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Landstalker - The Treasures of King Nole: Reviews

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Game Score: 7/10

Landstalker was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and it's one of those "forgotten classic" titles that everyone should try and play at one point. The game's Zelda-esque gameplay and engaging characters make it a must-try even today. I'll break the game down into sections:

Story - 7

Without spoiling it, the story of Landstalker is very simplistic. You play as Nigel, a treasure-hunter, and you travel to an island with your fairy sidekick Friday in order to find King Nole's treasure. You make friends and enemies along the way, but the story is fairly linear and on its own would not be worthy of the 7/10 it has been given. However, the characterisation in this game is excellent - Nigel is sarcastic and witty, Friday is hot-tempered and has a complex about her size, and the major enemies are excellent antagonists. The characters are what drive the story and keep it interesting.

Graphics - 8

Obviously, the above score is comparing the graphics with other Genesis games, as the graphics are poor compared with today's high resolution FMVs! The graphics were fairly advanced for their time, though. Character sprites are charming and well-designed (although Friday's sprite is so small that it's hard to make out her features at all), and everything is presented in an isometric, pseudo-3D style. The visuals do have some problems, though - the viewpoint can make some jumps confusing (and you do a LOT of jumping in this game!), NPC sprites are repetitive, and there are some problems with the colours in some places (a puzzle which requires you to kill a red bubble-monster is confusing, because the "red" enemy is actually silvery blue, for instance).

Sound - 6

The music is pretty catchy, but repetitive. It's easy to get sick of hearing the same tune over and over in every village. The sound effects are cute - hitting a monster is met with it crying "whoa!", and it emits a "waaahh!" when it dies! On the whole, the sound is reasonable, if a little unvaried.

Controls - 5

Landstalker's main problem is with its controls. They're very simple - A and C are for sword slashes and talking to people, B is jump - but as mentioned previously, the isometric viewpoint makes directional control very awkward. You have to use the diagonals to walk at all times, and this can be frustrating on an old, creaky genesis pad! The controls can also be a little unresponsive, and as many puzzles rely on the player's speed and jumping skills, this can be a problem.

Gameplay - 8

Despite the controls, playing Landstalker is great. The puzzles are engaging, and dungeon-crawling is actually FUN. The obligatory "reach a new town, talk to everyone to find what to do next" format of many RPGs is made more bearable because the NPCs actually have personality. The game is hard - frustratingly so at times - but very addictive, and this encourages you to persevere. There are several minigames in the town of Mercator that you can play, including a gambling game and a fighting dojo, which keeps the gameplay fresh and hones your skills. It's a really fun game to play, despite it being over a decade old.

Overall - 7/10

Landstalker is an excellent game that fans of platformers and RPGs alike should try. However, if using a rom, BE WARNED - there are bad dumps of this game which make it impossible to reach the end. As a general check for if your dump is okay, when you reach Mercator, watch out for the princess' name! She SHOULD be called Lara in the English version - the bad version refers to her as Rolia. Have fun!