Cleared on May 21st, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 74/160)
Note: While I did play a little bit of the mage, I ran through the whole game using the fighter. Review is subjected to be updated when I clear a playthrough with the mage.
Cadash is an side-scroller action platformer brought to you by the once arcade titan, Taito. I have not played the Arcade version although from my understanding the differences involve a timer for each level as well as two additional characters with the Priest and Ninja. On the Sega Genesis, it's just the Fighter and Mage.
The Fighter is the melee class that lets you attack with a sword with its advantage that they can take a lot of hits, but lack the range and versatility which can make it monotonous as you only have one attack button. The Mage, meanwhile, is the spellcaster that's advantage is that it has versatility with spells along with the range, but they do not take damage all that well, their melee attacks are much weaker, and their spells have a mana limit to be wary of.
Despite being an arcade title, it feels more like an Action RPG that you have to beat in 1 sitting (which I don't have to, thankfully). The problem is when you account for the fact that you can actual backtrack like you could in a metroidvania in order to fully heal yourself and just have as much time as you want to. In fact, I've used up a good amount of playtime just killing mobs until I reached Level 20 which from my understanding is the soft cap because the exp required to get from 20 to 21 is so high that you'll never really get there unless you're insane.
With the arcade structure, in mind, don't expect any complex puzzles or even any inventory management as if there's something you need, the game will just handle it for you. There are maybe a few secrets, but for the most part, the game follows a linear path from one point to the next, and if there are multiple paths, there's a good chance that it doesn't stray you for long, or its inaccessible until you get a certain item within the area.
The game ends up being fairly easy, and sure the first boss can give you real trouble, but if you can get past that, it gets much easier with the new equipment and the ability to just go back to town and heal back to full health as well as have medicine herbs on hand, and of course, much more effective mob farm hotspots become open to boost up your levels. Unfortunately, the game ends up feeling kinda boring. I don't mean to say that game's being easy means being boring, but not having much going on mechanically does. I understand that it was meant to be simple due to the timer that was there in the arcade which would encourage time management among your skills, but if they were going to get rid of it, they could've done more with the overall game to make it more engaging.
There's not much else to say about it. It's pretty run of the mill as far as action RPGs go, and I wouldn't really care to recommend it to even a die-hard RPG fan. It's not a terrible game, but it's the type of game that other games of its genre build off of.
Note: While I did play a little bit of the mage, I ran through the whole game using the fighter. Review is subjected to be updated when I clear a playthrough with the mage.
Cadash is an side-scroller action platformer brought to you by the once arcade titan, Taito. I have not played the Arcade version although from my understanding the differences involve a timer for each level as well as two additional characters with the Priest and Ninja. On the Sega Genesis, it's just the Fighter and Mage.
The Fighter is the melee class that lets you attack with a sword with its advantage that they can take a lot of hits, but lack the range and versatility which can make it monotonous as you only have one attack button. The Mage, meanwhile, is the spellcaster that's advantage is that it has versatility with spells along with the range, but they do not take damage all that well, their melee attacks are much weaker, and their spells have a mana limit to be wary of.
Despite being an arcade title, it feels more like an Action RPG that you have to beat in 1 sitting (which I don't have to, thankfully). The problem is when you account for the fact that you can actual backtrack like you could in a metroidvania in order to fully heal yourself and just have as much time as you want to. In fact, I've used up a good amount of playtime just killing mobs until I reached Level 20 which from my understanding is the soft cap because the exp required to get from 20 to 21 is so high that you'll never really get there unless you're insane.
With the arcade structure, in mind, don't expect any complex puzzles or even any inventory management as if there's something you need, the game will just handle it for you. There are maybe a few secrets, but for the most part, the game follows a linear path from one point to the next, and if there are multiple paths, there's a good chance that it doesn't stray you for long, or its inaccessible until you get a certain item within the area.
The game ends up being fairly easy, and sure the first boss can give you real trouble, but if you can get past that, it gets much easier with the new equipment and the ability to just go back to town and heal back to full health as well as have medicine herbs on hand, and of course, much more effective mob farm hotspots become open to boost up your levels. Unfortunately, the game ends up feeling kinda boring. I don't mean to say that game's being easy means being boring, but not having much going on mechanically does. I understand that it was meant to be simple due to the timer that was there in the arcade which would encourage time management among your skills, but if they were going to get rid of it, they could've done more with the overall game to make it more engaging.
There's not much else to say about it. It's pretty run of the mill as far as action RPGs go, and I wouldn't really care to recommend it to even a die-hard RPG fan. It's not a terrible game, but it's the type of game that other games of its genre build off of.