Super Nintendo
Soul Blazer
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
7.90 8.39 8.73 8.61 |
| Votes: | 62 |
| Reviews: | 2 |
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| Reviewer: RPGMaster77 | Date: Nov 28, 2001 |
| In its heyday, Enix chugged out RPG after RPG for the oh-so-loved Super Nintendo, and they were all pretty good. But SoulBlazer was, if you'll pardon the expression, a diamond in the rough. And I mean that in a good way. It captured the "classic" feel of the SNES when it first came out while still holding to a decent plotline and having some handy and interesting ideas to boot. Its replay value wasn't all that hot, but it did have a few little optional sidequests, and backtracking to previous lands was not uncommon. And like most Enix games, it had a moral at the end of the game. As a matter of fact, this particular one was a bit touching, really, but you'll have to play to find out! Graphics: 8 The graphics weren't drop-dead gorgeous, but they were really quite good. The special effects were nice, and while the character sprites were nothing spectacular, they did allow for some very nice poses. One of the things you never notice about Enix's games until you reflect on them is that the framerate is almost always smooth, and SoulBlazer is no exception. As a matter of fact, I can't recall a single time where the frame rate actually dropped at all. One more thing regarding the graphics -- it's the little things that make a game that much more worthwhile, and when you have the time, take a look at the details in the game. See those clouds in the background of the painting? Notice the Aurora on top of a snowy mountain? ...nice, isn't it? Sound: 9 The sound could be improved, but it actually worked out pretty well in this game. Several sounds were recycled; the "soft shot" sound is heard very frequently -- for the Light Arrow, for the diving eagle, for the Bird Demon, for the.... But it wasn't annoying at all. Far from it, in fact. Several of the sound effects you hear are actually helpful in various ways. Oftentimes, for example, when fighting a boss, the SOUND that something makes will alert you to what will happen next so you don't run screaming for your life after you discover that ace up his sleeve. The music was very good and well-done. You often don't say this about many games (*cough*Arcana*cough*), but the songs were addicting. They suited the atmospheres perfectly in any situation, ranging from the sea bed to the mountains to the not-so-far reaches of space. Gameplay: 8 The gameplay was nothing new, i.e. Illusion of Gaia (its sequel, coincidentally). But one of the nicer things about its gameplay was its difficulty. It wasn't so amazingly hard that you threw your controller into the wall every second, but it wasn't so amazingly easy that your character gave the last boss a flick or two before it keeled over and died. Although the game was relatively easy compared to other RPGs of its day, it did require a little effort on your part to get through the process of defeating each enemy "lair." Oh, that's another interesting thing about this game: You'll be devoting most of your time to beating up monsters, of course, but you don't want to whack every monster in sight. You want to get rid of all the monsters originating from a specific "lair," then stepping on the panel the lair leaves to recompose a part of its town, bring back lost souls, open up new paths to the rest of the area or reveal a treasure or another monster lair. The process sounds awfully monotonous, but as we all know, Enix has a neat way of twisting things to make them more interesting, and believe me, they are. Overall: 9 The game had no high points, but it had no low points, either. One judging the game might consider it overly mediocre, but you'd be surprised how well it turned out. The game was overall very good, if a bit too short and easy for my liking. Those of you looking for a challenge might be disappointed, but don't underestimate it, either. It's actually pretty good, and fairly addicting. You might not be grateful, but you won't be sorry to pass up this little gem, either. |
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| Reviewer: Sorlag | Date: Jul 15, 2001 |
| I played true the game about 5-6 times and well this game is too short but good graphics and story... but at the end there is just one enemy to defeat. gets boring so i killed some comon enemys about 1 million times and when i enter to kill the final boss... i just got x4 his life bar so i resist a bit mutch :-) cause i level up alot killing comon enemys at the finaly space stage :-) |
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