Well it?s amazing to think that come next week the Saturn will be 10 years young (think it?s next Monday).
I still remember it was like yesterday that I was more or less wetting my self in anticipation of the console.
Happy memories of phoning my import shop every day to see if he had his stock in. The likes of my brother and mates calling me mad for spending over ?600 on the console.
Didn?t give a toss though when I first fired up Virtual Fighter for the first time. Any worries I had about the cost were soon put to bed
VF really was the game to show the future and what we could expect from the next gen.
Never before had I seen characters move so realisticly and fliud .
Those sound effect are still to this very day the best in any fighter (talk about bone crushing).
So from the very start I knew this was going to be a very special machine.
Panzer Dragoon knocked my socks off. Christmas 1995 will go down in vidoegamming history It will never be beaten.
VC, SR, VF II All coming out with in weeks of each other.
It was amazing to be a part of that It goes down as my fav gamming memory (so far).
Still after 10 years it remains my fav and most played console (nothing comes clsoe).
Panzer Dragoon is still my fav game ever made.
Souky is still the best 2D shooter money can buy .
And last but by no means least Sega Rally is the best handling, and hands down still the best driving game ever.
Thank you SEGA JP.
Happy Anniversary Saturn (You’re still the best)
Sigh what a beautiful machine Sega made…
What an excellent period with old freinds Segata Shinshiro,Camelot and Treasure dazzling us with great entertainment ,The Evengilon series,The Macross anniversary games the last good games from Sonic Team appered, PANZER DRAGOON wowed everyone with each exciting installement and Capcom starting to release long awaited classics onto the “2d monster” and the AM2 sub culture forming around their games…
And Sega took the life of the Saturn before it was ready to go…
If I could write some positive about the console that almost killed Sega, I would. All I can remember are the dozens of great Saturn games that never saw the light of day outside of Japan.
And how can we forget Dark Savior? After Sega of America was finished translating the game, they took the only way to complete the game out of it. We were left with a game that never ends for crying out loud. I wonder how the people who localized the game would feel if they were caught in a timeloop forevermore.
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]Well it?s amazing to think that come next week the Saturn will be 10 years young (think it?s next Monday).
I still remember it was like yesterday that I was more or less wetting my self in anticipation of the console.
Happy memories of phoning my import shop every day to see if he had his stock in. The likes of my brother and mates calling me mad for spending over ?600 on the console.
Didn?t give a toss though when I first fired up Virtual Fighter for the first time. Any worries I had about the cost were soon put to bed
VF really was the game to show the future and what we could expect from the next gen.
Never before had I seen characters move so realisticly and fliud .
Those sound effect are still to this very day the best in any fighter (talk about bone crushing).
So from the very start I knew this was going to be a very special machine.
Panzer Dragoon knocked my socks off. Christmas 1995 will go down in vidoegamming history It will never be beaten.
VC, SR, VF II All coming out with in weeks of each other.
It was amazing to be a part of that It goes down as my fav gamming memory (so far).
Still after 10 years it remains my fav and most played console (nothing comes clsoe).
Panzer Dragoon is still my fav game ever made.
Souky is still the best 2D shooter money can buy .
And last but by no means least Sega Rally is the best handling, and hands down still the best driving game ever.
Thank you SEGA JP.
Happy Anniversary Saturn (You’re still the best)
Those really were Happy Days!!![/quote]
10 years…
I remeber reading magaxine articles about it when it was released in the UK, which must be 9 years ago.
Ah yes, still remember my Saturn fondly, which I got with Sega Rally. =D
This day I am still seeking some games for it, as the original Panzer Dragoon and the Segata Sanshiro game that was released sometime in 1998 I believe. XD Oh and Shining Force III, can’t forget Shining Force III (it was the only one of the final “big three” that the Saturn saw in Europe, I did get Burning Rangers and Panzer Dragoon Saga.)
I guess when Sega of America was localizing the game they thought it was a game with many different endings, when in actual fact, the main character, Garian, is caught in a time loop whereby each ending is an outcome based on his actions at the very beginning. The only way to escape the time loop was removed from the American/PAL versions due to cencorship issues.
Buy the Japanese version for the best possible experience… if you can read Japanese of course. That’s not a problem for most of us, though, now is it?
In our version of the game you can complete 5 out of 6 of the game’s endings. It doesn’t really matter though because even if the 6th parrallel hadn’t been cut from the game, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Ultimately, Dark Savior was a mediocre to ok experience.
Dark Savior really wasn’t the sequel to Landstalker we all wanted, though I praise Climax for trying something new. I’m afraid no one wants Action/RPGs like Landstalker anymore for some inexplicable reason.
Nice to see recognition for the old warhorse (if unsurprising on this site).
It’s strange - the Saturn was largely panned by multiformat magazines, justly so to a degree, whereas the Dreamcast seemed to be the console of choice right up to the point Sega stopped supporting it. But I had both, and I found the Saturn to be far more timeless than the DC in the end. After my DC was stolen then only games I really missed were Skies of Arcadia, Powerstone 2, and San Francisco Rush of all things. I think I had most of the flagship titles for it too, whereas my Saturn collection was a more esoteric mix.
Re: Geoffrey Duke, I had Dark Saviour - I didn’t think it was great, but it was obviously a game people had put some TLC into. I still have fond memories of the Silver Castle and the 4th (I think?) parallel, with the time limit. Now that you mention it, I remember feeling a bit cheated when completing all 5 parallels had no effect. Could you explain, or point me to an explanation of exactly what I missed out on?
About Landstalker - I played an emulated version a couple of years back (hope no-one here takes objection to that), having heard great things about it, and I was really disappointed. I didn’t get that far through, but the character movement/combat system seemed very limited, the plot and dialogue typical Japanese RPG fare, and there was very little opportunity to affect the character’s development. To this day I still wonder if I missed some major aspect of the game, because even taking into account aging, I can’t understand how so many people could care so much about the game I played.
What made Landstalker so great was how Climax Entertainment managed to perfectly balance combat with platform hopping and puzzles.
Gamers seem to prefer Diablo-clones over true Action/RPGs like Landstalker these days for some inexplicable reason. Any game should have its fair share of combat, but as soon as a game starts revolving around hacking and slashing through endless armies of monsters (like in Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance) I invariably find myself starting to lose interest. I want to solve a puzzle or two before or after leaping across moving platforms on top of confronting the occassional screen-filling boss.
It’s not really fair to compare Landstalker to modern Action/RPGs even if it does remain truer to its genre (which Zelda popularized) than Diablo and its many, many clones.
As for Dark Savior, the game fell short in the combat department IMO. If the game had retained the combat of its indirect prequel, then it might’ve become an all time classic.
Apparently, parrallel 6 where Garian has to confront Jack about being sent back in time over and over again was made unreachable in our versions of the game. You can only confront Jack on the matter when he sends you back in time to retrieve Kay from Deadman’s castle if you left her there in the first place (but parrellel 6 can only be reached after completing the first 5 parrallels).
One day I’ll have to play through the Japanese version of Dark Savior to see the true ending for myself.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]
It’s not really fair to compare Landstalker to modern Action/RPGs even if it does remain truer to its genre (which Zelda popularized) than Diablo and its many, many clones.[/quote]
I always compare old games to new - I think it can be very telling. They don’t necessarily have to be equally good, but if a 10-year old game can still be compelling I think it says a lot more about it than any contemporary review could (hence my regard for many of the games I mentioned in the other thread).
But all I found of combat in Landstalker was walk/slash/(occasionally) jump. The most difficult part was coping with the isometric view… At least DS had *some *variety. Did I miss something?
The enemies become smarter as you progress. Some block and counter attack, others teleport and/or throw projectiles in your direction, and some are just huge, not to mention tough to kill. I thought the bosses were quite imaginative too. Nigel can also find more powerful weapons which inflict elemental damage. The final sword (the sword of Gaia) rains a hail of huge rocks down upon your enemies.
Unlike most modern Action/RPGs, however, combat wasn’t the main focus of the game.
Also, adjusting to the isometric point of view was all part of the fun, especially when the time came to leap from one platform to another held in the air above a sea of boiling magma.