Overview
Ghost Lion, referred to as Legend of the Ghost Lion by its title screen and called White Lion Densetsu in Japan, is a traditional Japanese RPG on the NES. The graphics have a very similar style to that of the early Dragon Quest games and the game also borrows sprites from previous RPGs for the NES, such as Final Fantasy. The player controls a young woman named Maria who is looking for her parents, who went missing some years prior on a search for the legendary white lion. While searching the last known place where they were seen, Maria falls into a river and awakens in a fantasy land. There, using her wits and a group of friends she can summon into any battle, she must find a way back to her world, discover where her parents have gone and confront the white lion.
The game is based on a movie, Pyramid no Kanata ni: White Lion Densetsu, and features several of the same characters.
Gameplay
While the game is a traditional 8-bit JRPG for the most part, it does depart from the norm in several respects: For one, stats are defined as "Hope", "Courage" and "Dream". These roughly equate to "Level", "HP" and "MP". Hope, rather than going up after gaining experience from battles, can only be increased by finding Hope Fragments scattered around the world, removing the need to grind to get stronger. Instead, the Hope Fragments improve Maria's stats, as does finding stronger weapons.
To fight, Maria must go into her inventory and use the item or weapon she wishes to use against the enemy. She can also summon one of her allies, performed by activating the items they are linked to. For instance, the warrior Moja who helps Maria with physical attacks is linked to a Spear she begins the game with, while the magic-user Twana is summoned with a lamp and can cast an assortment of spells. There are a total of 11 of these summoned allies.
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