Never played any of the series before, but these first two are really confusing. I get lost in the maps pretty easily, and I ended up stuck with 2/3 of the PASSes and never being able to find the last one.
They're pretty cute games, though. Should I try to stick with and learn them now, or should I skip ahead to Goemon Gaiden 1 and 2 (both traditional RPGs on the FC), or should I skip those too in favor of starting with the SFC games?

The first game often requires to find hidden staircases which you find by jumping around. It helps to get the sandals because you can make longer jumps and thus a greater area will be covered as anything under your jump counts as "checked for secrets".
I think it's a great game however once you start getting into the levels with insta death pits you can easily get frustrated because you fall *on* the edge of platforms, not after; and dying like this makes you lose all your power ups. Some levels have a lot of jumping around pits.

2 doesn't have this problem (less pits and they are more forgiving) and doesn't require to find secrets or at least nor nearly as many, and you'll probably like it a lot better. It's basically the template for the SFC games. Even if you give up on 1 you should give that one a try.

I enjoyed the 2 RPGs but they're fairly basic and I'd only recommend them to someone who's either a huge Goemon fan or a huge Famicom RPG fan. In the first special moves are almost never worth usings so it's all "attack on loop". The first game is a bit better but overstays its welcome imo. They both shine through their presentation and humour though, in Gaiden 2 you can play as Simon Belmont for a short while for instance.

Pretty sure everyone's going to tell you to start with the SFC games but that none of them have played the FC games btw.

>>11850515
>The first game is a bit better but overstays its welcome imo.

Shit, I meant the 2nd (Gaiden) game.

>>11850515
Alrighty then, that's good to keep in mind; kinda annoying that I gotta be constantly hoppin all over the place, but I'll try it out.
Forgot to ask, but what exactly do the Inns and food items do?
I don't mind basic RPGs at all desu, but yeah it does sound like I'll probably get around to them most likely after I play the SFC games. I think I'll enjoy them more if I'm more attached to the characters from the main series, I'd imagine.

>>11850538
Don't they restore health? I can't remember if 2 has battery back up but in the later games the inns are where you save too.

>>11850672
Don't think so. When I was playing 2 at least, I remember having taken damage, but the food items just went into my inventory I guess, and I don't think the Inn healed me but I could be misremembering.

>>11850515
>Even if you give up on 1 you should give that one a try.
Seconding. I got filtered by 1, but finished 2, which was less esoteric and more fun.

>>11850502 (OP)
i remember the episode where arino interviewed the guy who made goemon
seems like a fun guy to get absolutely salaryman schwasted with at some jap corpo party

>>11850502 (OP)
The first game is easily the best one, as the rest of the series get increasingly more linear and aimed at children.

>>11850502 (OP)
Gaiden 1 is the only Famicom/NES RPG I’ve ever played that requires almost zero grinding. It’s very easy.

>>11852915
Sounds like a good thing to me, kids' games are based.

The Goemon series might as well not even start until the Super Nintendo.

>>11852915
based adult gamer

Someone on /v/ thought picrel was AI generated
They couldn't conceive the soul