June 15, 2007 1:15 pm - GEN, impressions

Final thoughts: Landstalker

I finished Landstalker off for the first time last night. I first started the game somewhere around six or seven years ago, and after selling the game once and buying it again, I'm finally done. I originally bought the game when I was in a mad dash to find all of the decent RPGs and action-RPGs for the Genesis, and with Landstalker I was hoping to find a Zelda-like experience. Naturally, the lighthearted, carefree tone and focus on difficult platforming threw me off. I quit playing somewhere around the third dungeon and eventually sold the game off.

When I really sunk my teeth into Castlevania Chronicle recently, though, it's like a switch in my head got flipped, and suddenly I really dig, understand, and crave extra-hard platforming. I don't know why, so don't ask, but it makes sense to me now in a way it never did before. So when I found an $8 complete copy of Landstalker at a local shop last December, I snapped it up.

And difficult it was! I ended up cursing the game out more than once, thanks to some trouble I had with judging distances. It's easy to see why an isometric perspective like that is so rarely used for action games. It's a real trick to be able to judge exactly where platforms are in relation to each other, especially when things get more complex in the second half of the game. There were many situations in which I just could not tell where things were supposed to be until I'd jumped and fallen several times. This got to be a real pain in later dungons, where a fall often means climbing back up through several screens just to get back to the same place.

But once you can get past this, the platforming sections and puzzles are so fiendishly constructed that it's hard not to have fun with them. I won't say that it never feels like the game is at fault when things go wrong, but there are so many sections that are so tightly-constructed, and the late game asks for so many bits of skill from the player that feel just right given the controls that I have few complaints about the way the game plays. And the sprawling dungeons with cris-crossing passageways and shortcuts that get revealed bit by bit are really satisfying to get through.

I still don't like the combat at all, though. Only near the end of the game does it boil down to anything more than waiting for the enemy to approach from a cardinal direction and then bashing it repeatedly. Plus, every enemy makes the same garbled yelp and scream when injured or killed, respectively. The sporadic boss encounters don't amount to too much more than this, though there are a couple of memorable battles in the endgame.

The localization is surprisingly good for 1993, though I think it's consistent with the proper treatment the Shining games received back then. The story's nothing too special, but the dialogue and flavor text has a folksy, natural ring to it that isn't all that common even now. Some pop-culture references were snuck in, though, and while I chuckled at a few, there are some real groaners. There are some really nice pieces in the soundtrack in the second half, too. Thanks to those, the terrific endgame, and the way the relationship between Nigel and his fairy friend Friday is sent off, the game succeeded at giving me that bright, polished feeling that I've come to expect from only the best games of the 16-bit years.

I'm glad I finally got past my preconceptions and allowed the game to do what it does best. It's got some of the most polished work I've ever seen in an action-RPG, and that unfortunately includes its spiritual sequel Alundra. I don't know if we'll ever see another ARPG that puts action, skill, and tough puzzles out in front like this, but at least I know just how good things can get. Maybe I should give Ys: Oath in Felghana a shot.