Most players have a certain prejudice towards the monochrome, color-deprived and stereo-sound Game Boy. They say that the games there are all terrible, and the role-playing games are utterly primitive, and they are all played accordingly. And in general, an interesting world cannot be fit into a few hundred (or up to a hundred ...) kilobytes. However, today's copy managed to surprise me a lot and I think that many will be able to. For to do this with the strong technical limitations of the brainchild of Gunpei Yokoi costs a lot. No wonder the game is called Xerd!! with two exclamation marks.

Generally speaking, Xerd!! - this is a sequel to another role-playing game Legend of Zerd from the same GB deprived of color. Since both games are in turn deprived of English translation, this automatically frees me from the sometimes honorable, sometimes tedious duty of retelling the plot of the predecessor. Which I, really, did not really consider at all. And rightly so, the fact that it was the most classical will be enough, which, coupled with hieroglyphics, will plunge a person who launched VBA into a sleepy state. Yes Xerd!! also begins with quite a classic disassembly of a duet of heroes with I don’t understand who, but after it everything will go in a not so familiar way. However, even before the long and surprisingly well-delivered introduction for a handheld, it is noticeable that the heroes are not stupid youngsters who dream of becoming dragon masters, but already matured, albeit not pumped up to level 99 characters, who even have spells of the third level. A little later, it turns out that one of the original two heroes is just a hundred-bucks-for-a-hundred-bucks mercenary, who speaks out in the prologue of decency for, and the main ones are the unremarkable outwardly Urusu (Ulis?) and his girlfriend / sister / lover Anis, who will join the party for a month commercials in April near the border castle. What months? What are the boundaries? Read on.

When you get into the first city after, ahem, a long walk to the dubious accompaniment of a running line, it will become clear that you will not be allowed to walk on the ground in the game - all movement around the cities will be carried out exclusively by the cursor representing the city from a bird's eye view. Due to the fact that it would be problematic to hit NPCs in this mode, the developers made motionless statues out of them. Accordingly, it remains only to poke at houses and statues and listen to his remarks on the screen with a portrait of the interlocutor. At first it seems unusual and tedious, then you get used to it. Actually, even after leaving the city, you will move around the global map in the same way - you can only move to the next dungeon by marking it with the cursor and pressing “yes”. At the same time, it is also necessary that points A and B are connected by a road. The islands can only be reached from the ports marked on the map. Not new, but inspiring.

Movement on the global map is automated and is shown in the style of "and they walked for thirty days and three days." You go, go, and on the background the time of day changes and the counter slowly but surely counts days and months. But not years - for at first I myself was very surprised, seeing first December 32, and then the thirteenth month. So, the counter is spinning, and the cardboard blockheads are marching. If they get tired (and fatigue is aggravated by the scorching sun when walking through the desert and mountainous areas!) - click on the icon with the image of a tent and restore hit points. Although random encounter (fortunately not very frequent) extends to the time of sweet sleep in a tent with mosquitoes. When moving by sea, fortunately, is missing. Potentially, while walking, wounds can be healed - but only if the party has grub previously bought in the city or received for completing the quest - everything is like in life ^_^ By the way, in the same mode of walking / marching from one end of the screen to the other, and dungeons, which, after such a feint with ears, cannot be called that because of the all-consuming linearity. This was later seen on PS one in Mitsumete Knight R and Blue Breaker, for example.

Combat itself is the most traditional part of the game. The tradition begins with a hateful first-person view and does not end with turn-based battles. In terms of functionality, however, the combat is Xerd !! much more reminiscent of the first three FF. Monsters have three levels of, let's say, proximity to heroes, depending on which they can do more damage and receive more damage and vice versa. Critical hits that deal double damage are also provided, when applied, they are denoted by the words “Smash” or “Oh God!”. On the part of our party, innovations are mainly expressed in the magic system with the dominance of the number 4 in it - up to four schools of magic for the hero, up to four spells in each, up to four power levels each. Eat in Xerd!! and rare duels, but they must initially be lost in the story - which, however, does not mean that they cannot be won :P

The most interesting thing is in Xerd!! - non-linearity in everything. Analogies include, for example, Traverse: Starlight & Prairie for the SNES. Freedom of movement is not restricted in principle not only the speed of the party’s movement (not even the level of monsters - with proper overnight stays and some luck, it will not be an obstacle at all!) will force you to pass through all the territories of the rather big world of Xerd !! in turn. "Pass" in the sense that in each city there are quest givers who usually need something at one of the locations that is not a city. Usually it all boils down to arriving at your destination and killing the evil boss - not for anything, just like that. Usually in (now rare) modern CRPGs, for example, they stumble for this together and with a whole crowd, but in JRPGs in Japanese, and even more so in GB, such simplicity and convenience is just a gift, especially since getting used to Xerd !! quite easy. That's why 15 hours fly by pretty quickly. Even if the plot is not clear how and it is not clear what.

Xerd Graphics!! America will not be opened to you (see the “platform” paragraph), but it can please your eyes. For a black-and-white GB, the picture is very decently drawn, all NPCs have portraits (only their total number suffers, due to which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish "enpisei" from evil ones and from each other). The monsters are well drawn - it is touching when a tiny dot from the background turns into a hefty fat freak in the foreground. If only the spells were designed better... But the most chic is still the change of times of day and seasons. Infrequently on GB you will see smooth sunrises and sunsets and the sun floating above the horizon ...

Don't look at the sound score with those eyes. I couldn't help but rate this as the best soundtrack I've ever heard on GB/GBC/NGPC/WS/WSC. Only GBA takes its quality of technical performance. I even managed to convert two compositions to mp3 format, and this is just an unprecedented case. Surprisingly decent in quality, albeit uncomplicated sound and excellent melodies, among which there is no empty one. And it’s a pity that I still don’t know the name of the author of this wonderful soundtrack ...

A unique thing yet turned out, gentlemen, skeptics. Although the game stubbornly does not let me into the final dungeon for reasons unknown to me, although I cannot understand the motives of the mercenaries attacking my party at a halt from time to time, although I cannot understand the variegated conversations between the heroes in the party and the item system - all the same we can say that under the name of Xerd!! hiding one of the best RPG for black and white GB. What makes you regret the lack of a full-color remake ...