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[9/07/2010]
(This is an old post, from the old version of this blog. I did not update it in any way.)
See, the real reason I bought this rig is because my old one didn't have SSE2 support. I still have no idea of what SSE2 actually is, but the best Sega Saturn emulator out there, SSF, requires it, and using Yabause was just painful. I wanted to play Saturn Bomberman badly, but I still had to wait for the right oportunity to buy a new gaming rig. That said, I found out the Sega Saturn has other very good games, some of which I didn't even know of, and Guardian Heroes is one of those games.
Guardian Heroes is a side-scrolling beat 'em up not unlike, say, Final Fight, but it does something different with the genre. For instance, area depth: each area has three planes, much like that Power Rangers game for the SNES, only better, since the enemies change planes frequently both to accompany you and to evade your attacks, and all of them work under the same mechanics as the player. It also has some RPG elements, namely stat-leveling, but you gain experience by hits as opposed to kills, so if you make larger combos (or hit dead bodies before they disappear), you can level up faster.
Each stat point is useful and the attributes suited to each character are generally obvious, but you can still make any build you want. For instance, despite being a mage, my favorite character, Randy, is very fast and can deal many hits easily, so I usually choose a melee build for him. I find this to be very good, because games with stat-leveling tend to screw you over if you put a single point in the wrong place.
In case you feel like grinding (it is not required), there are hidden arenas through the stages where you can face high-level enemies, proving to be quite the challenge.
I mentioned Randy was a mage, right? Well, all characters can use magic, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Personally, I didn't like the magic system that much. I'll explain it before complaining: with the press of a button, a small thinking cloud appears depicting the spells you can use; you can then selection the spell you want with the d-pad and then press any other button to use it, but you can't move or defend while doing that. This is very cumbersome, and while it is possible to activate the spells via button combination, it tends to be hard to remember them and feels more like a fighting game. Apparently, you can assign you favorite spell to a shortcut, but good luck finding out how. I guess confusing mechanics which aren't explaining anywhere besides the instruction booklet are a staple of older games, after all.
What do you mean, men don't read manuals? You've clearly never installed an IKEA table. And then he put his thingy in my you-know-what and we did it for the... no, wait.
Moving on!
So, the storyline is surprisingly decent. Basically, your group was looking for a rare sword and apparently has found it, but before you can do anything a mysterious lady breaks into your room to warn you that the royal knights are coming. They burn the place down, forcing you to make a run for it to a local graveyard, but when Han tried to actually use the sword, it zaps him and awakens a golden zombie knight from his grave, who proceeds to obliterate the enemies with the small side effect of rising more zombies.
But aren't those zombies royal knights, and isn't this a civilian cemetery?
The way you choose your path reminds me of those arcade Dungeons and Dragons games, and since the game has so many branches, each playthrough ends up being different, as long as you want it to be. The golden knight is also under your command, and can't die, so it adds a whole new level of gameplay. You can order him to attack, to protect you, to stand by his sword, to do nothing or to unleash a powerful attack which may or may not work against bosses.
'Gotta say, though, this game can get quite broken sometimes; a few wrong choices and you end up facing the hardest bosses of the game while very underleveled, which can obviously lead to frustrating situations. Did I mention your own spells can hit you just as easily as they hit the enemies? But somehow, the bosses don't seem to stay frozen for quite the same time.
Lastly, I'd like to point out the vs. mode is actually great. All of the enemies you face (and I do mean all of them, even the city folk) are unlockable, and some very fun matches can be born from that, either between you and your friends (the game supports up to six players) or the cpu.
Guardian Heroes is an old game, of course, and standards have changed. That said, I think anyone would be able to enjoy it nowadays — and I plan to play it with my kid once I get one!Labels: games
Por Allec Ribeiro às [8:14 PM]
