The Legend of Oasis
Sega Saturn
As a Sega Saturn owner back in the mid to late 90's I was constantly on the lookout for good RPGs to play. It was a tough search, however. The Saturn was NOT known for producing quality games of this genre. But when I found out that there was going to be a sequel coming to the Saturn for one of my favorite Genesis games, I became very excited.
Beyond Oasis for the Genesis was more of an action RPG in the style of The Legend of Zelda than a typical turn based RPG. But its role playing competition for the Genesis was virtually nonexistent. I didn't like Phantasy Star, and I thought that this game was a lot more fun than the Shining series. If asked to name a favorite Genesis RPG at the time, Beyond Oasis likely would have been it. But overall I was very disappointed that the Genesis didn't have an answer to the Final Fantasy series.
The new sequel for Saturn - Legend of Oasis - would follow closely in its predecessor's action RPG footsteps. It may not have been the traditional turn based RPG I was looking for, but I was okay with that.
This is one of those games where I followed its creation very closely. The internet was in its infancy stages, so I would scour all the video game magazines at the grocery store for news of the game's development. I got super pumped up for Legend of Oasis. Being a Saturn fan wasn't an easy thing. There wasn't much to get excited about. THIS was a big deal for me. In my mind, this game was one of the things that would make being a Saturn owner worth it.
Legend of Oasis came out in November of 1996. I got it as a Christmas present shortly thereafter. I went to work on the game immediately.
As a big fan of Beyond Oasis, the first thing I noticed was how the game had improved in nearly every way possible. The game hadn't lost its graphical touch. Things were still bright and cartoony like in the original game. But things were even more detailed and colorful this time around. Certain areas of the game just looked so LUSH. For 1996, it was beautiful.
The animations were improved from the original game. There was a bigger variety of enemies. The musical score (although it is for the most part pretty forgettable) was an improvement. Even the story was a little more involved this time around.
Even with that being said, the game's story line is not its strong point. This is pretty typical fair here. I just finished playing this game a few days ago and I have already forgotten most of what the story line is about. There is an evil dude. You have to go around to temples and recruit spirits to help you fight him. At the end of the game you fight him and you win. Yay.
There is more to it than that, obviously. This is simply the basic gist. There is a mysterious female character who appears early on and plays a big role in the story line, but I won't spoil that role for you guys. Don't expect too much from the story line, however. It is about as vanilla as you can get.
This game plays out from a 3/4 over the top perspective, similar to an early Zelda game. You can go up, down, left right. You can run, you can jump. You stab with your knife. As the game progresses you collect magic spirits, and you can summon these spirits and use their magic powers to your benefit.
You start out in your home village, which acts as the game's main hub. There are story line and dialogue scenes. You are then sent out to collect the game's first spirit, which is conveniently located in the temple underneath the village. When you traverse the dungeon and defeat the boss, you return to the village with the temple's spirit in your possession.
More dialogue scenes ensue. You are then sent outside of the village to the next temple, where you must navigate the dungeons, collect the spirit, and return to the village.
Rinse and repeat.
The game's overworld is pretty fun and easy to navigate. Explore to your heart's content. There is hidden stuff everywhere. The overworld is pretty small compared to games in modern time, but that is to be expected.
All areas of the game look and feel different. The game does a good job of keeping things fresh for the players. What I like about the environments is that they are all very immersive. When you are in the water temple, things feel wet and damp around you. You can hear the drips coming from the ceiling, the waterfall rushing in the next room. Then when you are in the fire temple, things seem to have an orange-ish hue the deeper into the temple you get. You can nearly feel the heat.
When you are in the sky temple, you feel like you are actually up above everything else. I was always very stressed out when having to jump from beam to beam or platform to platform, knowing that the slightest misstep would drop me all the way down to the main map and cause some major backtracking.
Each dungeon is filled with puzzles and locked doors. Legend of Oasis is definitely not too overly challenging when it comes out to finding out where to go next, but there were a few instances where I had to look online for help. I recall getting stuck a few times back in 1996 when I first played this. Back then I couldn't look online for help, so I had to wander aimlessly for hours on end looking for something I had overlooked. But if you are a cheater like me you can easily use the internet for guidance.
The game takes about eight or nine hours to complete. It is not a very long game. It is not a very difficult one either. But it is very well made. Its fun to play. Its graphics are bright and colorful. The environments are very immersive. I like the combat system. I like being able to explore the overworld and look for hidden items. My only knock on the game is its completely forgettable story line.
My final verdict: this is a very solid and enjoyable game. I don't think many people owned Sega Saturns or have even played this game, so it is probably a very underappreciated one as well. It is kind of sad that more people haven't had a chance to enjoy this game. It is not an all time classic or anything, but I think people would like it.
I liked this back in 1996. It holds up and it is still fun to play in present day times. The Sega Saturn, like its predecessor the Genesis, didn't produce a whole lot of quality RPGs. I will admit that I haven't played every RPG the system has to offer, but from my experience I would have to say that Legend of Oasis is probably the cream of the Saturn crop.
That's not necessarily saying a whole lot, but this is still a very solid game.
Overall:
B
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