Thursday, September 5, 2013

Game 19: Swords and Serpents (NES) - And Creepy Old Men

The looping music on this screen is the least enjoyable I've heard
Game 19

TitleSwords and Serpents
ReleasedSeptember 1990
DeveloperInterplay Entertainment
PublisherAcclaim Entertainment
GenreRPG (Dungeon Crawl)
Exploration - First-Person
Combat - Turn Based
Series - Standalone

Well, this is a first: a console RPG designed and produced solely in the US (although also released in PAL territories). I wasn't expecting to come across one so soon, but here it is. Interplay, known as a strong developer of computer RPGs, decided to take advantage of the growing interest in consoles and the lack of computer-style RPGs.

This game was released after Dragon Wars on the PC, but before Dragon Wars was ported to NES. Unfortunately, the port of Dragon Wars won't be played for this blog as it was only released in Japan. A final note, this game has nothing to do with Mattel's Swords & Serpents; notice the clear use of an ampersand in the latter.
Unattributed: Paul O'Conner (Initial design)
This is also the first console RPG that supports multi-player. I won't be taking advantage of this feature, but I'm interested to know if anyone has experience with it. Double Dungeons, Secret of Mana, and only a handful of others had support for more than one player. They games are unique enough that I'll probably point it out everything time I discover another.
2 players control odd or even characters; 4 players take control of one of each
We begin by selecting a new game, and creating a whole new party. There is a default party for a quick start, which--and I didn't realize this at the time of my selection--starts with the same classes I chose: 1 fighter, 1 thief, and 2 magicians. The manual states no less than three times that at least one magician is necessary to beat the game.
A fighter doesn't need intelligence right?
I should really take the time to read the manual before jumping in; I would have gone for better stats all around. I thought I was safe in settling for low intelligence for my fighter, but the manual suggests it's used to determine how often a character attacks. It's easy enough to roll new stats, just press the 'B' button and voila new stats, repeat ad nauseum. I rolled up four characters rather quickly.
Apparently so
The story, as the manual would have us believe, is that we are a group of adventurers gathered for a single purpose: kill the serpent on the 16th floor of the dungeon. To accomplish this we are to seek out 7 fabled ruby treasures once held by the ruby warrior.
In case you don't have the manual, here's what you're supposed to do
On the first floor I discovered many cryptic messages written on walls and floors (found just by being on the right square), an armory to trade in weapons and armor, and a temple that restores all wounds spell points.
You'd think the dragon would have removed them by now
Hidden in a corner of the map was the spell Sting. Spells are discovered rather than gained from levels. There is only the party level as well; individual characters only have their own attributes and inventory. Everything else is shared.
Who exactly are all you old men?
You can't take three steps in the dungeon (or even one in some cases) without running into a random encounter. I was lucky to find the temple when I did, as even with two mages I was running low on healing power.
Killian is hit!
Combat is as simple as mashing one button in most cases, but the mechanism for choosing turns isn't as simple as a round. Instead, an algorithm is used that takes into account the current weapon, intelligence, agility, and other factors. This means one character, or monster, can potentially have many turns in a row. The fighter is straight damage potential, but with his low intelligence I've already noticed my thief, Norick, going at least twice as often. The advantage to that is Norick has a critical attack that immediately kills a monster.
In the middle of running away, Pathos is already to safety
Successfully ran, the game gets in one last jab
There's an additional twist to combat tactics. In addition to spells, which are mostly ineffective since my weapons' damage potential is often greater at this point, the manual describes the choice to select a direction on the D-pad before attacking. Up will target the enemy's head, down targets the legs or lower body area, and left or right will target the body (default when nothing is pressed). Some enemies are more susceptible to targeted areas, but most will take additional damage at the cost of reduced accuracy.
How many of you are there?
I've only made it through the second floor, but have already discovered teleport traps and zoom tubes. Zoom tubes take the party up levels, and make it easy to get back up to the temple of healing. Temples are only on the 1st, 5th, and 10th floors, so I'm sure the tubes will be vital to my survival. Teleporters are a bit more questionable as they can potentially teleport anywhere; however, it's implied their destination is set for each square.
The graphical effects leave a bit to be desired
On the second floor, I found a locked gold door (noted for later), the shield spell to increase AC by 1 for a time, a plus 1 sword that also increases my AC, and a couple of helms. So far nothing too extraordinary, but we're only just getting started. To end the night, I found my way to the third floor after purchasing a plus 2 sword from the shop (the best sword available), and saved.
Want some candy?
Only after reading the manual did I learn the party always starts at the last temple visited when restoring the game. I also lose all experience points, but retain my level (currently 5). The auto-map, which I'm very thankful for, isn't saved either. I've been neglecting to map since it was there, but I may have to start making my own. I'm still not completely through the manual; once I am, I hope to have a better grasp on the intricacies of the game. I already managed to overlook examining items, which seems to give very detailed information on each piece of equipment. Another first.
Oh the joy
of a
password for
every character
and the game
Above are the passwords for the game at it's current state. For anyone curious or want to play along, here are the passwords I had at the start:
  • NORICK - 2LC2M??6?
Hopefully in having screenshots I won't have too much trouble with the password system. Next session should progress much further, and with luck I'll have thought of something to write about.

Session Time: 1h36m (Total Time: 1h36m)


  1. I played this one "back in the day." In fact I still have my passwords written down on an index card with the game. Perhaps I'll fire it up this weekend. I remember the excess of random encounters being annoying, but the 5 passwords is out of this world annoying!!!! C'mon!!!

    1. Yeah, probably easier to dedicate a weekend, map out the entire game, and try to beat it in a day than deal with passwords. I just don't have that kind of time.

      I only have a vague memory of my brother playing it for a bit.

    2. I will say in this day and age recent games I've played with passwords are easier. Just use your smartphone or tablet or whatever and snap a picture of the password screen. At least you don't have to write it down and there is no worry about transcribing errors or symbol ambiguity. You can save a bunch of snapshots or just delete your old pic when you take a new one. I did this this year with passwords for Slaterhpuse 3 and Tommy Lasorda Baseball on the Sega Genesis. (A fan website has a competition to beat every Sega Genesis game collectively in one year that I was participating in.)

    3. Haha... this reminds me of trying to take Polaroids of my screen to capture the password, but it was so blurry I would have been better off trying to copy it down.

    4. Or use an emulator with save states. Or if that is too much temptation, an emulator without them (or with them, but don't use them), but run it in a virtual machine and then suspend the VM at then end of each session without turning the emulator off.

    5. I'm sticking to console for the more authentic experience. I won't ever fault someone for using emulator to get around such an obtuse password system, but I'd like to comment on my dislike for the passwords. I think they're getting longer in fact.

  2. Hmm seems like it's screaming for battery saves, or save states on an emu. I *think* I've played this one and liked it, though had to stop because the music was driving my parents crazy...

    1. Not including a battery save was a cost reduction technique. I agree that it wouldn't have hurt the game any. I can agree with your parents about the music, especially the title.

  3. This game looks actually pretty decent. I'm kind of seeing similarities to Wizardry but this looks better. Ill have to catch a live stream on this one. I've honestly never heard of this game till now. There weren't any earlier games that let you look at or examine items for a short description? I could have sworn there were.

    1. So far, it's a bit like an easy Wizardry. I plan to stream tonight. Hope you can check it out or catch the VODs, which are usually available for up to a week after.

  4. The game isn't terribly difficult. Annoying, possibly.... and does require blind exploration to a degree (which is a good thing IMHO).

    I'm not sure if monster animation / position on screen matters for which direction arrow you press for attacking. Headshots can indeed do astronomical amounts of damage.

    I second the use of some kind of phone/tablet to capture passwords. Do it all the time myself :).


    Several folks have streamed internet coop of secret of mana & SD3. Looks like decent fun. They only do two player btw.

    As a kid, I picked up the multitap and a couple games. S&S being one of them. Sorry. SaS :P. Cousins and I played it. Worked out decently - although a flashing green name in combat for who's turn it is to act is kinda hard to see. Also, stepping away from the game to go to the bathroom yielded one of my counsins stealing my controller to transfer some gear heh.

    1. I haven't bothered with directed attacks, but I might once the enemies start taking more hits to kill. I can see the multitap aspect being tacked on, not sure if it was or not though. It's interesting that they put some thought into it beyond just controlling the guys in combat. Access to the store and inventory are also locked to a particular controller.

  5. Oh, I have been waiting for this one. I played and beat it years ago. I was not impressed.

    "Pretty decent"? Not so much. Maybe if all you care about is dungeon delving & mapping for its own sake. There is almost no story, no characterization, the graphics are blah, the music is meh, and the only good thing I can say about the save system is that you can steal someone else's passwords to instantly get a party at max level.

    I really doubt it's worth anyone's time to play anymore, but it sure is fun to watch Zenic experience it.

    Oh and the "4-person multiplayer"? Ya, right. It just let you plug multiple controllers in, and each player could use the controller to input the turn-based combat commands for a different party member in combat. Woohoo.

    It's a fairly short & easy game, but it does expect the player to write down or memorize its cryptic in-game hints. In addition to the ridiculous password system, of course.

    1. Victar said:

      "... but it does expect the player to write down or memorize its cryptic in-game hints ..."

      See, I don't see this as a bad thing. I know there are folks who absolutely loathe having to talk to NPC's in RPG's - but that kind of thing is how a story or the majority of hinting is supposed to be done via a setting that has other people walking around.


      As far as the complaints about 4 person multiplayer - ya don't get to individually wander around the screen - no. But, each player having their own means to input commands without having to pass a controller around is handy. While it might be possible to split the screen up until quadrants and have 4 individual screens so folks can wander around themselves - such a thing wouldn't be that feasible on the NES, let alone the more complicated mechanics of joining a fight etc. SFX on walking would also get confusing (unless each person had their own 'tone').


      I'll agree the game isn't overly difficult. Dungeon Magic he played earlier is prolly more difficult. At least it's more complex with it's magic system.

      I'll also agree on basically no plot / story development stuff. But - dragon warrior didn't get character development until DW4. FF2J had some charachter development, but FF1 and FF3 was basically no development. And "go kill bad guy" is fairly standard unadulterated plot.

      Is it worth playing ? Given that it's not terribly long, has some creepy graphics / large characters for an NES title, and the fact that I kinda like the wandering around music (non-combat) - sure. I could see wasting a few evenings on the game... easily so if on an emulator, and perhaps so if via a $1-$5 find.

      Alternatively - he went through Ultima 3 a while back - that game is rage worthy (go beat it blind with no internet help). Ultima 4 is coming up and it's not quite as rage worthy but still.... grrr. And DW2 should be entertaining to watch once he gets the ship ;).

      I believe Double Dungeons coming up eventually is similar to this game.

    2. Well, I played over the weekend and was going to get a post out either last night or tonight, but really can't think of much to talk about. It's mostly collecting random hints, treasure, and reporting on yes progress was made. I'll see how far I get tonight before making a full post.

      As for whether it's worth a playthrough, probably not unless you enjoy dungeon crawlers. Then it's a pretty average, yet solid, one to play through. So far it's been well balanced with new equipment, spells, and obvious progress. All that could level out at some point though.

      Ultima 3 was definitely worse than this. I'm not looking forward to Ultima 4 if it's anything similar to it. Although, I'm secretly hoping for the pilgrim (I think I heard that's the weakest) for the lols. DW2 I've played many times before, but don't remember a bunch. I'm not expecting any major road blocks. Double Dungeons I beat just a couple years ago; there's definitely more story in Swords and Serpents than that entire game. I'll have to figure out a way to make that one even remotely interesting. Either that or make a post on each dungeon and bore the readership away completely. ;)

  6. Replies
    1. I'm glad? I can't say for certain that yours was an inspiration, but it have been in my mind for some reason.

    2. I doubt it was an inspiration. Short version: killias is actually an amalgamation of my first and last name, one of which is represented above.

  7. I've not played Ultima 4, at least not 'seriously'. I'm sure I've glanced at it heh.

    Feasel's done some speed runs of it, Bulleta's played through a good bit of it but didn't finish it (she'll come back to it soon, and yes she's beaten it before). From what I've seen it's similar to Ultima 3 in that 'once ya know where to go its not such a big deal'. There appears to be an ass load of more stuff to collect but she mentioned that the game does hint / tell ya everything ya really do need to know AFAIK. Might be cryptic like U3, dunno. It's a similar game engine (at least from what i saw), but upgraded nicely.

    I'd say Zenic's assessment of S&S is prolly fair.

    I've been playing through translated Mushashi on NES. It's lacking but prolly targeting a younger audience.

    1. I'm not too worried about Ultima 4. I'm looking forward to watching all the great RPG speedruns I've been holding off on watching: Dragon Warrior, Baten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia.

      Musashi on the NES looks interesting, and I probably would have missed it since I can't seem to find it on Wikipedia. What would we do without the Internet?

    2. You have good taste in games: I've beaten two of those, and Baten Kaitos is one of my all time favourite games, even if I never beat it.

    3. I'm really looking forward to getting to Baten Kaitos. Of all the series, it's the one I've heard the highest praise for compared to next to no negative comments. Plus I'm a sucker for card based mechanics, especially when they let me build decks. It's the sole reason I never completely Final Fantasy VIII or Xenosaga. We'll see how much I can stay away from them when I play through them again.

    4. Oh man, it is so awesome. I'll see if I can have my parents bring me my old gamecube and games at Christmas so I can finish it. I co-own it with my brother, but he mostly just plays current gen games.

      The one downside for you is that it requires really fast thinking AND good reflexes. There is one character I don't use as her animations are just too fast, and I can't pick cards quickly enough. This is one case you NEED to use the gamecube controller; it has game mechanics based on the stick layout.

      I hated building decks. I wish I could have had someone else do that for me, so I could get on with tracking down rare monsters.

      Also: One bad thing: Very little/no backtracking at will. So if you miss a rare card (and some are damn impossible) then you are SOL. Even using a guide I was missing stuff left, right and centre, since a lot of them you have to have carried a rare item in a limited slot since early in the game. v.v

    5. That kind of rare completion always turns me off. I'll probably just play through the game then and won't worry about collecting everything.

    6. It's a Japanese RPG; all the modern ones seen to have that type of stuff.

      That said I sure didn't bother with anything but the constellations and didn't suffer at all. The hard part is getting photos of bosses.

    7. I remember finding all sorts of junk in Xenogears. My sister was later telling me about how they're collectibles to unlock better equipment. I beat the game in any case, and the RPS badge nor the cobweb were of any help. I won't worry about it too much. Most of those hidden items are either useless or make the game too easy anyway.