Seiken Psycho Calibur (聖剣サイコカリバー 魔獣の森伝説), launched 5/19/1987, developed and revealed by Imagineer
That is the third sport in Imagineer’s “Wave Jack” collection. The primary sport (Ginga Densetsu) was a hybrid shooter/journey sport (like The Guardian Legend), and the second sport (Kieta Princess) was an motion sport/thriller sport hybrid. The unifying aspect of the video games is that they got here with booklets and audio cassettes that expanded on the background of the sport and gave some clues to puzzles within the sport. Additionally they featured theme songs by a preferred idol group on the time. The third (and final) Wave Jack sport was Seiken Psycho Calibur, and it’s not laborious to see what sport they had been influenced by:
I believe individuals are generally too fast to make use of the time period “ripoff” — Zelda itself borrowed parts from Hydlide and Tower of Druaga, though in fact it develops its personal really feel and system nicely past what these video games had. SPC is extra clearly primarily based on Zelda, though it’s nowhere close to nearly as good of a sport. I believe it does sufficient issues in another way from Zelda that it’s not only a pure ripoff, however the accusation might be justified.
The story is fairly fundamental, though maybe the fabric included with the sport expanded on it extra — the story in sport is simply the standard “foremost character is the descendant of a legendary hero who beat the demon 300 years in the past” setup.
Moderately than the big map of Zelda, this sport is separated into 9 areas, every with a boss. You begin in an space the place there are a variety of homes with clues, some outlets, and two coaching areas. You get 100 cash to start out, and 200 whole meals (the crimson oval), which decreases as time passes. If it hits 0 you begin dropping HP. You even have two meters, P (which is hit factors) and F (which is energy).
The beginning space is fascinating as a result of you may by no means come again to it, so you’re mainly selecting a beginning set of issues together with your 100 cash. A few of the gadgets might be obtainable from different outlets later, however the Garments (which increase protection) are solely obtainable right here. I went with the garments, that are 80 cash — this implies you may’t pay 50 cash to coach your energy or pressure, nevertheless it appeared cheap. When you’ve visited all these areas and chosen your beginning stuff, it’s off to the primary degree.
You wander across the ranges, that are comparatively small. Not like Zelda there’s not a lot to search out in every one — the primary degree has solely three issues of significance. There’s a store that sells the Boomerang (basically the identical as Zelda besides it truly does harm), 100 meals, and Trent Fruit (bombs). There’s additionally a boss that drops a key, after which you should use the important thing to free the primary of two fairies (which is able to go in one of many 4 containers there under the Power and Energy meters.
Beating the common enemies gives you meals and cash, and sometimes issues that can enhance your hit factors though I’m not 100% positive how that works. The Boomerang is an efficient weapon however 100 cash is so much (no one dropped greater than 1 for me); you may return to outdated areas apart from the beginning space, so that you wouldn’t have to purchase it now.
The primary boss shoots out fireballs however just isn’t too tough. Beating him provides you the important thing.
The fairy will be introduced out to dam 3 projectiles, after which it is going to disappear for some time to chill down. The opposite blocks are a second fairy, sword methods (which you study as your Power meter goes up), and the secondary gadgets. The fairies and sword methods are no less than one thing completely different from Zelda.
The second space has no outlets or gadgets, simply this spider boss which drops a key; you want the important thing to enter an underground a part of the extent the place you’ll find one other boss. None of that is essential to go to the subsequent stage, however you should increase your Power to study the sword methods, a few of that are essential to go areas or combat bosses — you wouldn’t essentially need to do it within the order given, however you would need to do all of them finally.
That is the place I finished. It’s a reasonably dangerous sport, particularly below the shadow of Zelda. The management feels stiff, and there are annoyances like not having the ability to use your sword while you first enter a degree.
Apparently the aim of the included cassette tape is to offer you clues to getting via the Misplaced Woods (one other Zelda affect) on the ultimate map; it’s important to go in a manner that varieties the theme music which you’ll be able to hear on the tape.
I’m undecided why Imagineer didn’t make any extra Wave Jack video games, however I’ve a sense it simply wasn’t value it to incorporate all these extras within the sport — from what I can see the value (4900 yen) was on the costly aspect however not an uncommon worth for a Famicom sport. So that they had been most likely not making as a lot cash as they may have and I doubt the extras had been a giant draw for the sport (particularly since all three video games bought lukewarm or unfavorable opinions even on the time).
I additionally performed Deep Dungeon 2, so I’ll do a put up about that midweek after which subsequent Saturday I’ll put up about Tokyo Majin Gakuen.
