Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PC, 2017)(Remaster w/ some extras)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-7.5 Control-8 Challenge-6/7* Story-5
Level Design-8 Frustration-5.5/7* Fun-8 Originality-5
Overall Score-8
*Underground area as mouse-man and some of the challenge areas
+
Nice art style with more variety and depth, adds a minor intro cutscene
Adds a save feature (see below, can be used to teleport back to town) - reloading from the main menu resets chest contents (besides heart containers and keys) so you can use this to farm for gold and items
Adds some hidden and optional challenge areas with yellow enemies (inspired by Dragon's Curse remake?) - decent overall and with a light puzzle aspect to them, though the yellow enemies are a bit too spongy
Improved sfx design in some ways (enemies now have unique death sounds)
Can now switch between gained forms on the fly without a second controller (by equipping the tasmanian sword, jumping and pressing up+attack). Doesn't work in the new challenge areas however, nor during boss fights
Thunder saber was replaced by the thunder ring placed in its own slot so you don't have to switch gear to break blocks (can still avoid breaking blocks by equipping the magical saber)
Charm stones were changed yet again (there are only six now which are placed in the challenge areas and collecting them all allows you to buy a new gallic sword which is the strongest in the game and makes enemies drop more sub weapon/spell ammo - check the area below town). Since you can reload to go back to the village, that teleportation feature in the GG ver. was no longer needed but teleporting outside of the village would've been useful
Control config and you can map sub weapon switching to for example the shoulder buttons
Widescreen support
No slowdown and 60 FPS
Added visual hints for some of the hidden doors (could've added more though)
Different remixes for each boss and dungeon
Difficulty options (easy-hard mode+extreme mode; on easy you get a free potion after a game over+bosses have less defense, on hard your HP drains over time like in the prequel (whenever you're outside of town)+enemies take more hits to kill+added yellow enemies to the end of dungeon areas, extreme mode=1 heart only after the intro castle+the timer!)
+/-
Partially non-linear (can get to a chest and the dragon mail in the middle of the lava area before getting the next transformation early on (you're supposed to go into this area as piranha man as you need this form to get to the chest containing the thunder ring at the end of it, lizard-man is immune to lava but it's still a good challenge), can do lion man's area as mouse man (can switch to piranha man after entering it, you'll need sub weapons to hit the boss or you'll have to use piranha man for that fight instead) - unintended sequence break which also gives you hawk man earlier allowing you to explore most of the world much sooner, can do the new hidden areas in any order)
Three save slots but only one per game (can delete but not copy a file, however you can use the password from one save to get to the same spot in another slot)
In this version doing lion-man's dungeon earlier and getting the tasmanian sword on the way there (hidden shop) also gives you lion-man without even doing piranha-man's dungeon so it's skippable
Passwords can still be used including the cheat one (WE5T ONE 0000 0000) - gives you all items. Press triangle when loading or starting a game. Can only use password loading when starting a new game
Can still carry only 3 revival potions at a time (pretty well balanced though if you pick up more of them they are wasted - could've been changed so that you get some gold instead)
Static difficulty - the shipwreck dungeon becomes too easy if you sequence break
-
If you pick up the tasmanian sword while sequence breaking then you don't get to fight the pirate dragon - can still fight it via a hidden door in town in the post-game however
Doesn't add area maps
Auto-saves after a game over (you keep the gold and gear but sub weapon ammo and used elixirs are lost)
Some control/interface issues (doesn't remove the knockback during the invincibility time after taking a hit (you keep getting knocked back but don't take damage which can get annoying at times), still can't adjust your jump height (rarely needed though), most special gear properties aren't expained in-game, enemy coin drops disappear a bit too quickly (about 4 seconds) - not the case for other drops, somewhat unforgiving hit detection when hitting ghosts as the mouse while on the ground - with the original graphics it's easier to see that you're not hitting them and have to be jumping)
Didn't change how coins drop to make picking them up flow better (no item drop magnet was added either)
Some trial & error (some cheap hits at the beginning of lizard-man's challenge area (get ganged up on right as you enter and the spearthrowing enemy takes you out in one hit - also can't see the HUD because of the title card for the area when you enter it, too hard to spot the entrance to lion-man's challenge area without switching to the original graphics)
Some of the music doesn't have the same impact or was changed too much (more jazzy and banjo-based)
Opened chests appear unopened when leaving and re-entering the room they were in
Some slightly tedious aspects (can't teleport/quick travel to dungeon or challenge area entrances, the hu-man/girl challenge area - annoying first room and some annoying spring jumps+the puzzle in the last room is pretty cryptic since you've probably not noticed that you can duck in this form+the breakable blocks above the door are misleading)
The shogun shield and armor are redundant unless you rushed through the game up to that point. The aqua shield is as well for the same reason
Set loot in chests means that you might get something you already have a full stock of (same with enemy drops - they don't drop something else if you have 3 potions for example)
The block that spawns a return door at the end of the beach area could've been removed since you can just reload now
Didn't remove the sprite limit for the fireball shooting sunflowers (only two can be firing at once) and in Lizard-man's challenge area you can't throw more than one tornado at a time which I think is related to this
Different gear doesn't have unique in-game sprites
Hawk-man's, piranha-man's and lion-man's challenge areas are pretty easy
Second half of mouse-man's challenge area where you can fall down and have to redo the whole thing from one mistake
The zombie and pirate dragon's AI weren't improved (the former is too repetitive and the latter can get stuck in an easier jumping pattern)
Still can’t move backwards to a previous section in dungeons
Unskippable staff roll
Not much of an acknowledgement from the game after beating the post-game hu-man challenge (have to quit and reload to get back to town, then just a short comment from the pig in town if you go talk to it in that form)
Boomerangs are still pretty OP and lightning is a bit weak (not sure if the latter was always the case or if it's based on the GG ver.)
Doesn't expand on existing areas or add new ones besides the short challenge areas and no new bosses or enemies were added
Block creation is still pretty underused (could've been used kinda like in Solomon's Key)
Notes:
-The prince armor still increases heart drop rate and the lucky sword the gold drop rate+amount of gold dropped. The hades armor still works as an extra revival potion if you have none
-Hidden ammo shop below the tower in town if you jump above the door after dopping down to where you get the first extra heart - not sure if this was there in the original
Level Design-8 Frustration-5.5/7* Fun-8 Originality-5
Overall Score-8
*Underground area as mouse-man and some of the challenge areas
+
Nice art style with more variety and depth, adds a minor intro cutscene
Adds a save feature (see below, can be used to teleport back to town) - reloading from the main menu resets chest contents (besides heart containers and keys) so you can use this to farm for gold and items
Adds some hidden and optional challenge areas with yellow enemies (inspired by Dragon's Curse remake?) - decent overall and with a light puzzle aspect to them, though the yellow enemies are a bit too spongy
Improved sfx design in some ways (enemies now have unique death sounds)
Can now switch between gained forms on the fly without a second controller (by equipping the tasmanian sword, jumping and pressing up+attack). Doesn't work in the new challenge areas however, nor during boss fights
Thunder saber was replaced by the thunder ring placed in its own slot so you don't have to switch gear to break blocks (can still avoid breaking blocks by equipping the magical saber)
Charm stones were changed yet again (there are only six now which are placed in the challenge areas and collecting them all allows you to buy a new gallic sword which is the strongest in the game and makes enemies drop more sub weapon/spell ammo - check the area below town). Since you can reload to go back to the village, that teleportation feature in the GG ver. was no longer needed but teleporting outside of the village would've been useful
Control config and you can map sub weapon switching to for example the shoulder buttons
Widescreen support
No slowdown and 60 FPS
Added visual hints for some of the hidden doors (could've added more though)
Different remixes for each boss and dungeon
Difficulty options (easy-hard mode+extreme mode; on easy you get a free potion after a game over+bosses have less defense, on hard your HP drains over time like in the prequel (whenever you're outside of town)+enemies take more hits to kill+added yellow enemies to the end of dungeon areas, extreme mode=1 heart only after the intro castle+the timer!)
+/-
Partially non-linear (can get to a chest and the dragon mail in the middle of the lava area before getting the next transformation early on (you're supposed to go into this area as piranha man as you need this form to get to the chest containing the thunder ring at the end of it, lizard-man is immune to lava but it's still a good challenge), can do lion man's area as mouse man (can switch to piranha man after entering it, you'll need sub weapons to hit the boss or you'll have to use piranha man for that fight instead) - unintended sequence break which also gives you hawk man earlier allowing you to explore most of the world much sooner, can do the new hidden areas in any order)
Three save slots but only one per game (can delete but not copy a file, however you can use the password from one save to get to the same spot in another slot)
In this version doing lion-man's dungeon earlier and getting the tasmanian sword on the way there (hidden shop) also gives you lion-man without even doing piranha-man's dungeon so it's skippable
Passwords can still be used including the cheat one (WE5T ONE 0000 0000) - gives you all items. Press triangle when loading or starting a game. Can only use password loading when starting a new game
Can still carry only 3 revival potions at a time (pretty well balanced though if you pick up more of them they are wasted - could've been changed so that you get some gold instead)
Static difficulty - the shipwreck dungeon becomes too easy if you sequence break
-
If you pick up the tasmanian sword while sequence breaking then you don't get to fight the pirate dragon - can still fight it via a hidden door in town in the post-game however
Doesn't add area maps
Auto-saves after a game over (you keep the gold and gear but sub weapon ammo and used elixirs are lost)
Some control/interface issues (doesn't remove the knockback during the invincibility time after taking a hit (you keep getting knocked back but don't take damage which can get annoying at times), still can't adjust your jump height (rarely needed though), most special gear properties aren't expained in-game, enemy coin drops disappear a bit too quickly (about 4 seconds) - not the case for other drops, somewhat unforgiving hit detection when hitting ghosts as the mouse while on the ground - with the original graphics it's easier to see that you're not hitting them and have to be jumping)
Didn't change how coins drop to make picking them up flow better (no item drop magnet was added either)
Some trial & error (some cheap hits at the beginning of lizard-man's challenge area (get ganged up on right as you enter and the spearthrowing enemy takes you out in one hit - also can't see the HUD because of the title card for the area when you enter it, too hard to spot the entrance to lion-man's challenge area without switching to the original graphics)
Some of the music doesn't have the same impact or was changed too much (more jazzy and banjo-based)
Opened chests appear unopened when leaving and re-entering the room they were in
Some slightly tedious aspects (can't teleport/quick travel to dungeon or challenge area entrances, the hu-man/girl challenge area - annoying first room and some annoying spring jumps+the puzzle in the last room is pretty cryptic since you've probably not noticed that you can duck in this form+the breakable blocks above the door are misleading)
The shogun shield and armor are redundant unless you rushed through the game up to that point. The aqua shield is as well for the same reason
Set loot in chests means that you might get something you already have a full stock of (same with enemy drops - they don't drop something else if you have 3 potions for example)
The block that spawns a return door at the end of the beach area could've been removed since you can just reload now
Didn't remove the sprite limit for the fireball shooting sunflowers (only two can be firing at once) and in Lizard-man's challenge area you can't throw more than one tornado at a time which I think is related to this
Different gear doesn't have unique in-game sprites
Hawk-man's, piranha-man's and lion-man's challenge areas are pretty easy
Second half of mouse-man's challenge area where you can fall down and have to redo the whole thing from one mistake
The zombie and pirate dragon's AI weren't improved (the former is too repetitive and the latter can get stuck in an easier jumping pattern)
Still can’t move backwards to a previous section in dungeons
Unskippable staff roll
Not much of an acknowledgement from the game after beating the post-game hu-man challenge (have to quit and reload to get back to town, then just a short comment from the pig in town if you go talk to it in that form)
Boomerangs are still pretty OP and lightning is a bit weak (not sure if the latter was always the case or if it's based on the GG ver.)
Doesn't expand on existing areas or add new ones besides the short challenge areas and no new bosses or enemies were added
Block creation is still pretty underused (could've been used kinda like in Solomon's Key)
Notes:
-The prince armor still increases heart drop rate and the lucky sword the gold drop rate+amount of gold dropped. The hades armor still works as an extra revival potion if you have none
-Hidden ammo shop below the tower in town if you jump above the door after dopping down to where you get the first extra heart - not sure if this was there in the original