常… Let's signs. Usually when I make a video about an NES game, I'll talk about how I saw it in Nintendo Power as a kid, and slobbered with jealousy over the fact that there wasn't much chance I was ever going to play it, since we didn't own an NES back then. But here's a case of a game that was barely even IN Nintendo Power, and as a 37-year-old instead of a kid, I find myself gobsmacked that I'd never heard of or seen this game before. It's conquest of the Crystal Palace, and surprisingly it only mentions in Nintendo power I could find are just two blurbs in the classified information section. And that's really strange because this game is damn good. It's made by the developer Quest, and it's the very first game that Yasumi Matsuno worked on. You may know him better as the guy who started the Ogre Battle series, and later directed and wrote Final Fantasy Tactics. Now Conquest to the Crystal Palace is totally different from those games, but it's still pretty dang good. You play as a dude named Farron, accompanied by your faithful dog Zapp, and you have to retake your home, the Crystal Palace, which was conquered by the Evil King Zarrus, when Farron was just a baby. Before the game starts, Zapp gives you a choice between three different crystals you can equip. Orange allows you to shoot a fireball projectile, pink gives you a larger life bar, and blue enables you to jump farther. This is cool, but you get the other abilities later in the game anyway, so it doesn't really matter what you pick to start with. There's five long levels here, and you get three lives and unlimited continues to complete the game, with no saves or passwords. As you can see, this is an action platformer, but it controls a bit quicker than games like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. But the one weird thing about this one is Farron's jump. This is one of those games where your character will hang in midair for a tenth of a second and then get sucked back to the earth as if by a magnet. But the strange thing is, that only happens when you use your sword attack in midair. If you jump without doing that, you land just fine. It's a really odd design choice, and the only game I can think of that's like this is Cyborg009 for Super Famicom, which I looked at a while back. Another action platformer with a wonky jump, but Conquest of the Crystal Palace might be even weirder. It definitely takes a bit to get used to, but it's not a game breaker or anything by any stretch. As you progress through the game, you'll meet a couple other characters, one being Kim, who has a shop that you can buy stuff from, everything from power-ups to extra lives. Everything may seem pretty expensive, but just about every enemy drops money when defeated, so if you need more, just grind a bit. Kim will also take the time to teach you the new abilities you pick up, as well as keep you updated on what's going on in the kingdom. And it's stuff like this that really goes a long way toward helping this game stand out, instead of becoming just another action platformer, so I appreciate the extra touches here. You also find the occasional secret area, like if you fall down this pit in the second level, you run into a boss fight, defeat the boss, and you meet the Crystal Princess who grants you a clear screen attack that you can use once per level. The thing is, there's no hint to do this in the game itself, the hint was listed in the instruction manual. Seems like that would have been a good opportunity to drop that hint in one of Kim's news updates, but whatever. And of course I have to mention my absolute favorite part of Conquest of the Crystal Palace. You remember that dog named Zap I mentioned earlier? You can actually summon him to come help you out. Just press and hold down, and press A, and he'll come out and get whatever enemies are around you. Being a huge dog weirdo, I absolutely love this, and I only wish this game were two player co-op with the dog being a playable character, but I can't complain with what's here. Zap the dog is actually pretty integral to completing the game, since there's certain sections here where it's really difficult to proceed. Like this part here, I mean come on, what is this, a shoot em up? What's with all the flying enemies? But you can have Zap come around and kill a bunch of them. You do have to be a bit careful with how you use them, however, since he has his own health bar in the lower right, so the game doesn't let you abuse that mechanic. There is an item however that you can buy in Kim's shop, the dog whistle, that makes Zap more aggressive, so that's cool. So yeah, Conquest of the Crystal Palace is really good. I mean really good. What a surprise this one was. It really is the complete package. My only criticisms here are the wonky jump, which you can get used to pretty quickly, and some of the level design can be a bit wonky as well. It's challenging, but not too challenging. Yeah, it's got the typical NES platformer knockback when you get hit, but it's not ridiculously punishing, like it is in a game like Castlevania or Zelda 2. All the different power-ups and shop items give this one a ton of replay value, and the game looks great, there's plenty of personality and humor here, and the music was composed by Masaharu Iwata, who also later went on to work on the Ogre Battle series and Final Fantasy Tactics. I would go as far as to say that Conquest of the Crystal Palace is a must-play for the NES, and it might even be a top 30, or even a top 25 game for the system. It is well worth checking out. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.