Cleared on July 8th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 21/160)
This game is... whatever. There's nothing really out of ordinary, but the presentation is nice. The graphics in the 2D segments are detailed enough for a Sega Genesis game with a variety of locations like a town under siege, temples infested with aberrations, and forests swarming with deadly bugs. The soundtrack is also quite good too. It's not something I'll go out of my way to listen to, but I did vibe with the overworld desert theme so that counts for something.
The story is... there. I suspect I'll end up forgetting about it in a few days or so. The majority of the events amount up to mundane fetch quests to save someone that got kidnapped although there are some highlights and attempts to make things engaging with some philosophy and lore. The Turbografx CD version has Voice Acting during key cutscenes, and for a 90s video game that translated from Japan, it sounds... actually not that bad. I mean, it's not what I would say is professional, but I did like Yuug's VA at the least.
Edit (March 10th, 2024): I haven't quite forgotten about the game's ending at the least, but you know what else I didn't forget about? Off-screen deaths of important characters, lol.
However, what really hinders the game is its gameplay. On the surface it looks pretty fun with a 2D action RPG where you swing your sword, use magic, and explore to get to the objective. But I take some issues with the game. For one thing, the jumping and platforming feels really clunky as sometimes I'll jump up to another platform and find myself bumping into collision which makes me unable to get higher until I get it right. Jumping forward from one platform to another didn't really feel that great either. The enemy placement can be quite unfair as some of them will even attack you the moment you enter a room which gives you no time to react, and yet somehow the game ends up being piss easy because of one thing I don't think the developers really factored in.
An issue that I hear some people with some video games are infinitely respawning enemies. Just when you thought you got them out of the way, another one comes in and gimps you. This could be an issue here since you have to deal with a a barrage of enemies which are almost sure to hit you except being an RPG where you can level up, it actually works to your advantage. As early as Level 2, you can walk towards a building, take out 2 guards, walk out, walk in, take out 2 guards, walk out, walk in, and repeat again and again until you get a comfortable enough level to take on the rest of the level and even with all the crap the game throws at you, you'll just come out perfectly fine and find yourself taking down bosses in very few hits. So depending on what you do, the game is either really frustrating or just really easy and there's no in-between.
At the very least, though, it has the courteousy to be short enough to knock out in a few hours which is more that can be said for the last Sega Genesis RPG I played, so it doesn't overstay its welcome and feel like I'm torturing myself just so I can say that I finally got it done, and it's not like I got that bored. The music is well varied enough to not drive me insane. But nevertheless, it's a game that I wouldn't go out of my way to play again.
This game is... whatever. There's nothing really out of ordinary, but the presentation is nice. The graphics in the 2D segments are detailed enough for a Sega Genesis game with a variety of locations like a town under siege, temples infested with aberrations, and forests swarming with deadly bugs. The soundtrack is also quite good too. It's not something I'll go out of my way to listen to, but I did vibe with the overworld desert theme so that counts for something.
The story is... there. I suspect I'll end up forgetting about it in a few days or so. The majority of the events amount up to mundane fetch quests to save someone that got kidnapped although there are some highlights and attempts to make things engaging with some philosophy and lore. The Turbografx CD version has Voice Acting during key cutscenes, and for a 90s video game that translated from Japan, it sounds... actually not that bad. I mean, it's not what I would say is professional, but I did like Yuug's VA at the least.
Edit (March 10th, 2024): I haven't quite forgotten about the game's ending at the least, but you know what else I didn't forget about? Off-screen deaths of important characters, lol.
However, what really hinders the game is its gameplay. On the surface it looks pretty fun with a 2D action RPG where you swing your sword, use magic, and explore to get to the objective. But I take some issues with the game. For one thing, the jumping and platforming feels really clunky as sometimes I'll jump up to another platform and find myself bumping into collision which makes me unable to get higher until I get it right. Jumping forward from one platform to another didn't really feel that great either. The enemy placement can be quite unfair as some of them will even attack you the moment you enter a room which gives you no time to react, and yet somehow the game ends up being piss easy because of one thing I don't think the developers really factored in.
An issue that I hear some people with some video games are infinitely respawning enemies. Just when you thought you got them out of the way, another one comes in and gimps you. This could be an issue here since you have to deal with a a barrage of enemies which are almost sure to hit you except being an RPG where you can level up, it actually works to your advantage. As early as Level 2, you can walk towards a building, take out 2 guards, walk out, walk in, take out 2 guards, walk out, walk in, and repeat again and again until you get a comfortable enough level to take on the rest of the level and even with all the crap the game throws at you, you'll just come out perfectly fine and find yourself taking down bosses in very few hits. So depending on what you do, the game is either really frustrating or just really easy and there's no in-between.
At the very least, though, it has the courteousy to be short enough to knock out in a few hours which is more that can be said for the last Sega Genesis RPG I played, so it doesn't overstay its welcome and feel like I'm torturing myself just so I can say that I finally got it done, and it's not like I got that bored. The music is well varied enough to not drive me insane. But nevertheless, it's a game that I wouldn't go out of my way to play again.