Saving the environment has never been so action-packed!
Great Greed is an obscure Game Boy RPG released by Namco in 1992 in Japan, and 1993 in North America. Its Japanese name was Vitamina Kingdom Story.
The player character, called Sierra Sam, is enjoying their life in the real world until the Call to Adventure beckons. The fantasy world of Greene is slowly dying because of the evil Bio-Haz, who's polluting the realm to empower his army, and it's up to Sam to stop him before all is lost. Along the way Sam meets several other characters, who are all named after food for some reason. With a land in peril, it's up to you to stop the pollution at its source and save Greene's lush environments.
The game is notable for customization that was ahead of its time in 1992, such as mapping attacks to certain buttons in battle, autosave, and the first Gay Option in a video game that successfully made it overseas.
This game contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The player's name is decided by the player in-game but is Sierra Sam on the back of the game box. Similarly, Bio-Haz's full name is Biohazard Harry in the manual.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Japanese box art is full of cute anime-style characters, while the American box art is a grim fantasy with a guy fighting a monster.
- Asian Fox Spirit: The deleted Naughty Desires/Foxey enemy transforms into a many-tailed fox upon defeat.
- Autosave: This game notably featured autosave back in 1992.
- Bowdlerise:
- A scene
of the hero resting with Gum Drop in a shack and literally battling his romantic desires was cut overseas. - Several enemies were changed to have less religious themes in keeping with NOA's censorship policies at the time, and a naked mermaid enemy was given armor to wear.
- A scene
- Card-Carrying Villain: Bio-Haz is a textbook Evil Overlord trying to conquer Greene Kingdom, and he's generating as much pollution as possible because it makes him and his army stronger. It's not until the end of the game that you learn he has another motive besides his great greed; he wants to save the human world from pollution by using Greene Kingdom as its garbage dump.
- Edible Theme Naming: All the friendly NPCs and regions have food-related names. For example, the five princesses are named Candy, Cup Cake, Truffle, Gum Drop, and Citrus.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Bio-Haz's pollution results in treasure chests being filled with trash instead of useful items, requiring a recycling center to get rid of it.
- Gay Option: You can pick any one of ten other characters, male or female, for your male character to marry after you beat the game.
- G-Rated Drug: When you reach the area that Bio-Haz rules, you find out that the natives can tolerate the polluted conditions because Bio-Haz gives them "medicine" to make them feel better. You can't stay in a Trauma Inn in that region, but if you take some "medicine" yourself, it restores your HP and MP to maximum.
- Green Aesop: With the evil forces literally powered by pollution, the environmental message is a strong one.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The player decides Sam's name at the start of the game.
- Humans Are Special: This is why Sam turns out to be so much more effective at fighting Bio-Haz's minions than Greene Kingdom's soldiers have been. It's also the reason why Bio-Haz, who is also human, has been so successful so far in his attempt to conquer it.
- Jailbait Wait: If you choose to marry Cup Cake, who's only eleven, the King insists you wait until she's of age to marry.
- Kryptonite Factor:
- The Wif Worm is invincible until you put Golden Pepper on your weapon.
- One mini-boss has infinite HP and can only be defeated with the One-Hit Kill spell Zap 1.
- Bio-Haz is powered by pollution. During the final battle, only the "King" sword, which Princess Truffle has infused with the essence of purity, can damage him. (It's possible to get a weapon with higher attack power as a rare drop after a battle, but it won't work on Bio-Haz.)
- Literal Metaphor: The hero fighting his lust towards Gum Drop in the original Japanese version - he enters the battle screen and beats up a physical representation of his desire.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Upon the defeat of Bio-Haz, his castle collapses and the heroes escape in a balloon. It also happens earlier in the game; when recurring boss Sarg is defeated for good, his hideout collapses as well.
- Standard Hero Reward:
- After beating the game, the King will ask you if you want to marry one of his daughters. If you agree, he'll ask you to talk to the one you want to marry. However, you don't actually have to pick one of the princesses - with enough persistence, you can actually marry anyone in the room. In addition to the princesses, this includes the elderly (female) court wizard, two male bureaucrats, the Queen, and even the King himself!
- Or you can walk away without choosing any of them, in which case your father will appear in the final scene instead.
- One of the princesses, Cup Cake, is only 11 years old. Shockingly, you can select her as your bride, to which she reacts with delight, but the king at least wisely insists the the player has to wait for her to grow up first, turning this into a Childhood Marriage Promise for Cup Cake. She even insists after you return to your world that if you don't keep the promise she'll come to your world to find you.
- After beating the game, the King will ask you if you want to marry one of his daughters. If you agree, he'll ask you to talk to the one you want to marry. However, you don't actually have to pick one of the princesses - with enough persistence, you can actually marry anyone in the room. In addition to the princesses, this includes the elderly (female) court wizard, two male bureaucrats, the Queen, and even the King himself!
- We Buy Anything: Shops recycle your equipment and any of the useless flavor items. This is also the only way for you to get rid of any TRASH you picked up in a random chest, and thus free up your very limited inventory for something useful.
