Landstalker
Sega Genesis
Nostalgia Factor:
Landstalker is a game I've always vaguely been aware of. I am familiar with seeing screenshots of the game in old video game magazines. It was never something that piqued my interest enough to check it out, though.
Well, in 2022 I decided out of the blue to give the game a shot. Expand my horizons a little bit. But I would not have a good time with this game. I started playing it in October of 2022. I just finished it now, at the beginning of May here in 2023. That's about seven months it took me to beat this game. Why did I struggle so much to power through this one? I can explain it, I swear!
Story:
You play as Nigel, an adventurer and treasure hunter. He rescues a nymph named Friday from a group of evil thugs chasing after her. Friday says that the thugs were after her because she knows the location of King Nole's treasure, the greatest secret treasure known to exist.
Nigel and Friday head to the island where the treasure is believed to be. They get themselves into all kinds of mischief and misadventures, but long story short, their paths become entangled with the Duke of Mercato. While the Duke's intentions seem honorable at first, you quickly discover that he is a bad, bad man. He double crosses Nigel to get his hands one of many secret stones that leads the way to the treasure of Nole.
The rest of the game becomes Nigel vs the Duke as they both try to get their hands on the treasure first.
The story of the game is kind of fun and light hearted. I like Friday and Nigel's relationship. There are a lot of funny moments to be found, here. I'd have to say the story is probably the best thing about Landstalker. If that is saying much.
Gameplay:
Alright, the meat and potatoes of the game. The gameplay takes center stage in Landstalker. If you don't like the controls or the combat in the early goings of the game, you are going to have to be patient. You are never, ever going to be able to beat this game if you can't master these controls.
For a very basic comparison, this is an action RPG like Zelda or Beyond Oasis. It takes place from an isometric perspective. The thing that stands out about Landstalker is the way your character moves, and how it affects the platforming action that unfolds as you make your way through the game. To put it simply: the controls are jank. I feel as if they turned away a lot of people from getting very far or putting too much time into this game.
Instead of just being able to use the controller to point your character where you want him to go, and then just move him there, you have to adjust his body's positioning. It's a little hard to explain in the written word. It's like you have to point him where you want him to go, and then use left and right to move him forward and backward, but only in the direction you pointed him. So a bit like tank controls. But in 3D. You have to use diagonal motions with the controller to traverse "up or down" across the game's 3D plane. Again, really hard to put into words. You just have to trust me: it's jank.
Not only is it tough to simply move your character in a basic direction, this makes platforming extremely difficult. Your character doesn't have a shadow. The perspective in this game can be a bit misleading. This makes it hard to line up jumps, especially with the janky controls. Landstalker is a game that requires A LOT of precision jumping. Like, seriously. Down to the pixel. This game, even with good controls, would have been very difficult anyway. With the poor controls, it is a downright frustrating experience.
That said, you do start to adapt to the controls after a while. I feel like by the time I was done with this game, I had gotten a really good grasp of my character and his abilities and limitations. It takes a while to get to this point, though. And the jumping remains a constant source of frustration.
Falling in this game often results in you landing in an area you've already been before. You then have to backtrack to the point where you fell and try again. If you get into a pattern where you fall over and over again (and you will, believe you me!) you are going to get very agitated. I did myself a favor and played this with save states, so I could simply try my missed jumps over again. Even then I was getting a little annoyed. I can't possibly imagine playing this on original Genesis hardware. I just can't. I would never make it through this game.
It's so hard! Combat is a pain in the neck. Nigel's sword has a short range of attack, and enemies like to try and swarm you from all sides. You rack up damage very, very quickly in this game. If you aren't careful, you are going to find yourself dying quite often - even very early in the game. And from basic grunt enemies. You basically have to be perfect as you make your way from town to town.
You can stock up on healing items as you go. You are going to need them! It's an action RPG, so you can improve your equipment and weapons with upgrades you find out in the field. This game seems to take some cues from the Shining Force games with how you can save your game with priests. A lot seems to be borrowed from Shining Force, really. Unfortunately, nothing that was able to make me like this game.
This game is such a chore to play through. The controls suck. The platforming sucks. It's hard. I'm taking a lot of damage and struggling with even the most basic enemies. I don't know where to go. This is one of those games that are terrible to pick up after a long hiatus. None of the NPCs tell you what you were doing or give you hints where you're supposed to go next. You just have to aimlessly wander around, blindly hoping you trigger an event that pushes the story forward. The game flows a little better towards the beginning. It isn't until you get to Mercator that I really started to get lost. There were several points where I had to put the game down for several weeks at a time (hence, why it took me seven months to beat the game). It is an absolute nightmare trying to find where you left off sometimes. I already wasn't liking the game. This realllly made me want to stop playing.
I had to force myself to power through this game. I was having such a miserable time. The dungeons in this game have some very difficult puzzles to solve, and I was getting stuck left and right, having to look to internet walkthroughs for help. Nothing with this game was resonating for me. Nothing. I couldn't force myself to like it, even as I fully committed myself to finally finishing it off and beating it. Now that I am done with this game, I never have to think of it again after I publish this review. I hated it.
Graphics:
The graphics are okay. I am right on the verge of being able to say it is a "colorful" game, but I can't bring myself to say it. Sometimes it gets close. But for the most part the world of the game just isn't that interesting. Monotonous looking landscapes filled with dull, uninspired forests and mountains. The villages and towns are a little bit better. The characters look nice, as do some of the details in the buildings and their designs. Occasionally you'll see an interesting looking background or an area involving water that has some cool special effects.
All in all, this game has the problem where a lot of areas look "samesies" with other areas in the game. Especially in between towns when you are out on the trails. And double especially in dungeons. It doesn't make for an interesting playthrough when it seems like you're looking at the same kind of environments over and over again.
Many of the text menus look identical to the menus you see in Shining Force. Not the first thing these games have in common, and it won't be the last.
Sound:
I'm finally going to give this game a little love. The music isn't bad. Some of the tunes are a little repetitive because you hear them so often, but at least they are pleasant to listen to. Kind of cheerful and upbeat. One sound effect you'll recognize immediately is the sound Nigel makes when he jumps. It is the Sonic jumping sound.
The sound of some of the menus and the sound of characters talking in the dialog box is ripped directly from Shining Force. It's interesting to me that this game has such obvious influences from Sonic and Shining Force in its audio presentation. It's like a collision of pure Sega goodness on the aural side of things. Too bad the game isn't any fun to play.
Overall:
OK, so you already know I don't like the game. I don't know what else I can say. I didn't have fun with this. I didn't like it. I don't recommend you play it. The only good thing about it is that I now do not have to play it anymore or think about it ever again.
Goodbye, Landstalker.
Forever.
THE GRADE:
F
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