Seiken Densetsu 3

Seiken Densetsu 3 is a really obscure game. Probably because it wasn't actually released in America, or, indeed, anywhere outside Japan. If you want to get your hands on it, you're going to have to be some kind of eBay master. Or maybe if you have a Wii and convince Square to let Nintendo put it on Virtual Console. That'd be cool.

Anyways, it's about a bunch of teenage dudes. And chicks, too, I guess. Teenage in, you know, general years (if that even makes sense), because there's this one half-elf who looks like she's five. Apparently, I've never played Final Fantasy and don't know the potential of a video game plot, but I, personally, really liked it. Plus, depending on the characters you choose for your group, it can have six different beginnings and three different endings. It's CRAZY.

I guess I can give you a summary. SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT REALLY MUCH SPOILED IN ANY CASE. I played a game with Kevin as the main character. Kevin's a beastman; by this game's definition, some kinda fusion of wolf and human. One day, as he's out in the forest, his pet wolf Karl suddenly turns on him and beats the crud out of him. As Kevin staggers back to his feet, he transforms into a werewolf (a /different/ fusion of wolf and human. Go figure.) and, before he realizes what he's doing, beats the crud out of Karl in return.

After a funeral which only he attends, he mopes back to the Beast Kingdom. As he wanders around, he overhears some plans to invade nearby human civilizations. Pacifist that he is, he looks for the Beast King, his father, to try and persuade him otherwise. But he's not in the throne room. As Kevin looks elsewhere, he overhears more stuff. It's the Beast King and his new right-hand man, the Deathjester. Apparently, the king had ordered the Deathjester to use dark magic to make Karl attack him. Consumed by rage, Kevin busts through a wall and attacks the king, who counters his blow and flings him back to the forest. Right next to Karl's grave.

Kevin finds the Deathjester in the forest, who runs in fear. In return for not killing him, the Deathjester tells him about the Sword of Mana, the blade that basically controlled the universe. It could surely bring back Karl.

Fairly soon, epic music starts playing and Kevin sets off on his quest.

END SPOILER ALERT

Okay, that's just a summary of one beginning, but still. It sounds good from there, right? And it only gets better.

The combat style is kind of action-style RPG. Almost Legend of Zelda. It's flippin' sweet. Uhh... I don't have experience with describing these things.

Then there's class changing. It's kind of like evolving in Pokémon. At level 18, if you find a Mana Stone, you can use it to change your character's color scheme! Of course, they also get way more powerful and everything. But the color scheme change is probably the most exciting part. When you're me. And then a second class change happens at level 38 or higher, but you have to have a certain item.

It goes something like this: What? Duran is evolving! Congratulations! Your fighter evolved into a knight!

Not really but still.

So. Exciting game. I vowed never to give something 5 out of 5 urns (it is out of 5, right?), so it's gonna have to settle for 4.999. REALLY. AWESOME. GAME. A reason to find an SNES on eBay. I don't even think I mentioned you can have up to two friends playing with you. AWESOME.

So. 4.999 urns out of 5. As close as you get to perfection. (At least, I hope, because if I find anything better than this, I don't know what I'll do. -trademark sheepish grin-) So, I'm gonna go play through another ending now.