Blades of Vengeance

[Jisho23]

I picked this up a while ago and I've finally started playing it more seriously. Is there any popular opinion on the game or is it too obscure?

[Blitzwing256]

Great game, next to impossible though I only managed to beat it once after many many tries. don't use the wizard guy he blows ;-)

[XYXZYZ]

I really like this game. The thing that really surprises me about this game is that it's an action platformer game, for a classic console by an American company. Those are notoriously shitty games, but this one was a real gem. The jumping/hit detection etc. take a little fine tuning to properly adapt to, but once you get everything down it's a fun game to stick with. I still haven't finished it, though.

[Gabriel]

I remember owning it, playing it, hating it, and selling it. I remember generally bad controls, bland environments, and just general unpleasantness.

[Wraith Storm]

I really like the game.

I was always WOWED at the graphics and effects and I thought it was really fun too! I never beat it though. It's tough. I'm in the middle of rearranging my game room, so hopefully when its done I can pop in the game and spend some more time with it.

[A Black Falcon]

Blades of Vengeance is an amazing game. Fantasy and medieval things are some of my favorite themes and settings, so the game's theme makes it really interesting to me... and the actual game beneath that is, if anything, even better. First, it's got fantastic graphics and great music. The music's far better than your average Genesis music, and each stage's music fits the area well and sounds good. Sound effects are equally well done. The graphics are just great, with a lot of variety, interesting enemies, nice use of parallax backgrounds, little cutscenes between levels where your master tells you where to go next and a little about the next area, and just generally a fantastic use of the Genesis' color palette. This game covers up the Genesis' deficient color palette quite well (that is, the fact that the system can only display 64 colors on screen at once). It does a better job of dealing with that than many titles.

The gameplay is extremely well designed as well. The game is a somewhat slow-paced, methodical game where learning what to do at each point is the key. You can't just walk forward swinging your sword, you will die, and the game is NOT forgiving in that regard -- you only get continues if you get enough points to earn one, and you need to do well in order to get enough points. You take damage when you fall too far and enemies can drain your health quickly if you're not paying attention or mess up. There are a variety of items to collect to help, though. Also, while it's got lots of challenge, as you play it more you will learn what to do in each area and get progressively better. The game's very much pattern-based, enemies will all attack in memorizable patterns which you have to learn. Blocking (done by holding Down) makes you invulnerable from all attacks coming at your front; your back is still vulnerable, though, and enemies sometimes come from both sides so you can't always rely on it. It's a great mechanic. The items also help, when you're in a fix you can do something like use an invincibility potion or something. You do get points for unused items at the end of a level, but don't hold onto them just because of that... if you need to use them, do so! Oh yes, you can switch items while paused. A uses items, while B and C attack and jump. The controls are simple but effective.

There are also many hidden areas in the stages full of items to collect, so exploration is strongly encouraged. Try to jump through walls, go through every door, etc. You'll need all the money you can get, items in the shop (which you visit between levels) are expensive, and money isn't common... get all of it you can!

Also, the armor powerup, available in the shop before the fourth level, is HIGHLY recommended. It can be tricky to get though, because it costs 20 gold but I've only found about 8-10 gold in level 3, so you've got to keep 10+ gold from levels 1-2 and then spend it later... unless there are big hidden areas in level 3 I haven't found yet, that is. This is tough because the game is very hard and generally I feel like I need to spend all my money on lives and health potions, not spending some will make it hard to beat the level...

And indeed, I haven't beaten level 4 yet. I can get through the first three levels, but the fourth one is really quite hard... I need that armor, but as I said it's tough to get there with enough money. I'll keep trying though, this game is far too good to give up on halfway.

Oh yeah, and the game has a two player simultaneous mode as well. I just played that a little a few days ago, and it's pretty cool. It is really hard though, both people really need to know what they're doing -- play with someone who doesn't know the game or who isn't good at this kind of thing and you'll get nowhere. You have to be on the same screen and can't move too far apart unless one person pauses (when one person has paused the other can move away from them), so for things like tricky jumping puzzles, which the game has a lot of, you either need to pause and take turns or carefully do it at the same time and hope neither person messes up. So yeah, platforming is harder with two people.

Fighting enemies, however, is obviously a little easier with two people, because you have two people to fight with, so it kind of makes up for it that way... but anyway, single player or multi player, Blades of Vengeance is a fantastic game, almost definitely my favorite game published by EA on the Genesis and definitely one of the better action-platformers on the system.

Oh yeah, and yeah, the female barbarian probably is the best character. The game's hard enough, don't make it harder by chosing one of the other, worse characters...she's the most balanced character, and in this case that actually makes her best. I know balanced characters sometimes are the worst, but that's not true here.

[gum_drops]

I always enjoyed blades of vengeance and used to rent it from time to time at blockbuster. Its one of the few 2 player co-op fantasy games on the system,which is reason enough it pick it up. There arn't many other options out there. Besides Golden Axe, Cadash and Sword of Sodan come to mind, with the latter being quite horrid.

[A Black Falcon]

I always enjoyed blades of vengeance and used to rent it from time to time at blockbuster. Its one of the few 2 player co-op fantasy games on the system,which is reason enough it pick it up. There arn't many other options out there. Besides Golden Axe, Cadash and Sword of Sodan come to mind, with the latter being quite horrid.

Does World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck count as fantasy?

Other than that, the only other one I can think of is Cadash, which is alright but not nearly as good as the arcade or TG16 versions because two of the four playable characters were removed from the Genesis version, and the two missing ones are the cooler two of the four...

Of course, Golden Axe II and III are just about as good as the first one, in my opinion at least. I do love the series though, Golden Axe was one of my favorite arcade games in the late '80s and early '90s... I have always loved fantasy. And yeah, that is part of why I love Blades of Vengeance I'm sure. Fantasy fans particularly should consider the game a must-play title for the Sega Genesis, really.

[Arkhan]

use the female if you plan on beating the game

Fabio and Merlin are worthless.

[Jisho23]

I'm glad that other people know of this game. I actually stumbled upon it on emulator first and was almost immediately blown away by the visuals. It was off putting because of the difficulty (and I wanted to play it like an outright action game) but once I got a rhythm down I started to dig it. I feel it is a real hidden gem (certainly not a must own) and was surprised that nobody I know had even heard of it.

[Arkhan]

approaching like an action game and hating it is exactly why tons of people hate shadow of the beast too!

i found the game boxed at a used game store for 3.99 and took it home and went "hey this isn't too bad at all!"

[Jisho23]

Tons of people hate Shadow of the Beast?

[A Black Falcon]

Tons of people hate Shadow of the Beast?

I think it might be a case like the first two Turrican games, people who played the original computer versions like the games, but people who played the console ports hated it... with Turrican I think that that's partially because the ports aren't quite as good as the original games and partially because console and PC gamers like different things -- that is PC gamers like more depth on average than console gamers. I'm not sure how much that applies to Shadow of the Beast, though, though I do know that some of the ports were pretty bad... (the Genesis one particularly) I've only spent a few minutes with it, and on Genesis, but it didn't exactly look interesting. And the game didn't have a PC version, only Amiga, Atari ST, and C64, so the console versions are the only versions most Americans have any exposure to.

approaching like an action game and hating it is exactly why tons of people hate shadow of the beast too!

In any case, whatever the case with Shadow of the Beast, I would guess that that is absolutely the case with Blades of Vengeance. It might look like an action game at first glance, but it isn't one, it's got a lot of strategy to it. You need to treat it as the fairly complex game that it is, not a simple hack-and-slash game, in order to like it.

use the female if you plan on beating the game

Fabio and Merlin are worthless.

Yeah, they can't even jump high enough to make it to some of the hidden areas, I think...

[Arkhan]

I've only spent a few minutes with it, and on Genesis, but it didn't exactly look interesting. And the game didn't have a PC version, only Amiga, Atari ST, and C64, so the console versions are the only versions most Americans have any exposure to.

.

The Japanese Megadrive one turned out better then the genesis one, and the SMS one is pretty good...

but, the TG-CD one is better than the original Amiga one really! Larger sprites, better tunes (Nice studio remixes of the original tunes), and better controls!

Also the collision detection seems a tad better. The only thing the Amiga one has on it is the graphics are a bit more atmospheric. They had better be with the 4096 colors it has over the PCE's 512!

but yes both SotB and BoV are more than just punch n' run. You have to be careful, pay attention, think about what you're doing, and explore. It's pretty fun once you understand this.