And yeah, it was alot of fun! Very charming, and often funny. Loved the script, pixel art and music.
It wasn't perfect, few games are, and I don't think it'll surprise veterans that my gripes were mainly with certain aspects of the inventory system. Stuff like equipment having to be in the specific party member's inventory before being able to equip it (I know it logically makes sense, but come on), and having to send/get items from Escargot Express 3 items at a time.
Overall though, warts and all, I'd give it a solid 8/10, I can see why it's the cult classic that it is.
So thank you all for your tips and advice, it did help and was appreciated!
P.S. Getting the damn Gutsy Bat was by far the hardest rare enemy drop for me to get. All the others I had luck ranging from pretty insane (Sword of Kings, Goddess Ribbon) to aight (Broken Antennae, and even then it took me less than an hour grinding) , but with the Gutsy Bat it took me several hours before I eventually got a good system for manipulating enemy spawns going that significantly sped up the process. The main problem unlike the other rare drops is that the specific enemy it drops from (Bionic Kraken), is already in itself rare: I'd say 1 out of every 10 fights if even that. But I got it. REALLY didn't have to since all it's good for at that point is the final boss, but I did to prove it to myself/the sunk cost fallacy.
P.S.S. The adventure continues...
I chalk up the problems with the inventory to limitations of the time. RPGs from that era always had frustratingly small spaces and like items didn't stack. It was a real problem with the first Dragon Quest and it's something I'd like to think wouldn't be an issue if they made the game now
I agree, so I don't hold it against it too much, it's just unfortunate when you gotta call and wait for Escargot multiple times in a row later in the game.