Ok, fuck this game I give up. I managed to find every item except for 1 life capsule, and got to the third(final?) form of the last boss. This has to be the most ridiculously unfair boss battle I've ever played. Luckily, I'm a little doped up on Percs or my controller would be in pieces.
This game's difficulty is so wildly inconsistent it's like it was made by 2 different development teams. Some levels are a breeze once you get more crest powers. Some are straight cheap with respawning ghosts, bats, and other annoying things appearing right on top of you. Don't get me started on those levels where you have to keep torches lit in order to see and keep the bats off your ass...
The same with the boss battles. Some have easily discernible patterns. Most of them attack randomly, take a thousand hits to defeat, and just seem like a game of luck while spamming ginseng potions. It is easy to exploit the monetary system in the game by just returning to the same area over and over and collecting coins. That is poor game design, in my opinion. I was ready to give up on that goddamn eyeball boss. By sheer luck I managed to use a mostly useless scroll(imp) and let him do the dirty work for me.
I didn't have any issues with the mode7 map thing. It's a relatively small overworld that loops around itself. Pressing start brings up a top-down view of the entire map and even shows you which direction you're facing. It kinda points you in which levels you should be doing in order by numbering them, thankfully. There is alot of backtracking to find new areas once you gain more abilities.
So close... At times I was having fun with the game, but mostly I was cursing at it. I don't like it and will never, ever touch it again. Twitch masochists who like their games frustrating and challenging will dig it. The same kind of people who enjoy dying over and over again in Ghouls and Ghosts games. I'm not one of them.
It's a shame. The graphics and spritework are fantastic. The music fits the mood with a nice orchestral score. There are nice gameplay ideas in place. And it is really nifty to play as the anti-hero, something of a rarity back then. But ultimately, it's too goddamn hard for it's own good. Call me a pussy, I can only take so much frustration from a game I should be enjoying. Next....
