Game of the Day 1/18/2016: Mystic Defender

[celerystalker]

An early Sega Genesis game, Mystic Defender, like its predecessor Spellcaster on Master System, is a license-stripped game originally based on the Peacock King manga/anime. It's an action platformer with big, arcade-y sprites, creepy enemies, and dark backgrounds, yet also manages to remain colorful and attractive. It maintains a solid pace in spite of the character's relatively slow movement, and you get a nice variety of attack spells to use that are situationally effective, so trying different attacks adds a puzzle-like element to getting through the levels.

Unlike Spellcaster, which used similar action scenes, but was also a genre mish-mash with RPG battles and graphic adventure segments mixed in (for a surprisingly intriguing experience), Mystic defender goes for more of a straight action route, not entirely unlike a Rastan or Magician Lord. However, there's a good amount of verticality to the stages, and as mentioned, the challenge to figure out the best magic in each situation. It seems to get mixed responses from people, but I'm rather a fan of this one.

Play it? Play Spellcaster? I feel like Mystic Defender is one of those games that a ton of people owned or played, but don't really talk about these days and isn't regarded as a classic.

[Alianger]

Pretty fun game, one of the first I bought myself as a kid. I like the 80s anime style, movement is pretty fast and the weapons are fun to use. I felt there could've been a bit more to it though, even as an action game. It starts repeating itself a lot after a few levels, and round 3 feels rushed. It's also a bit rough around the edges - It could've had better flow by letting you move and shoot or keep charging after taking a hit, and there are cheap trap and enemy placements here and there.
So I can see why it's not that popular, and if you compare it to the prequel, well, it would've been awesome to have another platform adventure/metroidvania on the MD as there aren't many.

[Tanooki]

I swear I owned this one before when I had the original Genesis like over a decade ago, and I did put it on my google drive list of Genesis games to look out for. I fired up a video of it, it looks very familiar, and I'm almost certain I had the SMS game from the series as well when I had that too. Looks fun and for a 1989 Genesis game the colors are good, details are nice and the audio doesn't hurt the ears either. I'll have to step up looking for it locally, try not to order online unless I need to (like yesterday I found Steel Empire.)

[Emperor Megas]

This is one of my all time favorite and most played games. I actually named my daughter 'Alexandra', after the Princess at the end, in fact. I have a friend who would play this game for YEARS at my house until be finally beat it. Literally years to beat this short ass 8 stage game. The forth stage (the lava cave) would always give him a hard time.

I believe there are two different local versions. The original one with a nude princess at the end, and a censored one with a robed princess.

Anyway, CLASSIC early Genesis release. In fact, I think it was the first Genesis game I purchased. Would you believe I paid $60 for it? 60 bucks for a game that can be beaten in like 20 minutes, in like 1989!

[FoxNtd]

This game is great. Relatively cheap, a bit challenging at first but solid overall. Good action title for Mega Drive. Had this one when I was young for years, then finally got the JP MD version with the superior art and all. The levels and bosses feel refreshingly different thanks to the combat system only offering magic for attacks without any melee weapons. Neat thing about this cart is that instead of locking out due to region, it would adapt itself due to region and run differently. In other words, it wouldn't matter if you play the US or JP cart; the version of the game that will run matches the version of the Mega Drive you're using. I wish that's how retro games were by default instead of locking out from playing!

[celerystalker]

This game is great. Relatively cheap, a bit challenging at first but solid overall. Good action title for Mega Drive. Had this one when I was young for years, then finally got the JP MD version with the superior art and all. The levels and bosses feel refreshingly different thanks to the combat system only offering magic for attacks without any melee weapons. Neat thing about this cart is that instead of locking out due to region, it would adapt itself due to region and run differently. In other words, it wouldn't matter if you play the US or JP cart; the version of the game that will run matches the version of the Mega Drive you're using. I wish that's how retro games were by default instead of locking out from playing!

I agree. I've found that most Neo Geo and 32X carts are the same way, booting up in the region of the console they're played on. A couple of PS3 games do as well; the most recent I've seen was the physical release of Strider. More games should do this.

[Emperor Megas]

I don't suggest anyone do it, but you can glitch some Genesis games into running the Megadrive version (on the original model Genesis) if you remove a cart while the system is running (which will lock up the system, obviously) and then insert another cart into the system while it's still powered on and resetting.

I used to do this back in the day after realizing it by accident. This was back before I even understood that there were regional differences in games. I'd caught wind of it after I got a different title screen and Japanese characters with a game I booted (I believe it was Thunder Force II) by resetting it after inserting it with the system already powered on and frozen from a removed Altered Beast cart.

[Edmond Dantes]

Mystic Defender, aka "Oh GOD why can't I get past level four?"

To be honest a part of me wants to read/watch Peacock King now (I remember seeing one of the anime OVAs but I can't remember what it was about), but one thing I often find about games like this is that the world they suggest through their necessary minimalism is often more interesting than the world you'd see in a fleshed out work of fiction. Like if I got an explanation for the techno-organic level with the faces coming out of metal walls I'm sure it would be a crappy explanation.

Also, those times when you find out that the dragon spell is one-use-only after every other spell had been practically infinite....

I finally beat this game in like 2001, and talk about a feeling of accomplishment...

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I enjoy this game, along with Valis, Shinobi, and Jewel Master, the other most similar games on the platform to Mystic Defender. Haven't beaten it yet but it's not bad by any means. It does have some parts, as everyone has said, that are difficult in a cheap sort of way, but many classic games did. I like the weapons a lot.

[Emperor Megas]

Mystic Defender, aka "Oh GOD why can't I get past level four?"

Ha! That was my buddy. Took him YEARS.

[Tanooki]

I got this game with Phelios yesterday at a show, I can't remember but I wasn't trying super hard, but is world four the one with all the bones and organics? I cleared it but I think I stopped on the next one.

[Emperor Megas]

I got this game with Phelios yesterday at a show, I can't remember but I wasn't trying super hard, but is world four the one with all the bones and organics? I cleared it but I think I stopped on the next one.

The machine rooms (3 and 6, I believe) are bio-mechanical Giger'esque levels, so you might mean level 3, but the lava cave, level 4, is organic as well. It's more 'fleshy', but not really 'boney'. It's the one that gives people the most trouble it seems.

[Dire 51]

How'd I miss this one? Mystic Defender has been one of my all-time favorite Genesis games since I first played it back in 1990. I liked it enough to buy both the US and Japanese versions.

Stage 4 is definitely the hardest stage in the game, but stage 7 can be a pain too, especially if you get lost in the maze.

[WCP]

If I had owned a Genesis back in the Fall of 1989, this would have been a cool game to own. I always loved the action platformers like this. Some of the levels are very visually striking considering it was like one of the first 15 or so Genesis games to be released. Certain levels of the game could pass for a 1993 level, which is pretty awesome considering most of the earliest Genesis stuff was kinda prehistoric for a wee bit there..

[Edmond Dantes]

It also just occured to me that this is yet another example of a licensed game that doesn't suck.

I mean yes, we all know this is based on Peacock King. But its very rare to see an anime-based game that isn't either A) complete crap or B) competently-made but otherwise a bland representative of its genre (Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle on the SNES being an example of the latter--its a pedestrian fighting game that's only fun because of its license). Mystic Defender here was being loved by people who had no idea of its source.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the manga in English, though the five episode anime OVA came out here once as Peacock King and later (on DVD) as Spirit Warrior. Not sure why they changed the title.