The Haunted Hoard: Gargoyle’s Quest II (NES)

If you look at Gargoyle’s Quest on the Game Boy and then it’s sequel for the NES, it would be easy to think not much had changed between them. Gargoyle’s Quest II, also known as Gargoyle’s Quest II: The Demon Darkness, almost looks like they just added color and a bit more screen space to the game, the platforming still hinging on wall clings and wing strength with the levels connected by navigating an overworld map. Some small changes do exist and the areas are entirely new, and ultimately, the game does feel a bit different to play in ways that wouldn’t be easily noticed if you just make a list of features.

 

In some ways though, it makes a bit of sense that the two games would be so similar. Gargoyle’s Quest II is actually the backstory to the original Game Boy adventure. In that game you hear of a heroic gargoyle who once helped the Ghoul Realm during its time of need, and while you need to live up to his legend in that title, in Gargoyle’s Quest II you are actually the very same Firebrand spoken of in that history. Here though you are an up and comer still, Firebrand only just having passed his test at the Warrior’s Training Center to serve the realm when he finds a black light has sucked away the magic of the land, killing many of the friendly monsters he knows. Firebrand sets out to learn of the source of the light and undo its terrible damage, and while the Ghoul Realm is more hostile since the event, he still finds many villages with helpful monsters who will grant him more power should he bring them powerful artifacts.

Gargoyle’s Quest II is primarily a side-scrolling platformer though, so while you are given time to explore villages and speak with characters, they serve more as ways to explain where you’re heading next rather than providing a deeper plot or memorable situations. One improvement over the original game is the removal of random battles when walking around the world, although there are still fiends standing around the map you can talk to in order to trigger a brief and simple fight. The main purpose for these seems to be earning Vials, this form of currency used for buying the oddly named Power of Maelstrom that serves as your extra lives. You can keep your lives topped off well enough to handle the game’s difficult levels, especially since many levels will put you at their start on death and you can just walk away if you need to go accrue some more Power of Maelstrom, but there’s something a bit unusual about how Gargoyle’s Quest II constructs its levels compared to its predecessor.

 

Firebrand’s abilities are pretty simple to start, the red gargoyle able to spit little fireballs, cling to walls, and flutter his wings to travel a short distance. Touching a wall or landing on ground will replenish the wing meter, and with many levels being quite vertical or having long gaps to fly across, managing that flight is one of the most important elements of Gargoyle’s Quest II. However, early on you’ll notice the stages seem to try and trip you up in ways you can’t account for until you’ve been hurt by them. You’ll glide across a gap of spikes only to see a hazard rising up to block the perch in front of you, the player having to take damage since they couldn’t have seen the danger in advance and you need to jump a certain way to avoid it. Out of the ground can emerge enemies that give no clue they’re present until you’re very close, another ambush that leads to unhappy landings. Blind drops early on are likely meant to encourage wing meter use, but since you can’t be sure when to use it, you might still land on something harmful because you don’t have the wing strength to properly scout down below. Instant death ground will even be placed below large gaps where you jump across and hope you have the wing strength to cross them, and the game is unusually strict early on where you might not make it if you didn’t jump high enough to start or didn’t wait to activate your wings at just the right moment.

Gargoyle’s Quest II’s early levels end up being unusually rough then, a lot more danger coming from cheap tricks than the more legitimate dangers that arise later in the adventure. In fact, Gargoyle’s Quest II does build better bosses than its predecessor, fights often well paced and involve some thought even though they are undoubtedly tough at times. Pattern recognition can win you the day even if some might kill you during the learning process, but it’s more reasonable when it is a foe you’re trying to react to rather than a situation where you’re leaping into the unknown. Levels do begin to improve as your own abilities develop, more flight time means you can make adjustments or scout better, and you’ll get more powerful attacks to help handle the more legitimate challenge poised by the enemies stationed around the levels. Your fireballs do improve as you unlock variants with new traits like breaking blocks, but the most interesting addition is the Claw that lets you spray gunk on spikes to make your own latch points. There are definitely some repetitive later areas like a mirror maze where you just need to gradually whittle down the options on which mirror to enter, but the Claw can give you more freedom in exploring dangerous areas and navigation in the adventure definitely becomes more interesting and fair as you go.

 

While stages don’t have many secrets or treasures, there is still a sense of exploration as you need to gradually figure out the layout and how best your simple abilities can overcome them. Again, early on you might reach a stage that doesn’t handle it the best like moving platforms where you often need to jump in advance of when they’re in sight to ride them safely, but when you’ve got some more wing strength it becomes a tense experience rather than a rough waiting game, especially since those platforms are alive and will spit fireballs at you if they spot you. Levels technically get more dangerous but you can better handle yourself, even the spiky jungle full of flying foes ending up a place you can better tackle because you get to make informed decisions about level navigation rather than taking leaps of faith that don’t always pay off.

THE VERDICT: The specter of the game’s early traps and trickery does dampen some of the overall enjoyment Gargoyle’s Quest II could have provided, but the adventure does get its act together before it could become fully defined by them. Firebrand’s movement tools let him explore winding level designs well and bosses are often structured to be tough but rewarding to figure out. It is a bit surprising it feels like a step down from its Game Boy predecessor, but once it starts playing more fair, it can definitely provide some of the same thrills and even exceed that game in some key areas.

 

And so, I give Gargoyle’s Quest II for Nintendo Entertainment System…

An OKAY rating. Gargoyle’s Quest II is a strange sequel. It makes the smart adjustments to its core ideas and mechanics that should have guaranteed it to be the higher quality title, but then an unusual change in the approach to level design let down those improvements. Once the game stops setting you up for failure with its ambushes and withheld yet vital information on exploration, Gargoyle’s Quest II does start to show it can construct levels with a better sense of what the player can do and how to oppose it. It becomes less about needing to jump exactly as the game demands and more about adjusting properly based on what enemies are nearby and what safe perches are available. It still has some weaker moments like the mirror maze being designed mostly for repetition, but it starts to become enjoyable again to be Firebrand as he can weave his way through the environment or find the perfect way to move or counter bosses. The time spent traveling between towns does feel more of a pleasantry than purposeful, a few more moments where a special fight blocks your path could have made exploration more meaningful, and some more secrets within levels could have incentivized testing your limits or served as a reward for a curious player.

 

Gargoyle’s Quest II is almost more of a good thing, and even with Firebrand’s slow strut of a walk and the weak start to the adventure, you will get to the points of the adventure that feel more like proper challenges. Firebrand’s movement is a good fit for levels with a lot of room to move and a lot of danger to ask you to figure out how best to maneuver, Gargoyle’s Quest II just needed to include more stages that better embrace that design style to help it stand out like its predecessor did.