Oh the 90's. You brought us terrible pop music, Poggs, Power Rangers, Surge, and more JRPGs than one person can conceivably play to absolute completion in this lifetime. 1998 was a wonderful year for releases with Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo and Spyro The Dragon all hitting the shelves. Konami released a few other games besides Metal Gear, one of which was Azure Dreams.

In '98, I was more concerned with fearing Resident Evil 2 and torching sheep to give much notice to another in a long series of RPGs to eventually be discarded by retailers. It was not until late in '99 that I noticed the game. Koh's friendly coloring and the Kwene monster on the case lured me to rent the game. I rarely fall in love with games in that way but I came up with reason after reason that the game should remain in my possession. It was not until 2000 that I would have the game for my very own.

To hear reviewers and other players talk, I don't know why I attached myself to this game. It is a primitive rogue-like with elements of Pokemon mixed in. You play as Koh, the red-haired son of the gamed Monster Hunter Guy who unfortunately met his end in the looming Monster Tower just outside your hometown of Monsbaiya. You're very poor and long for the day you are 15 so that you may follow in your father's footsteps.

The plot is relatively generic in that respect. Every time Koh enters the Moster Tower his level starts back at zero. This is a standard rogue-like element of gameplay, and the items he takes and the monsters remain unaffected by the curse that depletes the character's level. Outside of this game I hate this element. Somehow it was done so well with how you can level up your swords and shields and call upon your monster for support magic that I never cared that I had to basically restart the game each time I entered the randomly generated floorplan of the tower.

What had me think of this game again was all the talk of remakes of this and that, of fanboys crying over Final Fantasy VII and of my own desire to see something remade that deserves a second chance. The Azure Dreams series has a single sequel, the ill-advised DS game Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal. There was also a Game Boy Color release of Azure Dreams, but I best remember my time spent with the blocky PS1 title.

I can see Azure Dreams in a fully 3-D world. At the time of its release, the PS1 was already feeling strained and tired, and the game has more in common graphically to Super Mario RPG than it does to its Konami contemporaries. It was a simply made game without a true ending. The dating sim element was not completed, the rival element seemed to trail off dramatically at a point, and the ability to upgrade Monsbaiya was interesting but also incredibly limited. At the time I knew of nothing that allowed me to have that sort of control over my world, at least not to the point of building a dance hall then going on a date with the star dancer. This sort of world-altering depth would not be seen again, by me anyway, until Fable.

In this time of remaking movies, tv series, and video games, I want to see something i would actually play be revisited. I long for Koei to remake Gemfire but since this is likely an impossible goal, I will outline my hopeful Azure Dreams remake, and why you might want to play it then.

Rogue-likes, no matter what some reviewers say, still have a place in this world. It would be nice to see some archaic RPG element overthrow the ruling Strategy style for once. Strategy RPGs are tiresome and running out of fresh ideas to the point that Atlus is releasing barely playable games with the notion that they are just too difficult to grasp right away. There is a difference between difficult and ridiculously unintuitive. I say Rondo of Swords falls in the latter category. It would be nice to see a fresh look at this style in dazzling PS3-quality detail.

Azure Dreams wanted to look pretty. In this day and age it is completely possible for the spinning tower and randomly generated levels to have the scope they deserve. The game is riddled with traps and secrets and a real sense of adventure with a grid layout. What if, rather than a simplistic grid layout, the levels were drawing from better models and ratios than before? This game could be simplistic and breathtaking at once. Not every worthwhile venture has to be riddled superfluous action.

The quest system is strong. As the game progresses, NPCs in town ask you to retrieve items from different levels of the tower. NPCs ask us to retrieve all sorts of things still. The quests make sense in the development of the town and also encourage the player to seek out higher floors in the seemingly endless tower.

Developing Monsbaiya is begging to be looked at indepth. Rather than building simplistic mini games, the town could really change. Existing buildings could be upgraded, new elements added, and the city can truly reflect the prosperity your efforts bring about. Koh becomes a living legend as more and more requests are met. It would be fantastic to push this idea to its limit.

Lastly, that Pokemon element. I always felt the monsters were deeply fascinating but not reaching their full potential. The player has the ability to fuse monsters and hatch eggs throughout the quest. With more monsters, more fusing possibilites, and perhaps a Pokemon-esque online trading system, this could be an endless source of entertainment. More monsters could be released over time and this one element could extend the life of the game for years after the initial release. I'm not too keen on trading cars, but let me breed and fuse new and exciting monsters and I'll happily devote a large amount of time and effort to the process.

What hurts is that I can see this game. I know it is impossible and I should be content with what I have, but my one hope is that someday someone else realizes this potential.