PC-E CD: 7/10
Sega CD: 6.25/10

I played the PC-E version last year and didn't know how to express how i felt about it, so I kinda defaulted to 'its raw' as a safe catch-all. I replayed it today via the Sega CD port, which really put into perspective the issue I have with this - and by extension, a LOT of 16-bit CD action games.

Lords of Thunder is loud and gorgeous, filled to the brim with deliciously-glorious buttrock and power metal, and hordes of giant mini-boss-type creatures to lay waste on. It's a stark contrast to Gate of Thunder, Red Entertainment's prior faux-TF game, which tried to refocus the gameplay of the TF formula at the expense of visual creativity and memorability. But ironically, Lords of Thunder is similarly forgettable, even though it shouldn't be! I could remember every inch of TF2-5 like the back of my hand, even before I learned those games like a madman, but not here, and I think it's a problem with the weapon system of all things. I notice playing TF that every sub-wave of enemies is best fought with one of your selectable directional shots, and that little bit of locomotion gets your mind thinking about those enemies as tangible, resistible forces. In Lords of Thunder, your shot is picked at the start and they all function VERY similarly, and most of the time you won't even use it when you can just slash through shit. That kind of combat autopilot is enough to make everything in this game feel like an evanescent wisp in the air. Like, oh cool, a burning cerberus jumps at me and blasts me with fire, but I can just keep holding A and mince it. Even against an easy no-name TF, I'm having a mental back-and-forth - oh, I'll use homing so I can get out of the way, I'll use wave so i can cover the destructible projectiles it's throwing at me. And when nothing is happening on screen I'm still mentally reading myself, using the environment as a cue for what might hit me next. Again, nothing like that with Lords of Thunder. My brain is off the whole ride. All four armor types should've been weapons you alternated between, and they should have more distinct functionality from each other. This one-weapon-per-stage restriction feels like an arbitrary forced replay value gimmick.

And then there's just this horrible feeling of dissonance between the aesthetic and the actual weight of the gameworld - god it's so HOLLOW. I felt so similar about Robo Aleste, it's how rich, intricate and hi-fi the music is against the lo-fi crunch of the pixels and sound effects - or lack thereof, it feels like there's barely any impact sfx here. This incongruent presentation immediately signals the artificiality of the world and takes you out of it, it's a thing I see in so many early CD games that's totally absent from anything PS1-onward.

So without the mechanical and immersive hooks of Thunder Force, you're left with all the ameteurish ends of TF's game design - enemies that bum-rush you without a chance to react but die as soon as you glare at them, environmental hazards you can't avoid unless you already know they're coming, and a general lack of resistance from oncoming waves for 80% of the time.

What cemented this was playing the S-CD version, which heavily neuters the difficulty and feels like its missing some sound and colors. My ass was fucking yawning through this shit! Honk-shoo-ing and mimimi-ing, even!! While shit like this is playing in the background!! Fundamental mistakes get blown right open by the little issues in this rushjob, the total lack of roleplay or player projection all made sense.

Don't take this as a total condemnation of Lords - if it looks cool to you and you like PC-E shmups, you'll probably find something worth celebrating here. It's arguably the most impressive-looking shooters on the console, but if we've learned anything from the last 3 gens of gaming, looks can be deceiving.

Lords of Thunder should simply put, be one of the most metal games ever. The name alone sounds like it could be a Metallica album and the opening title screen is this crazy dark parallax scrolling sky with lightning striking as the title appears to an over the top 30 second guitar solo sounding like Slash from Guns n' Roses just noodling that got recorded. Hell the music for this whole game is just top to bottom intense and for fans of this kind of music is simply glorious. Top it off with legendary manga artist Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the shell) doing the cover art and this game should be extremely special.

Unfortunately for this shoot 'em up the actual gameplay just doesn't go anywhere near as hard as the aesthetics it initially gives off would indicate it should. If anything actually it's kind of tame and by that I don't mean in difficulty though it does lean on the easy side but more the feeling, the whole vibe the game gives actually playing is just so static. I mean that almost literally in a sense, there is almost no parallax scrolling after the title screen and your character the Knight Landis has no animations at all, he literally glide hovers across the screen slowly while weapon pulses or sword swings come out of him. It just kind of feels unfinished, levels are short, slow and drab and a little uninspiring. There are 7 total and I barely really remember them or any stand out bosses. It's perfectly playable, but it's just not interesting. I expected a pretty intense experience like the opening sequence of Thunder Force IV to match the music but it sort of deflates a bit like a balloon.

It's not without it's own unique ideas though as it blends some RPG aspects with the shooting allowing characters to collect crystals as currency from fallen enemies to buy power, health and special upgrades in between levels from a shop. Unique ideas from the dev team but no real surprise as they would go on to create the Sakura Wars series 3 years later. The issue is that it takes the in level decisions away a bit as you choose your knight type prior to the level out of 4 elements that have different attack patterns and collecting crystals is, I'll be honest, kind of boring.

By the time I finished Lords of Thunder I did feel a bit let down because I feel it just didn't hit the heights I expected of it. Is that the games fault for lifting the expectations in the introduction to high in it's over the top metal coolness or mine for just expecting too much? Either way this soundtrack is getting added to my walkman at least.

Edit: On a side note the soundtracks for the Sega CD and Turbografix versions are slightly different and both are fantastic, listen to this much deeper sounding track for example.

Pretty cool fantasy shooter that's heavy on stage hazards. I like having access to a powerful melee attack but having to weigh the risk of getting in close, since invul between getting hit is all of a split second and the damage piles up quickly. The whole thing is pretty rough around the edges and the bosses are really easy, but the presentation makes up for a lot. Short and sweet. One of the best soundtracks of all time EASY, even if the first stage theme is a Rainbow ripoff. Actually, I think this might make it even better. Is it just me or was one of the bosses Zeorymer, by the way?

This game was....fiiiiiine hahah

The whole conceit is you're this Lord and some bad stuff has happened and there's a bunch of baddies who also have armor and you've gotta fight 'em! Instead of weapon powerups or whatever, you choose a Suit of Armor at the beginning of the level which changes your shot and super (as well as your color!)

The Earth one is basically the best one because its super merks bosses really fast.

The standouts here are the hilarious(ly great) butt-rock tunes and the boss transformations.

It's fine!

Decidedly better than Gate of Thunder, though there a couple of unhinged design choices:

Having limited continues is the work of a maniac considering the gameplay loop, where you repeat a stage but keep your money to improve your shit.

Powering up your weapon takes forever because each power pickup (of which not every enemy drops btw) gives you a tiny bar on your meter. Taking a single hit however removes THREE bars. Are you kidding me.

No i-frames. It's very easy to lose all your life in like 2 seconds.

The final boss is highly questionable, felt like I bumbled my way to victory.

But beyond those, this is cool as hell. Being able to touch the floor and ceiling felt strangely liberating. When I died on a stage boss and thought "oh no, I'll have to replay the whole stage", then the game continued me on the boss, my joy was unspeakable. Same when I saw them giving me full health, power and bombs in the final boss, and infinite power. Weirdly generous for a shmup, thank you.

An unlimited continue cheat is a must however. The fuck were they thinking.

I tried this mostly on a whim, and because a friend of mine wanted me to give it a try.

I found the stage select and armor systems neat. I ended up using the Earth Armor because I found the sheer damage of its explosions very useful. Wind just felt a bit too widespread with little damage. Water was great, being the only one able to consistently attack behind. Fire I just didn't like.

I did enjoy the game having HP, though I felt it could've had more HP drops in the stages themselves, and it felt like the game front loaded all the power up orbs early in stages.

RG35XX

Despite shoot ‘em ups being one of the most represented genres on the TurboGrafx-16, Lords of Thunder is able to stand out in the library thanks to its hybrid rock/fantasy aesthetics, level progression, and currency system. From the start of the opening cutscene, Lords of Thunder blasts out hard rock music, perfectly capturing the game’s fast-paced energy. As the gameplay begins, it becomes clear that nearly every defeated enemy drops crystals. These crystals usually don’t give an immediate bonus, but they serve as cash to spend between levels on upgrades, health, extra continues, etc. With the high price of the best shop items, there’s motivation to destroy every enemy and grab every crystal you can. In addition, there’s the option to play the first six stages in any order. This choice is a great way to try out the different armors and plan out a sequence for getting through the hardest stages. You could either rack up money in the easy levels before trying out the tougher ones or start with the most difficult parts of the game to minimize the risk of having to spend crystals on continues later on. Even with very short invincibility frames and some surprise enemy spawns, Lords of Thunder is still quite manageable if you have to start a level or two without any upgrades. Most importantly, it's incredibly fun and would be a great experience for anyone with even a slight background in shoot ‘em ups.

Definitely much slower and sloppier with weaker gameplay and stage design than Gate of Thunder, and instead adds lite-RPG upgrade mechanics, a bit similar to UN Squadron. The focus is more on what order you do stages and upgrades, and there is some risk-reward in grabbing all the currency pickup. There are four ships options with different fire patterns, but some clearly outclass others.

I would prefer tighter and more intentional stage and boss design. The focus here is clearly on the music and upgrade system rather than the gameplay and stage/boss design. Everything just feels flat and unsatisfying, and it just feels very sloppy and amateurish. There is poor clarity and what damages you and what doesn't is unclear and everything just blends together, especially with all the currency tokens flooding the screen and enemies just flying in from behind or below you with no notice or warning. Enemies will always just quickly jerk around and smash right into you and deal tons of rapid continuous damage. Just feels like very lazy and sloppy trial and error.

The SEGA CD and Turbo CD versions are similar, but the SEGA CD version is easier with i-frames on hit and no suicide bullets on Super (which makes it much easier)