Saint Sword review - Sega Genesis

by Fausto Chavez

Overview: Saint Sword is a medieval mythic platformer released in 1991 for the Genesis/Mega Drive developed by Taito. A hack and slasher, more notably you are able to morph into a centaur, flying winged creature, or a fish, to access new areas and increase fighting power.

Story: The story is based on Greek mythology, about the Titans and such. At the beginning there is a cut scene that explains the story in depth, and also at the end, but I didn’t bother reading most of it.

Graphics: The graphics in Saint Sword are pretty good. Your main character is large, and gets larger as it powers up. The enemies are similarly sized, though there’s not much variation nor are they memorable, except some of the bosses. There are nice graphic effects such as flickering colors in the background. There is a dark brooding medieval theme, sometimes reminded me of Castlevania. The graphics are good for their time and have held up fairly well.

Music: Some of these tracks are amazing. They really bring out the atmosphere. The music is the most polished and well developed part of the game. There is a sound test in the options menu to enjoy the music on its own, and some of it is very delightful, varying from slow and emotionally dramatic, to fast and intense. A few of the tracks could be on Mercs!

GamePlay: In this game you slay evil monsters with your sword as you clear the level and then fight a boss. The objective is to first find a key, which unlocks the door to the next area, then you must find the exit before the allotted time expires. It seems at times the key will not  appear until a certain amount of time passes, and you just wait for the time to pass, another frustration. Once you find the key, an arrow points you towards the exit, but ironically, finding the key is the real challenge. Your character has a long life, and enemies are not too strong or frequent, you rarely die from enemy attacks, the main obstacle is time, because finding the key can be a chore.

The levels are at times large and you can go up, down, left or right. You are able to morph into a centaur, a wingged flying creature, or a fish to access new areas and increase fighting power.

There are other items and magics that you acquire, like a shield or ‘clear screen of enemies’ spell. When I did try to use the power ups, they were limited, since their use depended on first acquiring the power up (dropped by an enemy) then having enough MP to use it. You must also press start, choose the item/magic from the menu, return to the game and press A. But then the powerup ability runs out when your MP expires, and some of the powerups are not worthwhile (freezing the enemies, but unable to kill them for example.) So I never really used these special items and magics, they felt unnecessary since the main obstacle is finding the key, which is just a matter of slaying enough enemies or in the right location / time.  Sometimes I could not find the key and just gave up. Other times the key came very quickly.

The controls are quick to master and responsive. The basic mechanics of the gameplay: fighting and jumping, flying, swimming, is very enjoyable (along with the great music and nice visuals).

The main drag was the unbalanced nature of finding the key and continuing to the next level, which at times was too easy/quick or too hard/long. This is the main flaw of the game, along with its basic repetitiveness.

Also, all the stages are basically the same with some water elements thrown in, just with different colors or themes, but the gameplay, stage ideas, and enemies, repeat throughout. Some of the bosses were interesting, others were not much at all. I found it hard to get out of some stages (finding the key) so I started using a walkthrough and still did not help much. So I used passwords, which unlocked the game with stage select, invincibility, infinite time, which allowed me to play through the game without much frustration and this was quite enjoyable.

Another issue is that it was hard to figure out a pattern for some of the bosses, often the boss fight just degenerated into a battle of attrition rather than skill.

Replay Value: This game definitely has replay value as far as becoming proficient, learning the layouts of the stages, and enemies. You have to play the game twice to get the real ending. And it takes attention and skill to learn how to use the special items and spells. But as a busy man in my 40s I don’t have the patience to master it at such a level, and left happy with my experience beating it using codes.

Conclusion: I am a huge fan of 16 bit myth / fantasy games, so this was right up my alley. As such, I probably enjoyed this game more than most. It’s not as good as Golden Axe, ActRaiser, or even Mystic Defender.  The special items, magics and morphs could have been much more intergrateed into the gaame. Saint Sword could have been more balanced as far as finding the key, smoother and more generous use of special items would have been nice, and it could have used more varied or intriguing game play, it felt handicapped at times because of all this.

I was grateful that the designers made it that when you die, the stage doesn't restart if you have lives (unless time runs out) and a 'game over' starts you at the stage where you left off, and there are generous password options (get them online) including the ending (a great cutscene sequence) such that I didn't even need to use GameGenie. I also loved the music, which was fabulous at times. The gameplay itself is merely good, earning a 7, but the great music, nice graphics, and password unlocks, tilt the overall score to an 8. I spent several days playing this game over different playing sessions and felt satisfied during and afterward (tho also felt it could have been way better). I definitely got my money’s worth, though lesser fans of the genre may have a different experience.



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