Rolan’s Curse 2 – Cursed With Being Too Legit To Quit

Portable games will surprise you again and again with their propensity to bear the most delicious fruit, gems and earnest surprises with stellar frequency. And there have been many times that I’ve been presented with a Game Boy game that I’d never encountered before, hearing little to nothing about it beforehand. My working rule collecting Game Boy is that if I haven’t heard of it, and it’s affordable, then roll the dice. I found Rolan’s Curse 2 at a local retro shop, was blindsided by it, and did just that. Rolled for initiative, and struck. Where does this game fall on the loot table?

Rolan’s Curse 2 is a top down action adventure/RPG on the Game Boy. Where the first game had distinct chapters, this one features a large interconnected world. And while there are specific regions, you can backtrack through most of the world. And what’s really cool is that this time you get to assemble a party.

You can have four party members at a time – your hero and three additional members. None of them seem bad, but you’ll definitely find favourites. In Rolan’s Curse, you could only hold one special item at a time. This is circumvented by having multiple characters. Every character has a specific primary weapon – ranged or melee, and a special ability or item. These can heal you, or destroy obstacles, or simply deal damage. There’s variety here and most characters can upgrade their ability – usually by completing a task in a town. But this often drastically changes the function of the ability – so sometimes you might even want to keep someone at their default, rather than overwriting it. There’s room to experiment here.

The downside is in leveling up characters. You must find treasure chests with portraits of characters for them to level up. Some get stronger faster than others so lategame characters can usually catch up quickly. The downside I mentioned is that if you don’t have a character in your active party then the treasure chest that would have an absentee’s portrait you will instead get a generic item instead. Now, these chests respawn until you get the level-up so you aren’t locked out of the advancement but there’s no way to tell that there was a portrait there. This could make backtracking very meandering, but if you stick with your favourite characters this doesn’t really present an issue. Most parties seem viable and consumables aren’t in short supply if you need a quick pick-me-up. So it’s a minor beef, but one that made me reluctant to switch it up and try characters I hadn’t used in a while.

Enemies serve more as environmental obstacles once again, though their purpose is more robust than in Rolan’s Curse. Particularly because they can drop consumables, such as health potions. So it’s worth it to battle them as you go. Besides which, enemy placement is often fairly smart spawning in at times to box you in or block you from behind. And the monsters have tons of flavour, well designed sprites and clear and distinct functions. They work very well.

Bosses are big and look killer, beautiful. While they can be predictable, there are a number of different patterns and encounter styles here that keep things mixed up. I was always excited to see just what lurked in that next lair. It’s sort of unfortunate that they kind of promote just zerging the boss though, due to the character movement it’s difficult to play safe in a lot of these fights. So sometimes you’re just going to mash the button, though the option is there if you want to try it more elegantly.

With a real sense of progression in the game you want to see what’s next. Where you’re going, who you’re going to meet, and how that next level will change your characters. The world feels much more alive this time around, and you feel much more free to explore. It’s still a fairly short game, but there’s a lot of venues and beasties in here so it stays interesting. That’s the thing. With the variety of enemies and locations, I never felt like it was getting old or recycled.

This is important because the game is a little sluggish. It’s much better than the first game in that respect, but it can still be a little slow going. If the game wasn’t interesting and if I didn’ feel compelled to see what was waiting for me, I wouldn’t be nearly as forgiving as I am.

The presentation is a treat. Everything is clean and discernible, and just looks good. Rolan’s Curse already looked good, but this improves upon the visuals really well. Effects when you use Kyle’s thunder rod, or the size of bosses, or the gradual widening of your sword’s arc as you level up. Information is clearly presented and presented well. And the music is totally on point, bloody excellent. If you don’t play Rolan’s Curse 2, at least look up some of the tunes.

Rolan’s Curse 2 is robust, but still bite-sized. There are battery saves here, and the game is compact yet dense. While the story and dialogue isn’t deep, it’s benign and provides a hook. The characters you meet for your party have personality and the flavour from people around them provide some background. So it’s not exactly shallow, either. It’s sort of just indicative of the era and all of the trappings that come with it.

The Game Boy is a mighty system. Some incredible games are born from the limitations the platform imposes, and there’s a reason that it possessed so much longevity and is so beloved. It’s unfortunate that Rolan’s Curse is such an unknown factor, because it is a quality game. If you’re putting together a Game Boy collection it’s a definite contender. Perhaps Link’s Awakening mastered control and gameplay, perhaps Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu had buckets and buckets more dialogue. But Rolan’s Curse 2 does its own thing and does it well, and offers the always welcome combination of being a curiosity that is also great.

Go forth!