Land Stalker
released on Nov 30, 1992
The player, as Nigel the treasure hunter, is tasked with searching for clues that lead to the treasure of King Nole. This is accomplished primarily by travelling through both outdoor areas and dungeons. All gameplay takes place in an isometric view, including plot-advancing scenes.
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Input lags aside that sometimes is infuriating with jumps, it's a fine action adventure game. Controls could take a little because it's an isometric game, but if you got accostumed to GBA platforms like Spyro and Banjo & Kazooie Grunty's Revenge this is an enjoyable experience.
I tried to play this as a child and found it unwieldy and difficult. Plus, my brother loudly complained at seeing it because of how it handled perspective. I beat it last week, at time of writing. By the time I was jumping off cliffs and rounding my jumps at the right time to bypass elevator patterns, I felt like I was capable of doing all sorts of great and terrible things. I'm aging and I feel possibilities closing more and more often, but look at what I made myself do this year.
also I sent my brother a clip of me making that jump and he said it made him physically ill, so, that's pretty good
also I sent my brother a clip of me making that jump and he said it made him physically ill, so, that's pretty good
The isometric view was appealing at first until you realize it makes the game barely playable. Combat is absolutely awful. Puzzles are even worse. I won't ever come back to it.
I remember renting this game as a kid numerous times, but never getting that far. The world, the story, the graphics, the music, I really liked. The fricking isometric movement though! Ugh!! What were they thinking??? Incredibly janky, incredibly frustrating. Combat was bad enough, but then there were jumpy platform sections that were just leaps of faith most of the time. Made beating this game so hard due to so many cheap BS deaths.
Gorgeous sprite work but I don't think they could've made the movement more of a pain in the ass if they tried
There's fewer phrases I hate more than "I wanted to like it," It just seems like this odd hedge against being afraid of one's own opinions. Or, put a different way, saying "I wanted to like it" is accepting that your own opinions are less valuable than the opinions of some nameless mass of folks on the internet.
With all of that said, I went into Landstalker hearing it talked up a lot by people whose opinions I really respect.
But gosh. Ugh.
This game really kinda hates you! Ahhhh! First there's so much backtracking! And the isometric view makes everything SO HARD TO CONTROL ahhhh
Look, I get it--this game does really cool things, and it looks lovely. But gosh, I really did not like it.
With all of that said, I went into Landstalker hearing it talked up a lot by people whose opinions I really respect.
But gosh. Ugh.
This game really kinda hates you! Ahhhh! First there's so much backtracking! And the isometric view makes everything SO HARD TO CONTROL ahhhh
Look, I get it--this game does really cool things, and it looks lovely. But gosh, I really did not like it.