Ninja JaJaMaru: The Lost RPGs | PS4

Retro RPGs from the 8bit era were the shiz! Most of us of parenting age these days grew up playing the earliest forms of the genre. Including first entries in the Final Fantasy series on the NES, and the first Legend of Zelda games. We grew up in a time where our own imagination carried us far beyond what the pixels themselves could. Through textual conversations, perplexing challenges, and revealing exploration we came to enjoy a fantastical visual journey where heroes and heroines of original origin were masters of their domain. A time where when you heard the protagonists' names you knew exactly from which world they hailed, and whom they had conquered in their fight against evil. Their brave feats forever engrained in our impressionable minds. Giving us someone to look up to and aspire to be outside the realm of our reality.

While we all have our favorites from these glorious times gone by some of the more interesting releases from that era of gaming history found themselves to be so obscure or out of reach that they fell to the wayside. Only to be enjoyed by a handful of gamers privileged enough to have experienced them. One such series, by Jaleco, took the inspiration of classic RPGs of the time while adding the Eastern mysticism of Japan into the mix. Pitting ninjas against yokai. This RPG series was brought to light under the banner of "Ninja JaJaMaru". It had you taking control of a ninja master named JaJaMaru, and in some games the princess Sakura. The games often times included their own separate standalone stories, and featured inspired takes on the RPG genre from seasoned studios like Nintendo and Square. Bringing to us evolving mechanics in the form of textual turn based strategy, and action-rpg antics.

Of course, we would have probably never even have heard of this legacy series had it not been for the collaboration between ININ Games, City Connection, and Ratalaika Games. Them giving it their revised, and updated treatment. A way to experience these bundled titles at budget prices with all the bits and baubles to boot. Everything from additional graphic settings, to replay features, and three separately titled menus of advantageous cheats to help you get past the extreme difficulty curve should you choose to go that route. 

With "Ninja JaJaMaru: The Lost RPGs", in particular, we get two games in one. This includes "Ninja JaJaMaru: The Ninja Skill Book", and "Ninja JaJaMaru: The Legend of the Golden Castle". Each title slightly differing in mechanics, visuals, and storytelling. With the jutsu using JaJaMaru always battling it out with the yokai over their invasion and theft from his Edo village.

In "Ninja JaJaMaru: The Ninja Skill Book" both JaJaMaru, and Princess Sakura work together to get back a stolen book that details all the secrets of the ways of the Ninja. Through town, and map exploration of the overhead kind JaJaMaru, and Sakura find their bearings, equip themselves for battle, and deal death to the yokai they encounter along the way in a textual turn based format wherein an image of the yokai is present while actions are selected, and the outcomes displayed. Like Final Fantasy, this adventure features randomized enemy encounters that require strategical choices per turn. The big difference being in JaJaMaru's attack options. He can deal damage with basic attacks, or spend JP to deal skill style damage in the form of Jutsu. Different yokai are more susceptible to damage from certain Jutsu, as it turns out. This of course will help stave off too much damage, and allow JaJaMaru to reap the rewards in victory. Aside from that JaJaMaru and company can use items, defend, and escape a battle. Defending negates damage whereas escape can help you get away from certain death. Should your HP ever be fully depleted you can return via revival at a save house or start over from the beginning. You're main goal, above all else, is to survive long enough to beat the book thief, and recover the book for your village.

Skipping a few games forward the fourth Famicom entry that is "Ninja JaJaMaru: The Legend of the Golden Castle" has princess Sakura kidnapped, the villagers turned to yokai, and the yokai themselves trying to perform a ritual to resurrect a great evil. This newer adventure not only looks visually updated in comparison to the former game, but also changes up mechanics from the turn based textual battle system to a more 'Legend of Zelda' inspired take on the action-rpg formula of the time. It has you taking on the role of JaJaMaru as he explores a world where enemy yokai are visible and actively moving about. Threats that respawn, and that must be dealt with in order to bank the currency needed to buy items, gear, and services at the local villages. Returning to the formula are the JP dependent Jutsu. That and various weapons or items with a specific use in the games puzzle solving. Advancing the plot, and getting down to the know of it all requires talking to the locals, and finding out where you need to be next as well as what you should be doing in the way of main and sub-objectives. There are side quests to partake of alongside the main questline. 

Settings, which are the icing on the cake with these retro collections, are filled to the brim with options to cater to your needs as a gamer. If you like the true to retro experience, for example, there's a detailed scanlines settings list to tinker with. You can even toggle the screen size from the original 4:3 to a stretched fullscreen perspective. Additionally if you find you are having trouble progressing you can also use the cheats menu, enhancements menu, or blessings menu to basically hand hold your way through with God Mode quality cheats as well as generous or infinite stocks of items, gold, HP, and JP. The publisher thought of everything.

The Verdict ...

When it comes to collections of this sort the pricing for what you get seems a wee bit off despite the games' rare nature. The publisher is asking $20 for two games. With all the bonus settings, and features for added value. I'd expect this kind of price being placed more on a full series collection than a mere two games out of that series. I do understand that the Wonderboy collection sold for $50, but there are other collections out there of this kind going for around the same price as they are asking here. That having been said ... I've personally never heard of or seen the Ninja JaJaMaru games before. Thus it is a treat to be able to do so. The games themselves are highly playable, and live up to today's retro recollection standards. If you fancy something that's on the more obscure side, but familiar in the way of classic rpgs this might be a worthwhile purchase for you. It depends wholly on what style of game you are looking for.

STORE: https://www.iningames.com/games/ninja-jajamaru