 It's… Ahissured… That's Russioni. Rollins Curse was an early attempt in an adventure game for the original Game Boy released back in 1990 and I used the word attempt not because the game is bad, Rollins Curse isn't bad at all. But it's the most boring, ordinary milk toast white bread Zelda clone you'll ever play in your life. I mean it makes Final Fantasy Mystic Quest look like a sweet coding game by comparison. But it can be abused because I mean it was barely a year into the Game Boy's lifespan. Years later came the sequel, Roland's Curse 2, and yeah, it's still very Zelda-ish, but it's a much more interesting game that adds in some elements that help the game stand out. You start out playing as Rey, out to save the world from an evil king summoning monsters or whatever. Okay, you still gotta bear in mind it is an adventure RPG hybrid made for the original Game Boy in 1992, so we're not looking at war and peace here. But Rey can later join up with up to seven more characters, each with varying skills and abilities. For example, right away you meet up with Pit, some little elf thing, and his attack, well it sucks. But Pit has bombs as a second ability, which comes in handy with the first boss fight. Once you defeat the boss, you head back to the town and get a much better weapon for Pit. Most characters in Roland's Quest 2 have a similar arc to that. There's also Lane, who's the priest character that can heal. Kyle, who's a zombie that can play dead by turning into a pile of bones. You look weary? Yeah, no kidding. I'm a freaking zombie. Kyle can also get the powerful Thunder Rod, which is very useful. There's Jude, who's a magician with an attack that has the most range. There's Lee, a martial artist, who's basically a melee character who can throw a Hadoken-style fireball. There's Laura, who's another healer, and there's Zold, who's a knight. You can have up to three additional characters join your party at once, and you switch between them one at a time, any time you want during gameplay. Just hit the select button. That's pretty cool. However, if only one of your characters die, you start over all the way back at the nearest town. There is a battery safe here, however, so you can save pretty much any place you want, so if you die you're better off just resetting and continuing. But yeah, the game tasks you to use the right character, or the right weapon or special attack, for the right situation. There's a leveling system here as well that's a little different. You don't get any experience or anything from killing enemies, but instead by tracking down chests, which contain a portrait of a character in your party, so there's a big emphasis on exploration here. The map is pretty big, and it's fun to just wander around and look for new characters to join you, and to look for treasures to power up your party. What helps that even further is the soundtrack, which is well done, and there's little touches here and there like each character's portrait in the main menu. I always enjoy seeing that because it gives the game a little more personality. There are flaws here that I have to point out. One of the biggest is the amount of backtracking you have to do after a boss fight. That's right, after you defeat a boss and you go all the way back the hard way. I mean, you're practically better off just letting yourself get killed and going back to town that way. There's also some slowdown present here, and the hit detection also isn't the greatest, and some of the enemies will drive you insane, like the birds that come at you seemingly by the dozen, or these flying books, ugh. Sometimes it seems like fighting all these enemies is useless and you're better off just sprinting right past them. Despite that though, I have to say, Roland's Curse 2 is a fun playthrough. Sure, it's typical adventure stuff going from town to town, talking to people and collecting info, managing items, but also managing characters through combat, and managing party members. You also get different endings depending on who's in your party at the end of the game, so there's some incentive to play through this one again. It helps that you can save practically anywhere and pick up right where you left off, making this a great pick-up-and-play game. For the Game Boy, imagine that! But yeah, if you dig adventure RPG hybrid games like this, skip the first Roland's Curse and head straight to Roland's Curse 2.