In this review, we release everything in the SNES game Soul Blazer. We find out how well this action RPG game plays.
This game was released in 1992. It is related to the game Illusion of Gaia which we previously reviewed. That game got a mediocre score. Still, we’re willing to try other related games, so we thought we’d give this game a try anyway.
The story is that you are a hero sent down by a deity. Apparently, an entity known as Deathtoll is destroying various villages. He is also imprisoning various living things in the process. You have been sent down to the planet to free those living creatures and defeat Deathtoll. When you arrive, you are gifted with the ability to communicate with all living things. This aids you on your quest as you begin to repopulate the planet.
You start the game in the Greenwood shrine. Each world has a shrine. The northern tile allows you to communicate with the deity. With this communication, you can save or move to another shrine. The latter option is contingent on whether or not you have access to more than one area of course. Each remaining compass direction has a teleporter tile. This is contingent on you having unlocked those locations, though. South always leads to the town while east and west teleports you to two different dungeon locations.
You start with a life sword. While it sounds like a powerful weapon, it is actually the weakest weapon in the game. You really only use this because you have nothing else to use as a weapon. Also, you have no armour at the very beginning for protection.
As you progress through the game, however, you can equip up to four things: A weapon, armour, spell, and an item. All weapons you get are swords. While swords you obtain will become more powerful with a higher attack rating, some have special abilities. As an example, one sword will help you obtain more gems. Another sword will restore health as you defeat enemies. Always read the description to get an idea of what you want to equip.
Armour is fairly basic in this game. You only get mostly plate armour. Again, each subsequent piece of armour is typically more powerful than the last, however, some armour also grants special abilities. As an example, one piece of armour allows you to travel underwater. Another piece of armour will allow you to travel over dangerous areas unharmed. Again, descriptions will tell you when you go to equip them.
The third thing you can equip is magic. You get magic very early on. When you equip most magic, you can use the secondary firing button to cast your magic (most spells anyway). Most of these spells simply fire from the flying ball of light circling around you at all times. The thing to remember is the fact that spells use gems most of the time. So, trying to keep a constant supply of them is generally very helpful.
Finally, there are items. Different items perform different tasks. For instance, the armour arm band will cut damage you receive by half. A second item you can obtain is the herb. Herbs will restore your health once you run out. If, however, you have something else equipped, the herbs will simply sit in your inventory. So, keep an eye on what you have equipped as you travel as it can help you avoid catastrophe part way through the game.
Dying isn’t the end of the world in this game. If you die, you simply get transported back to the shrine where you can continue where you left off. While this sounds like this makes for an easy game, the big problem is the fact that you lose all gems you’ve collected up to that point. This can be a huge inconvenience because the enemies you defeat related to generators stay defeated. So, you’ll have to find another source of gems after such an event. The mystery bottle will preserve those gems, however, though there is a limited supply of those in the game.
When you make it to your first city, you’ll notice that there is hardly anything there. When you first encounter these cities, it’ll be large swaths of empty space, bits of rubble, or large open fields. In fact, it’ll barely make sense why this area even exists at first. However, there will generally be an entrance to a dungeon.
When you enter the dungeon, you’ll encounter two types of enemies. The first type of enemy are enemies that originate from pink generator tiles (or are otherwise connected to them in some way). Defeat them all and you’ll cause the generator to destruct. This leaves a green button for you to step on. Stepping on this does one of two things. The first possible thing it does is unlock another area or transform a part of the dungeon. The other possibility is that this releases an imprisoned living creature. Sometimes, you can unlock whole structures in the process. Stepping on everything is critical to getting the most out of an area.
The second type of enemy are enemies that regenerate every time you enter the area. This ensures that you’ll always have something to defeat and allows you to constantly have challenge in various dungeons in the game. It is also very helpful for grinding purposes late in the game.
For every enemy you defeat, you’ll typically get two benefits for this. The immediate benefit is that you get experience points. As you get more experience points, you’ll get closer to levelling up. All you have to do is reach whatever internal threshold there is in the game and you’ll level up. For the most part, levelling up will not only increase your health capacity, but also possibly increase your attack and defence capabilities. Generally speaking, this is extremely useful.
What you encounter in terms of enemies varies dramatically. Some enemies fly. Other enemies simply walk towards you with a damaging touch. A few even have special weapon immunity. They require a special weapon to defeat them. Just analyze their attack patterns and adjust accordingly.
Part way through the game, you’ll learn various techniques like holding your sword out for more constant close up damage. Another technique you’ll learn (and someone does explain in the game itself) is crab walking techniques. This helps you aim your weapon.
As you work your way through the game, you’ll realize that you’ll need to flip back and forth between the town and dungeon. This is normal because there is a definite puzzle aspect to this game as well. Sometimes, you need to perform certain actions or use certain items on various NPCs (Non-Playable Characters). In multiple instances, you’ll encounter an area in the dungeon you cannot pass without backtracking to the town and solving that puzzle. In a few instances, you even unlock small parts of the dungeon with your interactions with NPCs.
Also along the way are treasure chests. These can hold anything from nothing to game critical items. Some chests will hold a handful of gems. Others contain weapon and armour upgrades. Open as many of them as possible because you never know what you’ll get (unless you are following a guide of course).
Eventually, you’ll make it to the boss at the end of the dungeon. This boss will have their own health bar. Using what you’ve learned, you need to figure out how to defeat that boss to release the city leader. Doing this will allow you to access the NPC carrying a critical stone. Obtaining the city stone will allow you to advance to the next area. Be careful when entering the boss area. This is because you’ll be locked in the room and only one will leave after. Make sure it is you.
For me, the combat in this game is OK. It has a bit of a Gauntlet feel to it where the enemies are simple. On the one hand, it can be very easy to defeat the enemies. Just stand in a specific spot and just keep swinging your sword to clean out the monster lair. On the other hand, this can give the game a generally cheap feel to it. The only skill you need is attack pattern analysis and just park yourself on the correct tile to completely wipe out the legions of enemies.
That’s not to say this game isn’t challenging. In fact, far from it. Often, you are battling to stretch out your hit points as much as possible. Even with the best of preparations, some fights leave you simply limping out of the area after with barely any health left.
Part of the challenge is the fact that you simply don’t have diagonal movement. For general RPG games, this isn’t a big deal. After all, you are entering a completely separate screen to initiate your fight. In this game, however, the four direction movements can be quite limiting. Often, you are forced to just get your wide swing abilities to catch and clip enemies at the edge of each swing. This only partly compensates for the limited movement capabilities.
While the puzzle elements does add some variety, the combat variety winds up being left mostly to boss fights. Even then, the variety can be limited to just swinging your sword quickly and often. Once you get used to the first dungeon or two, combat is generally the same for the rest of the whole game. There is only a few minor modifications as you go along.
One of the bigger standout problems is that some aspects of this game are abbreviations of much more sophisticated RPG games. One of the most obvious manifestations of this is the fact that you can only carry one of each item at a time. If you have an herb and obtain a second herb, you instantly use that second herb to restore your health. So, you really can’t plan very far into the game as a result.
Generally speaking, this is one of those games that starts off decent enough and just stays that way throughout the game. It’s not one of those games I would say is a terrible game by any means. Still, I never found myself getting overly excited for this game either. There are minor variety issues and limited control capabilities throughout the game. The slightly cheaper combat system doesn’t help things much. Still, the puzzles throughout the game can really leave you scratching your head at times. So, a decent effort all around.
Graphically speaking, this game is decent. It has some simple effects, though the variety of the areas works quite well. Each area is different and enemy design is impressively varied. In fact, this is one of those rare RPGs that doesn’t really retexture enemies. So, I would call this a solid effort all around.
Audio is only OK. The sound effects are decent enough. Meanwhile, the music is generally only OK. Nothing really stood out to me in this game, though the variety is certainly quite noteworthy.
Overall, this is one of those games that can help you pass the time. While it is far from the most amazing RPG game I’ve ever played, it’s not a terrible one either. There are some slight control limitations with the four direction only system. The fact that some aspects of this RPG game is abbreviated from other RPG games does hold this game back a bit. In addition, the combat is a bit on the cheap side of things for me. Still, the puzzles are certainly up to the task of providing an interesting experience. The graphics are decent and the audio is OK. Overall, this is an OK game.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Beat the game on level 30.
General gameplay: 18/25
Replay value: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 70%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
