Hi everybody
it's Hooper.
Today we meet again on the
Saturn with Dark Savior.
It's an
RPG-adventure.
I don't feel like calling it 'RPG-adventure'.
In fact it's more like an adventure game.
Yes, an adventure game with
many puzzles and very little fighting.
It was developed
in '96 by Climax.
Climax was a big company, developing
lots of games for Sega back then.
Best known for Landstalker the amazing,
the enormous... The fabulous Landstalker on Genesis!
One of the best Genesis games!
I already reviewed it for you.
So I was expecting this game as much as
any other adventure games fan back then.
Dark Savior feels like a sequel: look at its
3D design, it really looks like Landstalker.
But this time, we have real 3D graphics!
No 'flat 3D textures' like in Landstalker.
Here we have real 3D graphics.
They kept the same 3D isometric
graphical engine as in Landstalker.
And for me, this was a bad idea;
they should have changed everything.
This game has big flaws with the handling,
the gameplay and some others I'll show you later.
For me this game, Dark Savior,
- let's leave no suspense - is a bad game.
Although it used to be a reputed game,
receiving strong ratings from the press,
and in theory, you ask any Saturn fan about this game,
he'll reply Dark Savior is a good Saturn game.
For me, we're not
far from a crappy game.
I was very unsatisfied by this game
at that time. For me it's unworthy...
- let's press "Start" -
It's unworthy to be Landstalker's sequel.
In fact, it's not a sequel. More a game apart.
- Let's go alreadyyyy! -
Normally, I wouldn't
have reviewed this game,
but since I'm in a Saturn mood, I said to myself:
"Why not make one more Saturn game review?"
Why not? But seriously,
it's not an amazing game.
I take a scenario I just began. As you can see,
I only passed 3 minutes on the game.
So here we
are on a boat.
We control a character named
Garian, I think... Yes, it's Garian.
He's a bounty hunter. In Landstalker, we controlled
a treasure hunter. Here, it's a bounty hunter.
- What a bad start.
Where do I go? -
So what are we doing on this boat? We captured
one of the big monsters that scare the 'planet'.
What's the name again?
Laran? I don't remember...
I don't know, Laran or Lavan? I can't
remember but it doesn't matter.
So we just caught a monster
and shut him away on this boat.
We are with other bounty hunters
because he's a tough monster!
NO! Here we go again!
What a bad start!
I had to reach the small gate,
but I fell down. Let's try again.
No, I shouldn't have jumped on this crate
as I must enter the gate down there.
Let's try to jump on
the other one...
- God, I made it! -
Now I wait to
reach the gate.
We have to escort this monster to
a prison island but he escaped.
He killed everyone on board. As of now, we
only know he's gone, nothing about the carnage.
We must reach the captain's cabin to ask about
the monster: where is he, how did he get out?
To know
what's happening.
You can see a timer on
the lower-right corner; 4:32.
It turns red when it passes over the 4:30.
Now I'll be doing the 'Parallel 1' scenario.
It's quite complex in fact. Depending on the time
spent on this part, i.e. when we're on the boat,
depending on the time
spent to reach the captain's cabin...
- yes, we can rotate the camera
with L and R! I'll show you later -
- I think it's over there... Well,
I'm burning myself but it's no big deal -
Depending on the time spent to reach the captain's
cabin, the rest of the game scenario will change!
There are 5 parallel
stories in total.
For example, if we finish between 3:30
and 4:00, we obtain a specific scenario,
if we finish it beyond
4:30, we obtain...
How do I do?
Yes, like this!
... we obtain a different scenario.
5 different scenarios in total.
I already have a sore thumb,
I'm not used to these games.
So I was explaining
about the scenarios...
- No, not this way...
Let's hurry up. -
I think I should reach
[the captain's cabin].
I'm playing rubbish!
I get hit too much.
I only have 30 HP left. Really nice!
At the start, I had 80 HP.
So there,
you just saw...
He's dying.
What does he say?
Yes, the game is in English.
It's not great [for French speakers].
I was so annoyed to see most of RPGs
on Saturn not translated into French!
Goddammit, this irritates me.
It's something that gets my back up!
Fortunately I understand English quite a bit,
but I prefer to play my games in French.
And dialogues are numerous in
the game! They're way too many.
That's why I didn't start recording
the game from the start.
Here, I get
the key of the cabin.
The items in the game are so rough.
For example, look how big the keys are.
This crow is used as a save point in
dungeons. We can only save with them.
So that's what they're used for.
Now what was I saying?
Yes, the game is only
in English. It's not great.
It irritates me because, as I said,
there are lots of dialogues.
It's hard to follow the plot if
you don't understand English well.
Especially when the
language is elevated.
Here we are
in the menu.
Well I'll explain later. I know what to take.
We take the key to enter the captain's cabin.
Now we are told that the monster...
BILAN, that was the name! Bilan!
The main villain of the game, Bilan,
already escaped and infected the captain.
Now I have to fight him, you'll see this game's
combat system. It's totally original for such a game.
It plays like this;
I can only move diagonally, up and down.
I can't move on the left or right and I only have
the same sword attack during the entire game.
I'll only have this basic attack.
Also I can run by pressing 'C'.
With 'B', I can jump. For example
to jump over the enemy.
Finally, if I maintain 'A' pressed,
I can load a fury bar.
Now it's 3/4 full.
Let's fill it.
There we go!
Let's use it now.
Nope, I failed.
He blocked my attack.
No problem, I do it again.
Let's wait for it...
Damn you!
Let me go.
I wait for it to be full...
Like this!
And one special attack.
It's the only one we get in the game.
In other words, all the fights
are that simple and easy.
We have 30 fights like this
during the journey.
The problem is that bosses have the same attacks.
It feels the same, we always do the same for each boss!
This combat system is just lame. They wanted
to imitate the 2D fighting games of that period.
For me, they didn't succeed.
It's not a success.
Sometimes we can capture the enemies. Not this one,
but I'll be able to capture some one. I'll show you.
The fights are based on
'two winning rounds' system.
I already won one round, you
can see a star beside my avatar.
If I manage to beat him a 2nd time, I win.
If he beats me once, there will be a final round.
As you can see,
it's no fun to play.
You must keep in mind that all the fights are alike.
The final boss can be beaten just like this one!
It's the same! We never
learn any new attack or spell!
It's unbelievable for an adventure game! We never
learn any magic spell, always fighting with a sword.
I can't agree,
I can't agree with that!
After each victory, we gain points.
In this game, there's no money.
We gain points that we can
use to restore our life...
As you can see, a... a...
Wait, it's quite buggy over there!
As you can see, a bird is following me.
The name is Jack and it can talk.
It's Garian's sidekick. Sometimes it helps us by
giving hints... Like in many other adventure games.
We see Bilan escaping to the Jailers Island.
At first, we don't get it. Why this island?
He goes away on the island where we
wanted to put him in jail; the Jailers Island!
It's an island populated
almost completely by bandits.
An island... More a
giant penitentiary.
Thus we are going on this island,
but I do a jump cut because it's quite long.
Afterwards, there are very
long dialogs too.
Let's jump cut,
we meet again afterwards.
So here we are. We just landed,
walking on the docks. The boat is moored.
So I already spoke to most of the NPCs to spare time.
Otherwise there'd be 5 additional mins of dialogs.
It's unbearable, like this pirate
that kept talking for 2 mins!
Anyway, let's continue our journey...
Take a look at that splendid bug.
Pretty,
pretty bug!
Let's enter
this bar.
So what... Gosh, I forgot
there was another dialog here!
So what are we doing
on this island?
Our objective during the entire game is to
recapture the monster escaped from the boat, Bilan.
We discover why the monster came back here; because
there are experiments made in laboratories.
A rebellion of prisoners is occurring, with
different clans of prisoners. Basic stuff for a RPG.
I speak with Dunbar...
I think I'll have to fight him soon.
Like that, I'll be able to
show you another fight.
Now I have to ask the barman
for a drink. It's just script after script!
We must follow that strict line. We can be
stuck if we don't act like the game wants us to do.
Meanwhile, Jack was outside
and detected... Yes, that's it:
*Reading the text*
He detected Bilan!
*Reading*
Yes my English
accent is excellent!
*Reading*
Yes, we should
go outside.
But we can't do this because of this
'kind' pink pig blocking the door.
*Some more reading*
So you don't want
to let us pass?
Why doesn't he want to? Yes, because
he doesn't like us; we're bounty hunter.
It's normal about him. On this island, there
are only brigands and bandits.
So what is
he saying?
Yes he wants me to kneel in front
of him to pass. So let's kneel down.
He should let
me pass now...
Yes he does!
Now we can
move on.
Bilan is in the body of this
blue lizard, the name's Drizzit.
Drizzit is one of the main
characters of the game.
Bilan has the ability to snatch the
bodies and he just snatched Drizzit's body.
So we can't enter the prison yet,
we can't get through that door now.
The guard is not
letting us pass.
I have no other choice but to talk. These dialogs
are boring; and yet I didn't record them all!
So here we should
be fighting Dunbar!
- John J. Dunbar. No, that one is
in the movie 'Dances with Wolves' -
So I was disappointed by this game.
In terms of music it's decent,
there are some good tracks,
but not enough, Goddammit!
I've finished the game, there
must be 20 music tracks in the game!
Among the 20 music tracks, only 3-4 are worth
listening to, like the theme of Kay. That's all!
- Let's get
ready to fight -
Only 20
music tracks?!?
Compare this with some RPGs on SNES
with 50, 60 or even 70 tracks! Good Lord!
We're on Saturn with a CD support and they only
incorporated 20 music tracks and these graphics?
Look at this: you can't make more
pixelisated than that! It's awful.
Even I, a nostalgic fond of oldies, I prefer
100 times the level design of Landstalker!
It's way more appealing!
THIS is ugly!
And yet! This city is one of the prettiest
locations in the game. The rest is way uglier!
And there
are bugs!
Quite often, a wall obstructs the view to a character.
So we must use the badly designed camera system.
My God, my
God, my God!
Yes, the 1st
round is for me!
But I've only 13 HP left, I think he'll win
the 2nd round. We don't recover in between.
He's going to beat me!
Ouch... Yes I'm out!
Let's go for
a 3rd round.
In terms of lifespan, the game gets by OK
as there are different scenarios. Otherwise...
For example the 'Parallel 1' scenario, the longest
in the game, is over after 6-8 hours.
It's short...
Really short.
For an adventure game, it's short.
Of course we can argue...
When will you die? Let's fill the fury bar,
he's beginning to bore me!
Dang!
Yes, you must know
that each character has...
Of course he hits me when I try
to use my special attack, as usual!
What a lame
combat system. It's lame!
The developer behind this was
not very clever. He wasn't Einstein.
Holy cow!
Realize that you'll be doing this
the entire game... Against each enemy!
Crap!
I could capture him, but
I wasn't paying attention.
Now I should
succeed...
Yes! Thus my fury bar must
be full and I can capture him.
From now on, I will be
able to use this enemy.
I'll be able to control him in place of Garian,
which has no use as the statistics are similar.
Some characters may have more HPs,
but globally it's the same thing.
Whether you take a prisoner
or Garian, the fights look alike.
I stand on this guy,
but it's alright.
I just got the key so
I can open this door.
I haven't shown you the menu yet... It's very
basic and we hardly ever open it.
Look at the bottom-right corner, I mentioned
the fight points. As of now I have 231 pts.
These points serve
to recover HPs.
For example, Jack, the blue bird that
follows us, can bring us 50 HPs for 20 pts.
For 500 pts, we can increase
our Max HP by 10 units.
Given that in the game,
we'll never have more than 1,500 pts,
counting the pts we'll have to use,
we'll never collect more than 110 HPs.
Except if we take another save file
to follow another parallel scenario.
Once again, they
are the big point!
The parallel scenarios, it's the big point of the
game. It lets us discover the whole game universe.
The enemies change between parallels, etc.
But these good aspects are so rare!
Let's come back to the camera. We can control it
like this and even zoom out at the max!
But it becomes unplayable...
The frame rate is KO.
First, the game is already buggy,
but here with this frame rate?!?
We should be at
something like... 4 or 5 FPS!
Moreover, there are bugs!
I'll show you later.
Now time for a transitional scene,
we're in the castle as you saw.
Here we have the most powerful being of
the game. Or at least the guardian of the island.
Warden Kurtygene or Kurtliegen...
I don't remember exactly.
So he's on the right and
on the left it's the doc!
So we're in the laboratory where some experiments
took place. But I won't say much more.
I think you all know what will happen. I mean
an experience, a monster... It's obvious.
It is not hard
to deduce!
Yes, let's skip
the dialogs...
Here they're explaining that Drizzit
has planed a rebellion,
the security guy finds it strange because Drizzit
has always acted good. What's happening? BLAH...
Yeah,
OK, OK.
Also, there is no side quests!
We must [follow a strict line].
Look in the distant background when
I'm zooming out; it's quite bad.
Moreover, look how
laggy it is! It's unplayable.
It's very very
very much lagging.
We have to leave here,
time is running out.
Now look what happens when I fall
into the water, it's worth seeing.
So I fall
into this pit.
So I come back to my last save point and the bird
following me [Jack] takes 20 of my game points.
Let's stop here. Dark Savior was,
for me, a major disappointment.
Really! I've played a lot of Action-RPGs in my life
and this one is one of the worst!
Counting all the forty-ish games
I've played, it's among the last 5!
We leave here. I say
until next time and bye bye.
