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| Source // NeoGAF |
Do you like side-scrolling beat 'em ups? Do you like role-playing games? Do the stories you enact simply have to include branching paths and multiple endings? Do you only have a Sega Saturn with which to experience all these things, and must have them all appear in one game? Then it looks like Guardian Heroes is for you and your weirdly specific preferences.
Four young warriors have stumbled across an epic sword, and then the troubles really start, as they find themselves brought into a battle between spirits of the Earth and the Sky. And I thought it was just a button masher.
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| Source // Hardcore Gaming 101 |
Fun Times
I initially sighed at Guardian Heroes being a Sega Saturn title, what with my luck and that system, but it turns out this classic was good enough for an Xbox Live Arcade remaster, which is how I'm enjoying the wonderful artwork clogging up my screen.
A number of characters are available to play as, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to go through the game as a character that fits the traditional beat 'em up mould of 'smash the shit out of everyone', or one more adept at a little of this and a little of that, notably in the form of some magic attacks.
Ever the brute, I chose to play it simple to start with, choosing Han the knight, and the game starts simply too, dropping you into the action as the building you are in starts to catch fire. While you've the option to flee immediately, as would be fitting of any normal human, you can stay and fight in this area for a good while, trying out your attack combos on wave after wave of less-than-intelligent enemy soldiers.
Every hit you land ups your experience, and you can find yourself levelling up ten times in this first room alone and then spending those experience points to customise the attributes of your character, making them stronger, faster, luckier, healthier and so on.
After a few short stages, the previous owner of the sword we wield comes and pays us a visit... From beyond the grave.
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| Source // Moby Games |
Thankfully, he obeys our commands, which only occur in cutscenes and consist of doing the hard work for you.
This guy tanks seemingly everything that is thrown his way, and dishes out the punishment as well as he takes it. It'll be you and him for the rest of the game as we try to work out what's going on, who our friends are and whether our enemies are really so bad after all.
Frustrations
If that was a wishy-washy description of events, it's because I'm not exactly on board with the plot. There's a bad guy, of course, and he's trying to elevate the status of Humans back to their rightful place in relation to the Sky and Earth spirits that share the universe with them. The humans helped the Sky spirits in the past, only for the Sky spirits to dick us over and toss us aside, so we're entitled to some revenge, I guess.
Except that all the races were created in order to find the ultimate warriors, and then hire them as bodyguards. Why does a deity need a bodyguard? Beat's me - which is a nice segue to the game beating me.
While I was making my way through the game, making decisions on where to go and what to do next based on very little information, I noticed a few things.
Firstly, that I was largely button mashing because I didn't appear to have any luck with combos.
Now that's not a perfect strategy at all. What you should do is utilise the pseudo-3D stages by hopping into the background plane, walking behind your foe, jumping back to the foreground and kicking him in the face from the other side, ideally flanking with your zombie-buddy.
What actually happened was that I found that to be a bit of a faff and that the block button did most of the work, until the stages started to hit walls steeper than El Capitan.
I was utterly thrashing enemies left right and centre, and then I'd lose three credits to one stage. And then there'd be a boss fight that was alright, but not great, and then the second form of the boss who essentially stun-locked me for 60-70% of the 'contest', dealing constant damage while doing so. I'll chalk that up to not using the intricacies of the dodging between planes, but then if you're given no time to dodge in the first place...
The second thing I noticed was that I wasn't always noticing much. The screen can get packed with enemies and effects, and your zombie buddy will often stand right where you are too, so seeing what you're even doing half the time is a challenge. On-screen hit markers help, as do small sprites in the HUD (on the remake, at least), but this is art that ought to be stared at for a while, not stacked on top of itself until you can't see one enemy from the other.
It's visually busy, and while you can slow things down and take on one or two enemies at a time, you often don't have the luxury and will be wading through the thick of it hoping to stay alive. May your fingers be faster than mine at plane switching and combo entering.
Final Word
I don't know how far through Guardian Heroes I got - I think the stage numbering jumps around depending on the choices you make at the end of them - but it feels like I got quite far, and I was not playing for very long. Short games are fine, and this is certainly a game that you'll enjoy playing and looking at for any length of time. Until you reach your limit.
I've not mastered a strategy that works, and button mashing won't cut it. I could drop the difficulty, mix up the character selection, take different routes through the game, so the replayability is there should I get round to it, but I don't know if it's going to get a second playthrough anytime soon.
It's worth playing, don't get me wrong. The RPG elements give you plenty of options, even though they're quite light compared to, well, any RPG, really, but they break up what is otherwise a bit of a repetitive beat 'em up.
As an afternoon filler, Guardian Heroes certainly fills the afternoon, the multiplayer options for those interested in co-operative or competitive gameplay.
FILLING YOU IN
Saturn emulation update: I can view the introduction anime! Still can't play the original game. The rotten luck continues...
Fun Facts
When asked why a 2D game was being made when the era of 3D was fast approaching and blowing up, the developers replied "Treasure has built up a tremendous knowledge of 2D sprite know how. It's an asset that we wish to continue using."
Guardian Heroes, developed by Treasure, first released in 1996.
Version played: Xbox Live Arcade, 2011.