This one took a lead in the polls thank to the mystery of exactly what this long running series that nobody seems to have played actually is. There are a dozen "Saint ZZT" games hosted on the Museum. There's Saint ZZT 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and a ZZT world that is titled both Saint ZZT 7th and SuperZZT 14th.
Oh, and according to the documentation in the 10th it's the first game author RinGames ever made.
Needless to say making sense of this series is a challenge.
The 7th/14th game (the fourth in the series) appears to have a convenient document providing the timeline, integrating the series into the existing series of ZZT and Super ZZT worlds, though even this doesn't resolve things as the Saint ZZT numbers overlap the numbers assigned to Town and Monster Zoo and such.
The document suggests other games that didn't get numbers that also fit into the series. Basically it's a complete mess, and jumping in anywhere seems as good a place as any. RinGames seems to have just done whatever he wanted to with the numbering on any given day making for a series I feel like I'll never truly be able to unravel unless I play the entire thing.
All of this, mind you, for a pretty straightforward adventure, with towns, dungeons, and monsters. Saint ZZT lacks the heavy plot of similarly sequel-heavy games like Chrono Wars. Nor will you find a sizable cast of characters like you would in any of Tseng's games set in Da Hood. As far as I can tell, Saint ZZT's games have little connection between games, making the confusing numbering even more so when investigated.
But we're not here to study a dozen games in a fourteen part series. We're here to look at lucky number seven, the one chosen for the poll, in its latest incarnation because of course a few of these have remakes and updates as well.
It's another instance where I didn't really have any expectations going in, only fears of the game being harder to appreciate thanks to jumping into the middle of things.
Those fears were unfounded, and Saint ZZT 7th Enhanced wound up being a pretty by the numbers adventure. Overall enjoyable, a few pleasant surprises, a fair share of jankiness, but overall positive enough that I wouldn't mind exploring the rest of the series to really understand it.
International Appeal
The first thing you'll notice in SaintZZT is its language. This is one of only a small number ZZT releases out there that isn't in English. Non-English releases are a category on the Museum which is still only on its second page of results after thirty-three years.
While ZZT has had international appeal with many notable works by ZZTers in the US, UK, the Netherlands, and Australia, only one of those nations isn't a primarily English speaking country. With the code page 437 character set only having a limited number of accented characters as well, non-English speakers had a bit of a struggle representing their text accurately, putting ZZT at a disadvantage as a game making tool in such countries. Something made even worse if your native tongue used a different alphabet entirely.
The Dutch meanwhile, had their own scene which flourished mostly in the pre-ZZT archive days when things were still somewhat fragmented. A good number of these Dutch titles have been preserved, but they've pretty much been ignored over the decades, relegated to a few Dutch Collection packs that kept the games available, but inaccessible to most ZZTers. These games look to mostly be by early Interactive Fantasies members, and their friends that didn't stick around with ZZT for as long as the big names did.
Spanish speakers didn't have a good crowd to release their ZZT games to. As such, literally every Spanish game at the time of writing hosted on the Museum is by this game's author, RinGames. Though, this is reminding me that we should really be hosting a Spanish copy of The Mask of Atlantis...
Contrary to the many folks who have seen the name Dos and assumed it as the Spanish word for "two", I do not speak Spanish. I haven't had a Spanish class now since 2010 or so and can do little more than ask where the library is. To accommodate those who do not hablan Español, RinGames has done something really incredible here, translating the entire game to English as well.
There's been a few instances of this over the years, but with the limited number of games in need of an English translation, there aren't all that many really. Kristomu has done a few recent translations of some games in Norwegian and Danish. The beloved King's Quest ZZT has an earlier version quietly hidden in the first Dutch Collection, revealing the Interactive Fantasies classic to be a remake.
Yet even with the Dutch ZZT community, English still wound up being the default for the sake of a wider audience. As the Internet united small pockets of ZZTers worldwide under one roof, putting in the effort to making a game that the majority of potential players wouldn't be able to understand was a no go.
Where SaintZZT is special though, is that its English edition isn't a separate release. The translation is done entirely in the game, with players selecting their preferred language on an options screen before playing. This is a considerable undertaking, easily one of the most impressive things about the game.
The game is filled with several towns, with various NPCs found both inside and out. Nearly all of whom have to start their code with a flag check to determine which text to present when speaking. In nearly every instance, RinGames takes the full on effort of using code to only display text in one language.
A few exceptions for whatever reason merely present the line in both language, divided with a slash. These are rare enough that it hardly matters having to skip a sentence here and there, but really helps to contrast with the high-effort cleaner alternative typically seen. It would be hard to fault RinGames if the entire game opted for this technique, which would have been a far less gargantuan undertaking. The dedication on display here is really something else.
Then there are a handful of untranslated lines that remain in the game options before a language has been specified. It would have been nice to just double up here, but somehow I don't think "Modo Medio" appearing on screen is going to be a real stumper for the English-speaking crowd.
While the care in providing a translation is wonderful, the quality of said translation is a bit rougher. Many early English releases of Dutch-developed ZZT worlds have their share of strange dialect that often adds to the charm. The kind of thing where you can understand what's being said while knowing that the lines are not how anyone actually speaks. For SaintZZT, the English is of an even lower quality. There are some moments where it can be truly hard to tell what is being said from the text alone, forcing players to rely on the general structure of the game to fill in the blanks and reach a proper understanding of what's going on.
But if you've been playing old ZZT games, you're no stranger to odd writing. It's no worse than what plenty of younger English speaking ZZTers have written. Mostly, it just left me curious if the quality is actually any worse than the Spanish version. Is the second language the issue, or is the author just not the greatest at writing regardless of language?
Once you've quickly come to terms with the writing being a bit off, you'll soon find that it's a small price to pay to be able to enjoy a pretty solid adventure game.
The Legend of George
Jumping right in to a game with "seventh" in its name, it's no surprise that I had no idea what was going on at the beginning. There's really little here to connect to the game to its predecessors other than a number of NPCs being familiar with protagonist George, and frequently referring to him as a hero. The titles of the other games in the series point to George here being the star of the entire series, and in the author's eyes, the star of the official saga games as well.
Before players can begin the game, they have to go through the options screen which lets them specify a few settings beyond English or Spanish. Saint ZZT 7th also features three difficulty settings which rather than adjust item placement or enemy behavior, are a simple speed modifier. On easy, most enemies operate at cycle three, normal two, and hard one. In addition, there's a setting for how to handle the game's blood effects. The usual red fakes are present when defeating enemies, but this can be adjusted to a more family friendly green, or disabled entirely.
Tragically, the game has an early blunder here, accidentally blocking a transporter required to pick the difficulty. If no difficulty has been selected, the passages on the main menu won't allow players to begin to the game. This is potentially a record for earliest mandatory cheat use. Fortunately, the majority of the game has no issues. Unfortunately, there is a second, and it too happens really early on.
Upon starting the adventure, George appears placed in the center of a portal in Nabudori town, which makes a good first second impression. The town is bright and cheerful. RinGames doesn't bother with extraneous buildings so it's easy to get around, and the use of "#" characters for fencing rather than line walls instantly make the game stand out a little. The game quickly presents players with identifying characteristic to make it clear that this particular adventure is a Saint ZZT production.
To get this new adventure underway, players only need to enter the president's home. Mr. president asks George to do him a favor: to defeat the BADDER PANDILLE. I'm guessing this is a flubbed translation for evil gang. George must find and defeat the leaders of the gang, Karim and Jho. That's all you need to convince a man to leave town and begin shooting everything in sight.
It's start that is pretty much the end as well. This is really all the plot the player gets for the entire game. For those looking for a solid story, SaintZZT doesn't deliver much. While the design of the world is certainly more elaborate than the likes of Town, the story is surprisingly basic for game of this era.
Obviously the remake puts a bit of extra time between its initial release and this cleaned up version, yet the game regularly reminds players the game is originally from 1999, still very much a time when "get up and go" had long been superseded by "wake up and save the world" and the community was now much more interesting in plot-heavy games where the story didn't take a backseat to gameplay.
As it turns out, actually leaving town is easier said than done, even with the president's orders. Players are given a pass to show to the toll guard to leave town. The toll-house has that guard, however they are surrounded by a desk made of walls that prevents players from continuing without cheating.
This is an error that's quite baffling when you recall that not only is this a remake, it's a remake of a game that itself has a known revision. This error is exclusive to the enhanced edition, accidentally replacing an odd tile of desk with a row of normal walls rather than fakes to be able to reach the guard themselves.
The game gets off to a very rocky start because of these two mistakes with wall placement. The rest of the game though has no such problems, letting players just focus on playing the game.
When players manage to get George to finally go out, they immediately arrive at the game's first dungeon, a cave that connects Nabudori Town to the greater world. This cave introduces players to the game's style of dungeon, something worth going into detail later.
Karim and the rest of the villains of the game don't get much opportunity to shine. Every fight is prefaced with a short conversation that I'm not simplifying by describing it as the boss yelling "I'm going to kill you George!" and George firing back with "No I'm going to kill you!". They aren't really characters so much as caricatures. No different from your Kongs of Link's Adventure, or the recently seen evil henchmen of Legendary Series 1.
Just beyond the cave, the second town of Kibukin shows players what will happen if the still surviving gang leader Jho is allowed to keep making a mess of things. The town has been pretty much destroyed, with crumbling buildings, ongoing fires, and bloody corpses lying everywhere. George gets no respite here, and is immediately asked if he can help before being given a pass to leave town and avenge its people.
As a scene of horror and carnage, it's pretty tame. It had me thinking back to XZR: Exile, which also had a ruined town for players to explore, but in much more graphic form (by ZZT standards at least). It's a helpful way to establish the threat as a real one.
By virtue of having some destruction shown, Jho is by far the game's biggest threat to the rest of the world. Perhaps the final boss of the game has plans for world domination, or world annihilation. We're never told. Jho's carnage is actually here on display to be taken in.
Quickly moving past Kibukin, the game appears to open up a little. The linear road that was being traveled begins to branch out somewhat, providing a greater world to be explored.
The newfound freedom of choice is quickly revealed to be an illusion, with players locked into traveling the road in the order RinGames designated. Four roads meet here, the one from Kibukin, one blocked by a landslide that requires players to find a key to a bomb to blow the path clear, one leading to Jho's fortress, and then one path to a wilderness area with an un-traversable river blocking the way. While you can scratch an itch to explore briefly, it won't be long at all until you find yourself entering the fortress for the game's second level.
The climb up Jho's tower is a rather breezy one. George begins by fighting objects that mostly shoot each other, moves on to solving a trivial puzzle, fights built-in creatures in a narrow hallway where it's impossible to miss, fights more enemies that shoot each other, and then reaches the boss room.
I make it sound duller than it really is. SaintZZT 7th is an easy game, which works in its favor. Much of the appeal comes from seeing where George will end up next, while the dungeons, though notable in terms of how they're presented, don't do all that much beyond the basics in terms of how players get through them.
Despite the repetition, given the short length of each screen the game never feels boring or tedious. Each moment of the game is so brief that nothing overstays its welcome.
A cut-scene plays out depicting Jho getting the first attack on George. The setting for blood isn't respected here, so anyone opting for fantasy violence or none at all will be unexpectedly splattered with some red fakes. Clearly the purpose is to make Jho come off as a major threat.
Alas, this is one instance where the game's spotty English does kind of get in the way of authorial intent. Lines like "George you never win me!!!" and "You are a stupid" make it hard to take Jho particularly seriously. This is the community where You now, in Europe became a meme after all.
Now, on the board where the player actually gets to fight Jho, the dialog works a bit better. Jho threatens to kill George just like he did George's father. Whether this is a big reveal or just a moment from a previous game, I do not know, but it certainly makes the battle a personal one. It's nice having some weight behind the fight.
His defeat points George to his next target, Jho's brother Myuu. He doesn't seem to have anything to do with towns being raided, but Jho claims his brother will avenge his death, and thus the cycle of violence continues.
Once Jho has been defeated, George gets a lock pick that is able to unlock some doors in a treasure room before the boss fight. These offer player bonus points as well as a piece of the Biforce.
You know. The Biforce.
There are indeed a few parallels to the Legend of Zelda series to be made with this game. The dungeon UI, the Biforce, a number of items as well. While the non-Biforce references come off as fine to quietly introduce, the Biforce itself comes out of nowhere. The amusingly named pair of triangles are only mentioned once by a person that asks George to collect both pieces, and this person isn't found until the next town, leading to an unexpected laugh of surprise upon claiming the first piece.
Defeating Jho lets players blow up the bomb and reach Kiruko village using their newly acquired lock pick. It's pretty funny to me that something as strange sounding as a bomb with a key ends up having its lock picked rather than the key found.
Kiruko is an unusually small town, lacking the NPCs usually running around, and focused instead of more ornate paths and having fun with the shapes of water features. These little designs are something RinGames seems to enjoy, showing up in later overworld sections as well.
The town's claim to fame is its grocery store. This serves as another shop for the game, combining all kinds of purchases into a single vendor. George can still get his nachos and popsi here, as well as guns and armor, all from the same place. What convenience!
The shelves are decorative, save for two doors that can be opened which hold pork chops and burritos. Not for sale, or at least, not paid for. George just gobbles them right up, referring to both as being delicious. The framing here is wild to me. These don't seem to be samples. George just helps himself. I guess he's the hero.
A police officer stationed in the corner does nothing about this of course.
The town's second store, the armory, also sells guns including some more powerful sounding ones. It's still just giving fancier names to buying larger quantities of ammo. Knowing this, I still wanted to buy a bazooka.
I was left questioning why the grocery store sells ammo if there's also going to be a dedicated store where it's a bit more sensible to be selling it in the first place. None of the buildings are labeled making it a random chance which store is discovered first. The difference in inventory makes it impossible to call the grocery store more convenient since it's faster to buy larger quantities of ammo from the armory.
Though god forbid this game not be a bastion of realism.
Beyond that, you get an elder who immediately gives George yet another pass, and a guard blocking the path behind the town until the other half of the Biforce is found.
At least this time some fun is had with the pass system. Rather than a guard and gate, you show the pass to a magician on the southern path who transforms the riverbed into a grassy field. Turning a basic lock/key into a feat of magical prowess is much more exciting to see. Though it comes with a downside in that I kept thinking there were exits to the sides of the board due to the gaps where the river previously ran.
This path is the first time players have to do any fighting outside of a dungeon. On some boards, RinGames simply places down some creatures that once defeated leave a peaceful board behind, while others use duplicators to keep a steady stream of enemies flowing.
The next split is one of fire and ice. Taking the wrong path lets players take their first step into lava land before they are yet again stopped by somebody asking for a pass.
I always appreciate getting glimpses at areas you're not yet able to visit. The river that blocked the way before was one thing, but when I saw there was going to be a lava world, I was psyched. Give me all the biomes of the NES-era platformer.
Speaking of, the path that can be traveled completely takes players to the third dungeon, one of those iconic ice palaces you see everywhere. (Zelda included of course.)
This one takes a pretty... dare I say it? Chill approach to its design. Variety isn't the dungeon's strong suit with two boards of shooting identical enemies, before turning those same enemies into a mini-boss.
This would be a welcome moment to have some dialog, but Icee, Cold, and just plain ole Ice are treated no differently than anything else. They're only unique in having dedicated health bars instead of being defeated in one hit.
Admittedly, they do get a fun looking board to fight them on, though I think that's less because of the enemies and more due to this being the location of the second half of the Biforce.
