Memoats
Power Quest 1998
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
--
Platforms Played
I looked at @C_F's 'Short ass JRPG' list and thought the name sounded cool, and while I think calling it a JRPG is kind of misleading, it's still a pretty damn good game surprisingly! I didn't expect to have such a fun time playing a Gameboy Color game, but hot damn, Power Quest proves to be a genuinely fun pseudo-fighting game that feels really damn good to play.
The game is pretty short, I beat it in about 2 short sittings? So I would definitely suggest playing this as a "breather" game if you're in the middle of a marathon or the like.
The game is pretty light on the story so I'll gloss over it quickly. The hot new craze around the globe is Model Fighting; basically Gundam x Battlebots. Your goal is to win the tournament that's coming up, but you'll need to work your way up to buy the upgrades necessary to stand a chance in the battles to come.
Let's talk gameplay. As I said before, this plays pretty much like a fighting game, so it's a 1v1 fighting game format ALA Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter; you've even got meter and air grabs! If you're familiar with typical fighting game quartercircle inputs, picking up this game's inputs should be a cinch.
You've got a selection of five Model robots to pick from, which are as follows:
Max Model: The basic "shoto" archetype, think Ryu from Street Fighter. His special moves are a classic Shoryuken/DP, a floor projectile kind of like Terry Bogard's Power Wave, and he also has a simple 2-hit lunging punch combo that you can chain a super input into which makes him a nice beginner's pick.
Speed Model: This was the model I played the most during the main story. She kind of plays like Sakura from Street Fighter, really speedy and even has the classic Street Fighter aerial kick (or "sex kick" if you come from Smash). Her specials are kind of unique in that I have a hard time describing some of them to another kind of fighting game character, but I'll try. She lacks any kind of projectile, but she has a fantastic meaty option in her 236A input, it's similar to GBVSR' Ferry's Geegee, just in the form of a fist. On the topic of Ferry, the Speed Model also has a dive kick which is super useful for getting in, and her last special move is a sort of air kick that can sometimes be useful for catching landing opponents, but I really only used it when comboing off the dive kick.
Gong Model: This guy's your classic grappler character. True to fashion, he is also the worst Model out of the main 5. He has a super armor charge that's similar to Tager from Blazblue, and he also has a grab super move where he lunges forward like Kanji Tatsumi in BBTAG (or P4A, I suppose). The main issue that the Gong Model has is that all of it's moves suffer from really bad endlag and he struggles hard against opponents in the air, which is not great when the best models tend to have good air approach options.
Axe Model: This guy's a weird xenomorph guy and he's a ton of fun to play. He's got Reptile's strange projectile that can be deceptively hard to dodge, and he's also got GBVSR Charlotta's frontflip which sends him spinning in a ball toward the opponent like an alien bowling ball.
Lon Model: Although it says this model has "kung-fu moves", this guy plays uncannily similar to Terry Bogard, just with different specials. I'm not joking, he literally has Power Wave AND Crack Shoot.
So, I'm sure you're wondering which Model is the best and worse one.
In terms of the best Model, I think it's a toss-up between the Speed and Axe Model. The Speed Model has a ton of good moves and combos but lacks a projectile. The Axe Model has a ton of tools to get in easily but it sometimes has a hard time staying in if his the sweep attack fails. It boils down to a matter of taste, basically.
As for the worst Model, that easily goes to Borot. What, I didn't mention this guy? Well he's basically a joke character that only shows up in the 1P mode. He cannot jump, he cannot kick, he can only move back and forth and punch. I don't know what the devs were thinking, but I'm sure they were having a laugh when making this game.
So, what holds back this game from being 5 stars? Well, I think the campaign mode can get really grindy. You'll have to grind a ton of money to upgrade all of your parts, and at best you'll maybe be getting 200 credits per win at the factory when you need to buy upgrades worth 40,000. If you want my opinion, I would put in the following password once you get tired of the campaign in order to experience the National Finals of the campaign. As I said, the game is pretty light on story, so you're not really missing out on much and you get a pretty good challenge out of it.
3-2-R-Y
D-V-N-S
D-2-S-P
Colorblindness Rating: B
When making descriptions for all the Models, I made sure to check what color your model was compared to your opponent in ditto matches. From what I could tell, the devs were actually pretty good about making the colors distinct with the exception of the Lon Model, which has your brown model fight a red one.
For the curious, here are the color comparisons.
Max - blue player, red opponent
Speed - green player, pink opponent
Gong - purple player, red opponent
Axe - grey player, purple opponent
Lon - brown player, red opponent (!!)
The game is pretty short, I beat it in about 2 short sittings? So I would definitely suggest playing this as a "breather" game if you're in the middle of a marathon or the like.
The game is pretty light on the story so I'll gloss over it quickly. The hot new craze around the globe is Model Fighting; basically Gundam x Battlebots. Your goal is to win the tournament that's coming up, but you'll need to work your way up to buy the upgrades necessary to stand a chance in the battles to come.
Let's talk gameplay. As I said before, this plays pretty much like a fighting game, so it's a 1v1 fighting game format ALA Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter; you've even got meter and air grabs! If you're familiar with typical fighting game quartercircle inputs, picking up this game's inputs should be a cinch.
You've got a selection of five Model robots to pick from, which are as follows:
Max Model: The basic "shoto" archetype, think Ryu from Street Fighter. His special moves are a classic Shoryuken/DP, a floor projectile kind of like Terry Bogard's Power Wave, and he also has a simple 2-hit lunging punch combo that you can chain a super input into which makes him a nice beginner's pick.
Speed Model: This was the model I played the most during the main story. She kind of plays like Sakura from Street Fighter, really speedy and even has the classic Street Fighter aerial kick (or "sex kick" if you come from Smash). Her specials are kind of unique in that I have a hard time describing some of them to another kind of fighting game character, but I'll try. She lacks any kind of projectile, but she has a fantastic meaty option in her 236A input, it's similar to GBVSR' Ferry's Geegee, just in the form of a fist. On the topic of Ferry, the Speed Model also has a dive kick which is super useful for getting in, and her last special move is a sort of air kick that can sometimes be useful for catching landing opponents, but I really only used it when comboing off the dive kick.
Gong Model: This guy's your classic grappler character. True to fashion, he is also the worst Model out of the main 5. He has a super armor charge that's similar to Tager from Blazblue, and he also has a grab super move where he lunges forward like Kanji Tatsumi in BBTAG (or P4A, I suppose). The main issue that the Gong Model has is that all of it's moves suffer from really bad endlag and he struggles hard against opponents in the air, which is not great when the best models tend to have good air approach options.
Axe Model: This guy's a weird xenomorph guy and he's a ton of fun to play. He's got Reptile's strange projectile that can be deceptively hard to dodge, and he's also got GBVSR Charlotta's frontflip which sends him spinning in a ball toward the opponent like an alien bowling ball.
Lon Model: Although it says this model has "kung-fu moves", this guy plays uncannily similar to Terry Bogard, just with different specials. I'm not joking, he literally has Power Wave AND Crack Shoot.
So, I'm sure you're wondering which Model is the best and worse one.
In terms of the best Model, I think it's a toss-up between the Speed and Axe Model. The Speed Model has a ton of good moves and combos but lacks a projectile. The Axe Model has a ton of tools to get in easily but it sometimes has a hard time staying in if his the sweep attack fails. It boils down to a matter of taste, basically.
As for the worst Model, that easily goes to Borot. What, I didn't mention this guy? Well he's basically a joke character that only shows up in the 1P mode. He cannot jump, he cannot kick, he can only move back and forth and punch. I don't know what the devs were thinking, but I'm sure they were having a laugh when making this game.
So, what holds back this game from being 5 stars? Well, I think the campaign mode can get really grindy. You'll have to grind a ton of money to upgrade all of your parts, and at best you'll maybe be getting 200 credits per win at the factory when you need to buy upgrades worth 40,000. If you want my opinion, I would put in the following password once you get tired of the campaign in order to experience the National Finals of the campaign. As I said, the game is pretty light on story, so you're not really missing out on much and you get a pretty good challenge out of it.
3-2-R-Y
D-V-N-S
D-2-S-P
Colorblindness Rating: B
When making descriptions for all the Models, I made sure to check what color your model was compared to your opponent in ditto matches. From what I could tell, the devs were actually pretty good about making the colors distinct with the exception of the Lon Model, which has your brown model fight a red one.
For the curious, here are the color comparisons.
Max - blue player, red opponent
Speed - green player, pink opponent
Gong - purple player, red opponent
Axe - grey player, purple opponent
Lon - brown player, red opponent (!!)