LandStalker

"This must be the second or third best Genesis RPG ever made"

Ahh yea, how fond of memories I have of this great classic. My friend was playing it on his Genesis and I was blickering at the side ''How the hell can you play such a crappy game that has such a #@$^$# upped control system?''

Before I knew it, he lent it to me and WHAM, hours of my life slipped away and destroyed plenty of my social life when leisure moments premitted.

The charater development and plot is excellent, to say the least. The story, given it's time for a RPG, isn't cliched at all and reeks of originality, coupled with personality-saturated characters, makes this game a definite magnet. The player starts off with an introduction Indiana-Jones style, running away from boulders, jumping across hazards, etc. Nigel, the protagonist, manages to snatch a treasure and sells it to an old man, and accidentally meets Friday, a little fairy or whatever she is. So the journey starts, with the intent of finding a certain King Nole's treasures. Unlike many other heroes, Nigel is in it for the money and could care less about Friday (and probably saved her life only because he heard her talk about the treasures), but they do develop and certain characteristic bonds emerge that makes the story so much more enjoyable. And as with the other reviews, the Duke is bloated with so dreadful a persona that you'd have to love to hate and hate to love.

The only flaw to this is the ending. If they only made a better ending with Nigel going places or wrapping up what happens to everyone else (besides the Duke)!! I'd give this category a 9.5.

The gameplay is top-notch for its genre. Although it lacks the fancy embellishments of Zelda or Lufia (the hookshot, arrows, etc), it MORE than makes up with EXTREMELY precisioned and well-planned dungeons/mazes/puzzles. Some of the later mazes the player goes through are downright HARD, and some like the Greenmaze or King Nole's Palace are HAIR-WHITENINGLY, EYE-REDDENINGLY difficult, and takes literally hours of scrutinization to complete. This isn't bad of course, it's just a fair warning for the more mellow players more used to the ease of Zelda and of the such.

The layout is in an isometric 3/4 view and direction is controlled with the diagnols of the controller (which catches on REALLY quick. Hell, I can even pull off the insane jumps on the computer after awhile). There isn't much to fighting though, just swing swing swing. I guess that's the only flaw, lack of battle challenge. Even the bosses are quite easy, especially after the Gaia Sword is obtained. This I would say is a 9.

The graphics and sound is amazing for it's time and system. The character movement on Nigel is surprisingly smooth, and some of the scenery in the game (Duke's mansion with the stairs comes to mind, as well as the Orc King place with that giant orc statue, among other things) gives the game an ambience of surealistic feel. I love Mir's chambers. Too bad there's not much MOVING wonders though, such as the fog effects and other things in Chrono Trigger. With this, I'd give it a 9.

The music... ahh the music, how it chimes its drug-addicting tunes in my head a whole 7 years after playing it. The music, although not on par with the likes of FF VI or Chrono Trigger, is DAMN good, and fits the environment of the locale DAMN well. The Overworld music, both of them, are addicting and well-played, ESPECIALLY the second one, which gives the adventuring feel that it ought to for Nigel's treasure hunt. King Nole's place has an awesome track too. 9.5 right here.

Replayability is decent, just because allava sudden there's this urge to play this great game over again. The endless hunt for Lifestocks and playing those puzzles that took me HOURS to solve in within minutes instills upon me a touch of joy that few games can. 8 right here.

Overall, this is one DAMN well-made game. Too bad they just don't make it like this anymore, nuts to all the fancy eye-candy of more recent Playstation and PS2 action/action RPG games, they don't even come close to the fun-factor compressed in this cult-hit. I would probably have given this a 10 if it were some 7 years earlier, but eh, what can you do.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/01, Updated 07/25/01