Soul Blazer

Playable and fun, but I'm not quite sure why.

I write a lot about nostalgia in my reviews here. At least, I mention nostalgia a lot when it comes to the basis for selecting various games and the groundwork for my thoughts behind them. This review is no exception, save for that Soul Blazer is an example of a game that, in my most recent replayings (a false start maybe six months ago, and then one good strong concerted effort over the past couple days), fails to live up to the hype my brain built up over memories.

I don't want to imply that it's a bad game, because it's not, but here in 2014, Quintet has already released Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, which play kind of like ironed-out updates Soul Blazer's basic formula.¹ If you've already played those, though, or if you just want to check out what Quintet did after ActRaiser, Soul Blazer's your bag, punk.

RPGs in a nutshell. (Second clause may vary)

At its core, Soul Blazer is a basic top-down action RPG. You walk around, kill monsters, get nifty new items, and learn spells. While each of the game's seven acts spices things up a bit, the main game mechanics remain largely the same.

• Move through an empty and featureless map to find a dungeon.
• Destroy monster lairs in the dungeon to release souls to populate the formerly empty and featureless map with NPCs and buildings.
• Continue clearing monster lairs until you hit a wall.
•  Return to the village and talk to everyone until you get what you need to continue through the act's dungeons.
• Continue these steps until you beat the act boss, then move on to the next act.

Wash/rinse/repeat for the next five towns, clear the final act (which is essentially a giant dungeon), and the game's over. That's kind of a quick n' cruel dismissal of the basic setup of the game. I assure you in my mind I don't mean to state it in such a blase and blunt way like I'm too cool for Soul Blazer (I'm not), but that is straight up what you'll do for every act.

Act 3 takes place under de sea. Partially, anyway

While there's a bit of an "oh God, okay, we're gonna do this again" kind of feeling that hits you as soon as you start a new act, the game remains playable and fun in spite of itself. Clearing out monster lairs and watching the town rebuild is rewarding and fun² , and I was legitimately excited when I came upon new weapons and armor, which have nice looking icons that make you smile.

The game overall has a pretty nice look to it. A few of the townspeople sprites here and there are a bit bland, but the game makes good use of transparencies and parallax scrolling to make the areas look really nice, particularly for 1991. The game's music is a bit hit-and-miss, unfortunately. There are a lot of good songs in the game (like the universal town theme), but some dungeon songs just kind of meander as background noise.

The aurora in the background is actually animated and looks really nice. I should've made this an animated gif, but didn't.

Soul Blazer's controls are always a bit jarring to me when I play the game again after not touching it. Though the game feels very smooth and snappy, you are, technically, locked into a grid, and can only move in the four cardinal directions. By the end of my first run through the dungeon, though, I'll typically get over this and play the rest of the game comfortably and fluidly.

One mixed complaint is that the AI for most enemies is generally to run directly at you while still obeying the game's grid system. I say "mixed" because while having smart enemy AI is nice, dumb AI lets you play around a bit more. It's kind of fun to find a sweet spot where you can stand and just mash attack and clear an entire monster lair without moving, or better yet find a spot where you can just hold your sword straight out and have the enemies impale themselves on it as they pour out of the lair. I think that's fun, anyway. I can see how some might see that as a negative.

To reiterate, Soul Blazer is fun in spite of itself. The review I just wrote probably sounds overwhelmingly negative, but the game is actually pretty fun. The repetitive nature of it makes it hard to recommend for a marathon play session, but it's a fun game to kind of pick at. It's definitely got a lot of charm in its presentation, bad early '90s translation and all, and I would on the whole recommend it. If you like the basic ideas of Soul Blazer but find it's not really gelling with you, check out Terranigma or Illusion of Gaia instead.

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1 The three games are actually loosely considered to be a trilogy, with Soul Blazer being the first entry. To my knowledge the three don't necessarily share a game world or plot, but are more linked thematically and by general gameplay style.^↩
2 Though also frustrating when you run into some kind of enemy that you can't beat with your current gear and know that you're going to be coming back to an act you just kind of wanted to put in the books and be done with.^↩