Customer Reviews

Landstalker

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Landstalker is bar none my favorite Genesis game. (Although, Phantasy Star 2, 3 and 4 come in close.) To say it's an action, platform RPG, while technically true, doesn't do it justice. The thing I think I love most about the story line is that, unlike a lot of RPGs, it's on a charmingly small scale. Instead of being about a bunch of hometown boys and girls saving the world by collecting the Great Easter Eggs of the World or something, you're just this treasure hunter who has gotten caught up in a huge plot on one specific island. Apart from the very opening scene, everything in the game occurs solely on that island, but what an island! It's a whole different approach to an RPG that concentrates on one area of the fantasy world, rather than the whole world. Now, you might be thinking that less is less, but I fell in love with this alternative to the RPG cliches because, instead of being impersonal, everything is more vibrant. The towns seemed to me to have more personality. I cared more about the struggles of individual townspeople. The non-town parts of the island seemed so much more full of mystery and wonder than a whole big fantasy world, I think, BECAUSE they zeroed in on one island rather than having you go all over the world.

It also has a great balance between too serious and too silly and it has a plot that I actually remember and that made me care about the characters.

It also has one of the best mixes of different types of things to do, from fighting monsters action game style, to typical RPG activities, like talking to people in towns, buying better equipment and the like, to jumping around on platforms, to solving puzzles and problems. My two favorite parts in it, that I don't think I've seen anywhere else, are a crypt in which you have to solve a series of riddles (though you may have to get an online walkthrough to solve a few of these) and a fairly long problem solving portion that takes place right in town and involves you actually going to different people and places to in town to solve it. This is a nice break from hacking up monsters and it makes it so that the town has more than just an armor and weapons shop, a potion shop and an inn.

There IS a lot of jumping from moving platform to moving platform. I normally can't stand moving platforms, but I still love this game. There were times when I had to make 20 tries before I got across a pit of spikes or a lake of lava by jumping from moving platform to moving platform, but I still remember this game very fondly. Rather than wanting to jump up and down on the game cartridge, I felt pleasantly challenged. Although, one design flaw in the game was that, because of the way the 3 quarter perspective graphics work, it's sometimes hard to see exactly where a floating platform is. Anyway, if you're good at moving platform type scenarios, you'll do fine. If you're like me, you'll still get passed them and enjoy the challenge (and I'm mediocre to poor at this type of thing). But, if you're absolutely abysmal at jumping from one moving platform to another and would rather die than do it, this game probably isn't for you. But, provided you're not that dead set against moving platforms, I predict that you'll love Landstalker!

I'm still playing this game after 17 years. It has tremendous replay value and it's one of the most extensive cartridge video games that I have ever seen. I also like it because you're just in charge of one character and don't have to worry about controlling a group of a dozen characters.

P.S.- Yes, I have played the game through to the end several times. I didn't want you to think that I hadn't finished it even once after 17 years. LOL Now I play it on a system called "RetroN 3." It plays Sega Genesis, original 8 bit Nintendo, and Super Nintendo games.....all on the same system. I got it for only $70.

This is the original alundra for the ps. No this isn't the same storyline but the same people who did alundra did this first. It's the same style gameplay. The main character from this game is also in Timestalkers for the dreamcast. This game is truly a classic

If you want a quality action RPG pick up a zelda title. If you want something completly different you might want to check out Landstalker. Landstalker is... well, a Zelda for sega, and is impressively semi 3D. It feauters good tunes and sports an excellent story. If you need something different pick this up, otherwise get brave fencer musashi or one of the zeldas.