Talk about missing the boat.
Really, I can't think of any other idiom or phrase that does better to encapsulate how I feel about the TurboGrafx-16, which for most of my youth I was apt to stupidly disregard. "It's a low-value also-ran with at most two or three worthwhile titles," I'd immediately think to myself whenever I'd see its name in print.
That's how it was until I entered my enlightenment phase--until I became the person who earnestly sought to learn about the TG-16's true scope of influence and explore its genuinely stacked game-library.
Ever since then, all I've been able to think about is how much of a tragedy it is that a system of its caliber was unable to find an audience outside of Japan.
Oh, if only we'd known in 1989 what we know now.
If only I had known.
Realistically, though, there was no way that I could have. There were simply too many barriers standing in between the TG-16 and I--too many mental obstructions as implanted in my mind by NEC USA's horribly misrepresentative localization and marketing strategy. Judging from what I was seeing in my daily media, there was nothing to convince me that the TG-16 was an attractive system. The bizarrely rendered, almost-surreal magazine ads seemed to be more focused on promoting the marketing executives' "clever" slogans and oddball brand of humor. The TV commercials were lame and uninformative, the worst of them typically featuring "totally rad dudes" who would explain to me how "cool and awesome" the system's graphics were while barely-decipherable snippets of in-game action would intermittently flash onscreen. And the games, few as they were, just didn't look all that interesting; furthermore, not a single one was so graphically "advanced," as the advertising claimed, that I could seriously think to rank it above any of the best-looking Genesis games.
The entire marketing campaign reeked of desperation. It was like watching a friend's 45-year-old dad hop into a pair of parachute pants and rap about how in touch he is with "youth culture."
By 1991, the TurboGrafx-16 was a lost cause. There was no logical reason for me to purchase one when I already owned an SNES and had ready access to the Genesis via my friend Dominick. Nintendo and Sega's 16-bit machines more than had me covered. As far as I was concerned, NEC's was completely irrelevant. I mean, how else could I feel? I didn't know of a single TG-16 owner. None of my friends ever talked about the system. And I couldn't remember ever seeing one in stores. It was almost as if the TG-16 didn't exist in physical reality.
It was a 16-bit console, it had a funky design, and it played host to superior versions of the Bonk titles. That's all I knew about the TurboGrafx-16. Really, that's all I wanted to know; I was so cold on the system that I never felt compelled to read up on its history. There was no reason to, I thought, since presumably it had made no measurable impact. The way I saw it, the TG-16 was a complete failure of a video-game console, and it was so lacking for original, must-play games that it probably wasn't even worth emulating.
That's how I felt until 1999, when fate led me to NEC's 16-bit machine, which I'd woefully misjudged. That was my conclusion after playing Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, whose awe-inspiring quality spoke of a system that had far more potential than I ever could have imagined. I was so taken with the TG-16's ability to render such a visually stunning, technologically impressive game that I had to know more about what this platform was and how it came to be. So I spent many hours in following hitting up the enthusiast sites and learning about the TG-16's history as well as its true nature. What I found was that NEC's wasn't a lame, second-rate nonstarter, as I'd presumed, but instead a very serious competitor; it was, in actuality, the "PC-Engine," an amazingly versatile, top-shelf wonderbox that had found great success in Japan following its 1987 release.
And that seemed incredible to me. It was crazy to think that the PC-Engine was playing host to arcade-quality games as far back as 1987 while in 1990 we, as Westerners, were under the impression that Super Mario Bros. 3, Double Dragon II: The Revenge and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse were the most graphically intensive games consoles had ever produced. But there it was, way back then, giving consumers access to technologically advanced games like The Kung Fu, Fighting Street (the original Street Fighter) and Space Harrier.
Though, as was in character for me at the time, I wasn't quite ready to immerse myself in the scene (quite simply, I wasn't as passionate as I am now nor did I possess the same level of inquisitiveness; I had yet to fully shed those lingering unadventurous traits). Beyond Rondo, my PC-Engine experience was limited to sampling a few games on the Magic Engine emulator. And even then I chose to play it safe, any of those selected either a franchise game (New Adventure Island) or a multiplatform release (the Bonk and Bomberman titles).
It wasn't until recent years--specifically until my favorite Twitch personalities really started to emphasize PC-Engine games--that I felt inspired to jump in--get fully on-board and experience the system's magic for myself. I've been having a great time with it ever since. It truly is a top-tier gaming console. I can't reiterate enough how much of a shame it is that we missed it.
All I can do is shake my head when I see people say, "Well, the PC-Engine is purported to be a 16-bit system, but, really, it's nothing more than a souped-up 8-bit system!"). Whatever, man. Sometimes the specifications fail to tell us the whole story.
What we can say for certain is that PC-Engine games have a wonderfully distinct glow to them. They're rendered in such a way that they somehow feel like 8- and 16-bit games simultaneously; they capture two separate essences and combine them to forge an aesthetic that is familiar-feeling, yes, but at the same time unmistakably unique. It's truly something special.
Also, the PC-Engine is home to a lot of great-looking original games, many of which I plan to play and subsequently talk about here. I want to start with Neutopia, which I've recently played to completion. It was a long time in coming. Too long, I'd say. I'd had my eye on the game since 2015, when I watched Youtuber Brisulph play through it. Finally I was able to get around to it--and at a good time, too; it was right at the start of spring, which as a trusted Steam friend correctly stated is when PC-Engine games are best experienced--when the atmosphere is such that their nostalgically drenched emanations are able to combine with and texture the revitalizing spring air and do so in a way that causes you to become filled with feelings of bliss as you play. It's when their fruits taste the sweetest.
Now, sure--Neutopia barely qualifies as an "original" title. In truth, it's a rather shameless Zelda clone. "But so what?" I say. Nintendo and Hudson Soft were always on friendly terms, even when their respective consoles were competing in the market. I'm sure that there was no malice intended; it was simply a matter of Hudson's developers being so filled with affection for one of gaming's all-time greatest works that they simply had to pay it homage with their own loving interpretation. They sought to rekindle its flame--take what was growing old and make it feel new again.
That, to me, was the appeal of Neutopia: It was offering me the chance to experience The Legend of Zelda again for the first time, albeit in a slightly altered form. I mean, that's the type of opportunity I dream about. There was no way I was going to pass it up.
"So was it actually able to meet that expectation?" you ask. "Was it just like playing The Legend of Zelda for the first time?!"
Well, let me tell you what it's like.
Be warned that I'm going to be analyzing Neutopia almost entirely through the lens of The Legend of Zelda, whose influence looms ever-large. This, I feel, is the natural course to take, since Neutopia's near-1-to-1 replication of Zelda's core elements makes it impossible to treat it as a standalone product. The connections simply can't be ignored.
Its story, for instance, is basically Zelda's with some different names swapped in: It takes place in the peaceful and prosperous land of Neutopia, wherein people express their virtue by worshiping at the Sacred Shrine. At least, that's how life was until one fateful night, when, as the townspeople slept, the evil demon Dirth (our Ganon analog) descended upon Neutopia and kidnapped its blessed Princess Aurora (Zelda) and stole eight precious medallions, whose collective represents the spirit of Neutopia's beloved forefathers--specifically their "wisdom, power and virtue" (sound familiar?); their essence is said to live on inside each and every person. Dirth, we're told, was their archenemy; he used his dark power to cast them into stone, thus eliminating what was a major obstacle to his plan for world domination. The only other being capable of unleashing the "forces of goodness" was the princess, and now she's gone, too.
Their options limited, the elders pin their hopes on a young man Jazeta, who they task with retrieving the medallions and rescuing the princess. They provide him direction by informing him that Dirth has hidden the medallions in eight separate labyrinths (of course). Heeding their words, he ventures out into the greater Neutopia with the intent of discovering the locations of these unholy crypts.
Neutopia's map structure and mode of travel are very similar to Zelda's: You move from screen to screen on what's essentially a grid. Though, Neutopia's isn't a single, continuous world; it's instead segmented into four separate, self-contained areas, each of which consists of a varying number of screens. Successive areas are unlocked as you recover pairs of medallions. And this represents the most pronounced difference between the two games: Neutopia has a much more structured feel to it. You explore a given area until you've relieved it of its every valuable and then move on to the next. Really, the game provides little impetus to return to previously explored areas.
All the same, the hero can only travel about a screen on its x- and y-axes, which is to say that he can't move diagonally (he is able, however, to fire his lone projectile in all eight directions). That hero is Jazeta, our Link substitute. He's a rather generic-looking anime-style protagonist, his unremarkably rendered garb exhibiting none of the character of Link's green attire--that iconic, image-defining tunic and pointy-hat combo. He begins his adventure with base-level sword, armor and shield items, all of which will see a number of incremental upgrades as the game progresses. As in Zelda, swords strike at enemies that stand directly in front on him, and shields blocks certain types of projectiles when he's standing still; armor determines the current damage quotient.
Discovering an area's secrets is a matter of manipulating its environments in expected ways: pushing blocks, burning away bushes and other objects, and bombing through walls. Though, Neutopia alters the formula a bit by extending the normally labyrinth-exclusive kill-all-of-a-room's-enemies-to-trigger-an-event mechanic out into the overworld, which works to create an exponential increase in the number of possible secret-harboring locations.
The adventure's starting point is the Sacred Shrine, which functions as a hub wherein you can heal, save your game, and obtain a password (which I guess is useful if you're the type who becomes so emotionally attached to your save files that you can't bring yourself to delete them). Also, the shrine provides access to the game's three successive areas and even the final boss' crypt. You'll locate similar save points later on, though the keepers of such lack the ability to heal. If at any time you die, you'll be transported back to the last save point you accessed. You'll restart from there with 30% of your health meter filled, which you may or may not find to be inadequate depending upon where you are in the game. What's always of concern is the resulting hit to your wallet; death will cost you about 43% of your current money-total, which is a hefty amount in this, a game where you'll need to hold onto every bit of cash if you hope to afford its exorbitantly expensive items. The best solution: Don't die.
Easy, right?
You can access the inventory screen by pressing the Run button. It's of course very similar to Zelda's in terms of design and organization. The weapon section, found on the screen's left half, is split into two categories: selectable items and items whose effect is automatic. The screen's right half displays maps but only those of labyrinths (there are no overworld maps); displayed above and to the right are the labyrinth items currently in your possession (the Key, which opens the door to the boss' chamber, and the Crystal, which provides you the map). To the right of those is the Compass, which you receive from Sacred Shrine's priestess (an "old and wise woman") before you set off; whether you're exploring the overworld or a labyrinth, it points you toward the next logical destination; also, it emits an alerting tone whenever you're on a screen adjacent to the place you currently need to be (but only when you're on the inventory screen).
Along the way, you'll locate a number of bomb and potion shops whose goods vary in price depending upon where you are in the game. You can purchase these items using the money you've accrued during your enemy-slaying and secret-finding exploits. Bomb shops sell Boom Bombs, whose explosive blasts damage enemies and destroy certain walls (though, strangely, the explosions don't harm Jazeta); you can carry up to eight of them at the start. Potion shops sell potions that completely replenish your health meter. You can buy two of them at a time; for the purpose of saving inventory space, they stack (like in Zelda), the liquid's color changing to reflect the number of potions currently in your possession (green for one, red for two).
Vanquished enemies will sometimes leave behind money or other helpful items. Mostly they'll drop coins, which come in two forms: the silver coins are worth $10 apiece, and the gold ones $50. Other potential drops include Berries, which restore a single unit of health; a Sandglass, which temporarily freezes all onscreen enemies (think of it as a less-useful variant of Zelda's stopwatch); a Boom Bomb icon, which supplies you four such explosives; and the one-use Wing of Return, which when activated will instantly transport you back to your last save point.
Once we exit the Sacred Shrine, we'll be in the wilds of the Land Sphere, the game's first area. The Land Sphere is a naturally formed environment, its grassy fields divided by the surrounding woodland and stony outgrowths. It has the features of an island, the Land Sphere and its isolated masses fully encompassed by the sea. As do the game's other three areas, it measures in at 64 screens (8x8).
Neutopia is definitely an aesthetically pleasing game. Immediately it projects a certain aura; as I gauge its environments and absorb its vibe, I find that I'm filled with feelings of joy and wonderment. Tonally it's more vibrant and radiant than Zelda, but not so much that it forfeits the ability to portray a cursed world; it's lush and lively, yes, but tempered with a tertiary color-scheme whose shading imbues the game's landscapes with underlying feelings of desperation and despair. There's a lot of emotional resonance here.
Otherwise, the characters and environments are well-drawn and well-animated. Objects are given solid form and shape via some skillfully applied shading. And the implementing of separate planes--some decoratory and others fully explorable--works to the desired effect and provides the game's spaces a real sense of depth; this style of layering evokes images of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and gives us an idea of what a top-down Zelda sequel might have looked like had it came out near the end of the NES' life-cycle, when the console's technology had reached its zenith. It would have made for such a great intermediate step.
The main difference is that you can't hop down to a lower plane. No--moving between planes is a matter of climbing up and down ladders that connect them.
It's the little details that help the environments to develop their character. Here, in the Land Sphere, it's the molehills, stone carvings, and little ponds that provide them some important texture. There's always something interesting to look at. Neutopia, you'll notice, never wants you to feel as though it's flat or sterile.
The Land Sphere's musical theme has a heroic vibe to it. Its busy, complex bass arrangements work hard to invigorate you--to fill you with energy and keep your spirits high. It's not as powerful a piece as Zelda's main theme, which has an almost-mystical quality to it, but its nonetheless intoxicating, its energy such that it succeeds in keeping you immersed and engaged. Also, its uplifting nature contributes to the formation of the game's charming vibe; when I listen to it, I think, "Man--it's good to be able to play video games!"
When it comes to enemy design, Neutopia sticks closely to the script. Its minor enemies are grouped into very predictable classes, and they behave exactly as you'd expect: They move about aimlessly and randomly toss/fire their projectiles (if they're armed with such). The game attempts to distract you from its plagiaristic ways by constantly introducing new variants of these enemies, each with a distinguishing quirk, even if minor. To best communicate how these enemies function, I'm going to be listing them in accordance with Zelda's established enemy classes (the manual names only 16 of them, so the majority of the identifying labels will be purely descriptive; also, the manual's images are so vaguely rendered that I might not be able to match them up, my only option, again, to rely mainly on descriptive labeling).
As for what you'll encounter in the Land Sphere:
- Octorok types: Slimes and Scorpions.
- Moblin types: spear-throwing Mad Dogs.
- Peahat types: Sojo Flies.
- Zora types: Sea Balloons.
- Tektite types: Froggers.
- Leever types: Sandies.
- Armos types: Blue Fighters and Lizard Knights.
As you engage these enemies, it'll quickly become apparent that Neutopia has some very troubling hit-detection issues. They're especially jarring if you've been weaned on Zelda. The first is an issue of the sword's seemingly indeterminable range: In Zelda, the sword's hitbox is equal in size to Link (12x16 pixels), which works to create a visual frame of reference for what its attack-range is; Jazeta's sprite is 66% larger in height, yet his sword's sprite is approximately the same size as Link's, which means that it provides cover only to his lower half. This leads to many instances where you attempt to strike an enemy that's observably right in front of you but miss because it was more directly in line with Jazeta's upper body; the result of this miscalculation will likely be the enemy colliding with his or chest and knocking him back.
Also, Jazeta's hitbox extends beyond his observable frame by about 10%, in all directions. So there will be times when you collide with an enemy even though it appeared that the two of you were several pixels apart. This can become a major issue when you're dealing with enemies who like to approach Jazeta from weird angles. You'll have to remember what game you're playing--make sure that ol' Zelda muscle memory doesn't take over whenever your attention lapses. Failure to do so can result in a quick demise.
The developers knew that the sword's range was inefficient, which is why their game so relentlessly pushes you in the direction of your first major selectable item: the Fire Rod, your one and only long-range option. It allows Jazeta to fire boomerang-like fireballs--two in succession and with the ability to fire them in alternate directions. It functions similarly to Zelda's candle items in that it can burn away bushes (or other similarly purposed objects) to reveal secret stairways. In a game where it's a constant struggle to get a feel for the main weapon's hitbox, an item with its range, usability and effectiveness proves invaluable. It's sure to replace the sword as your main weapon the moment you obtain it. What's even better is that its destructibility and damage-potential increase as your health meter extends; in time it'll become an instrument of mass destruction! (Note that Jazeta is immune to the rod's flames, so you don't have to worry about accidentally engulfing yourself in the fiery spew as you go about torching the place.)
The Land Sphere's other major item is the Book of Revival, which we receive almost immediately after leaving the Sacred Shrine. It's bestowed upon us by an old man who serves as our "It's dangerous to go alone!" analog. Otherwise, you'll want to do some bush-burning near the map's top-right portion; there you'll find an old man who will boost your vitality--add one extra unit to your health meter (these old chaps are basically our "Take any one you want" analogs).
In fact, many screens hold secrets, so you should make liberal use of the Fire Rod. Also, during any first visit to a screen, you should make sure to kill all of the enemies lurking about its space. There's a chance that doing so will reveal a hidden staircase. The uncovered secret place will always be someone's abode. The reclusive inhabitants found within these residences will help you in different ways; they're known to give you advice, heal your wounds, supply you some extra funds, or increase your health or item capacity. Abandoned domiciles are usually home to juicier rewards like free potions and weapon upgrades.
The point is that you should burn everything in sight. Go nuts, I say.
Neutopia's labyrinths are directly in the style of Zelda's dungeons. They're structured similarly, and they incorporate all of the same mechanics. Though, Neutopia's lack any kind of real distinguishing characteristics; whereas each Zelda dungeon features a starkly distinctive palette-scheme, Neutopia's come in slightly brighter or lighter shades; if I were playing a hack wherein the the labyrinths were switched around, I probably wouldn't even notice the change. The labyrinth theme is melancholy in tone, its resonance inviting reflection and a merely cautious approach to traversal, whereas Zelda's is a haunting, uneasy tune that does well to keep you feeling on edge--as if even empty rooms are filled with unseen dangers. It's a fine piece, but again--it just doesn't have the same power as its inspiration's.
Navigation works the same way: You traverse through rooms that are filled with enemies and other dangers. Sometimes you'll have to clear a room of enemies before a door will open or before a secret stairway will appear; other times you'll have defeat all of the enemies and then push a block to open the way forward. Along the way you'll find a crystal, which acts as a map, and the key that'll allow you to unlock the door leading the boss' chamber (it's basically the Big Key from A Link to the Past). The first couple of labyrinths are simple as straightforward, as you'd expect.
Labyrinths of course feature exclusive enemy types, all of which are very reminiscent of those you remember from Zelda. Here's how Labyrinth 1's enemies fit into the established classes:
Each labyrinth contains a major item. Here, in Labyrinth 1, it's the Bronze Armor, which will be of great use to you in the following area.
Our boss is a large-but-slow-moving dragon (I mean, a Zelda-style game's gotta have a dragon as its first dungeon boss; it's tradition!). As it stalks Jazeta, it spews four fireballs in succession, each traveling toward his current position. Though, they're pretty easy to dodge. Also, the dragon isn't a terribly threatening foe; all you have to do is crowd it into a corner and continue to string together sword-strikes or Flame Rod blasts, backing off regularly in anticipation of his next fireball spew. After finishing him off, you'll retrieve the first medallion; thereafter you'll be transported back to the Sacred Shrine, where the old woman will reward you further by increasing your health meter by one unit.
Labyrinths located in the same area contain identical enemy casts, so Labyrinth 2 has nothing new for us on that front (save for more-troublesome enemy groupings). However, it does introduce one of the most obnoxious traps in adventure-game history: inconspicuous-looking blocks that suddenly stab at you as you approach them. Each of a stabbing block's four sides thrusts a blade, so they can get you from any direction. And since it's never clear which ones are rigged, you have to put to use your years of gaming knowledge and cleverly guess as to where a mischievous level designer would likely place such a block. In rooms that are filled with blocks, it's best to move about cautiously; if you suspect that a block is rigged, approach it slowly, bait out the blades, and then zip by when the blades retract. If only I'd take my own advice, I wouldn't be walking into these things constantly. I really do despise them.
Labyrinth 2 also introduces wall-bombing as a means of advancement. It's required that you do: You can't reach the boss without bombing your way through a certain wall on the Labyrinth's left side. On the way there, you might want to grab the Bronze Sword, the Labyrinth's major prize; no bombing is required to access the room where it's being guarded.
The boss is a metallic golem. It lumbers about for a couple of seconds and then suddenly breaks apart into eight pieces, seven of which blast off the screen in a spreadshot. What remains is its core--a red orb--which is the only part of the Golem that is susceptible to strikes. You have about two seconds to get in as many shots as you can before the Golem reconstitutes. If you obtained the Bronze Sword, it shouldn't take too long to kill Golem. Do so and retrieve the second medallion.
When the Land Sphere's two medallions are placed into the carved niches on the Sacred Shrine's left side, a magical transport to the next area will appear within the space between them.
That transport is a stairway that brings us to the Subterranean Sphere, which I'd describe as a crystal mine whose magma-carved terrain rests above an encompassing pool of lava. Sprouting crystal shards form its natural obstacles. This area is split into two halves, its northern cliff the only bridge between them; each side is home to a labyrinth. Here you'll be met by faster and more-aggressive enemies, all of which inflict greater damage (so finding armor upgrades is an imperative).
The area's musical theme is gloomy in tone, its slow tempo and melancholic strains conspiring to evoke feelings of despondency. Though, the piece also has a tinge of mystery to it--an underlying vibe that piques your curious spirit and drives you to press forward. The composer, Tomostune Maeno, shows the he knows how to touch your soul. All of his compositions exhibit this quality; each has the ability to paint a mental picture--to evoke certain emotions. He did some pretty stellar work here.
The enemy roundup goes something like this:
There are two major items hidden here: The first is a jar of Moonbeam Moss whose contained substance has the power to illuminate dark rooms both in the overworld and in labyrinths (so you can stop wondering why the Fire Rod is lacking for what you would think is an essential feature of Zelda-candle imitation). The other item is the Rainbow Drop, an automatically laid bridge that is functionally identical to Zelda's ladder; you can use it to cross over one-block gaps and water tiles. You won't be able to advance through Labyrinth 4 without it.
Concealed within the area's lower-left corner is the abode of an old man who will increase your bomb capacity by four. This is the first of three such upgrades (take that, Zelda, with your "two").
Helpful tip: If ever a fireball-spamming Zora-type enemy is seriously hampering your ability to deal with a screen's collection of grounded baddies, kill one of the latter and then exit and reenter the screen. For reasons I'm too computer illiterate to explain, the game will have replaced the Zora-type enemy with another land-type.
Also, I have to mention one of the game's more annoying quirks: The Fire Rod's flames can't penetrate dropped items, whose presence limits your ability to engage with the enemies surrounding them. If currently an enemy and, say, a coin are overlapping, the latter will shield the enemy from incoming flames and leave a prone Jazeta open to contact-damage.
Another issue is that it soon becomes difficult to locate bomb and potion shops. When almost every screen is hiding a secret staircase, it lowers your chances of remembering which of those in particular contain the item shops. Neutopia, I'd say, is a little too populous; there doesn't need to be that many people. Also, it's normal that the process of accessing these shops entails the use of bombs, which in some places are rarely dropped. Eventually it reaches a point where it becomes easier and more convenient to travel back to the Land Sphere, whose shops are within close proximity to the area's starting point; moreover, it's worth taking this measure because the game's earlier shops sell bombs and potions at a much cheaper price.
Oh, and there's ringing. Lots of it. You know what I'm talkin' about: When your health gets really low, the game signals this to you by emitting an unending alarm sound, which turns out to be as grating as Zelda's incessant beeping. Its harshness is such that you'll want to transport back to the Sacred Shrine, even if doing so is a major inconvenience, just to make the ringing stop.
Labyrinth 3 introduces pitch-black rooms whose darkness conceals their obstructive elements; we can illuminate them with our Moonbeam Moss.
And your enemy classification:
Defeat the winged duo to retrieve the third medallion.
You won't be able to advance past Labyrinth 4's first room if you don't possess the Rainbow Drop. Really, the whole of Labyrinth 4 requires heavy use of this item. You can also employ clever use of it to gain a tactical advantage over enemies; as was possible in Zelda, you can use the bridge to position yourself on top of normally untraversable tiles and cheaply pick off the enemies, who are of course unable to enter those spaces.
Labyrinth 4 introduces two new dangers: (1) Snake-like chains that gravitate toward you, their bodies stretching and twisting about as they attempt to crash into you; though, they're bolted in place, so their attack range is limited. And (2) specially marked tiles that when traveled upon trigger the room's arrow-firing devices, all of which are resting behind the visible embrasures.
Our major prize, this time, is the Steel Armor.
The labyrinth's boss is a pincered centipede. Its mode of attack is to stalk you and ultimately use its large frame to corner you and chain together several hits. Its only weak point is its tail, approaching which is a matter of creating space and cycling around the centipede when the opening appears. Striking any of its individual sections will cause it to temporarily break off and fly back; while this doesn't deter the centipede, the disconnected section will be effectively diverted, its focus now limited to returning to the host; doing this gives you easier access to the tail. Though, honestly, this fight isn't particularly well designed; you can just as easily crowd the centipede into a wall or corner and spam sword-strikes until it's dead.
Once the centipede is eliminated, the fourth medallion will be yours.
Now that you've retrieved both of the Subterranean Sphere's medallions, you can place them in the Sacred Shrine's rightmost carved niches and open the way to the next area.
The next transport takes us to the Sea Sphere, a seaside sanctuary around which water is constantly streaming. Stony pillars divide its traversable spaces. Less obtrusive are the ceremonial totems whose presence is meant to suggest to us that this is a place of spirituality (the denizens confirm as much when you speak to them). Its labyrinths stand in the area's upper- and lower-left corners.
The Sea Sphere's spirited, uptempo musical theme has a heroic vibe to it. Its resonance works to fill you with determination at a time when the level of danger has spiked considerably. It wants you to think, "The enemies are tougher and more aggressive than ever, yes, but I'm up for the challenge!"
Here's what you'll be dealing with:
Otherwise, you can pick up the second bomb-capacity upgrade in the area's upper-right portion. The old man's domain rests beneath the screen's lone pillar.
Here, at the game's mid-point, the enemies grow stingier than ever; they'll very rarely drop useful items like bombs or berries. So you might have no choice but to rely on the commercially driven bomb and potion salesmen--that's if you have enough money and can remember where their abodes are hidden. Commit their locations to memory if you can; otherwise, you'll give rise to a scenario wherein you'll to have to search everywhere to find them--check under every object and bomb every cave wall and in the process frustrate yourself and exhaust your bomb supply. This isn't even to mention the fact that you get locked into an unnecessarily long three-second entry animation every time you enter someone's abode, which after twenty or so empty visits starts to test the limits of your patience.
Labyrinth 5 is fairly straightforward, all of its important items placed in rooms that are found while traveling along an obvious path. The only mystery is its boss location, finding which entails some required wall-bombing.
We'll meet resistance from the following:
Our boss is a giant horned crab. It slowly moves back and forth along the screen's top portion and charges down toward you when you pass directly beneath it--but only if you're not in motion along a horizontal axis at the time. It'll pause intermittently to spew three bubbles in succession; occasionally some of them will adhere to the surface, forming damaging obstacles. The crab is impervious to attack until it spews these bubbles, at which point its now-open mouth becomes vulnerable to attack. It can be a long, protracted fight if you don't how to approach it. What's aggravating about it is that the crab's weak point is so centered that it proves exceedingly difficult to land a strike on it without bumping into its extended, buffering outer frame. Having a pair of potions in your inventory becomes a must.
Declaw the beast to retrieve another medallion.
Labyrinth 6 is considerably large, and its rooms are packed with nasty combinations of the aforementioned ghost- and wizard-type enemies. Some rooms are so crowded that it's impossible not to take hits as you desperately shift about in an attempt to dodge the near-inescapable enemy fire. The Wizzrobe clones, in particular, will become the bane of your existence; they hit so hard and take up so much space that you'll be overcome with a sense of dread whenever you enter a room and see even one of them lurking about. Obtaining the labyrinth's major item, the Strongest Armor, might help to reduce the pain, though only by a little.
The labyrinth's boss is a large three-headed turtle skeleton. The victory condition is the destruction of its three bony heads. Whenever you strike one of the heads, it'll break off from the turtle's body and rebound about the room for a couple of seconds, Gleeok-style, before reattaching itself to the turtle, which all the while will continue to stalk Jazeta. It's best to deal with the heads one at a time, lest things will start to get chaotic; the amount of traversable space is already limited, so you don't need three of those bony suckers concurrently clogging up your escape routes.
Once all three heads are destroyed, the body will explode. The sixth medallion will then be yours.
When you return the Sea Sphere's medallions to the Sacred Shrine--specifically to the carved niches located at its center point--the way to the final area will be opened.
Our final area is the Sky Sphere, which floats above the clouds. It was once considered a holy place--a virtual heaven on earth; it's where the spiritually gifted leaders lived before Dirth turned cast them into stone and conquered the land. He now occupies their former temple, which is located in the area's bottom-left portion, in an isolated map section that can only be accessed via a transport (a staircase found in the area's middle-right portion).
The Sky Sphere is structured like a segmented castle; each of its sections is comprised of subjacent baileys, with their marble surfaces, and elevated battlements and walkways. Crystal pillars dot the landscape, their presence serving to remind us that we're traversing upon holy ground (so maybe say a prayer or two before attempting to burn them to the ground; it's just good etiquette, really).
The area's musical theme is fast in tempo and serious in tone. It tells us that now is the time to steel ourselves, for we're fast approaching the final showdown.
As this point, your vitality is such that the Fire Rod has reached its peak potency; its strength is maxed out, and its flames now travel the entire length of the screen. This type of range and coverage makes for good crowd control an area whose rooms are packed with annoying, hyper-aggressive enemies. It really is a godsend.
The overworld contains one major item: the Strongest Sword, which is resting in a secluded temple in the area's lower-left corner; accessing this islet requires ringing the Bell of the Sky (found in Labyrinth 8) while standing atop a sacred cliff in the area's lower-right corner, doing which will open up the magical transport that leads to it. Otherwise, we can grab bomb-capacity and vitality upgrades in the the sphere's upper and lower regions, respectively.
Not one to leave you guessing, the game becomes adamant about the fact that only a warrior armed with three specific items (the Strongest Sword, the Strongest Armor and the Strongest Shield) can hope to defeat Dirth. I'm not joking: The sphere's citizens absolutely beat you over the head with this message. They really want you to know this. Meanwhile, all I want is for any of them to sell me bombs.
As for our enemy selection:
Helping to make your life difficult is the following enemy selection:
The boss is a shapeshifting crystalline knight who is constantly surrounded by six oscillating gems. Predominantly, the knight floats about and attempts to inflict contact-damage. Though, it'll intermittently cease its movement and stand upright before firing a stream of energy blasts in Jazeta's direction; it's vulnerable to attack only during this period. There's nothing terribly difficult about this fight, though those hit-detection issues will surely rear their head if you play it too aggressively. The key is to pick your spots and avoid getting cornered.
Shatter the knight to pieces and grab your seventh medallion.
As you travel about the sphere's isolated section, you'll be informed that Dirth has been tracking your progress and in response has moved the princess to Climactic Castle--his secret crypt in the North Pole. This is obviously setting up an A Link to the Past-style battle-scenario. Still, we'll have to confront him in Labyrinth 8 and retrieve that last medallion. We'll do this armed with the knowledge that he's a "master of illusion," a description that's surely foreshadowing future events.
Labyrinth 8 is the game's largest and most labyrinthine. Navigating it entails a whole lot of wall-bombing and transporting between its separate sections. It represents a pure test of endurance. You'll want to have at least thirteen units of health when you enter this place. It'll also be wise to have two potions on hand at all times.
As mentioned, this is where we'll find the Bell of the Sky, whose dinging opens the way to the Strongest Sword. Also, the chained-up old man in the labyrinth's upper-left corner will provide you another vitality increase.
When all of the labyrinth's mysteries have been solved, we'll finally come face to face with Dirth. And, really, his is a big face.
Well, actually, Dirth doesn't immediately reveal himself. Rather, all we see at first is a gold demon mask, within which he's concealed. During the battle, the mask will split open, at which point Dirth will show himself. That's how the battle is scripted: The mask hovers about the room, regularly emitting two cross-shaped projectiles, and briefly splits open to reveal Dirth, who releases an 8-directional shuriken spreadshot.
And man did this battle piss me off. I figured that the Fire Rod would be of no use, since the game kept insisting that the Strongest Sword was the only weapon that could pierce Dirth's defenses. The problem is that it takes about fifty hits to defeat him with the sword, which makes for a ridiculously long battle; and that's assuming that you can survive for more than a minute--that you'll be lucky enough to consistently evade Dirth's hard-hitting shuriken spreadshot, whose size and scope is such that it's almost impossible to cut through it and successfully land a hit within the two-second window during which Dirth appears.
But it turns out that the Fire Rod's flames can damage him. In fact, if your health is such that it can spew flame-waves, this battle can become trivially easy, since Dirth becomes helplessly trapped in the flames' net. However, if you don't have a fully powered Fire Rod, or if your health drops so low that the rod's power regresses, you're pretty much screwed. At that point, even two potions won't be enough. This is what I learned over the course of nine or ten battles, commencing any of which required that I retread part of the Sky Sphere and a big portion of the labyrinth.
What a nightmare.
However, we learn that this wasn't the real Dirth. What we defeated was actually an "image" of Dirth--a mere projection. The real Dirth is hiding out at the North Pole, keeping a watchful eye over the princess. Conveniently the Sacred Shrine has a "magic square" that will "beam" us directly to Dirth's chamber in Climatic Castle.
When we arrive before Dirth, he tells us that he can't be defeated because he represents a spirit of darkness that lives in the hearts of all men (the same spiel we're always hearing from Ganon, Dracula and the like)! It's up to us to prove him wrong.
Dirth's is a fairly simple pattern: Following his initial attack--wherein he conjures eight flames, all of which circle about before darting toward Jazeta--he begins to phase in and out of view; each time he reappears, he does so alongside an incorporeal copy of himself--a decoy whose image fades seconds later. Your objective is to quickly locate and strike the real Dirth, who after phasing in will execute the aforementioned flame attack. It's not a difficult fight, really: You can easily dodge his fireballs by keeping your distance and continuing to move vertically, since they always dart in horizontally. Also, you'll always want to strike Dirth from the side, doing which knocks him far back, into the room's horizontal boundaries, and gives you more time to observe and react to the fireball attack. Shorten the battle by sneaking in two hits when you can.
You have to strike Dirth 30 times to defeat him. Once the final blow has been landed, he'll be purged from Neutopia and his cold grip over the citizenry will be broken. Most importantly, the princess will be free from bondage.
Upon escaping her cell, the princess runs over to Jazeta and expresses how grateful she is. She's so impressed with his act of bravery that she offers him her eternal love. Following a short dialogue scene, the two of them then return to the Sacred Shrine, where the citizens of Neutopia are waiting for them--waiting to celebrate their return. The old lady confirms that Dirth has indeed been eradicated--that evil has been replaced by the power and force of good and people's hearts are again filled with kindness and the charity of brotherhood. Dirth's reign was simply a reminder of what temptation can breed. But in the end, good will triumph over evil.
Somethin' like that.
We then cut to the credits sequence, which features interspersed action scenes.
Closing Thoughts
I come out of the experience with mixed feelings. Neutopia is certainly a very good action-adventure game, and I'm happy to have played it, but still I'm left feeling a bit disappointed. Quite honestly, I feel that it didn't reach its full potential. All of the pieces for a truly great Zelda clone were in place, yes, yet for a number of reasons they simply didn't come together to form an amazing whole.
In the first few hours, Neutopia was able to capture me with its entrancing radiance and sense of vivacity, but slowly its grip loosened as its mechanical shortcomings (particularly its highly unfavorable hit-detection) and misguided level-design elements (stabbing blocks plus too many instances where hordes of large, obnoxiously aggressively enemies are packed into too small a space) began to proliferate; all too often it came to exhibit the worst parts of a Zelda-style game. And whenever all such issues would surface concurrently, the game would become plain unenjoyable; in those instances, which were many, I'd be so frustrated by my inability to control the action that I'd do anything that I could to avoid combat completely.
Also, I'm disappointed by the rigid linearity of its overworld design. Its areas are merely annular rather than labyrinthine. No matter where you are, you're never far from the intended path. As a result, there's never a time when you feel like you're exploring a wondrously large, expansive world--never a time when you come to know the exhilaration of becoming hopelessly lost within dangerous territory--in a section of the map in which you're not sure you're supposed to be. There's no sense of enormity. Not a single one of Neutopia's spheres conveys to you that its is a vast, sweeping landscape whose underlying secrets will reveal themselves to you only after you've spent countless hours braving its wilds and acquiring the wisdom necessary to solve its many puzzles; it's not a place that'll weave itself into the fabric of your being--inevitably become a part of you--after you've immersed yourself in it for a long period of time.
This is where the game would have been better served to more closely follow the blueprint. If it was going to go this far to copy the Zelda formula, it should have gone all the way; it should have provided a large, continuous world in which you could spend days blissfully exploring and discovering. Instead it seems intent on rushing you through to the end. It doesn't want you to stop and look--to wonder about the setting and absorb its environmental ambiance. It doesn't want you to think about how it all connects (thus the existence of the compass, whose pointing and jingling further rob the environments of mystery). For that reason, Neutopia doesn't resonate as strongly as its inspiration.
Now, you might be thinking that some of these critiques are unfair--that mine is a case of judging a game based not on what it is but on what I was hoping it would be. And maybe you're right. But still I'd contend that I'm judging Neutopia based on the expectation Hudson was surely trying to create when its developers decided that they wanted to closely replicate the era's most popular adventure game and evoke images of it at every turn.
I'm just doin' what feels proper.
But don't be misled by my previous commentary: I still think that Neutopia has plenty of endearing qualities. It's got a wonderfully evocative aesthetic. Its soundtrack is fantastic. It exudes the most inspiriting of vibes. And on the whole, it plays pretty damn well. Even though its pieces don't come together perfectly, we're still left with the picture of a top-tier Zelda clone. It's a must-play for any PC-Engine owner.
I really enjoyed my time with Neutopia, so much so that I'd like to return to it in the future. (For certain I'll be playing its sequel.)
Above all, playing Neutopia reminds me of how unfortunate it is that I missed out on the PC-Engine, which has turned out to be a terrific little system. It's a shame, really, that Western countries didn't get the PC-Engine but instead a compromised, soulless version of it. Really, it doesn't even seem as though the TurboGrafx-16 and the PC-Engine are the same console. I put that on NEC USA, whose marketing team dropped the ball so very hard; as a result we missed out on what was an awesome scene. My younger self would have been blown away by the PC-Engine had it come to America in 1988.
Hell--I'm blown away by it now! More than any other, it's the system I'm most excited to explore!
It's great to finally be catching up on the PC-Engine. I've had a wonderful time exploring its library. What I've discovered is that it's loaded with hidden gems. And I can't wait to play each and every one of them!
Whenever its name comes up in conversation, I feel compelled to ask, "Is the PC-Engine the 'secret-best' system?" It may very well be.
I look forward to seeing how it continues to go about making that case.
Also, Jazeta's hitbox extends beyond his observable frame by about 10%, in all directions. So there will be times when you collide with an enemy even though it appeared that the two of you were several pixels apart. This can become a major issue when you're dealing with enemies who like to approach Jazeta from weird angles. You'll have to remember what game you're playing--make sure that ol' Zelda muscle memory doesn't take over whenever your attention lapses. Failure to do so can result in a quick demise.
The developers knew that the sword's range was inefficient, which is why their game so relentlessly pushes you in the direction of your first major selectable item: the Fire Rod, your one and only long-range option. It allows Jazeta to fire boomerang-like fireballs--two in succession and with the ability to fire them in alternate directions. It functions similarly to Zelda's candle items in that it can burn away bushes (or other similarly purposed objects) to reveal secret stairways. In a game where it's a constant struggle to get a feel for the main weapon's hitbox, an item with its range, usability and effectiveness proves invaluable. It's sure to replace the sword as your main weapon the moment you obtain it. What's even better is that its destructibility and damage-potential increase as your health meter extends; in time it'll become an instrument of mass destruction! (Note that Jazeta is immune to the rod's flames, so you don't have to worry about accidentally engulfing yourself in the fiery spew as you go about torching the place.)
The Land Sphere's other major item is the Book of Revival, which we receive almost immediately after leaving the Sacred Shrine. It's bestowed upon us by an old man who serves as our "It's dangerous to go alone!" analog. Otherwise, you'll want to do some bush-burning near the map's top-right portion; there you'll find an old man who will boost your vitality--add one extra unit to your health meter (these old chaps are basically our "Take any one you want" analogs).
In fact, many screens hold secrets, so you should make liberal use of the Fire Rod. Also, during any first visit to a screen, you should make sure to kill all of the enemies lurking about its space. There's a chance that doing so will reveal a hidden staircase. The uncovered secret place will always be someone's abode. The reclusive inhabitants found within these residences will help you in different ways; they're known to give you advice, heal your wounds, supply you some extra funds, or increase your health or item capacity. Abandoned domiciles are usually home to juicier rewards like free potions and weapon upgrades.
The point is that you should burn everything in sight. Go nuts, I say.
Neutopia's labyrinths are directly in the style of Zelda's dungeons. They're structured similarly, and they incorporate all of the same mechanics. Though, Neutopia's lack any kind of real distinguishing characteristics; whereas each Zelda dungeon features a starkly distinctive palette-scheme, Neutopia's come in slightly brighter or lighter shades; if I were playing a hack wherein the the labyrinths were switched around, I probably wouldn't even notice the change. The labyrinth theme is melancholy in tone, its resonance inviting reflection and a merely cautious approach to traversal, whereas Zelda's is a haunting, uneasy tune that does well to keep you feeling on edge--as if even empty rooms are filled with unseen dangers. It's a fine piece, but again--it just doesn't have the same power as its inspiration's.
Navigation works the same way: You traverse through rooms that are filled with enemies and other dangers. Sometimes you'll have to clear a room of enemies before a door will open or before a secret stairway will appear; other times you'll have defeat all of the enemies and then push a block to open the way forward. Along the way you'll find a crystal, which acts as a map, and the key that'll allow you to unlock the door leading the boss' chamber (it's basically the Big Key from A Link to the Past). The first couple of labyrinths are simple as straightforward, as you'd expect.
Labyrinths of course feature exclusive enemy types, all of which are very reminiscent of those you remember from Zelda. Here's how Labyrinth 1's enemies fit into the established classes:
- Keese types: small Red Bats and Giant Blue Bats.
- Zol types: hopping Pink Slimes; tentacled Blobs; and six-legged, pincered Dormers.
- Stalfos types: Gyrudes and Bull Skeletons.
- Goriya types: Wolfmen.
- Rope types: Snakes.
Each labyrinth contains a major item. Here, in Labyrinth 1, it's the Bronze Armor, which will be of great use to you in the following area.
Our boss is a large-but-slow-moving dragon (I mean, a Zelda-style game's gotta have a dragon as its first dungeon boss; it's tradition!). As it stalks Jazeta, it spews four fireballs in succession, each traveling toward his current position. Though, they're pretty easy to dodge. Also, the dragon isn't a terribly threatening foe; all you have to do is crowd it into a corner and continue to string together sword-strikes or Flame Rod blasts, backing off regularly in anticipation of his next fireball spew. After finishing him off, you'll retrieve the first medallion; thereafter you'll be transported back to the Sacred Shrine, where the old woman will reward you further by increasing your health meter by one unit.
Labyrinths located in the same area contain identical enemy casts, so Labyrinth 2 has nothing new for us on that front (save for more-troublesome enemy groupings). However, it does introduce one of the most obnoxious traps in adventure-game history: inconspicuous-looking blocks that suddenly stab at you as you approach them. Each of a stabbing block's four sides thrusts a blade, so they can get you from any direction. And since it's never clear which ones are rigged, you have to put to use your years of gaming knowledge and cleverly guess as to where a mischievous level designer would likely place such a block. In rooms that are filled with blocks, it's best to move about cautiously; if you suspect that a block is rigged, approach it slowly, bait out the blades, and then zip by when the blades retract. If only I'd take my own advice, I wouldn't be walking into these things constantly. I really do despise them.
Labyrinth 2 also introduces wall-bombing as a means of advancement. It's required that you do: You can't reach the boss without bombing your way through a certain wall on the Labyrinth's left side. On the way there, you might want to grab the Bronze Sword, the Labyrinth's major prize; no bombing is required to access the room where it's being guarded.
The boss is a metallic golem. It lumbers about for a couple of seconds and then suddenly breaks apart into eight pieces, seven of which blast off the screen in a spreadshot. What remains is its core--a red orb--which is the only part of the Golem that is susceptible to strikes. You have about two seconds to get in as many shots as you can before the Golem reconstitutes. If you obtained the Bronze Sword, it shouldn't take too long to kill Golem. Do so and retrieve the second medallion.
When the Land Sphere's two medallions are placed into the carved niches on the Sacred Shrine's left side, a magical transport to the next area will appear within the space between them.
That transport is a stairway that brings us to the Subterranean Sphere, which I'd describe as a crystal mine whose magma-carved terrain rests above an encompassing pool of lava. Sprouting crystal shards form its natural obstacles. This area is split into two halves, its northern cliff the only bridge between them; each side is home to a labyrinth. Here you'll be met by faster and more-aggressive enemies, all of which inflict greater damage (so finding armor upgrades is an imperative).
The area's musical theme is gloomy in tone, its slow tempo and melancholic strains conspiring to evoke feelings of despondency. Though, the piece also has a tinge of mystery to it--an underlying vibe that piques your curious spirit and drives you to press forward. The composer, Tomostune Maeno, shows the he knows how to touch your soul. All of his compositions exhibit this quality; each has the ability to paint a mental picture--to evoke certain emotions. He did some pretty stellar work here.
The enemy roundup goes something like this:
- Octorok types: diving Worms; Mimics that disguise themselves as rocks; and Green Flames that cycle between a rising and withering state.
- Moblin types: rock-throwing Imps, anthropomorphic Ants, and arrow-firing Pig Creatures (flat-out Moblin clones).
- Peahat types: Fruit Flies.
- Zora types: Hothead-like Flame Creatures.
There are two major items hidden here: The first is a jar of Moonbeam Moss whose contained substance has the power to illuminate dark rooms both in the overworld and in labyrinths (so you can stop wondering why the Fire Rod is lacking for what you would think is an essential feature of Zelda-candle imitation). The other item is the Rainbow Drop, an automatically laid bridge that is functionally identical to Zelda's ladder; you can use it to cross over one-block gaps and water tiles. You won't be able to advance through Labyrinth 4 without it.
Concealed within the area's lower-left corner is the abode of an old man who will increase your bomb capacity by four. This is the first of three such upgrades (take that, Zelda, with your "two").
Helpful tip: If ever a fireball-spamming Zora-type enemy is seriously hampering your ability to deal with a screen's collection of grounded baddies, kill one of the latter and then exit and reenter the screen. For reasons I'm too computer illiterate to explain, the game will have replaced the Zora-type enemy with another land-type.
Also, I have to mention one of the game's more annoying quirks: The Fire Rod's flames can't penetrate dropped items, whose presence limits your ability to engage with the enemies surrounding them. If currently an enemy and, say, a coin are overlapping, the latter will shield the enemy from incoming flames and leave a prone Jazeta open to contact-damage.
Another issue is that it soon becomes difficult to locate bomb and potion shops. When almost every screen is hiding a secret staircase, it lowers your chances of remembering which of those in particular contain the item shops. Neutopia, I'd say, is a little too populous; there doesn't need to be that many people. Also, it's normal that the process of accessing these shops entails the use of bombs, which in some places are rarely dropped. Eventually it reaches a point where it becomes easier and more convenient to travel back to the Land Sphere, whose shops are within close proximity to the area's starting point; moreover, it's worth taking this measure because the game's earlier shops sell bombs and potions at a much cheaper price.
Oh, and there's ringing. Lots of it. You know what I'm talkin' about: When your health gets really low, the game signals this to you by emitting an unending alarm sound, which turns out to be as grating as Zelda's incessant beeping. Its harshness is such that you'll want to transport back to the Sacred Shrine, even if doing so is a major inconvenience, just to make the ringing stop.
Labyrinth 3 introduces pitch-black rooms whose darkness conceals their obstructive elements; we can illuminate them with our Moonbeam Moss.
And your enemy classification:
- Zol types: Beetles; and Slimes that are encased in protective bubbles (when free of their transparent shielding, they move more quickly).
- Vire types: diving Gels.
- Goriya types: poison-spewing Myconids.
- Darknet types: armored anthropomorphic Ants and Lizard Knights.
- Wizzrobe types: phasing Ghostcloths (which are immune to fire) and Reapers.
Defeat the winged duo to retrieve the third medallion.
You won't be able to advance past Labyrinth 4's first room if you don't possess the Rainbow Drop. Really, the whole of Labyrinth 4 requires heavy use of this item. You can also employ clever use of it to gain a tactical advantage over enemies; as was possible in Zelda, you can use the bridge to position yourself on top of normally untraversable tiles and cheaply pick off the enemies, who are of course unable to enter those spaces.
Labyrinth 4 introduces two new dangers: (1) Snake-like chains that gravitate toward you, their bodies stretching and twisting about as they attempt to crash into you; though, they're bolted in place, so their attack range is limited. And (2) specially marked tiles that when traveled upon trigger the room's arrow-firing devices, all of which are resting behind the visible embrasures.
Our major prize, this time, is the Steel Armor.
The labyrinth's boss is a pincered centipede. Its mode of attack is to stalk you and ultimately use its large frame to corner you and chain together several hits. Its only weak point is its tail, approaching which is a matter of creating space and cycling around the centipede when the opening appears. Striking any of its individual sections will cause it to temporarily break off and fly back; while this doesn't deter the centipede, the disconnected section will be effectively diverted, its focus now limited to returning to the host; doing this gives you easier access to the tail. Though, honestly, this fight isn't particularly well designed; you can just as easily crowd the centipede into a wall or corner and spam sword-strikes until it's dead.
Once the centipede is eliminated, the fourth medallion will be yours.
Now that you've retrieved both of the Subterranean Sphere's medallions, you can place them in the Sacred Shrine's rightmost carved niches and open the way to the next area.
The next transport takes us to the Sea Sphere, a seaside sanctuary around which water is constantly streaming. Stony pillars divide its traversable spaces. Less obtrusive are the ceremonial totems whose presence is meant to suggest to us that this is a place of spirituality (the denizens confirm as much when you speak to them). Its labyrinths stand in the area's upper- and lower-left corners.
The Sea Sphere's spirited, uptempo musical theme has a heroic vibe to it. Its resonance works to fill you with determination at a time when the level of danger has spiked considerably. It wants you to think, "The enemies are tougher and more aggressive than ever, yes, but I'm up for the challenge!"
Here's what you'll be dealing with:
- Octorok types: Casseopaie with retractable tentacles; Caterpillars; jumping Fuzzballs; hopping Crabs; and cone-shelled Octopi.
- Moblin types: spear-throwing Mermen.
- Peathat types: Weevils.
- Zora types: Fishmen.
- Armos types: rushing Knights.
Otherwise, you can pick up the second bomb-capacity upgrade in the area's upper-right portion. The old man's domain rests beneath the screen's lone pillar.
Here, at the game's mid-point, the enemies grow stingier than ever; they'll very rarely drop useful items like bombs or berries. So you might have no choice but to rely on the commercially driven bomb and potion salesmen--that's if you have enough money and can remember where their abodes are hidden. Commit their locations to memory if you can; otherwise, you'll give rise to a scenario wherein you'll to have to search everywhere to find them--check under every object and bomb every cave wall and in the process frustrate yourself and exhaust your bomb supply. This isn't even to mention the fact that you get locked into an unnecessarily long three-second entry animation every time you enter someone's abode, which after twenty or so empty visits starts to test the limits of your patience.
Labyrinth 5 is fairly straightforward, all of its important items placed in rooms that are found while traveling along an obvious path. The only mystery is its boss location, finding which entails some required wall-bombing.
We'll meet resistance from the following:
- Zol types: Tadpoles, transparent Slugs, Shellfish, and Meiolania Skeletons (horned turtles that resemble Dodongos in appearance and animation).
- Vire types: hopping Issus.
- Wizzrobe types: spinning, spell-firing Wizards (Wizzrobes, basically); black Specters; and dagger-wielding Ghosts.
Our boss is a giant horned crab. It slowly moves back and forth along the screen's top portion and charges down toward you when you pass directly beneath it--but only if you're not in motion along a horizontal axis at the time. It'll pause intermittently to spew three bubbles in succession; occasionally some of them will adhere to the surface, forming damaging obstacles. The crab is impervious to attack until it spews these bubbles, at which point its now-open mouth becomes vulnerable to attack. It can be a long, protracted fight if you don't how to approach it. What's aggravating about it is that the crab's weak point is so centered that it proves exceedingly difficult to land a strike on it without bumping into its extended, buffering outer frame. Having a pair of potions in your inventory becomes a must.
Declaw the beast to retrieve another medallion.
Labyrinth 6 is considerably large, and its rooms are packed with nasty combinations of the aforementioned ghost- and wizard-type enemies. Some rooms are so crowded that it's impossible not to take hits as you desperately shift about in an attempt to dodge the near-inescapable enemy fire. The Wizzrobe clones, in particular, will become the bane of your existence; they hit so hard and take up so much space that you'll be overcome with a sense of dread whenever you enter a room and see even one of them lurking about. Obtaining the labyrinth's major item, the Strongest Armor, might help to reduce the pain, though only by a little.
The labyrinth's boss is a large three-headed turtle skeleton. The victory condition is the destruction of its three bony heads. Whenever you strike one of the heads, it'll break off from the turtle's body and rebound about the room for a couple of seconds, Gleeok-style, before reattaching itself to the turtle, which all the while will continue to stalk Jazeta. It's best to deal with the heads one at a time, lest things will start to get chaotic; the amount of traversable space is already limited, so you don't need three of those bony suckers concurrently clogging up your escape routes.
Once all three heads are destroyed, the body will explode. The sixth medallion will then be yours.
When you return the Sea Sphere's medallions to the Sacred Shrine--specifically to the carved niches located at its center point--the way to the final area will be opened.
Our final area is the Sky Sphere, which floats above the clouds. It was once considered a holy place--a virtual heaven on earth; it's where the spiritually gifted leaders lived before Dirth turned cast them into stone and conquered the land. He now occupies their former temple, which is located in the area's bottom-left portion, in an isolated map section that can only be accessed via a transport (a staircase found in the area's middle-right portion).
The Sky Sphere is structured like a segmented castle; each of its sections is comprised of subjacent baileys, with their marble surfaces, and elevated battlements and walkways. Crystal pillars dot the landscape, their presence serving to remind us that we're traversing upon holy ground (so maybe say a prayer or two before attempting to burn them to the ground; it's just good etiquette, really).
The area's musical theme is fast in tempo and serious in tone. It tells us that now is the time to steel ourselves, for we're fast approaching the final showdown.
As this point, your vitality is such that the Fire Rod has reached its peak potency; its strength is maxed out, and its flames now travel the entire length of the screen. This type of range and coverage makes for good crowd control an area whose rooms are packed with annoying, hyper-aggressive enemies. It really is a godsend.
The overworld contains one major item: the Strongest Sword, which is resting in a secluded temple in the area's lower-left corner; accessing this islet requires ringing the Bell of the Sky (found in Labyrinth 8) while standing atop a sacred cliff in the area's lower-right corner, doing which will open up the magical transport that leads to it. Otherwise, we can grab bomb-capacity and vitality upgrades in the the sphere's upper and lower regions, respectively.
Not one to leave you guessing, the game becomes adamant about the fact that only a warrior armed with three specific items (the Strongest Sword, the Strongest Armor and the Strongest Shield) can hope to defeat Dirth. I'm not joking: The sphere's citizens absolutely beat you over the head with this message. They really want you to know this. Meanwhile, all I want is for any of them to sell me bombs.
As for our enemy selection:
- Octorock types: blue Slimes.
- Moblin types: winged Birdmen and anthropomorphic Mosquitoes.
- Peahat types: angry Birds.
- Zora types: evil Clouds.
- Tektite types: Grasshoppers and large purple horned Blobs.
- Armos types: robed Goat Sorcerer (though, they behave more like an outdoor Wizzrobe-type).
Helping to make your life difficult is the following enemy selection:
- Keese types: enflamed Spirts and fireball-spitting Bats.
- Zol types: googly-eyed, beaked Spiders (I mean, I guess; these creatures are becoming so weird-looking that I can't even explain what I'm seeing anymore) and transforming Ghost Blobs.
- Vire types: jumping winged Snakes.
- Gibdo types: Mummies.
- Armors types: anthropomorphic Beetles and armored Skeletons.
The boss is a shapeshifting crystalline knight who is constantly surrounded by six oscillating gems. Predominantly, the knight floats about and attempts to inflict contact-damage. Though, it'll intermittently cease its movement and stand upright before firing a stream of energy blasts in Jazeta's direction; it's vulnerable to attack only during this period. There's nothing terribly difficult about this fight, though those hit-detection issues will surely rear their head if you play it too aggressively. The key is to pick your spots and avoid getting cornered.
Shatter the knight to pieces and grab your seventh medallion.
As you travel about the sphere's isolated section, you'll be informed that Dirth has been tracking your progress and in response has moved the princess to Climactic Castle--his secret crypt in the North Pole. This is obviously setting up an A Link to the Past-style battle-scenario. Still, we'll have to confront him in Labyrinth 8 and retrieve that last medallion. We'll do this armed with the knowledge that he's a "master of illusion," a description that's surely foreshadowing future events.
Labyrinth 8 is the game's largest and most labyrinthine. Navigating it entails a whole lot of wall-bombing and transporting between its separate sections. It represents a pure test of endurance. You'll want to have at least thirteen units of health when you enter this place. It'll also be wise to have two potions on hand at all times.
As mentioned, this is where we'll find the Bell of the Sky, whose dinging opens the way to the Strongest Sword. Also, the chained-up old man in the labyrinth's upper-left corner will provide you another vitality increase.
When all of the labyrinth's mysteries have been solved, we'll finally come face to face with Dirth. And, really, his is a big face.
Well, actually, Dirth doesn't immediately reveal himself. Rather, all we see at first is a gold demon mask, within which he's concealed. During the battle, the mask will split open, at which point Dirth will show himself. That's how the battle is scripted: The mask hovers about the room, regularly emitting two cross-shaped projectiles, and briefly splits open to reveal Dirth, who releases an 8-directional shuriken spreadshot.
And man did this battle piss me off. I figured that the Fire Rod would be of no use, since the game kept insisting that the Strongest Sword was the only weapon that could pierce Dirth's defenses. The problem is that it takes about fifty hits to defeat him with the sword, which makes for a ridiculously long battle; and that's assuming that you can survive for more than a minute--that you'll be lucky enough to consistently evade Dirth's hard-hitting shuriken spreadshot, whose size and scope is such that it's almost impossible to cut through it and successfully land a hit within the two-second window during which Dirth appears.
But it turns out that the Fire Rod's flames can damage him. In fact, if your health is such that it can spew flame-waves, this battle can become trivially easy, since Dirth becomes helplessly trapped in the flames' net. However, if you don't have a fully powered Fire Rod, or if your health drops so low that the rod's power regresses, you're pretty much screwed. At that point, even two potions won't be enough. This is what I learned over the course of nine or ten battles, commencing any of which required that I retread part of the Sky Sphere and a big portion of the labyrinth.
What a nightmare.
However, we learn that this wasn't the real Dirth. What we defeated was actually an "image" of Dirth--a mere projection. The real Dirth is hiding out at the North Pole, keeping a watchful eye over the princess. Conveniently the Sacred Shrine has a "magic square" that will "beam" us directly to Dirth's chamber in Climatic Castle.
When we arrive before Dirth, he tells us that he can't be defeated because he represents a spirit of darkness that lives in the hearts of all men (the same spiel we're always hearing from Ganon, Dracula and the like)! It's up to us to prove him wrong.
Dirth's is a fairly simple pattern: Following his initial attack--wherein he conjures eight flames, all of which circle about before darting toward Jazeta--he begins to phase in and out of view; each time he reappears, he does so alongside an incorporeal copy of himself--a decoy whose image fades seconds later. Your objective is to quickly locate and strike the real Dirth, who after phasing in will execute the aforementioned flame attack. It's not a difficult fight, really: You can easily dodge his fireballs by keeping your distance and continuing to move vertically, since they always dart in horizontally. Also, you'll always want to strike Dirth from the side, doing which knocks him far back, into the room's horizontal boundaries, and gives you more time to observe and react to the fireball attack. Shorten the battle by sneaking in two hits when you can.
You have to strike Dirth 30 times to defeat him. Once the final blow has been landed, he'll be purged from Neutopia and his cold grip over the citizenry will be broken. Most importantly, the princess will be free from bondage.
Upon escaping her cell, the princess runs over to Jazeta and expresses how grateful she is. She's so impressed with his act of bravery that she offers him her eternal love. Following a short dialogue scene, the two of them then return to the Sacred Shrine, where the citizens of Neutopia are waiting for them--waiting to celebrate their return. The old lady confirms that Dirth has indeed been eradicated--that evil has been replaced by the power and force of good and people's hearts are again filled with kindness and the charity of brotherhood. Dirth's reign was simply a reminder of what temptation can breed. But in the end, good will triumph over evil.
Somethin' like that.
We then cut to the credits sequence, which features interspersed action scenes.
Closing Thoughts
I come out of the experience with mixed feelings. Neutopia is certainly a very good action-adventure game, and I'm happy to have played it, but still I'm left feeling a bit disappointed. Quite honestly, I feel that it didn't reach its full potential. All of the pieces for a truly great Zelda clone were in place, yes, yet for a number of reasons they simply didn't come together to form an amazing whole.
In the first few hours, Neutopia was able to capture me with its entrancing radiance and sense of vivacity, but slowly its grip loosened as its mechanical shortcomings (particularly its highly unfavorable hit-detection) and misguided level-design elements (stabbing blocks plus too many instances where hordes of large, obnoxiously aggressively enemies are packed into too small a space) began to proliferate; all too often it came to exhibit the worst parts of a Zelda-style game. And whenever all such issues would surface concurrently, the game would become plain unenjoyable; in those instances, which were many, I'd be so frustrated by my inability to control the action that I'd do anything that I could to avoid combat completely.
Also, I'm disappointed by the rigid linearity of its overworld design. Its areas are merely annular rather than labyrinthine. No matter where you are, you're never far from the intended path. As a result, there's never a time when you feel like you're exploring a wondrously large, expansive world--never a time when you come to know the exhilaration of becoming hopelessly lost within dangerous territory--in a section of the map in which you're not sure you're supposed to be. There's no sense of enormity. Not a single one of Neutopia's spheres conveys to you that its is a vast, sweeping landscape whose underlying secrets will reveal themselves to you only after you've spent countless hours braving its wilds and acquiring the wisdom necessary to solve its many puzzles; it's not a place that'll weave itself into the fabric of your being--inevitably become a part of you--after you've immersed yourself in it for a long period of time.
This is where the game would have been better served to more closely follow the blueprint. If it was going to go this far to copy the Zelda formula, it should have gone all the way; it should have provided a large, continuous world in which you could spend days blissfully exploring and discovering. Instead it seems intent on rushing you through to the end. It doesn't want you to stop and look--to wonder about the setting and absorb its environmental ambiance. It doesn't want you to think about how it all connects (thus the existence of the compass, whose pointing and jingling further rob the environments of mystery). For that reason, Neutopia doesn't resonate as strongly as its inspiration.
Now, you might be thinking that some of these critiques are unfair--that mine is a case of judging a game based not on what it is but on what I was hoping it would be. And maybe you're right. But still I'd contend that I'm judging Neutopia based on the expectation Hudson was surely trying to create when its developers decided that they wanted to closely replicate the era's most popular adventure game and evoke images of it at every turn.
I'm just doin' what feels proper.
But don't be misled by my previous commentary: I still think that Neutopia has plenty of endearing qualities. It's got a wonderfully evocative aesthetic. Its soundtrack is fantastic. It exudes the most inspiriting of vibes. And on the whole, it plays pretty damn well. Even though its pieces don't come together perfectly, we're still left with the picture of a top-tier Zelda clone. It's a must-play for any PC-Engine owner.
I really enjoyed my time with Neutopia, so much so that I'd like to return to it in the future. (For certain I'll be playing its sequel.)
Above all, playing Neutopia reminds me of how unfortunate it is that I missed out on the PC-Engine, which has turned out to be a terrific little system. It's a shame, really, that Western countries didn't get the PC-Engine but instead a compromised, soulless version of it. Really, it doesn't even seem as though the TurboGrafx-16 and the PC-Engine are the same console. I put that on NEC USA, whose marketing team dropped the ball so very hard; as a result we missed out on what was an awesome scene. My younger self would have been blown away by the PC-Engine had it come to America in 1988.
Hell--I'm blown away by it now! More than any other, it's the system I'm most excited to explore!
It's great to finally be catching up on the PC-Engine. I've had a wonderful time exploring its library. What I've discovered is that it's loaded with hidden gems. And I can't wait to play each and every one of them!
Whenever its name comes up in conversation, I feel compelled to ask, "Is the PC-Engine the 'secret-best' system?" It may very well be.
I look forward to seeing how it continues to go about making that case.
I loved Neutopia back in the day. I beat it, whereas I didn’t complete Zelda 1 until 3DS.
ReplyDeleteThe verticality, graphics, and bad-ass fire elevated it. And bonus points because it reminded me of the marshlands I’d explore as a teen in Wisconsin - something Zelda didn’t evoke in me.
Zelda 1 is a legendary classic; but I still love this game. Never did play its sequel, though…
Justin Leeper
I played Neutopia II a while back. The only things I remember are that it's even more linear-feeling than the first game and it's kinda abusive (some rooms are swarming with hyper-aggressive enemies, and bosses are always crowding you).
DeleteI recommend it only if you're looking for a "Challenge Mode" version of the first game.
I’ve since picked up Neutopia 2 via Wii U virtual console and played a bit. It’s what I thought it would be, though your impressions are well founded - especially about the linearity.
DeleteJustin
What a breath of fresh air! Your enthusiasm and positivity are contagious. Thank you for spreading such good vibes!
ReplyDeleteWell, I have a passion for the medium, and I enjoy celebrating the best parts of it.
DeleteI wish that more of my contemporaries had the same mindset. Too many of them are jaded and cynical. They spend more time telling you about what they "hate" and how many good-to-great games are "overrated," and they generally try to distance themselves from the medium (while purportedly celebrating it).
Long story short: Video games bring me joy and inspire me creatively, and I hope that what I do encourages those who share my passion to join in and use their voices to spread the good word about games.
Also, thanks for commenting! I appreciate any and all feedback.