can escape through a dimensional warp to Asuka created by Izanami, although Loki succeeds in fatally wounding Yumiko as she flees.

Still influenced by Izanami, Yumiko tells Nakajima that she will die, but could be revived if her body is brought to Izanami's tomb. Yumiko dies, but with the help of Cerberus, Nakajima complies with her dying request and travels to the Shirasagi Mount, where he meets Yomotsu-Shikome, a loyal servant of Izanami's.

With Ohara's help Loki is able to follow them to Shirasagi Mount, where he kills Yomotsu-Shikome. Izanami meets Nakajima and Yumiko in the tomb, but she is attacked by Loki before the resurrection can take place. Nakajima summons Cerberus to help, Cerberus ends up being killed by Loki. Nakajima uses two spheres that Yomotu-Shikome had given him, which summons Hinokagutsuchi, who transforms into a magical fiery sword, with which Nakajima is at last able to kill Loki.

Izanami succeeds in reviving Yumiko, but keeps her with her to give her the power to fight demons.

Digital Devil Story 2: Warrior of the Demon City novel summary

Cover of the second novel

Meanwhile, Ohara, impregnated by Loki, attempts to communicate with him, not knowing that he has perished. This makes her accidentally contact the demon Seth instead.

After learning that Ohara, and American Isma Feed is using his Demon Summoning Program to summon Seth, Nakajima meets up with MIT professor Charles Feed and Special Forces agent Narukawa. They attempt to develop a way to stop Seth, coming up with the Demon Banishment Program.
Nakajima eventually return home to discover his mother is under the influence of an Apep left by Ohara, and attacks him.
Meanwhile Yumiko has returned from Yomi after Ohara killed her family, and she now comes to Nakajima's aid, but is forced to kill his mother.
She leaves Nakajima to grieve, but is captured by Seth, who has been summoned into Ohara and Loki's unborn child thanks to Yumiko's presence.

Nakajima sets out to look for Yumiko, but fails.
Nakajima and Charles finishes the first draft of the Demon Banishment Program, but learn from Narukawa that the project was shut down by the government (who, unbeknownst to them is under the control of Isma).

Nakajima together with Cerberus, Charles, and Narukawa go into the Soga Forest and find Seth, who is using Yumiko to merge the Assiah and Atziluth worlds in an attempt to build his true body from the unborn child and the magnetite in the human sacrifices he is drawing to him.
Nakajima attempts to save Yumiko, but is stopped by Isma and Typhon.
Seeing Nakajima's despair Narukawa awakens as the reincarnation of Tsukuyomi and kills Isma and Typhon, and holds of Seth long enough for Nakajima and Charles to escape, at the cost of his own life.

Charles return to America to set in motion a plan to summon Seth harmlessly in a satellite in earths orbit. Nakajima opposes the plan after learning that Yumiko would be dragged away with him.
Nakajima returns to Shirasagi Mound to visit Izanami, who gives him her robe, explaining that it is actually Izanagi's robe. Nakajima thus discovers he is the reincarnation of Izanagi.
With the robe Nakajima attempts to cut Yumiko from Seth, but fails, and she is dragged with Seth into the satellite.
Nakajima flies into space to rescue her which provokes Seth into detaching from the satellite, descending to earth with his minions.
The two defeats Seth together, but despite Yumiko's pleads no to, Nakajima rescues her from falling into Atziluth. Thus the rift between the human realm and demon realm remains open.

Game Plot

Title screen

The game takes place after both Loki and Seth has been defeated, but another demon, Lucifer has appeared and resurrected both Loki and Seth in preparation to invade the human world.

To quote a fan-translation of the games intro:

"It all began at Juusei High, when Akemi Nakajima fused his knowledge of the dark arts and computers to create the Devil Summoning program.

But the demons he called broke free from their cage.

After they found a way to manifest themselves in the real world, the demons set out to enslave humanity, but were thwarted by Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Shirasaki. The both of them were incarnations of powerful gods.

But the Dark Lord Lucifer has revived his fallen servants, and sealed away the divine spirit of Izanami within his dark and twisted maze.

If the two of them do not succeed, humanity will be doomed."

Trying to talk to a demon

Another quote from http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Megami_Tensei

"Akemi Nakajima, a programming genius, invented a Devil Summoning Program. But after gaining physical bodies, the demons Loki and Set attacked the summoner. He was saved by a mysterious transfer student, Yumiko Shirasagi. Nakajima and the magic-wielding Yumiko joined forces and repelled the demons... However... The demons have not surrendered. Lucifer, a once beautiful angel who was cast into Hell, is planning to conquer the human world! A demonic palace has appeared in Asuka... where the tomb of the goddess Izanami rests under Shirasagi Mound. The powerful Izanami has been captured by Lucifer, and her chamber sealed within the palace. To save Izanami... defeat the resurrected Loki and Set, and Lucifer himself, Nakajima and Yumiko walk through the palace's entrance... But will they ever be able to return to the surface...?"

The story mentioned in the game is a lot more simplified than the story in the novels. Not very surprising considering how very unsympathetic the male protagonist is in the novels, being the direct cause of mass murder and rape.

The game begins when the two enter Lucifer's vast maze, and the entire game takes place inside.

Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Shirasaki entering Lucifer's maze

Game play

The game places as so many other first person dungeon crawlers of the time, with a turn based fighting system. The big difference of course is the ability to talk to and recruit enemy characters.

Oddly the entire screen is not shown at the same time, instead the screen is tilted left and right with the B-button. The right side showing the menu and the status of characters in the party. The left side showing the map and the level/class of characters in the party.

Left pane; showing class, level and map

As was the case with similar games at the time, drawing your own maps (called mapping) of the game was considered part of the fun of playing such games. "Automapping" was unheard of.
However from the start, Yumiko is able to cast a magic called "Mappa" that displays a map on the left hand pane. However, it does not display the location of any important objects, such as stairs, and it could therefore be useful to draw your own maps regardless.

The game plays like many other jrpgs and should be familiar if you have played similar games.
You randomly encounter enemies and can choose to fight, flee, use magic, etc. It uses a turn-based order. When hit-points of a character reaches zero, they die. If both Nakajima and Yumiko dies it is Game Over.
However you can choose to continue by loosing half your money and all your jewels.

Yumiko has the unique ability to cast magic, whereas Nakajima has the unique ability to use his Computer, allowing him to Summon, Banish, and talk to demons.
Other than the previous mentioned, and highly useful "Mappa" magic, Yumiko also has the "Medi" magic, which allows her to heal characters. Although healing Nakajima seems to work great, often healing around 30 hit points in the early game, when healing herself, she usually only manage to heal 1 or 2 hit points, making taking care of her health essential to be successful in the game.

As in similar games you can buy and equip armor and weapons, and by defeating enemies you gain experience and level up.
This is however only true for the two protagonists, the demons can neither equip items, or level up.

Right pane; showing status, and the menu with the options:
Computer, Status, Magic, and Jewel

Instead of leveling up your demons, you can visit 邪教の館 Jakyuu no kan (The Heretic's Hall), where you can fuse two demons you possess into new ones. Demons does not always fuse into stronger ones so be careful. Also, if the result is a demon of higher level than Nakajima, you can not fuse.
The Heretic's Hall is also the place to go to revive dead characters.

To heal the hit points and magic points of characters that are still alive, you need to go to 回復の泉 Kaifuku no izumi (The restoration fountain).
Both the resurrection in the Heretic's Hall, and the recovery in the restoration fountain costs money of course.

As stated previously, the ability to talk to and convince demons to join your party is essential.
Nakajima is the one who uses his computer to talk to, summon, and banish demons.
A demon that has a higher level than him can not join.
Quite often you have to bribe the demons to join with money (called Macca*), Jewels and Magnetite (a magical essence).

*Macca is the name used in the English translations of the games in the series, but the term used in this, the first game, seems to actually be "Mochikin"

The intro shows Nakajima writing what appears to be an Assembly Language program
(I'm not skilled enough to tell if it's real code, or just something made to resemble it)

Once a demon has agreed to join, you need to pay it Macca in order to summon it.
After it is summoned it will gradually consume your Magnetite, so just filling your party with demons at all times is not advisable.

Another rather rare function is the "Autobattle", which greatly increases the games speed, especially when fighting a lot of weak enemies. This enables all your characters to do physical attacks.

Although most enemies are mythological creatures, there are also some "standard" fantasy enemies like Orcs and Slimes etc.

A weird random encounter unique to the first game is the "bug".
Apparently this is part of an Easter-egg. By pressing A+B+Left+Down on the 2nd controller, and then choosing "Autobattle", the usual text displayed: "Nakajima and the others start fighting" is changed to "Cabu-chan begins debugging".
I haven't been able to find a list of all involved developers of the game, but I assume "Cabu" is the name (or nickname) of one of the games programmers.

Not an actual bug, but a rare enemy encounter

Furthermore, since this was a relatively early game, it did not feature a save function, but instead used a complex password function.

Getting the password of the games current state

As previously stated this is a challenging game, especially in the beginning of the game.
It is in fact so difficult it is quite possible to screw up so much initially that the game becomes nearly unplayable.
Do not be surprised if you become defeated in the very first enemy encounter!

In light of this I think it would be a good idea to offer a little guide to the very beginning of the game.
If you are a true masochist and want to take your chances on your own, consider this a spoiler warning, but don't blame me if you quit the game in pure frustration without getting anywhere.

Short guide to the start of the game

The first thing you get to do is alter the stats of the two protagonists.

This is the first step you can easily mess up.

For instance: do not waste points on Wisdom for Nakajima. He will never learn any type of magic, and it would be a waste of skill-points.

Reversely Yumiko is your main magic user, do not waste skill-points on Strength.

Customizing Nakajima

Generally speaking you want to primarily focus on Strength with Nakajima, and Wisdom with Yumiko.

If you don't want to max out those stats, perhaps Strength as primary, and Attack as secondary for Nakajima is a good idea, since he will essentially be your only damage dealer in the early game.

For Yumiko focus primarily on Wisdom, secondarily it might be a good move to focus on Agility, since it increases her chances to dodge the enemy attacks.

Customizing Yumiko

When the game starts, your party has absolutely nothing!

No money, no Jewels, no Magnetite, no weapons, no equipment, and no demons.

The very first thing you must do is explore the 8th level of Deadalus; the town of Micom where you start, to find a treasure chest with a 500 Macca in it.

Your first treasure chest

Most other treasure chest seem to be somewhat random, most likely affected both by the face of the moon, and by your Luck stat.

The next thing you should do is go to the store and buy armor and weapons.
Buy a combat suit for each character, then the Jack knife for Yumiko, and the Nunchuks for Nakajima (the nunchucks has a small chance to hit 2 enemies).

辺境の店 Henkyuu no mise (Frontier store) in Micon

If you haven't already, cast "Mappa", this will show a map in the left pane. Above the map is also a note on what floor you are on and what direction you are facing.
Be wary that magic resets each New Moon, and during the New Moon any attempt to cast "Mappa" will fail. So you need to recast it ever so often.

Now start exploring floor 7, 6, and 5. To begin with you should probably fight "Pink Loopers" and "Green Slimes". If you encounter Zombies, Run. Even if you defeat them, they tend to cause Paralysis, which causes your characters to slowly lose hit points and die. Running from Zombies seem to always be successful.

回復の泉 Kaifuku no izumi (The restoration fountain)

Gradually level up, collect Macca, Jewels, and Magnetite. Upgrade your equipment when you can afford to, but always remember to keep money to heal at the Restoration Fountain.

You should probably have enough resources to recruit demons at least at level 5. Also remember to fuse demons to make new, stronger ones at the Heretic's Hall.
Not all fusions results in stronger demons. At least in the early game, if the result is weaker than the original ones, it tends to become a Dryad.
Also remember that the Heretic's Hall is where to go to revive dead characters. If you enter with a dead character that option becomes available instead of fusing.

邪教の館 Jakyuu no kan (The Heretic's Hall)

Gradually engage stronger enemies and explore lower levels of the maze.
Friendly characters are scattered around the game that can provide advice. You also find various walls with writing on them that explain some particulars of the game, for instance that the moon phases are important. When the moon is full demons get stronger and will not talk to you.

Try to collect various demons to fuse them into stronger and stronger once.
Once you hit level 10 the game does not seem quite as impossible as in the beginning. You should have a handful of strong demons, and the best equipment from the store in Micon.
You should be able to easily make it to floor 1.
It might still be a bit to difficult to beat the first boss, who is located at that floor however.

Once you've gotten this far you understand the gist of the game and should be able to play the rest of the game without any further advice.

Remakes and translations

"On March 31, 1995, Atlus remade the Namco version, along with its sequel Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II and released a single Super Famicom cartridge titled Kyūyaku Megami Tensei (旧約・女神転生? "Megami Tensei: The Old Testament", or "The Goddess Reincarnation of the Old Testament"). It was released only in Japan. Atlus did not take too many liberties with the original gameplay. A few portions of the dungeons of the first game were redone, along with new save game and teleportation terminal features which previously did not exist. The graphics and music were enhanced to match the capabilities of the Super Famicom. The Super Famicom version was later re-released on the Virtual Console on July 3, 2012." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Devil_Story:_Megami_Tensei

The remake has received a fan-translation to English, that can be applied to cartridge rom.
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2263/

The original Famicom game has also been translated to English in a similar way, but the project seems to be incomplete as of now.

http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2287/

Pricing

The game is available on such sites as eBay for about €10-40, depending on quality.

Remember that you must be able to play Famicom games, since the american and European NES cartridges used a different format.

A used copy of the Super Famicom remake of DDS 1 and 2 seem to go for about the same price.

A copy of デジタル・デビル 物語女神転生 for sale online

Mystic Quest (Seiken Densetsu)

European box cover

U.S. box cover

"Mystic Quest", known as "Final Fantasy Adventure" in the U.S. and 聖剣伝説 ～ファイナルファンタジー外伝～ (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) in Japan, is a Game Boy game released in 1991 by Squaresoft.
Not to be confused with the 1992 snes game titled "Mystic Quest Legend" (Europe), "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest" (U.S.), and "Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest" (Japan).

Honestly these title changes made things unnecessarily confusing.

Japanese box cover

In 1987 Squaresoft trademarked the name 聖剣伝説 "Seiken Densetsu" (Legend of the holy sword), intending to use it for a game clearly inspired by Arthurian lore, since the subtitle would have been "The Emergence of Excalibur". It would have been for the Famicom Disk System and be contained on 5 floppy disks.
The ambitious project had to be canceled, probably due to Squaresofts impending bankruptcy.
In October 1987 everyone who had preordered a copy of the game got a refund with a suggestion to instead order the upcoming title "Final Fantasy".

The first fight

"Final Fantasy" (1987) ended up being such a success that it saved the company from bankruptcy.

Hero and Chocobo

After the release of "Final Fantasy III" (Famicom) in 1990 Square offered director Koichi Ishii to direct a spin-off game to the Final Fantasy series. The result was an action-rpg for the Game Boy released in 1991 in Japan and the U.S. and in 1993 in Europe.

It was developed under the name "Gemma Knights", but eventually Square revived the trademarked name and released it under the title "Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden"

True to it's title, the game does feature the "Holy sword"; Excalibur, but it is introduced rather late in the games story, and the main focus of the game and the series that was spawned by it is the Mana tree. The Seiken Densetsu series thus appropriately got the English title "The Mana series".

Excalibur is also included in many Final Fantasy games, quite likely as a nod to this franchise.

Getting a clue to a puzzle

The game-play is reminiscent of early Zelda games, but perhaps a little more influenced by the rpg-genre. Whenever you level up, you get to decide what attributes to focus on, thus deciding if you want to be more magic-oriented or fighting-oriented. The will attribute increases the speed with which the will-meter in the bottom of the screen increases, and when full you can use you're equipped weapons special attack.

The A-button is used to attack with your weapon, the B-button is used to use whatever item or magic you have equipped. I found this slightly cumbersome, since whenever you wanted to use an item or set the magic you needed to use, you would have to first go into the inventory and choose the item, and then pushing the button. It's something you get used to, but considering how often I change what item/magic I want to use it does slow down the game a bit.

An npc looking like the FF White Mage (Lower left)

The real annoyance however is the fact that you talk to npcs by walking into them. This means you often talk to people you don't intend to, since people walk around randomly, sometimes eve blocking your path. Since you can't really cancel dialogue this becomes really frustrating sometimes if you are unlucky.

You should keep most of the weapons you get, since even if the newer ones are generally more powerful, many of the weapons have additional effects, such as the Battleaxe being able to cut down trees and the chain making it possible to traverse to poles in the game. In other words switching between weapons is essential to being able to progress in the game.

When working on the series Koichi Ichii drew inspiration from abstract images from his memories of childhood as well as works of fiction that captivated him as a child. He has cited that some of his inspiration was Tove Jansson's Moomin, Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings.
Of course another inspiration for this first game in the series is obviously Final Fantasy, which is apparent. It was originally intended as a spin-off after all.

A couple of Black Mage enemies

A few examples of the similarities with Final Fantasy is the occurrence of Chocobo's and the design of some of the games characters.
The Black Mage exists as an enemy character and some of the npcs are modeled after the White Mage class.
An unnamed traveler accompanies the hero at one point, and he is clearly a Red Mage.
Even Moogles appear in the game, although rather than being white winged creatures, it is an item.
An airship is also featured in the story, something that has become an obvious trope in the Final Fantasy franchise.

There was a remake released for mobile phones (sadly only in Japan). It was basically a 16 bit update of the original game, with color graphics and improved sound.

Seiken Densetsu Mobile. Fighting a boss with the man that looks like a Red Mage

In 2003 a remake was released for the Game Boy Advanced, this time the game was heavily re-imagined to take most references to Final Fantasy away and to make the game-play and art-style more in line with the following games in the Mana series. In fact there where so many changes that it can barely be considered a remake of the original game. The title of the game was "Sword of Mana".

Sword of Mana (2003, GBA)

In 2016 another remake was made, this time for iOS, Android and Vita, entitled "Adventures of Mana". This remake was again much more true to the original although of course much improved in every way, this time featuring 3D graphics.

First fight. Adventures of Mana (2016)

Mystic Quest was a really deep and gripping action-rpg for it's time, and it also hold a special place in my heart, since it was the very first Squaresoft game I ever played.

The European version seems to go for about €20, but a complete set in good condition is being sold on ebay for about €90.
The american version is about €15 for a used copy, and about €150 for a new copy.
The Japanese version also go for about €15, but that's for the cartridge only. I don't know how much a new copy would go for,

Soul Blazer

Box for the american version

Soul Blazer is an action role playing game developed by Quintet and published by Enix for the Super Nintendo in 1992 in Japan and the U.S. and in 1993 in Europe.
It became the first game in a trilogy for the snes and was Quintets second game following Actraiser (1990).

Although the gameplay is quite different from Actraiser, the theme is quite similar.
Revive life to a dead world and defeat the dark forces responsible.

To summaries the story here's the intro to the game:

The big different is of course that Actraiser was essentially a God-sim, whereas in Soul Blazer you play as the Masters follower working in His name.

The game-play itself is nothing unique and quite straightforward; slash your sword and use magic to defeat monsters, each area ends with a boss-fight.

Dungeon

By defeating monsters you get gems, which are used to cast magic.
If you die you are sent back to the heavenly shrine and loose all your gems, so there's not really any game over. And since you gradually get stronger by leveling up, it is not really a very difficult game.
Of course you need to figure out the pattern of the bosses to know how to easily beat them, which is of course standard for this type of game.
The puzzles aren't very challenging either.
It isn't so easy as to just get boring though, but if you are looking for a real challenge you need to look elsewhere.

First Boss fight

The unique part is that you gradually restore life to the empty world and has the ability to speak with all living things, humans as well as mermaids, fish, goats, tulips, trees, etc.
As you save creatures from the curse of Deathtoll they in turn help you progress in your quest with advice, clues and new equipment.
In this way you gradually get to understand exactly what has happened (as if the intro wasn't clear enough) and get to know the creatures of the world.

All in all it is a good solid game, but to be honest it isn't great. But the trilogy it started off is with the second game being "Illusion of Time" (titled "Illusion of Gaia" in the U.S.), and the last game being "Terranigma".

Puzzle Bobble

"Puzzle Bobble" Title screen (1994), Arcade

Puzzle Bobble (パズルボブル) was an arcade game by Taito released in 1994, using the main characters from Bubble Bobble that was released 8 years earlier.
When it was released in the U.S. the title was changed to Bust-A-Move.
The U.S. version also added anti-drugs and anti-littering messages to the loading sequence.

"Bust-A-Move" (American version of "Puzzle Bobble") Title screen (1994), Arcade

The main characters are once again the bubble dragons Bub and Bob, or Bubblun and Bobblun in the Japanese version.

Anti-drugs message in "Bust-A-Move" (1994), Arcade

From what I understand the game is supposed to take place sometime after Bubble Bobble (1986), which I find strange, since that game ended with the curse making the brothers dragon broken.
Well I guess they got cursed again, or maybe they preferred being dragons? (who wouldn't?)

The game is a puzzle game where you shoot colored bubbles on other colored bubbles, trying to match three or more of the same color to pop them. When there are no more bubbles left the stage is cleared. You can bounce the bubbles you shoot off the walls, so you have to consider the angle at which you shoot.

"Puzzle Bobble" (1994), Arcade

There is a time element as well, since if you wait too long the ceiling starts to descend, and if the bubbles comes so close that they touch your "bubble shooting machine" it's game over.

If you look closely, enclosed in the bubbles are the enemies from "Bubble Bobble" (1986).

There is also a two player vs mode, where you play split-screen on identical stages, and whenever you manage to remove a group of four bubbles or more, some of those bubbles are transferred to the opponents arena.

"Puzzle Bubble 3" (1996), Arcade. Two-player game

The game is quite entertaining and addictive, I for one spent a lot more hours on this game than I ever did on the more well known Tetris.
Or perhaps I should say these games, since it spawned at least 23 sequels and spin-off, ported to a host of platforms, not to say anything about all the rip-offs. A clear testament to its popularity.

If you're looking to get a copy it's really easy because of it's availability, and really cheap, especially if you settle for a clone of the game that are often free.

I bought a used copy of "Bust-A-Move 2" PC for about €1, but it turned out to be a waste of money since it was only playable on Windows 98.
If you want to own an original Neo Geo arcade cabinet with "Bust-A-Move" be ready to pay about €700.
For brand new copies, you could get "Puzzle Bobble Universe" (2011), N3DS for about €20, or "Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition" (1996), PlayStation for about €60.
For used copies you are likely looking at about €20 for most consoles, but the Wii version that supports up to 8 players, you would probably have to pay full retail about €60-80.