Thursday 26 March 2020

Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest (Genesis)


The Beauty's part

As i said roughly a week ago that i will review another Genesis game of Beauty and the Beast. And here it is! Sunsoft's Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest (1993). 

Maybe to represent the beauty part of the game, the title screen shows us Belle and The Beast's happily dancing as oppose to Beast's part where he walk and then let loose a wild roar. I hope this game is more tolerable than the Beast's counterpart.   
"Now is my time to shine!" Yeah! Yeah! Let's just get on with it. 
 
Like in Beast's game there's only 'Start game" and 'joystick configuration'. But i know immediately that there's designated button to duck instead of down on d-pad! That's quite uncalled. I don't know yet what's this 'Special' about. But i doubt that pressing the button will make Belle releases Gradius-style options or screen-clearing bomb
 
It's fine day where Belle visit the village and stop by Book Shop. This should be peaceful.
 
Not really! A sparrow tries to dive into me. But i'm fast enough to press the 'A' button to crouch. Scout_beingshotinvincible04.wav
 
Once i enter the village (where no bird dare to plant their beak at my head), i can talk to NPC around by pressing the 'special' button. Truth be told, this reminds me of Mario Is Missing!.   
 
How're you doing, good sir? What the...
Oh God! Not the moldy dandy. I have to bail out of him!
 
I can hide into the door (but not get inside of the building) by pressing 'up' on d-pad. But in this situation, he just stands there with after-rejection grumpy expression which is amusing to me. Then, i have no choice but to go to him again and let him woos me again one more time. But next time i will escape to the right direction.
 
Spy_taunts05.wav. This is what i supposed to do: Hiding at the door to avoid either Gaston or his assistant Le Fou and i get some score by doing so. The Baker is fine, though. He just happens to be with them as if he's also chasing me.
 
Finally Belle's haven: the bookstore. The bookkeeper hold a book in the front window for Belle. I thought some economy transaction will occur but apparently not. The bookkeeper wants Belle to catalog some books first in exchange of the book. Weird but okay.   
 
By cataloging, he means he throws books from above and it's up to Belle to catch them as many as she can. The old schmuck.   
 
Belle needs to catch 30 books (that will be automatically placed in bookshelf in background). I don't understand the score assessment here. Maybe the number on most left means # books that's caught in a row. Just maybe.        
 
Then i got kicked to the front of bookstore and i don't get the book. So i turn back to the store and naturally replay the mini-game, still i don't get the book. I thought the bookstore is the main objective of this level but apparently not. Thus i talk to this man in stockade and he only make pun of his current predicament. Hey, don't judge me harshly yet! I know that bloke in stockade at Brave Fencer Musashi  serves as plot device.
 
With no real objective in mind, i keep walking to the right pass the village. Then i meet this wide quicksand area. Thus i have to jump constantly otherwise i will get sucked into the abyss. I hope you like the Belle's voice everytime she jumps which akin to squirrel being squished.
 
Unngh! Right in abdomen! I can't walk pass that rock. Therefore i go back to the village.
 
When i'm about to ask any NPC to remove the rock, they instantly reply with "Gaston is the one that help you" except for this pumpkin farmer. He replies with some kind of direction when lost. I have no choice but to go meet the git.
 
At this point, Gaston and Le Fou stop chasing me in the entire village. Instead, they're hanging out on left part of the village. Then i have to choose the right series of dialogue to make him remove the rock. This isn't Monkey Island, i can figure it out easily. 
 
He gladly push the rock aside then he walks away to the right. The moron.
 
But i'm curious why he decides to walk away instead woo me more. So i tail him to the right into this dead end where a blue book lies. Pressing the special button on it will make Belle picks it up and it's health refill item. Speaking of health, Belle has significantly more health points than Beast which is weird. Even Beast's health point isn't represent 1 unit of health (there's a half of magic mirror and such). Belle still has more health than him. Go figure! 
 
Turns out that the quicksand area actually is drained riverbed. Now that the rock is gone, it's filled with water that means it become the usual platforming section and of course the platforms drown after a moment Belle steps on it. What's those tiny platforms anyway? Turtles? Quick! Someone call Green Peace!   
 
The baker give compliment for my simple cunningness, mostly thanks to the buffoon. Now that the rock is gone, the fountain is running again and the shepherd can makes his herds drink again. The old lady that i met first suggest that i go to home now that the water crisis is over. So i do that.
 
By the time Belle goes home, his father already gone to the fair. But Philipe (his horse) returns without him. Thus she goes with Philippe to find him. But the horse got frightened, leaving Belle alone in woods...   
 
...and get hit by bat. Good job, Sunsoft! It's kind of ironic of you to instill hatred toward bats although you published Aero the Acro-Bat. Belle lost not only her ride but also her warm robe. She has lots of problem besides getting lost in this wicked forest.    
 
The pumpkin farmer's long rambling become make sense now! To put it simple, when i see a stage with: 1) Yellow rose, i must go pass center back passage 2) White rose, i must go pass right border 3) Red rose, i must go pass left back passage. Otherwise i won't make any progress in this level.     
 
The woods isn't friendly place. Besides the occasional flying bats, there's also this wild plant that will try to reach you with its vine and Gaston's unattended bear traps lying around.
 
And wild boars too, yeah. I'm out of here, scumbags!
 
Of course, the guide will leads me to Beast's castle. That pumpkin farmer is ugly traitor, for sure.
 
I believe you know what happens next. Belle find his father and make agreement with Beast to replace his father's captivity, yes. Later on, beast's servant treat Belle as honored guest of so it said. 
 
When in fact, the utensils jump around and try to hurt me. -_- #
 I don't know what to do here besides avoiding these bastards. I can't move past either left or right border.
 
Oh, it's suddenly stop. Good! Do i have to either jump above or duck under those tools to make score? Sounds bad. Glad, it's finally over.
 
After the festive feast scene from the movie, Belle wants to go around the castle. Cogsworth and Lumiere warns to stay away from the west wing. Guess where we will go next!
 
The beast's warning is real! There's creepy armor statue that try to take peek at the inside of Belle's skirt. Also rats and -you guess it- bats. This level is another maze level. All i know so far: collect keys and open the locked door with them.
 
Not all the keys lie around on the floor. You find some of them inside desk like this one. To search the desk, you must hold the 'special' button for a while. I though Belle peeks on the keyhole or lockpick the locked door if i press the button but apparently not. That's quite disappointing. To open the locked door, simply press 'up' on d-pad while you have the key obviously.  
 
After long room travelling, i stumble upon a dark room. I mean room with no light at all not room to process photo or something like that. I immediately think about Lumiere the candelabra. Maybe i need him to bring light to this lightless room.
 
Apparently not. He's here to kick me to the start of this level. I can't really hate him for that because he just being loyal to his master.
Finally, a torch! I can use this to illuminate that room without the help of that talking candelabra. I think you can get stuck in this level due to limited keys that you can find. Plus there's some locked room that serves no purpose at all but to waster your key. Two of them contains either Lumiere or Cogsworth that will shoo you away to the beginning of the level. If you ever feel like to pick this game, know this: the torch is the rooms beyond first locked door that you find.
 
On the previously unlit room, there's a big door with Beast's symbol and there's a book lie here. How nice! It's behind me, isn't?
 
Next, i have to jump from balcony to balcony. Belle's jump is kind of weak but it gets the platforming job done.
 
At the room of the final balcony, i found the magic mirror. When i pick it up, it tells the direction that i have to go and the direction most definitely mean backtracking.   
 
In this room, the magic mirror goes crazy. The arrow direction spin wildly. Turns out, all i need to do is inspect that drawer to get the special key for that big door which means another backtracking! There's no minimap or sort like that, but you can eventually get there without any map. By the way, that locked room contains Lumiere. Don't use the key for that door at all cost. Let the noisy candelabra trapped in there for good!  
Beyond that big door i find the magic rose, of course. This is the end of the level.
 
"How dare you! I protected that magic rose from big boar with my life! With my own freaking life! You hear me?"
 
Oh no! Not, again! Philippe throws hapless Belle in the middle of wilderness, again. But luckily, i don't need to help her (by controlling her) as Beast fend off the wolves off screen. Or in the Beast's part. 
 
The we skip to bonus stage where i control The dancing beast and Belle to get as many rose petal as i can and they have poor handling. It's fairly cumbersome to steer them around. By the way,...  
...that's the face of Belle you all know and love, right? [Medium Sarcasm]
 
But the romantic moment doesn't last forever as Belle see her father lost in wood. Beast let her go to take his father home. Without the direction from that bastard farmer, obviously.
 
You know what happens next from either the movie or my last article. Gaston and the villager attack the Beast's castle. Belle and his father break free from the basement and she rushes to the castle by ridding Philippe. Don't fail me this time, horse-y!
 
This time i control the Philippe and i will make sure he don't get frightened or anything stupid like that. Watch out for that bear trap, horse-y!
 
OH SHOOT! To be fair, Belle is thrown from his horse by goddamn bat and with no one to control him Philippe falls into the cliff. What a tragedy!
 
Yeah, sure! Belle is knocked out cold in snowfield and Philippe falls to his death. Just sweep those dusts and tears away and try again! Totally make sense, you garrulous rose! >:) [Totally Sarcasm]
 
Oh darn! I don't think i can make this platforming. As for the dancing duo, the horse also has bad handling. But Philippe is currently running so it does make sense that he's difficult to be told to move left or right. This section reminds me of that cumbersome DOS game: Wrath of the Demon, which doesn't mean good.  
 
In the end, Belle manage to rescue The Beast from falling but he got stabbed by Gaston (and later he fall to his death off screen, again).
 
But Belle's love confession break the curse on The Beast and his servant. Also he's revived from that fatal wound. Why or rather what makes him come back to alive? Walt Disney's miracle, of course!
 
Thus the prince (who once the beast) and Belle dance once again while collecting falling petal, again. Happy End!


Sunsoft's Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest (1993) is more acceptable and friendlier than The Beast's part. It's less action-y and more quest-y and maze-y. Perhaps it's intended for young female audience which will be appropriate for my cousin back then. But her father bought The Beast's game. Such cruel fate, indeed. As opposed to the beast, Belle has more health points although there's still many flying enemy here. Belle's jump either lacks of height or covers so-so distance but thankfully it's up for the tight platforming task in this game. I feel like that the graphic in this game isn't fit with the movie as opposed to Beast's game. Maybe because this game has bright tone while the counterpart has dark tone which more appropriated with the graphic. Plus, Belle looks quite ugly here and the similarity with the original is 44% at most. The story more or less follows the movie but i doubt 'Belle catches falling books' or 'Living armor statue follows Belle's movement' are in original. The music is kind of forgettable (again). The sound effect is kind of mediocre to bad especially Belle's voice when jumping.

I think i can relate Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest (1993) with Mario Is Missing!. They're both 2D exploring game and tie-in with famous franchise. And both of them are acquired taste in my opinion. As this game is short and rather friendly, more continue and saving feature feels unnecessary. Thing for sure is, i can recommend you to play this one than the Beast's one because it's simply less frustrating. But both of them is the game where you only need to finish once and never replay it again. With that, i have fulfilled my obligation toward Beauty and The Beast Sega Genesis game. Farewell for now!