Shaman King: Master of Spirits GBA.. ugh

[Gamereviewgod]

Who's brilliant idea was this one? The gameplay is great, obviously using the same engine that the Castlevania runs on. I remember reading that, so I picked it up at the Best Buy sale.

It's the stage set up that is completely absurd. You need to beat these stages in some exact order, and there's no way to tell which stage has the item you need. You'll enter into a stage, go half way, and realize you need some other power on the other side of the map to get it.

Yes, it gets worse, since you have to REPLAY the stages you've already cleared to get back to the start try the other stages you haven't touched.

What a great game completely butchered by this stage selection crap. :(

[NeoZeedeater]

Yeah, it looks like Castlevania but the design doesn't compare to Castlevania at all. Disappointing.

[pragmatic insanester]

do you keep all those bad games you review? i skim through the review section time to time, and i want half of those beat 'em ups you ripped.

[GrandAmChandler]

Who's brilliant idea was this one? The gameplay is great, obviously using the same engine that the Castlevania runs on. I remember reading that, so I picked it up at the Best Buy sale.

It's the stage set up that is completely absurd. You need to beat these stages in some exact order, and there's no way to tell which stage has the item you need. You'll enter into a stage, go half way, and realize you need some other power on the other side of the map to get it.

Yes, it gets worse, since you have to REPLAY the stages you've already cleared to get back to the start try the other stages you haven't touched.

What a great game completely butchered by this stage selection crap. :(

Is this a review of the first game or the 2nd? they both are similar from what I understand. Just curious.

[Policenaut]

And I was about to get the game this week, looking at its box seemed interesting, in a Castlevania style gameplay. I guess I'll let this pass and get Metal Slug Advance then. :deadhorse:

[Gamereviewgod]

Is this a review of the first game or the 2nd? they both are similar from what I understand. Just curious.

No idea. It's whatever the title says. ;)

I think it's the sequel that has two seperate versions, isn't it?

[Drammy]

I liked this game. I'll have to concede that this is more than likely due to my fandom of the anime and manga. The finding of the special spirits (Mic, Lee Pai Long, etc.) in order to get past certain objectives I thought was fairly decent, and I didn't seem to have a problem with ever finding the right stages to beat.

Now, I have to agree with you, Gamereviewgod, on the stage system. Really, extraordinarily stupid. You more or less have to beat every stage that you go through for most of the game, including if you backtrack through the level. This was sort of frustrating. In fact, you don't even gain the ability to simply "skip" through a stage until more than half of the game is through.

Overall, I did like the game, sinking 7:40 into it. Don't even get me started on the "sequel". Or "exact same game".

[mikeetler]

Is this a review of the first game or the 2nd? they both are similar from what I understand. Just curious.

Master of Spirits was the first one. Legacy of Spirits (Soaring Hawk & Sprinting Wolf) were the sequels.

-Mike

[Drammy]

Is this a review of the first game or the 2nd? they both are similar from what I understand. Just curious.

Master of Spirits was the first one. Legacy of Spirits (Soaring Hawk & Sprinting Wolf) were the sequels.

-Mike

Close. The "Legacy of Spirit" games are a different type of game altogether. The true sequel to Master of Spirits is Master of Spirits 2, which has the same engine, graphics, and inane stage layout. Going through the first level I saw several places where I was saying "Woah, yep, going to need [spirit] in order to get there." I was disgusted, and quit playing.

[Bratwurst]

I recently completed this one. Considering what it goes for currently holy crap what a bargain. I paid 5 bucks since Media Play was going under, on eBay it seems to go for 7-12 new.

The level design itself is pretty spartan but very pretty and scenic, with most stages being straightforward platform jumpers, there are a few 'maze-like' areas and the occasional puzzle.

To address the stage select system it's actually as efficient if not more so than the Castlevania GBA games, because each map point can branch off to as many as four other points. The drudgery of tracking through old territory and encountering unforeseen obstacles is just as applicable to other games that are instead applauded for their alleged free-form exploration. Castlevania and Metroid can be just as linear, the ability to roam aimlessly is more of an illusion than actual freedom as you're still required to hunt down abilities in a certain order. I digress.

The initial uselessness of some of the spirits you collect is offset by the elaborate combos that are unlocked when you bundle up specific spirits, with many large animations reminiscent of Golden Axe magic attacks.

I've never seen the anime and was able to follow the story just fine. There's a ton of side characters but the dialogue goes out of its way to summarize their role and history in the series as they come along.

My one real complaint with the game lies in the limited number of deck configurations you're allowed to have at one time, there are more maneuvering abilities than actual action slots so switching things in the middle of a level can break up the flow of the game.

[christhegamer]

"aww, man; I'm all out of furyokuo!..."

man, I just got such a big kick out of that game whenever it said that LOL

[Kitsune Sniper]

Believe it or not, I actually own both MoS games, and I love them. I even bought MoS2 the day it was released at the local Gamestop! The main complaint the original poster had with the game (having to go through the stages over and over again) can be easily solved with the Grand Tao Dragon spirit, which teleports you to the other end of the stage you're currently in. (Edit) You get the Grand Tao Dragon spirit after beating a boss about halfway through the game. (/Edit)

My main beef with MoS1 was the lack of decks you could use, but that was solved in MoS2, where you could have up to ten different ones. Well, that and the English voices... I know the game apparently never came out in Japan (I haven't seen a JP version of the game, either for sale or a rom dump!), but they could've left the Japanese VAs in there as an option... (Edit) And in MoS2, I was angry about the repeat boss fights from part one. They were mostly the same, only now you could use different special attacks than in part one. The upgraded spirits were cool, but there were times when the upgrade felt like a downgrade instead (like Amidamaru's upgrade, which changed the three slash attack into a projectile attack...) (/Edit)

Anyway, all you people who complain about needing spirits to beat levels should never play the GBA Castlevanias, or Metroid, or such. Even though they're great games, you'll still hate them because of how you need certain items to go further. :P

[Haoie]

The show isn't much good either, compared to most other anime.

[Rockman Neo]

The show isn't much good either, compared to most other anime.

Of course it's not. It's an atrociously dubbed version of an anime that should have never been animated in the first place. In Shaman King's case, the move from paper to anime was completely redundant.

To get back on topic, both Master of Spirits games are technically solid games. But yeah, the stage set-up is arbitrarily put together.

[spooie]

How dare they combine the brilliant game engine of the Castlevania games, with the fun retraversal map and stage aspects of Clash at Demonhead.

CURSES!

They shall rue the day, indeed!!!

;)

What's the big deal if you have to replay through the stages to get from point A to B? It's about exploration. No one ever complains about Metroid or Castlevania's later games that you need to go back to XXX point. The first play through is always going to be a pain, til you find out where you are going and get used to it.

Remember when games used to be "fun" like that... because you were required to explore and not everyone was drawn out for your every move?

:-P

[InsaneDavid]

No one ever complains about Metroid... ...later games that you need to go back to XXX point.

I do, all the freaking time. :)