no tengo mucho que decir, creo que cumple bien con lo que propone y aunque en general es un juego que en diseño es bastante sencillo ,habran ciertas partes ,sobretodo a partir del 3er mundo, en que el diseño de los dungeons comienza a brillar ,sobretodo cuando sellar uno de los nidos , abre mas nidos sorpresa
la historia es sencilla y va directo al grano ,no puedo destacar mucho de ella honestamente , pero es bonito que cada npc que liberamos tiene acciones secundarias que no tienen relevancia pero son cosas que le dan vida al juego, por ejemplo como al soldado y mucama flirteando en secreto y se dan vuelta en un solo frame cuando los vemos .

Known as "Soul Blader" here in Japan, I've been meaning to get to this game and its two sequels for quite some time now, and a simple sort of Zelda-like was just what I was in the mood for after all of that N64 playing earlier in the month. I honestly had virtually no idea what this game was even like, but its reputation was good enough that I was willing to take the chance regardless. It took me a bit under 8 hours to play through the Japanese version of the game on emulated hardware without abusing save states or using a guide.

Soul Blazer tells the story of a heavenly guardian come down to the world to set things right. The great demon lord Deathtoll was summoned by humanity, so the souls of just about every living thing have been sealed away by his dark minions. It's your mission to head down there and set things right again. While the story's presentation is quite of its time (that being quite simple and without much use of scene-setting music), it's actually a surprisingly well written story dealing with how there can always be hope in the world despite how eager humanity can be to march towards its own demise for personal enrichment. It's not exactly the best story on the Super Famicom or anything, but it was one I enjoyed nonetheless, and it's nice to see a more well considered story in a Zelda-like like this.

While I do call this game a Zelda-like, it's honestly much more like Ys 1&2 and Gauntlet had a baby that was then raised by Actraiser XD (which makes some degree of sense, given that this was made by the guys who made both Ys 1&2 and Actraiser). It's a top down action game much like Gauntlet or Dungeon Explorers, and you go through dungeons killing all the monsters in an area. Upon killing all of the monsters out of a certain spawner, the spawner will explode all on its own, and walking over it will destroy it and free the soul of the being trapped in it.

Upon returning to the town of that particular area (of which the game has seven), you can talk to these beings (be they people, animal, or plant) and receive information, goodies, or just a simple thank you. This game has no money, so your goodies you find generally fall into being either new equipment (armor, swords, or spells), or just the power gems that you collect to power your spells. It's a pretty simple gameplay loop overall, but it's one that works really well regardless. It'll probably be a bit of an easy game for some (though the English version is a little bit harder), but I found its challenge to be juuuust right for me as a veteran of the genre. Even if you are having a hard time, you gain experience points from killing monsters, and there are always monsters that aren't connected to spawners that simply respawn when you enter and leave the screen, so simple EXP grinding to power up more is always an option if you're having trouble~.

The presentation of the game is really stand-out excellent. As mentioned earlier, we're taking a LOT of stuff from Actraiser, as almost all of the sound effects and even significant bits of the UI seem to just be copied directly over from Actraiser. Heck, even the way enemies get stunned slightly after hitting them is right out of Actraiser XD. Thankfully, not only is the Actraiser stuff very good and functional, so reusing it here is hardly a problem, but we also got a banging soundtrack too! This game's soundtrack was awesome, and there was barely a new area I got to where I didn't say out loud "oh hell yeah, this song rocks!". The graphics are also very pretty, though they're certainly of the time for a '92 SFC game.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. With a nice little story and really fun and balanced gameplay, this is a super easy recommendation. If you like 2D Zelda-type stuff at all, then this will likely be a game you quite enjoy, and you don't even need to be super good at these sorts of games to beat it. An awesome action/adventure game to spend a weekend with, if there ever was one~.

Solid as it may be, Soul Blazer feels like it retreads a lot of ActRaiser's ideas outside of the core gameplay loop - as a follower of the Master, you help populate wastelands by destroying monster lairs. The change from ActRaiser's platformer/sim genre hybrid to a standard top-down action RPG results in more polish but less ambition, and in my opinion, a little less charm. In addition to the reuse of some sound effects and HUD graphics, as well as a similarly structured ending sequence, it ends up feeling like this side story of sorts to ActRaiser.

Don't get it twisted, though. It's certainly the more accessible of the two if that makes sense, and by all means a good game whether or not you're judging it on its own two legs. I'd bet a lot of people actually prefer Soul Blazer, even - but I am not one of those people. It just feels a lot safer in its execution, and as a result has fewer pleasant surprises from my experiences playing both. Perhaps the biggest downgrade is the presentation, in which Soul Blazer just can't seem to keep up with ActRaiser's soundtrack and its gorgeous backgrounds and environments (and especially for its time as well, during the console's infancy.) This seems to be due to a shorter development cycle, with Soul Blazer only in development for 9 months according to friends.

I just think ActRaiser seems to hit a lot of the same notes with more grace. That being said, it certainly sets a high bar, and Soul Blazer is honestly not too far behind. I like both, but I think I would recommend this for something more accessible and ActRaiser for something more memorable. Don't trust anyone who has informed you of a direct sequel to ActRaiser. There is not a sequel to ActRaiser.

"Tools are there to make peoples' lives easier. If tools are there to use people, their culture will decline and they will become unhappy."

As is usual with Quintet games, the ending is absolutely amazing, and it alone makes the whole game worth playing.

However, the decline of ActRaiser is devastatingly noticable. At the time, it was believed that ActRaiser's town-building simulator was disliked by the masses, and they should instead switch to a much more action-heavy game-style. Therefore, while Soul Blazer does partially retain the narrative ideas that made ActRaiser stand out - Heaven, Earth, and Hell, individualism, finding happiness, how God is seen by the people of the earth, and so forth - those aspects are undercut by the excessive focus on gameplay that, frankly, has not evolved past the stages of ActRaiser. This wasn't a problem in ActRaiser, as its action-segments were so short, but in a game so focused on the action, with only a few moments of brilliance there, I'd rather just play a better action game. Or even a better Quintet game, as all themes explored in Soul Blazer are better explored in their other games.

It's telling that the most memorable moments are the interactions between the player and the citizens of the earth: The remorseful king, Dr. Leo, Lisa, and so many more, I will remember much longer and much more fondly than any of the combat segments.

Of course, as is usual with Quintet, the soundtrack and visuals are pretty amazing, but they aren't enough to carry the combat on their own.

Overall, unless you are interested in Quintet's history, you should just play a different game of theirs. If you are already a fan of the studio, then the ending is so amazing that it alone makes the whole 7-hour journey worth experiencing.

The game is pretty simplistic in a lot of its areas, but the way it's structured and paced makes it satisfying to play.

A king made a terrible decision and now you, a divine angel, are sent by someone simply known as the "Master" to restore things to how they once were. As you traverse dungeons and defeat enemies, you restore a particular location to its previous state, one thing at a time. The protagonist is silent and the story itself can be boiled down to a simple tale of good vs evil. Despite this, seeing the world slowly rebuild, and interacting with each denizen you restored felt pretty cool.

The top-down hack 'n slash combat (which if you've played a 2D Zelda game will feel pretty familiar) isn't exactly deep and the magic system felt somewhat weird and awkward to land, but learning the enemy and boss patterns and how to beat them felt pretty satisfying regardless.
There was very little grinding, enemies in dungeons (with small exceptions) didn't respawn upon reentering and the game is generous with shortcuts, drastically reducing the amount of backtracking.
It's a breath of fresh air, making this, at least for me, one of the more accessible games for the SNES.

Since it came out early in the SNES' lifespan, the graphics aren't anything to write home about, but there is a nice variety of visuals in each area.

The music is good and captures the feeling of each area pretty well, while simultaneously being catchy. Although, it's a bit of a shame there aren't that many tracks.

A few small nitpicks that I have is that hit boxes can be a little weird at times, and there's no way to skip or change the speed of the in-game text, which is somewhat annoying.

Overall, the game has an interesting concept and a fun gameplay loop, although its simplicity might make it boring for some people. Worth trying if you're a fan of early 90s ARPGs.

The first game in the spiritual trilogy of itself, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, I decided to go back to them after liking the last of them.

I had hoped for a great story like Terranigma, but that wasn't there. It’s an extremely simple game but it’s got a really fun gameplay loop of progress in dungeons being reflected in buildings and NPCs being restored, which lets you talk to them when you die before getting back into a dungeon, sort of like Hades would do things decades later (I think? I’ve never played Hades). Ultimately it's just a game that flows very well, in an era where most really struggled with that.

A ganância de um monarca e a instrumentalização da ciência para que sirva ao acúmulo do capital, deixam o mundo envolto em trevas. Neste mundo, o Mestre (em inglês, Master), entidade criadora detentora de grande sabedoria e poder, envia um herói a terra em ruínas, que com a ajuda de todos, deve derrotar o mal e restaurar a paz.
Soul Blazer guia sua experiência principalmente pela exploração, que por sua vez é intimamente ligada à história. A estrutura de exploração do jogo incentiva a ida e volta entre as áreas de combate e as áreas comuns, o que resulta na intercalada muito bem cadenciada entre dois fatores interligados e coincidentemente simplistas: a gameplay e a narrativa. Mesmo sendo simples, a estrutura do jogo não o aprisiona, e muitos problemas são resolvidos através da grande variedade da funcionalidade de itens, magias e equipamentos adquiridos através da exploração e as suas muitas aplicabilidades no level design enxuto, porém eficiente, todo interconectado e muito facilmente transitável, atingindo façanhas de design que suavizam a experiência tornando-a indiscutivelmente agradável. Level design este preenchido por uma arte belíssima, que apresenta belos cenários e elementos vibrantes, sprites grandes e um uso de cores inteligente. Áreas vazias que ainda não foram recuperadas pelo herói ganham vida conforme progredimos e aos poucos se monta diante de nossos olhos um mundo belíssimo que serve também como recompensa para todo o árduo trabalho de exploração e combate que desempenhamos por todo o jogo, também acompanhado de uma trilha sonora única e harmoniosa, repleta de bom charme e bom humor, mas que mostra todas as suas cores quando precisa ser triste ou intensa, tal qual o jogo a que serve, complementando-o de maneira brilhante.
Mesmo sendo muito simples e agindo meramente como um plano de fundo, a narrativa atinge seus pontos altos e se faz presente, e tem como ponto chave o indicador do destino da humanidade enquanto nossa organização for direcionada pela ganância de uns em detrimento da existência de todos, e questiona inclusive o uso da ciência nas nossas vidas, ao alegar que as máquinas devem sempre nos auxiliar servindo a todos e não aos interesses egoístas da acumulação da riqueza, dando como resposta final para isso, o herói que através do esforço conjunto de todos os povos, depõe o grande tirano e restaura a paz, pavimentando o caminho para um futuro próspero.
No fim do dia, Soul Blazer não deixa de ser o que é: um RPG de ação simplista, mas que entrega uma odisséia carregada de criatividade e charme, formando uma experiência única de grande apreciação artística e grandes exemplos de excentricidade no seu design. Unindo gameplay Hack’n slash, elementos de RPG, um grande enfoque na exploração e uma história que questiona o uso da ciência no modo de produção e o caminho para a felicidade humana, Soul Blazer se destaca como um jogo acessível, encantadoramente charmoso, divertido e muito pertinente aos dias atuais.

a solid game with a good concept. soul blazer would be your typical top-down rpg hack n slash zelda-like, however it does something that sets it apart from the rest. as you crawl through dungeons killing monsters, you'll slowly restore towns piece by piece. if that sounds familiar, dark cloud for the ps2 used a similar premise. and it's a good one, i cant lie. that said, concept alone does not make a game good, execution is what really matters. and how is soul blazer?

its alright

the core gameplay is solid enough, the core gameplay has you going through dungeons and sealing monster lairs by killing enough monsters that pop out of the lair, usually like 3-5 per lair. monsters die in a couple hits but they also get i-frames as they pop out, and theres no knockback, so you can kind of just cheese the game by just standing a certain distance from the lair and just spam your sword or magic.
and thats another thing, the magic. it requires gems, usually about 8 per use (some magic require more or less, and you do get equipable items that reduce the gem requirement late in the game) and honestly the magic.... kinda sucks. there's this constantly rotating ball around you that you can barely control, it spins around you counterclockwise endlessly and with a button you can make it shoot magic. the first spell you get is useless, it shoots a fire bell in the direction you're facing, but with the constantly rotating ball, aiming is clumsy and while it only takes 4 gems, early on you wont exactly be swimming in gems to spam it. the next magic you get, the light arrow, will be the only magic you use until the final boss. its the same as a fire ball, but it goes in 4 directions for 8 gems. due to how awkward it is to aim, and the fact it goes in 4 directions all at once, that thing is the only good spell for most the game. magic flair is the next spell. its strong, but enemies dont take many hits to die as it is so i rarely used it. rotator is useless. it says it uses one gem, but it sucks them up fast as it rotates around you, if it rotated faster, it would be useful, but before you get item that removes the gem cost, it uses too many gems to be worthwhile. the spark bomb is the next spell. its almost usefull, creating bombs around (or wherever the magic ball goes as you walk) but the bombs take forever to blow, and dont do much to enemies before they explode. and it doesnt even go all around you, it drops 4 bombs in a half circle around you and you cant make more until they all explode. lame. flame pillar is similar to the bombs, but its 4 flame pillars in a half circle around you. they stay for like 5-10 seconds but dont cover enough ground to be useful enough for their 20 gem cost. tornado is the penultimate spell, costing 8 gems. it summons a tornado about twice the size of you and it kinda goes where it wants. its not big enough to get enemies with its random path, its frustrating to use because of how it just avoids enemies. and once its off screen, you need to summon another one. if it was either much larger or homed in on enemies, this would be much more useful. but as it is, i still stick to the light arrow. the final magic is the phoenix. 2 gem requirement and you only get it as youre about to face the final boss. otherwise useless unless you feel like farming snakes in the castle level. unlike the other magic, this makes your sword shoot a powerful wave in front of you, and its the only way to damage the final boss. and getting it is a pain, that leads me into the other annoying thing about this game.

you need a guide.
most the game you can breeze through with little difficulty. sure bosses might give you trouble, but besides that, its a nice game to play while you listen to something. just going through the dungeon, sealing monster lairs, saving towns, its nice. and then the game throws some obscure roadblock in your way. sometimes its as simple as "oh the game told me to come back to this world when i got a sword, which is like 7 hours of gameplay and i just forgot"
other times it will be me not knowing that im supposed to walk on a random skeletons bones in a dungeon full of them to pick up an invisible item. just one of those moments that makes you go "fuck off game". the game is at least merciful when it comes to monster lairs. if you pause, the game tells you how many lairs are left in that section of the dungeon you're currently in. and if youre playing on retroarch with achievements, it gets even easier as you can simply track how many you've done. and people say achievements are useless. there is some annoying backtracking, like how you need 2 different swords you get late in the game to defeat specific monsters, but these moments are far and few. actually that is one of the cool aspects of the game. each new sword and armor you get isnt just more attack or more defense. one sword causes monsters to paralyze, one gets you more large gems, one kills armored monsters, one kills ghosts, one recovers hp with every kill. as for armor, one lets you walk on fire, one lets you breath underwater, one cuts gem cost in half, one gives you i-frames, one makes you take no damage from early game enemies (for backtracking i assume) and one negates all environmental damage (like spikes). you get these items in various ways. sometimes in chests, sometimes by talking to those you free, sometimes from little side quests.

soul blazer is a charming game with a wonderful concept and execution that needs some work. if you ever wondered what a 16-bit dark cloud would look like, give this game a try. its not perfect but it is worth your time.

The first in Quintet's 'unofficial' Gaia series, Soul Blazer is an action-RPG whose gameplay reimagines LoZ as a chapter-based, pseudo-town builder propelled by clearing waves of enemies in dungeons. i.e. Battle encounters could spawn quest points found in their corresponding level's hub, which take the form of buildings, hint-giving NPCs and special loot. The most interesting of which is found in the latter - namely their accessories and armor, equipped items with a range of extra abilities (whether to circumvent hazards or enter areas) that have more in common with Zelda than with ARPGs. By pairing those tools with the fragmented, gradually-expanding design of its trials (unravelling in tandem with hub unlocks and vice-versa), they offer a mini version of classic overworld-to-dungeon progression, but in discrete segments rather than a rigid dichotomy. And - along the way, plenty of shortcuts facilitate the frequent backtracking expected of this action-to-adventure loop. In their hands, dungeon-crawling is not necessarily about finding the boss/exit.

Its only weak point is the combat, a fast-paced albeit repetitive and somewhat awkward system in which enemies don't respond to offense; no knockback & no stun, just a split second blink as they continue forward. Those user attacks - however, sport a wildly disjointed hitbox that can pierce through obstacles, effectively inspiring players to hide behind walls, corners or pillars (or a few steps from the spawner) and cast or hack away at approaching foes. Its potential is perhaps better demonstrated in later stages and during boss fights (with a few painful exceptions). Regardless, Quintet engineered a challenging and unique form of crawler that is recursive but not quite rogue-like, thus possibly laying the foundations for Dark Cloud.

クインテット三部作の中ではあくまでシンプルという立ち位置に。シナリオが他の作品に比べてそれほどダークなものではなく, アクションの幅も限られているために少し物足りなく感じてしまう人もいるかもしれません

しかし実際にプレイしてみればシナリオの面白さと, RPG に必要な探索要素, 自分でストーリーを開放していく楽しさを十分に感じられるはず。クリアだけならそれなりに簡単ですが, 隠し要素も多くて遊びごたえはそれなりにあります

アクション面でみると魔法の扱いにくさが少し難点でしょうか。アクションゲームとしては簡単なので, 意外とゴリ押しでクリアできてしまいます。そうすると魔法の存在意義が少し不安定なものに・・・

隠し要素の中にはかなりわかりにくいものもあるので, そこがちょっと残念です。攻略情報なしで, 完全クリアを目指すひとはかなり苦労すると思います

音楽はタケカワユキヒデ氏が監修しており, 文句なしに素晴らしい。他の「三部作」と共通する BGM もあるので, 既プレイヤーはニヤリとすること請け合いでしょう

This is a fine example of a game with a really simple premise. You start out in bleak, empty landscapes, and after doing battle with some monsters in another realm, those landscapes are gradually populated with buildings and people. It's not quite a city-builder like ActRaiser, but it definitely has some of that DNA. And of course, the more you restore, the more you get access to on your journey. The pacing of the game slows down near the end, and it feels like the gameplay loop gets a little stale, but the overall experience is rewarding!

Finished Soul Blazer 🗡️

At one point in the final town, you find someone performing with a harp in the church. His sprite animates charmingly and the generic town theme music fades away as he begins to play. The music he plays is a powerful, profound composition that immediately strikes you from your ears to your heart.

Later, It was no surprise that, as the credits rolled, this beautiful piece began again. It was the conclusion to an epic journey and the theme seemed to encapsulate all those feelings of adventure, peril, love, sorrow, and occasionally a layer of absurd amusement.

I loved all the spiritual themes flowing through this game, lots of stuff about reincarnation and appreciating the little parts of life. Mixed in with all this was the charm of a slightly dodgy translation, and the joy of surreal moments like when the goat tells you that she used to be her owner's husband in a past life. You'll smile all the way through but you'll also pause a moment to consider the belief of reincarnation as you do.

This is a very fun action adventure RPG that is beautiful to behold and will stick around in your memory for a long time after playing thanks to its unique gameplay aspects. The game is developed by Quintet, who had also created ActRaiser, and would go on to create two (spiritual?) sequels to this game. Illusion of Gaia (known as Illusion of Time in Europe) and Terranigma continue on the path laid by Soul Blazer, and both are still today very highly regarded SNES Action RPGs.

I have not played those other games, so I can't comment on their quality, but while reading up about them, I discovered this game, Soul Blazer. I thought it was interesting that people didn't seem to mention it as much, but when they did it was usually in positive terms, so I decided to give it a go. And I'm glad I did. I will definitely play Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma some time in the future.

The game has a great sense of rhythm. Each world or "zone" was relatively short; some of the earlier ones could be completed in a single night. The character progression was paced well too, with a regular supply of level-ups, new weapons, armour and magic spells trickling in as you progress. Each new item brings its own unique perks.

There were some less polished aspects of the game, though they didnt mar the experience all that much. Sometimes, controlling the character was a bit difficult. Struggling to get him to point the direction you want him to when in the midst of a boss fight can cost you your life. Thankfully, the checkpoint and saving system is very generous and forgiving, so it's not the end of the world.

The graphics constantly impressed me, especially the backgrounds. At one stage, you get to look out over the horizon and see the Aurora Borealis glowing beyond the mountain tops. At another, you'll see the blue depths of the ocean shimmering beneath you.

The boss fights also feature superb illustrations and sprite work, with some huge, intricate bosses filling up large portions of the screen. These are also a lot of fun, gameplay wise. They generally require some trial and error and learning the boss's different attack patterns in order to effectively avoid damage while picking the right moment to strike and land a hit.

The game has a gentle difficulty curve which I thought was very pleasant. For example, in the first few worlds, you can often adjust your sword positioning in order to defeat a wave enemies without having to move a muscle - simply let them walk towards you and impale themselves on your sword! Some may think this is a negative, but I enjoyed it. It meant that playing the game could sometimes be very relaxing - less stressful, reaction-based battles and more slow-paced positioning puzzles. That being said, there is an enjoyable level of challenge to be found here, in the later levels.

I rate Soul Blazer a GGGg. That's a Great Good Game with garnish. I really enjoyed my time with it!

The combat is pretty janky, dated, repetitive, and very simple. It's a very big negative, but it's also the only one.

Soul Blazer is immensely satisfying to play. After about 10 minutes I was already hooked. This is the type of game that clicks instantly. Kill enemies, free villages, talk, rinse and repeat. It's so simple and insanely addicting for the entire game. This is also followed up by the fact that everything in the game has an insanely weird tone. Yeah, you can talk to people, goats, mice, plants, doors(?!) and this leads to some funny dialogue or events. However, some of these guys are pondering their own existence in a way that isn't overly self-indulgent or edgy. These moments are often as comical as they are melancholic. This makes for an extremely unique tone that I haven't seen accomplished in any other game.

Even with the poor combat, this game isn't very long and is an extremely unique experience. I'll be checking out Illusion of Gaia very soon. Recommended to everyone.

"Like good sleep comes after hard work, good rest comes after an honest life."

Every few years I get a hankering for Link to the Past and some Zelda clones. That always involves me playing this, then most of Illusion of Gaia (I may actually finish it next time), then some of Terranigma, and maybe a Ys or two for good measure, and then I'm done.

But of all of them (besides LttP of course), this one is my favorite. As a game, it's... primitive. Gameplay is simple and feels like it's crafted to make your weapon range and easy enemy patterns make up for the original intended complexity. Your sword swing hits in a full circle around you (even if it's not animated to look like it, it does), enemies are programmed to have complex movement and attacks but generally come out of the lairs in a straight line, and there is no currency so there's no resource management (outside of a single HP recovery item you can hold).

But it also feels like Quintet wasn't interested in making a game, they were interested in making everything else. Back in 1992, these graphics were among the most beautiful I'd ever seen. I wanted to live in Grass Valley, I still do. Everything feels like it takes place in a cold, mountain sunset, which is fitting, because the game itself is about being alone and how you manage.

The core mechanic of dungeon crawling, releasing people, getting stuff from people, then returning to dungeon crawling is very satisfying, even though I've done it twenty times or more in the last 30+ years. I still love being in this game.

There's a very real sadness here, which you can really hear in the music, and even the happy ending is laced with melancholy. Characters grow and make promises they may never keep, but it doesn't matter to us, because we won't be there.

And the final bit, the close up on Lisa and the text about her growth, hits me harder the older I get, as do the dwarves who only live a year.

There's so much beauty in this little game, and so much to admire. Quintet never really got past this, and I wish they were still around, making games.

SIMPLISTA PERO FUNCIONAL

El primer capítulo de la Trilogía Heaven and Earth de SNES, un clásico Action RPG de vista cenital, movimiento e historia simple pero con un diseño de nivel agradable, un mundo original y una diversión más que garantizada.

Tomamos el papel de Blader, un enviado de Dios que baja al mundo para eliminar al mal que asola el mundo para que así vuelva a ser poblado por buenas personas.

Simple, pero se compensa con su diversión.

subtly decent story, simple arcade romp gameplay, goated art/music/sound

every second screen in this game could be put on some tumblr moodboard for pixelart

easily completed with just a notepad, didn't need a walk-through even once for 100% (huge breaking news for a SNES title)