Thanks to Ratalaika Games for the review code
Title: Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $5.99
Release Date: 02/07/2025
Story
In this dice-rolling RPG adventure, you take control of a character from one of several different classes, and embark on various scenarios to restore peace to the dice world! Lots of amusing dialogue here, and the scenarios generally range on the sillier side of things, feeling more like a parody of other scenario based RPGs sometimes.
Presentation
Lo and behold, Ratalaika did several impressive things with this reissue. The first bit of good news is that the emulation wrapper used here is the same one used in all ones before Aero the Acro-Bat 2. I mentioned how clunky the newer wrapper was and how it needed some work, so I’m glad the wrapper here is the better, faster one. There aren’t any CRT filters, but there are still different screen size options, with the pixels looking pretty darn sharp as they tend to with these Ratalaika ports. Scans of the Japanese manual and some character art are present as well, and they all look pretty nice, although I wish they translated the manual.
The biggest shocker with the presentation however, and the reason I was caught off guard by the screenshots and starting out in the game, is that Ratalaika went as far as to add a 16-bit sprite overlay to the entire game as a toggle option, along with a fully remixed 16-bit OST. Yes, this is the original Famicom Sugoro Quest game, but the 16-bit visual makeover is so well done that could easily mistake it for a natural SNES game at first. This was a pleasant surprise, and being able to toggle it on the fly is a very, very nice touch.
The 16-bit makeover was so convincing to me, that before playing this game I originally mistook this reissue to be for the Super Famicom sequel, due to the screenshots on the eShop appearing to be 16-bit, and it felt a bit strange to have a reissue of that game be coming out mere months before it would be included in a bigger Technos Collection launching in April. Finding out it was the original Famicom game with an optional 16-Bit makeover, was just a really cool surprise, and the visual overhaul works very well for the game. The OST on the other hand, feels a bit generic, and doesn’t have the Technos charm the Famicom OST had for me. Either way you decide to play Sugoro Quest, you get a pretty good looking game.
Gameplay
The main goal of Dice Heroes is to clear several different scenarios, training up a class of your choice and fighting out RPG Battles with the power of luck and dice rolls! You do this by using your money in town to stock up on items and equipment before going out into a scenario to tackle its mini-story and try your best to conquer it. Whichever class you roll with matters a lot, since they each have their own advantages and disadvantages, such as some being very bad at magic but great with attacks, and vice versa, so the pretty typical RPG class structures apply.
Once you’re off, your progress in the scenario is all determined by dice roll! Roll a dice, and you move a certain amount of spaces unless you run into a story-focused title. Most of the time, you’ll land on a blank space and be drawn into battle, where you and the opponent must roll dice at each other to see how your attacks turn out, and this is where your luck and character training really comes into play. See, each character has their own Power Dice, and depending on how much you level up, it can be enhanced to get higher dice rolls and thus improve your chances of hitting the monster. If you end up with a weaker dice while your opponent gets a dice that consistently rolls highly, then you’ll be wrecked in no time, and the bosses end up with lots of health and pretty good dice, meaning you’ll need to prepare your character well with leveling up before taking them on.
Regardless, if your dice number ends up higher than the opponent, that determines how many times you can strike said enemy. So if you only lead by one, it’s a single strike, by two, it’s double, etc etc, and that also helps if the CPU rolls a higher number than you and that number isn’t too much higher than yours, since the less attacks you take, the better. This whole dice combat system also applies to magic as well, and during combat it can be the key factor in whether or not your healing magic succeeds of fails, which can get really infuriating if you’re on the verge of losing and you can’t heal with the spell due to bad luck. Sometimes the CPU will even cheat a bit and rig their die to be rolled again, which makes these moments in combat even worse to deal with, and the bosses are especially frustrating about this.
Thankfully you do have a safety net from all the RNG, and that comes in the form of your items, which do not need a dice roll to pull off, so you can stock up on healing and attacking items to really save you in a pinch. Elixirs also help, since dying with one on hand will just let you continue the map and in some cases, even go on alternate paths meant for grinding or finding better titles that will enhance your equipment, so with those in your bag, dying really isn’t that dealbreaking!
It may seem incredibly preposterous that an RPG board game with so much focus on dice rolling and luck could be remotely fun without turning into a way to rip all of your hair out, but somehow Sugoro Quest manages to pull that off decently well. The scenarios start off relatively easy and scale up in difficulty nicely, the shops are really handy and usually get you well equipped for the next attempt, and if you somehow mess up it’s not like you are ruined for life, either. That’s all disregarding the new QOL stuff Ratalaika threw in as cheats, such as toggles to be immortal or max out your gold/EXP.
I really don’t recommend messing with any of these cheats if you’re new to the game however, since I had a lot more fun slowly working through the scenarios, building up my character and actually seeing it grow better over time, and to be quite honest, having messed with the gold cheat briefly, even better equipment doesn’t ensure you’ll be able to outdo the power of the almighty RNG mechanic (though more healing items/attack items will guard you against that to an extent!) But once Sugoro Quest’s pick up and play simplicity clicks, it really becomes a lot of fun, and the save state feature makes for a great pick up and play experience, considering how you otherwise have to wait to go back to town in order to put the game down.
Conclusion
Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes is yet another example of a hyper obscure game you’d never expect getting localized somehow making it over to the west anyhow. And I’m delighted to say for the most part, Sugoro Quest is a very enjoyable spin on a typical RPG adventure! Sure, the dice rolling being the main focus means this game has a potential to get very unfair real quickly, but thankfully from the multitude of QOL features provided with this reissue alongside the game itself being pretty gentle if you screw up, you’ll at least be able to try and try again until you work through those scenarios.
The 16-Bit toggle still stands as the most surprising bonus for this rerelease, since I’m honestly struggling to think of any prior emulation reissues where you could just upgrade the presentation via a menu toggle! Still, more bits doesn’t instantly make your game better, so I’m glad there’s the option to mix and match as you wish, since the new music remixes really takes a lot of the Technos charm out of that original score.
Nevertheless, Dice Heroes was way, way more enjoyable than I expected, and the multitude of QOL features helped ensured this to be a pretty darn fun, if simplistic RPG. Sorcerian this ain’t, but you’ll be finding some fun in rolling the dice and clearing scenarios no matter how experienced at these kind of games you are, and I’m just happy to see one of the most obscure Technos franchises get the western release it missed out on.
I give Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes a 7 out of 10.