Almost bumped it up a whole extra .5 star bump for that soundtrack. Was it just in for Japanese scrolling shooters to have incredible power metal soundtracks at this time? Check out Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire for another PCE-CD shooter with awesome metal music, but with better graphics and gameplay.
Bom game, difícil em alguns momentos em outros totalmente mais fácil. Um pouco de desbalanceado só.
Porém no geral, muitas emoções, o personagem com sua armadura de Robô destruindo seres com muitas diversificações, porém sendo legal e surpreendente a cada instante.
Porém no geral, muitas emoções, o personagem com sua armadura de Robô destruindo seres com muitas diversificações, porém sendo legal e surpreendente a cada instante.
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.
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.
DAT SOUNDTRACK!
A really fun shmup with some basic economy that lets you purchase things between stages.
The game is a little Mega Man-y in that it allows you to choose stages and, it seems, has some sort of elemental strengths and weaknesses system as chosen before the stage armor sometimes would melt through the boss.
It's a fairly easy game on Normal, letting you replenish your health and buy a whole lot of goodies for yourself which, in addition to already fairly massive health pool really helps.
It's a really fun time, and every stage feels different.
The game is a little Mega Man-y in that it allows you to choose stages and, it seems, has some sort of elemental strengths and weaknesses system as chosen before the stage armor sometimes would melt through the boss.
It's a fairly easy game on Normal, letting you replenish your health and buy a whole lot of goodies for yourself which, in addition to already fairly massive health pool really helps.
It's a really fun time, and every stage feels different.
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.
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.
Words cannot describe how real and raw this game is
Played the pc engine cd version an the first thing that stands out about this game is the insane metal as fuck soundtrack gameplay is also great too aside from sum kinda dickish enemy placement an a kinda jank hit box for one particular boss(lookin at you cielom stage an the azual boss)
Played the pc engine cd version an the first thing that stands out about this game is the insane metal as fuck soundtrack gameplay is also great too aside from sum kinda dickish enemy placement an a kinda jank hit box for one particular boss(lookin at you cielom stage an the azual boss)
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
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