Cleared on May 16th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 70/160)
Undead Line takes every possible way you can make a vertical shoot em up insanely difficult and just runs with it. Your character is on foot which makes it prone to hazards and collision, but its not like Twinkle Tale where you can move on your own accordance, but its an auto-scroller where you aim in one direction. Add that with a barrage of enemies and very tricky boss fights and that's Undead Line.
This is the kind of difficulty that could make me miserable, but I think what carries this game for me is the ghoulish atmosphere and the fun weaponry. You are playing as a warrior named Leon, who is on a quest to defeat Count Brahzen and his monster army. There you venture into the darkness where they await your demise. Fortunately for you, you have chests laying all around that can provide you with weaponry and buffs.
You have six possible weapons which consist of Throwing Knife. A standard rapid-fire projectile. I never bothered to upgrade it, so I don't know what it would accomplish. It's your standard weapon and presumably the worst. Energy Blast is a projectile that upon contact will create a blast that damages enemies nearby with the blast growing stronger as you upgrade. Fireball which creates fireball projectiles and upon upgrade will become a flamethrower, making it arguably the best for dealing with bosses. Axe returns like a boomerang with low range and pierces through enemies. I'm sure the damage is good, but it's probably one of the worst weapons in the game due to the nature of this game with enemies barraging you left and right and having a slow straight line projectile that you can only have 5 out at a time is kinda a liability. Boomerang is kinda the same idea, but it takes its own upgrade direction with going in different directions and at max level will turn into a homing shot that hits nearby enemies, making it probably the best for clearing enemies. Crossed Sword is another really good AoE weapon. Each of which (except for Throwing Knife) is tied to a stat which you can upgrade at the end of each level, provided that you collect fairies that spawn at each level with 3 per level which means you can gain a maximum of 18 throughout a run of the game. If I have to guess, not only does it give you a headstart in upgrade, but also boosts damage. So the most optimal strategy would be to max out the stat based on which weapon you want to use. You want to use Energy Blast? Pick MP which also comes with the added benefit of making your Spirit stronger which despite appearing in the weapon chest is more of a buff moreso than anything. You want to use Crossed Sword, stack up on Strength. You want to rotate between Flamethrower and Boomerang? Boost your Dexterity. There's also Agility which boosts your movement speed which can be nice to have.
In addition to your weapons, you have a shield which can block certain projectiles that shoot in front of you. You are going to need it because its the only way to deal with certain obstacles that seem otherwise improbable to avoid. You have three spike balls which will spin around you and protect you from projectiles and damage nearby foes, but you only get three per life, so use them wisely. You also have item chests that improve your survivability which include Blue Medicine which heals you by one point as well as Shield which protects you for 3 hits. You have dynamite for a screen nuke and an invincibility potion. Do be careful when shooting the chest since there are duds like the red potion which despite its red look will actually decrease your HP by 1, a black potion which will revert you to Level 1 Throwing Knife, and Lead Boots which will slow you.
As stated before, this game can get very punishing under bad circumstances. There is no damage buffer to give you time to re-adapt, if you get barraged three times in less than 2 seconds, you lost all of that health. Checkpoints only exist after you defeat the mini-boss which some levels aren't guaranteed to have. And the bosses are a real bitch to fight. The Forest boss fight is ironically the worst despite being the one you will most likely fight first since you can tackle them in any order. It's massive, it has spinning boulders, and you need to utilize a very specific movement pattern, so its fat hitbox doesn't collide with yours while making sure the boulder doesn't hit you from behind. Other boss fights include an undead sorcerer that radiates dark auras that can harm you on contact which can be beaten back by simply attacking, but you also have rapid fire projectiles. Ruins I don't think is hard as long as you keep blocking. The fire boss is actually really easy once you figure out you can shoot its hand to block one of its projectiles, allowing you room to avoid only one fire wave. I think I had a better time with this fight due to using Crossed Sword. The dragon is a tanky one, and can damage you with a gust of wind and a flame breath. If there's one point I can say the agility stat would be the most optimal, this would be the fight. Drain has you deal with the slime boss which isn't too hard. The final boss, meanwhile, seems like it's unwinnable at first, but once can figure out you can get up close, and get into a rhythm of blocking its 2nd attack and dodge right for its lasers when it comes up while blocking, it's not that hard to deal with.
Undead Line did have some neat ideas, and I'm a sucker for a more gothic atmosphere in games, but the over the top difficulty really bogged this game down for me even on Easy mode. It really would've been right at home in America given how often they like to bullshit their game difficulty for international releases. Rental stores would've loved to have copies of this game lying around.
Undead Line takes every possible way you can make a vertical shoot em up insanely difficult and just runs with it. Your character is on foot which makes it prone to hazards and collision, but its not like Twinkle Tale where you can move on your own accordance, but its an auto-scroller where you aim in one direction. Add that with a barrage of enemies and very tricky boss fights and that's Undead Line.
This is the kind of difficulty that could make me miserable, but I think what carries this game for me is the ghoulish atmosphere and the fun weaponry. You are playing as a warrior named Leon, who is on a quest to defeat Count Brahzen and his monster army. There you venture into the darkness where they await your demise. Fortunately for you, you have chests laying all around that can provide you with weaponry and buffs.
You have six possible weapons which consist of Throwing Knife. A standard rapid-fire projectile. I never bothered to upgrade it, so I don't know what it would accomplish. It's your standard weapon and presumably the worst. Energy Blast is a projectile that upon contact will create a blast that damages enemies nearby with the blast growing stronger as you upgrade. Fireball which creates fireball projectiles and upon upgrade will become a flamethrower, making it arguably the best for dealing with bosses. Axe returns like a boomerang with low range and pierces through enemies. I'm sure the damage is good, but it's probably one of the worst weapons in the game due to the nature of this game with enemies barraging you left and right and having a slow straight line projectile that you can only have 5 out at a time is kinda a liability. Boomerang is kinda the same idea, but it takes its own upgrade direction with going in different directions and at max level will turn into a homing shot that hits nearby enemies, making it probably the best for clearing enemies. Crossed Sword is another really good AoE weapon. Each of which (except for Throwing Knife) is tied to a stat which you can upgrade at the end of each level, provided that you collect fairies that spawn at each level with 3 per level which means you can gain a maximum of 18 throughout a run of the game. If I have to guess, not only does it give you a headstart in upgrade, but also boosts damage. So the most optimal strategy would be to max out the stat based on which weapon you want to use. You want to use Energy Blast? Pick MP which also comes with the added benefit of making your Spirit stronger which despite appearing in the weapon chest is more of a buff moreso than anything. You want to use Crossed Sword, stack up on Strength. You want to rotate between Flamethrower and Boomerang? Boost your Dexterity. There's also Agility which boosts your movement speed which can be nice to have.
In addition to your weapons, you have a shield which can block certain projectiles that shoot in front of you. You are going to need it because its the only way to deal with certain obstacles that seem otherwise improbable to avoid. You have three spike balls which will spin around you and protect you from projectiles and damage nearby foes, but you only get three per life, so use them wisely. You also have item chests that improve your survivability which include Blue Medicine which heals you by one point as well as Shield which protects you for 3 hits. You have dynamite for a screen nuke and an invincibility potion. Do be careful when shooting the chest since there are duds like the red potion which despite its red look will actually decrease your HP by 1, a black potion which will revert you to Level 1 Throwing Knife, and Lead Boots which will slow you.
As stated before, this game can get very punishing under bad circumstances. There is no damage buffer to give you time to re-adapt, if you get barraged three times in less than 2 seconds, you lost all of that health. Checkpoints only exist after you defeat the mini-boss which some levels aren't guaranteed to have. And the bosses are a real bitch to fight. The Forest boss fight is ironically the worst despite being the one you will most likely fight first since you can tackle them in any order. It's massive, it has spinning boulders, and you need to utilize a very specific movement pattern, so its fat hitbox doesn't collide with yours while making sure the boulder doesn't hit you from behind. Other boss fights include an undead sorcerer that radiates dark auras that can harm you on contact which can be beaten back by simply attacking, but you also have rapid fire projectiles. Ruins I don't think is hard as long as you keep blocking. The fire boss is actually really easy once you figure out you can shoot its hand to block one of its projectiles, allowing you room to avoid only one fire wave. I think I had a better time with this fight due to using Crossed Sword. The dragon is a tanky one, and can damage you with a gust of wind and a flame breath. If there's one point I can say the agility stat would be the most optimal, this would be the fight. Drain has you deal with the slime boss which isn't too hard. The final boss, meanwhile, seems like it's unwinnable at first, but once can figure out you can get up close, and get into a rhythm of blocking its 2nd attack and dodge right for its lasers when it comes up while blocking, it's not that hard to deal with.
Undead Line did have some neat ideas, and I'm a sucker for a more gothic atmosphere in games, but the over the top difficulty really bogged this game down for me even on Easy mode. It really would've been right at home in America given how often they like to bullshit their game difficulty for international releases. Rental stores would've loved to have copies of this game lying around.