Xak: The Art of Visual Stage (SNES, 1993)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-8 Control-6.5 Challenge-7/7.5* Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7.5/8* Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6.5
*Shoot 'em up level boss
+
Fast movement and diagonal movement (can't attack diagonally though)
Gear enchantments can be bought in towns (minor buffs? very basic though as there are no elemental or status effects to keep in mind)
HP regen while still (Ys; doesn't work in dungeons from the cave dungeon onwards though and not even in the overworld in the lava area)
Pretty fast leveling
NPC encounters in hostile areas
Can speed up dialogue (but not skip it on a per message box basis)
Dialogue portraits for important NPCs
Smoother movement and scrolling plus tighter camera than in the MSX and X68K games
Can teleport to visited towns scrolls (pretty expensive early on though) however you can't go back to the first two towns after a certain point
Life mantle saves you from death once if you die (like fairies in Zelda)
Alternate bad endings (team up with the demon Zwoon or the necromancer and the game ends prematurely)
Can find stat increases by examining books
Pretty good dialogue for the time (besides the protagonist's frequent stuttering and state of surprise as well as shyness)
Can escape from boss battles (they reset)
Some decent bosses (elementals - two phases, final boss)
Good amount of different NPCs in each town
Consumable magic sub weapons (not that useful though overall but the smart bomb-like death spell can be used on certain enemies that are immune to sword attacks)
Some memorable parts (the gnome family inside a chest)
Wearing a cape/mantle or gas mask shows on your avatar (other new gear doesn't though)
Pretty good enemy variety in some areas
Mixes in a vertical shoot 'em up level where you ride a dragon though it's not that good
Gain a sword beam before the final boss
Decent intro and ending cutscenes
+/-
Save anywhere outside of boss battles and the shoot 'em up level (multiple slots)
Mostly linear structure (Hard level gating on enemies if you stray from the recommended path as well as for bosses (level 5 for the first boss just to be able to damage it but more is recommended to beat it unless you saved up for the second sword), at one point the player char just says he has a bad feeling about going in a direction (north of where you find Fray) and refuses to go, can go through the poisonous swamp and to the second town early and if you enchant the second sword you can attack the enemies near this town for faster exp - this then lets you progress to the east and into the first dungeon before the first boss though you need to grind to make it anywhere and will miss some gold rewards, divided into 2 chapters and you can't backtrack after reaching the second)
Non-silent protagonist
Level requirements on most gear
The Ys-like bump combat (earlier versions) is replaced by manual attacking here but the hit detection is more specific than it looks like so positioning is as important
Semi-automated blocking - enemies bounce off your shielded side however if you stand still they tend to bounce off from any side and even when attacking from behind unless they have a strong enough attack to pierce your defense
No strafing or dodging and no alternate attacks with the sword? - makes combat pretty basic and it's most of what you do in the game
Off screen enemy respawning (move a couple of screens away)
Can't access the menu during boss fights
Can eventually bump into weaker enemies to kill them like in Ys or the MSX game (there's a pretty rigid level gating here too though - even when you can take out the lizards to the south in one hit you'll do no damage when bumping into them)
Somewhat zoomed in view compared to the MSX game
If you went ahead a bit and bought a protect ring then you get a lightning bolt scroll instead from Fray when she's recovered (not as good)
Minor ability/tool gating (gas mask for gas-filled rooms in the flame fort, disintegration spells for destroying large boulders in the cave dungeon though it works more like a key, flame mantle to walk through fire gates - same here, rabby pet which reaches under a bed to grab an item for you - same here and only used once)
You are betrayed by another NPC called Zwoon but in that case Latok has a bad feeling about him and the skeletons you can examine also warn you so it's not an issue like with the fake Bobby
NPC dialogue generally doesn't update over the course of the game but there are some exceptions
Minor slowdown at times
No exp gained when killing enemies with spells
No jumping (added in the PCE CD version)
One warp portal maze (you do get some directions before entering so it's not all trial & error though)
Would've been cool if the dragon could've been used to fly around a bit more outside of the one shoot 'em up level and if you could gain the sword beam a bit sooner
The final boss kills you in one hit so what was the point of getting a gear upgrade before it? - on the other hand it's fairly easy once you know the pattern
You never get to kill/stop the necromancer in this game - game ends with a scene showing there's more to the story and you'll instead face him in the sequel
-
Can get stuck at one point if you don't have a teleportation spell to get out (falling trap in the tower dungeon)
Some control/interface issues (very short invincibility time for your avatar, only the body of your sword hits when swinging it - not the swing animation itself, sometimes if an enemy and you are both attacking or if they bump into you at the same time (hitting your shield) then the enemy will just bounce backwards but not take any damage, auto-talk to NPCs by running into them - sometimes they get in the way, can't read signs in hostile areas, inconsistent sword and shield positions when turning left and right (left/up/down are the same with the shield to the left on your avatar but when turning right it swaps them), some enemies (the ones near the swamp, cyclops enemies to the east - except if attacking from above in which case they can hit you before you hit them for some reason) can be hit over and over without moving and they'll just move into your swings while performing ineffective attacks, have to go into the menu to equip quest items and then use a separate button to give them to NPCs (the game repeatedly makes you show the royal emblem to NPCs to proceed) - not needed with keys thankfully, no quest log/journal feature, can only buy one of an item at a time in shops, fairly easy to accidentally escape the elemental boss battle, against the final boss you can face him and attack to not get damaged by his main beam attack but it only works sometimes, slow auto-fire in the shoot 'em up segment)
No area or dungeon maps (the first dungeon/castle has a pretty repetitive layout with many locked doors) and no title cards when entering new areas
Some trial & error (can't access the menu or even pause during the shoot 'em up level, can't use equipped consumables during boss fights, when you encounter bobby on the way back you have to say no TWICE or you get stabbed to death - it's a doppelganger, finding that you're supposed to check a specific door in the first dungeon and then go back to the guy who asked for soup to get an item to progress, if you go east to where the trees are early on then they kill you in one hit even if you leveled up a couple of times prior, no visual clue to the glasses in church for example so you end up searching every tile - thankfully it's pretty small, sometimes it's not clear where you can exit an area - for example in the eastern area (stone bridge paths above a town) it looks like you can go further east when you can't, can use an HP restorative even at full health - wastes it, have to keep talking to the drunk pirate several times to make him say anything useful, can't avoid the trapped chest in the cave dungeon - sometimes nearby bones are a clue to there being a trap but other times there aren't any, traps respawn in the tower dungeon, have to backtrack to yugu's ghost after delivering his message to his younger brother and talking to the brother a couple of times to get the broadsword)
Some grinding (hard level gating to damage and to be able to take more than one hit from enemies and bosses at various points, can't sell gear to decrease money grinding and eventually the gear enchantments become expensive too, generally can't find gear rather than buying it; leveling is pretty fast except for at level 5+ in the tower dungeon)
Some difficulty spikes (when facing the clone enemies in the tower and again at the shoot 'em up level)
Enemies quickly go from too tough to pushovers as you level up even if you don't try to sequence break (balances out at the final area at least)
Mostly pointless dialogue choices (either can't say what the game doesn't want you to or if you do then you can't progress) except for the fake bobby encounter which is just plain cheap and a couple of others
Expensive and single use magic scrolls which aren't even that effective
Kinda repetitive (too many enemies look different but behave the same, some later enemies are just color swaps)
The first boss kinda sucks (can't avoid damage from it at first and if you overlevel just a bit it won't shoot you as you stand in front of it and hit it)
Basic level design overall (no platforming, almost no puzzles)
Can't even hit certain enemies in the tower without an enchanted sword - wtf
Backtracking (can't pick up the soup for a later NPC before talking to the NPC nor check the exit door before talking to that NPC to get the item from him without backtracking yet again, fetch quest for the pirate in the cave dungeon which is also repeated once, for disintegration scrolls in the cave dungeon unless you bought a bunch of them beforehand, can't teleport out of the flame fort dungeon, )
Cliché story ("you're the chosen one", demons invading the human world) with one-dimensional villains
Some plot oddities (no one in the first town reacts to you carrying Fray (hurt girl that you've rescued) around, Rachael's father's sacrifice is unnecessary since you could've used the bridge mechanism and then teleported)
Can safely kill some enemies by just standing in a doorway and swinging away in the flame fort
Kind of bland visuals besides the portraits and intro and there's no sfx for hitting enemies (only when they die; also no visual effect on enchanted gear, kind of boring color palette compared to previous versions and some enemy sprites look slightly worse as well)
Easy second boss
Minor delay when entering and exiting houses
Drawn out shoot 'em up level boss (the pattern is too random making it sometimes just enter the screen slightly so you can't hit it and this can happen several times in a row)
Gear progression is very linear
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-7.5/8* Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6.5
*Shoot 'em up level boss
+
Fast movement and diagonal movement (can't attack diagonally though)
Gear enchantments can be bought in towns (minor buffs? very basic though as there are no elemental or status effects to keep in mind)
HP regen while still (Ys; doesn't work in dungeons from the cave dungeon onwards though and not even in the overworld in the lava area)
Pretty fast leveling
NPC encounters in hostile areas
Can speed up dialogue (but not skip it on a per message box basis)
Dialogue portraits for important NPCs
Smoother movement and scrolling plus tighter camera than in the MSX and X68K games
Can teleport to visited towns scrolls (pretty expensive early on though) however you can't go back to the first two towns after a certain point
Life mantle saves you from death once if you die (like fairies in Zelda)
Alternate bad endings (team up with the demon Zwoon or the necromancer and the game ends prematurely)
Can find stat increases by examining books
Pretty good dialogue for the time (besides the protagonist's frequent stuttering and state of surprise as well as shyness)
Can escape from boss battles (they reset)
Some decent bosses (elementals - two phases, final boss)
Good amount of different NPCs in each town
Consumable magic sub weapons (not that useful though overall but the smart bomb-like death spell can be used on certain enemies that are immune to sword attacks)
Some memorable parts (the gnome family inside a chest)
Wearing a cape/mantle or gas mask shows on your avatar (other new gear doesn't though)
Pretty good enemy variety in some areas
Mixes in a vertical shoot 'em up level where you ride a dragon though it's not that good
Gain a sword beam before the final boss
Decent intro and ending cutscenes
+/-
Save anywhere outside of boss battles and the shoot 'em up level (multiple slots)
Mostly linear structure (Hard level gating on enemies if you stray from the recommended path as well as for bosses (level 5 for the first boss just to be able to damage it but more is recommended to beat it unless you saved up for the second sword), at one point the player char just says he has a bad feeling about going in a direction (north of where you find Fray) and refuses to go, can go through the poisonous swamp and to the second town early and if you enchant the second sword you can attack the enemies near this town for faster exp - this then lets you progress to the east and into the first dungeon before the first boss though you need to grind to make it anywhere and will miss some gold rewards, divided into 2 chapters and you can't backtrack after reaching the second)
Non-silent protagonist
Level requirements on most gear
The Ys-like bump combat (earlier versions) is replaced by manual attacking here but the hit detection is more specific than it looks like so positioning is as important
Semi-automated blocking - enemies bounce off your shielded side however if you stand still they tend to bounce off from any side and even when attacking from behind unless they have a strong enough attack to pierce your defense
No strafing or dodging and no alternate attacks with the sword? - makes combat pretty basic and it's most of what you do in the game
Off screen enemy respawning (move a couple of screens away)
Can't access the menu during boss fights
Can eventually bump into weaker enemies to kill them like in Ys or the MSX game (there's a pretty rigid level gating here too though - even when you can take out the lizards to the south in one hit you'll do no damage when bumping into them)
Somewhat zoomed in view compared to the MSX game
If you went ahead a bit and bought a protect ring then you get a lightning bolt scroll instead from Fray when she's recovered (not as good)
Minor ability/tool gating (gas mask for gas-filled rooms in the flame fort, disintegration spells for destroying large boulders in the cave dungeon though it works more like a key, flame mantle to walk through fire gates - same here, rabby pet which reaches under a bed to grab an item for you - same here and only used once)
You are betrayed by another NPC called Zwoon but in that case Latok has a bad feeling about him and the skeletons you can examine also warn you so it's not an issue like with the fake Bobby
NPC dialogue generally doesn't update over the course of the game but there are some exceptions
Minor slowdown at times
No exp gained when killing enemies with spells
No jumping (added in the PCE CD version)
One warp portal maze (you do get some directions before entering so it's not all trial & error though)
Would've been cool if the dragon could've been used to fly around a bit more outside of the one shoot 'em up level and if you could gain the sword beam a bit sooner
The final boss kills you in one hit so what was the point of getting a gear upgrade before it? - on the other hand it's fairly easy once you know the pattern
You never get to kill/stop the necromancer in this game - game ends with a scene showing there's more to the story and you'll instead face him in the sequel
-
Can get stuck at one point if you don't have a teleportation spell to get out (falling trap in the tower dungeon)
Some control/interface issues (very short invincibility time for your avatar, only the body of your sword hits when swinging it - not the swing animation itself, sometimes if an enemy and you are both attacking or if they bump into you at the same time (hitting your shield) then the enemy will just bounce backwards but not take any damage, auto-talk to NPCs by running into them - sometimes they get in the way, can't read signs in hostile areas, inconsistent sword and shield positions when turning left and right (left/up/down are the same with the shield to the left on your avatar but when turning right it swaps them), some enemies (the ones near the swamp, cyclops enemies to the east - except if attacking from above in which case they can hit you before you hit them for some reason) can be hit over and over without moving and they'll just move into your swings while performing ineffective attacks, have to go into the menu to equip quest items and then use a separate button to give them to NPCs (the game repeatedly makes you show the royal emblem to NPCs to proceed) - not needed with keys thankfully, no quest log/journal feature, can only buy one of an item at a time in shops, fairly easy to accidentally escape the elemental boss battle, against the final boss you can face him and attack to not get damaged by his main beam attack but it only works sometimes, slow auto-fire in the shoot 'em up segment)
No area or dungeon maps (the first dungeon/castle has a pretty repetitive layout with many locked doors) and no title cards when entering new areas
Some trial & error (can't access the menu or even pause during the shoot 'em up level, can't use equipped consumables during boss fights, when you encounter bobby on the way back you have to say no TWICE or you get stabbed to death - it's a doppelganger, finding that you're supposed to check a specific door in the first dungeon and then go back to the guy who asked for soup to get an item to progress, if you go east to where the trees are early on then they kill you in one hit even if you leveled up a couple of times prior, no visual clue to the glasses in church for example so you end up searching every tile - thankfully it's pretty small, sometimes it's not clear where you can exit an area - for example in the eastern area (stone bridge paths above a town) it looks like you can go further east when you can't, can use an HP restorative even at full health - wastes it, have to keep talking to the drunk pirate several times to make him say anything useful, can't avoid the trapped chest in the cave dungeon - sometimes nearby bones are a clue to there being a trap but other times there aren't any, traps respawn in the tower dungeon, have to backtrack to yugu's ghost after delivering his message to his younger brother and talking to the brother a couple of times to get the broadsword)
Some grinding (hard level gating to damage and to be able to take more than one hit from enemies and bosses at various points, can't sell gear to decrease money grinding and eventually the gear enchantments become expensive too, generally can't find gear rather than buying it; leveling is pretty fast except for at level 5+ in the tower dungeon)
Some difficulty spikes (when facing the clone enemies in the tower and again at the shoot 'em up level)
Enemies quickly go from too tough to pushovers as you level up even if you don't try to sequence break (balances out at the final area at least)
Mostly pointless dialogue choices (either can't say what the game doesn't want you to or if you do then you can't progress) except for the fake bobby encounter which is just plain cheap and a couple of others
Expensive and single use magic scrolls which aren't even that effective
Kinda repetitive (too many enemies look different but behave the same, some later enemies are just color swaps)
The first boss kinda sucks (can't avoid damage from it at first and if you overlevel just a bit it won't shoot you as you stand in front of it and hit it)
Basic level design overall (no platforming, almost no puzzles)
Can't even hit certain enemies in the tower without an enchanted sword - wtf
Backtracking (can't pick up the soup for a later NPC before talking to the NPC nor check the exit door before talking to that NPC to get the item from him without backtracking yet again, fetch quest for the pirate in the cave dungeon which is also repeated once, for disintegration scrolls in the cave dungeon unless you bought a bunch of them beforehand, can't teleport out of the flame fort dungeon, )
Cliché story ("you're the chosen one", demons invading the human world) with one-dimensional villains
Some plot oddities (no one in the first town reacts to you carrying Fray (hurt girl that you've rescued) around, Rachael's father's sacrifice is unnecessary since you could've used the bridge mechanism and then teleported)
Can safely kill some enemies by just standing in a doorway and swinging away in the flame fort
Kind of bland visuals besides the portraits and intro and there's no sfx for hitting enemies (only when they die; also no visual effect on enchanted gear, kind of boring color palette compared to previous versions and some enemy sprites look slightly worse as well)
Easy second boss
Minor delay when entering and exiting houses
Drawn out shoot 'em up level boss (the pattern is too random making it sometimes just enter the screen slightly so you can't hit it and this can happen several times in a row)
Gear progression is very linear