Emulators, yes I admit it, wine drives me to distraction. That and I can never seem to shake the enjoyment of old Super Nintendo, Playstation, Gameboy / Color/ Advance/ Ds or for that matter, Playstation 2 games. Was into old pc games for a while but they're a lot like current PC games except with less plot and more irritating controls.

So

So I'm going to do something questionable, I'm going to start reviewing snes games. It's Linux-gaming for a given value of Linux. The only condition being that the emulator has to run completely on Linux. PCSX2 is bad enough native, it's ten times worse in wine.

For my first review, I'll be reviewing "Secret of Evermore". The first time I played this was when I was in primary school, on an old 400mhz along with FF6 and Secret of Mana. The fact that I'm still playing it now just proves how excellent this game is.

Firstly let no one say that I am cheap, that's my job; so I'll save you the trouble "I'm Cheap". I deny there is such a thing as cheap. Bear this in mind when I say that it was "pretty easy". While relentlessly exploiting the game engine, I didn't really have issues, your mileage may vary.




Secret of Evermore will be familiar to anyone who's ever played a game in the "Secret of Mana" series. The game mechanics are that of an action RPG, you control a character who increases stats by levelling and changing equipment; combat is in real time, you move out of the enemy's range while trying to line up a charged attack against them. Make no mistake, charged attacks are the way to go, they do over x5 the damage of normal attacks so earn them asap and keep levelling them.

With you is your faithful dog who thematically changes form as you travel between the lands of "Evermore". The dog appears pretty useless but the AI is actually solid, make sure to open up the action menu and set both the agressiveness and the "Action Level" as high as it'll go. They are unlocked with experience and deal exponentially more damage. Dog can also be ordered to attack specific enemies during boss battles, charges action level faster than you and doesn't get confused by magic.

As you travel you learn "Alchemy" which is the game's version of magic. The main benefit is that alchemy uses ingredients, not MP. It also levels up, much like weapons. Alchemy ingredients are pretty cheap so feel free to stock up, the healing spell uses 1 root and 1 water to heal 120hp at level 3. Since you can carry x99 of each ingredient, this shouldn't be a problem.



I don't want to reveal too much of the plot so I'll stop before showing anything specific, I do want to mention some bad things. For example some of the levels get repetitive and being thrown between one maze and the next without plot development in between rapidly gets fairly tiring. Another irritant is the marketplace sections which can boost your power, but I've never bothered with them. They can be completely ignored except to stock up on "Amulets of Anhiliation", which are pretty easy to get.

Some of the dungeons are irritating, if you play be sure to have a guide handy for the inevitable moment when you can't take it anymore and just want out. Other than that, I loved it, every second of it; highly recommended.