The Guardian Legend - Facets of the Gem

[@moandaindesigns]

This is one of my favorite NES games. I remember renting it once and Asking for it for christmas. It was not till years later that I realized how much my Grandmother had sacrificed to get that game for me. I still have my original copy and will never sell it because of the story attached to that specific copy.

[@azforu29]

I also got TGL and SMB3 by my grandparents probably in 90,91. Hurts to think about. Makes me panicky.

[@raelik777]

Fantastic game, I still have a physical cart of this that I play every now and then. I do need to get the original famicom release too.

[@Viertel]

Wow.... I haven't heard that bit from my old handle Trptcox in years (Naju Overture). I had even forgotten that I pushed that to OCRemix back in the early 2000s. I'm glad to see you at least liked it enough to put in the video, so it's nice that it's still listened to even if it was one of the first remixes I've ever done. Wingless's remix is also incredible to hear again! Regardless, excellent video, especially since it's in one of my favorite hidden gem NES games from back in the day!

[@DisplacedGamers]

Wow! I really do love that arrangement - have enjoyed listening for years. Do you happen to have a more recent recording by chance?

[@Gamingwithgleez]

Wow! That old commercial is probably the reason that as a kid I always confused the title names of Battle of Olympus and Guardian Legend. Crazy. Guardian Legend is one of my favorite games ever

[@Cannotbetamed1]

One of my favourite NES games! I don’t think I ever noticed the coordinates though. Great video on it.

[@DisplacedGamers]

Thanks! It was very difficult to refrain from playing it all the way through while capturing footage. So much fun!

[@Darxide23]

One of my favorite games of all time. It was one of the first games I owned on the NES. Still has some of the best music on the console and I love the orchestrated version that you play in the background of the video. OCRemix is such a great thing. Anyway, I also loved the puzzles you had to solve to enter the main corridors. That was a great little addition. One of the few games on the NES that I came back to time and time again and one of the few games I stuck with and beat as a kid. I still replay it from time to time.

[@allthatisman1]

I found an old vhs tape that had the games commercial. I never knew what it was. I found this channel cause of it. I put that commercial on my channel. Great vid!!!

[@DisplacedGamers]

I am going to tweet that you found this. Holy cow. Needle in a haystack!

[@LorenHelgeson]

I was a kid when this game came out. I never saw that commercial, so I was likwise confused when I kept hearing my friends say it was Zelda 3. I wouldn't get around to playing it for another two decades, and I really wish I'd gotten to it so much sooner. What a fantastic game.

[@Nelwyn]

Like many here, one of my favorite games. Probably my favorite soundtrack as well. Loved just about every song on this game.

[@thatepicguy1592]

I love this game. Nothing on the nes will ever touch that soundtrack

[@LorenHelgeson]

Agreed. The soundtrack got some real love thrown its way on OC Remix, especially the remixes for "Labyrinth." One of the best ones, Rosenthorne, takes up the majority of this video's background music.

[@Dhalin]

Eh. Lots of NES games had good soundtracks. I ain't saying TGL's is bad, but yet I don't know if I would call it the 'best'. It has some serious competition, especially from Blaster Master.

[@azforu29]

You know what's funny. The commercial you were talking about led me here lol. Oh you just played it. Awesome. Both distributed by Broderbund as you said. And the cover of TGL was also the VHS cover artwork of a movie but I can't remember the name. "Alien" something I think.

[@ICountFrom0]

(2:20) It took me this long to figure out that the music was a remix of the theme, good work... and very good game I do love, even now.

[@lucasgill7819]

The Famicom art is gorgeous

[@jjthegreat1981]

Fantastic presentation, thank you very much.

[@berner]

Ah okay so it appears you DID play The Guardian Legend :D I f'n loved this game. My folks got it for me back in '88 and none of us knew anything about it. I would have to say they picked a real winner because it was like Nintendo game I had ever seen or played.

[@atomicskull6405]

Look up the full uncropped version of the japanese cover art it's amazing.

[@franciscoresendiz8854]

Awesome game! I played it in the 90s and really like it. Back in those days I believed I was crasy because I like it a lot and nobody knows it. Thanks to KZbin now this game is considered by many a hiddem gem.

[@Jesse12489]

My friend who I known for 15 years owns a video game store and he recommended me this game to me and at the time I wasn't sure. And believe it or not he has good taste and every time he recommends me a game I take it because he does recommend me games I really do love and I just saw this game earlier this week at his store but instead I bought Friday the 13th for the NES and I bought another game that turns out didn't work so I returned that game and I got this instead. so yes right now I have The Guardian Legend on NES and I'm actually really enjoying it.

[@nightwalkerj]

When I was a kid, I thought it was Zelda 3 as well. Convinced my mom to get it since she was a Zelda fan. We were not ready for what the game was but I still loved it.

[@JDnD80]

One of my favorite games, beat it many times, as did my dad.

[@greysky1252]

that cover art looks awesome

[@PaulGaither]

I grew up with this game. My mother was huge into RPGs and played so many with me. She was very excited to bring this game home. However, my only memory of it was how confusing and difficult and mesmerizing it was.

[@7thangelad586]

Very close to being a flawless game. I still hear the unbelievable soundtrack in my head daily.

[@TotallyGoodatGames]

Dang that Japanese box art looks beautiful :o

[@ashjudd]

That commercial you showed was a follow up of the original which promoted Guardian Legend.

[@DisplacedGamers]

Yes! I am so happy that allthatisman1 dropped in and mentioned that the original commercial was uploaded to their channel. That is how I remember it. I wish that I had had access to it when I cut Facets for TGL.

[@marcusschulz2111]

I wish a remaster

[@Laurell_Silentshade]

I also enjoyed that aspect of throwing 2 different gameplay modes together in Actraiser.

[@gridly.todd.h]

I hope your FC version has that sweet felt poster of Naju! The only game of that era to have such an item that I know of is Goardic Gaiden.

[@lordceno948]

I'd love to see Wayforward take a crack at a remake/reboot. See if they could pull off the Double Dragon Neon and Contra 4 magic again.

[@DisplacedGamers]

Hmm. That would be rather interesting. I like that you mentioned a specific company for doing a remake. It is fun to speculate on what sort of style we would see depending on who might attempt a modernization of the Guardian Legend. I also find it interesting that multiple people have mentioned a remake as a welcome addition. I've been a fan of the original since playing a rented copy since its release and feel that it has held up well. Of course if someone created a remake of The Guardian Legend - It would certainly peak my curiosity.

[@Anakunus]

@@DisplacedGamers Then this is something for it to peak: facebook.com/TGLLegacy/

[@TyCollage]

Or Inticreates but WAY FORWARD would awesome!

[@ICountFrom0]

if there's a remake, I hope they include the original as an emulated side part playable from the extras menue somewhere. ... but maybe with a save system instead of password.

[@JamieBainbridge]

Two weeks later and only 51 views. Criminal neglect. Should be 51000 views.

[@shadowhenge7118]

Still my favorite nes game i ever was able to get the week of release. Even more than the hype of The Wizard and SMB3

[@safetinspector2]

There was a TV commercial?? Never saw it in the day!

[@skins4thewin]

I just wish there was a video explaining how the game works, what all the different stats and icons mean, what everything means on the Pause screen and at the bottom of the screen, etc. I am pretty lost as I start to play this, I have no clue what anything means.

[@sagepirotess6312]

Great game, I want a sequel

[@knephsabir3245]

Why haven't this game been remastered/remade? It's epic.

[@ziggybarone3168]

You cannot remake perfection. One man tried, and it never went past a demo. The other made a mod that was more difficult. It was fun, but it was just a mod.

[@knephsabir3245]

@@ziggybarone3168 a sequel would be nice the concept of the game is so cool for it to be only 1 I'm sure they can come up with with a nice story to complement that gameplay.

[@user00061]

Can you do a video about exploring the weird rooms outside playing map? You know when you input password and the game sometimes send you to a random X and Y coordinates

[@Anakunus]

This is one of my favourite games for NES, too. Interesting that you said in the video that the vertical shooter genre is the better of the two, Displaced Gamers - if The Guardian Legend was a shooter game only, I would not consider it nearly as good as I do. Because of the adventure-RPG-aspect, I think it is a better game than The Legend of Zelda, for example.

[@doomswell]

I always got lost. A few years ago I tried to use the map and got far but got distracted. It was always tempting though, I WANTED to figure it out. If you haven't, you should check out Sigma Star Saga on GBA. Its a lot like this game; a zelda-esque adventure and rpg with shmup style random battles.

[@YASYTU]

Has the commercial not been found? :( I await the day.

[@the_primal_instinct]

If I had the license I'd love to remake the game with flying stages in 3D behind the ship perspective where you can move it up down and left right. I made a prototype with level moving at very high speed, added some fan made cover music and it felt extremely intense fun and nostalgic.

[@wewyllenium]

fact: the japanese Box Art reigns supreme!

[@skins4thewin]

Lol well I mean the game says Compile on the dang title screen, so not sure how anyone could miss that.

[@consis]

good vid

[@sonicclang]

I've played this game a million times and I just learned that the numbers at the bottom of the screen are coordinates! 😄 Love this game. I'm covering some of the music because it too is awesome.

[@christopherthibeault7502]

I'm going to put The Guardian Android in a Doom Mod one of these days.

[@alfredharrison597]

LMAO! I cant believe they did that with that commercial rofl! Also BoO is a LOT like Faxanadu (I think BoO has better graphics but thats a personal opinion heh).

[@JB-mm5ff]

I played this and battle for olympus about 9 months ago, and I may have some insights you will appreciate. I had to wonder myself whether these broderlund/compile companies were ex-employees who worked on Zelda 2, or if they had simply decompiled the code back in the day and constructed a clone (which was common in its hay day). Obviously we can see that the battle for olympus is basically Zelda 2 with new sprites -- even the fireball spell works with the same gravity parameters as Zelda 2, and the monster speeds are the same algorithm. Cool new addition in BoO - the ability to jump onto the ceiling and reverse gravity; these guys are exhibiting the same revolutionary thinking as the Zelda 2 team did, which makes me wonder if the same guys worked on it somewhere down the pipeline, or got a hold of the code. All these Broderlund/Compile games exhibit that same multi-genre splicing, which I don't think a person disassembling the source might bother to do; these guys have the skills. One thing you might appreciate and not realize: The opening music for the Guardian Legend first shooter stage is lifted/borrowed from the opening theme music for Zelda 2, with the sword in the stone. Take a listen, you'll see they just basically reused the track and made some cheap changes here and there. I'd be interested to know exactly what the truth is about all this from the programmers themselves... may be hard to solve this mystery so many decades later. I see you're great with the debug, so maybe you can offer some insights or do a direct comparison. :-) -Jay

[@Dhalin]

Back when people were proud to boast that they were clone games. They're all "Guardian Legend is basically Zelda 1 BUT BETTER" and "Battle of Olympus is Zelda 2, BUT BETTER" ... and... you know, they've got a pretty good selling point on those two games, they are both awesome. Usually, clone games suck, but not THESE two.

[@TheDukeOfZill]

It needs a proper commercial reboot. The fan games are fun, but they aren't spectacular. I emailed IREM one time to see if they were the owners, and they are the legal rights holder. Asked'em if they were planning to make anything of it, they said no. Would love to see Compile Heart take a jab at it.

[@DisplacedGamers]

What would you like to see them do with a remake in terms of graphical changes? They could go several directions, in my opinion.

[@arseniy]

What do you mean fan games? The only fan sequel project that got finished is - Shadow of Naju. And it's very good. All others are stuck in sketch or early alpha phase and abandoned.

[@justinwright6092]

Dude I would buy it definitely ... This is my favorite game ever I literally bought a nes for this particular game and paid 150 bucks for the game as well .... It's sad that this game got hardly any recognition I loved this game and I literally spent hours got so much dention in school cause I wouldn't do homework

[@odakidakida9193]

And I still hate the green gazer boss of Corridor 3 up to this day

[@samusvikerness661]

Will never be able to wrap my head around how much worse the NA box art is from the Japanese artwork.

[@deadryan4262]

I think i stole this game from my friends basement with I was like 7....sorry Ryan