Lord of the Sword

[Stan]

And now the lord of this realm, the site god of evil blood. He comes down from the heavens (or out of the earth) to give us this next game of his. What will it be? Populous? I think not, for gods get sick of godliness and would surely not seek to play a game in which they get to be gods. So then, what? Tell us, Sinistral!

[Sinistral]

Hmm OK.

I considered choosing quite a few games, some of them I've played much less than others, so in the end I decided to pick another game which I believe is under-appreciated.

Some of you may think this is a strange choice, but this is the little chance I have here to try and make some of you see otherwise.

I recently wrote a review for this game on the site, and I'm standing by it. You really all should try out playing a game of............................

LORD OF THE SWORD

Yep, that’s right, its time to pack your bags (don't forget your pointy hat), and leave the comforts of your home town and go on a adventure across vast and diverse land of Balyajina.

Your quest is a noble one; take on the challenge of the Elders and one day you could find yourself sitting on the throne of Varlin castle as proud king of the land.

But first you must pass the three tests!

The journey is long, and the tasks are not easy, but in the end the reward is great, time to prove you have what it takes!!



Game entry in our database : www.smstributes.co.uk/getinfo.asp?gameid=218

[Jo Musashi]

I completed this once and is was pretty fun. A walkthru was definitely needed though...before the days of the internet I got completely lost. I like the long range/short range weapon choice.

[Stan]

Hmmmm, interesting, I've never really tried this game. Now it's time.

[dezanuebe]

not a stange choice, but a wise one, i never finished it, but always liked it the few times i had the time to give it a try.

[Stan]

Hmmmmm, I'm not sure what I think of this game yet, but here are some preliminary problems I have with it and things I like.

1. I've heard people complain about the controls but I think they work fine, I only wish our buddy Landau would jump a bit further or higher because he has quite the sucky leg muscles there.

2. No power ups of any sort? Come on guys, that kind of thing rules in this sort of game. Got to have some little things here and there to replenish my life and stuff.

3. An increase in power that doesn't involve just a weapon change would be cool.

4. I really dig the music and even as I write I just have the game running so I can hear it. It's catchy to me and works well, regardless of how much it's used.

5. The graphics are good, they seem to lack minute details, but I like them.

6. One thing I hate about this kid of game is BACKTRACKING. In Cosmic Spacehead you can just go straight to your destination after you've beaten the platforming level, thus saving time and sanity. I couldn't stand going to new areas to see what was there and then having to go back. Better to just die and start the game all over if you only have an item or two.

7. What's the deal with the "book thieves?" I get the fact they steal your book but why do they suddenly disappear and then come out of the sky? Is this a graphical glitch or are they supposed to be showing off their thievery?

8. The non-linear (somewhat) movement of the game is cool, and I don't find the map that confusing, it makes sense to me. I just wish they labeled where the d**n volcano is so I can toss the book in it before the sky book thief morons take it again.

9. The continue feature is nice but I think a password feature would have been much better with this kind of game.

Need to take some more time with it, but thus far that's what I have to say about this beauty.

[transbot]

I do sorta like this game, but I've always found it very hard to live with. If there was a cheat for more continues or something, it would be worth ploughing through - but after getting so far and having to start back at the beginning for the third time, it just had to be sac'd off, no questions asked.

Most enemies are easily quashed, but some of the smaller, faster ones are awkward gets to hit - as the bow is understandably slow to deploy, I reckon they should've made the sword more responsive (I can't abide them birds that swoop on you full tilt in tandem, when you're trying to deal with other nuisances).
It would've been sound if you could use a variety of different bows that all had special magical qualities - not least because then you would be Bow Selector

Some of the bosses are trifles compared to them 3-in-a-row action scenes - and if your way happens to be blocked off for some pyarg reason, you'll have to go back through them all, without the chance of any energy replenishment from the village resthouses (no power ups at all - what a gyp!!).



If you aren't feeling involved, or even particularly interested, in the typical wizards-and-what-have-you storyline, then I'd say this is a quite difficult one to enjoy. The music and graphics are really good, but it's crying out for more variety - only one principal character, very little interaction with any others, repetitive action scenes, and a few irritating bugs make it not really my kind of game in the end, though as I say, I do like it for what it is.

Yes, Lord of the Sword pisses all over Dragon Crystal and Heroes of the Lance, but I reckon Spellcaster pisses, shits, voms, clears it's nostrils, and generally-behaves-in-a-vulgar-manner-ill-befitting-of-a-gentleman on the lot of 'em, from a fucking massive arse-shaped balloon. ;D



73% overall

[Stan]

Greatest responde I think I've ever read. You are right about the responsiveness, though, it's quite sad at times. Lord doesn't appear to have much speed and control over his sword. So there are only limited continues? That blows goats.

[grolt]

I finally sat down with this one after having only tested it out when I first got it. Fun stuff. I agree on the comments above - nice graphics, especially in the number of different levels, big sprites and the foregrounding and backgrounding, but it still could use more variety. And powerups. It's pretty lame that the only time you can get health is at a village, and even then that's a little repetitive having to leave and re-enter the room so many times.

I love those little villager messages though. Probably the most emo game I have ever played. Everyone is so damn sad. The music during the talking sequences is really nice though.

What else? Having a bow and the sword is great, but the bow takes way too long to fire. Trying to cap those skeletons is a spiderpig, same with the Altered Beast-looking dog and basically anyone who moves. I agree with the other comment though - it's those small pissy little creatures that really get you though.

The backtracking is cool, I don't mind it so much because the levels are laid out nicely so they play fairly different depending on the direction. It isn't confusing, either, like I feared it would be. I still have nightmares about the non-linear navigation in Friday the 13th.

I always sort of chuckle at the fantasy names the developers invent for RPGs - they always sound so forced and awkward, and Lord of the Sword might win the title for worst. I mean Balyajina? Why not Bsakdjh?

Still, it's a fun game and even if I have to leave it on all day between sittings, I'm happy to be playing another RPG on the system. My favorite thing about the Master System is that they hardly ever let any game retread a previous one. Even their sequels in the Kidd, Wonder Boy and Fantasy Zone series all had vastly different approaches to each game. Their RPGs were the same way - Phantasy Star, Golvellius, Golden Axe Warrior, Miracle Warriors, SpellCaster and Lord of the Sword all have pretty distinctive gameplay mechanics that set them apart from the others.

Lord's not the best, but it's still another quality title in the Master System lineup, and I definitely recommend it to others. How's the ending to it? Text scroll or do we get some juicy action?

[Stan]

My main gripes with this game are that, first off, some of the characters are rather goofy. Giant caterpillars? I hate how they hide in the grass, but moreso because they just don't strike me as very fearsome. I don't like how Landau slashes his sword either, looks like a golfer getting angry. His walk, however, is PERFECT. In addition, I noticed some glitching, which happens consistently during the castle fight segment. The map got on my nerves, because it never indicated your position, so it's almost kind of pointless, and the enemies never get any more difficult as you progress, it's just the same caterpillars, jumping things and so forth as you get further in the game. I'd expect some harder creatures, otherwise I feel like I'm backtracking through the whole game endlessly because the same crap is being thrown at me. The bosses were a bit too easy as well, but I think the biggest problem with this game is its lack of a save or password feature? What? Wow, that SUCKS. Although I really liked playing it and coming back to it to finish it, I have to say it really, really annoyed me that I had to go through everything again, especially if you happened to die now and then from stupid mistakes. The final boss is a waste, though it takes a awhile to beat him. The ending is actually pretty cool overall, you get some decent cinematics and a story with tons of pictures.

[grolt]

Yeah, I agree about the same monsters. Still, it can get quite challenging even as is. Even playing the same level over and over again, because there's definitely not much time to prepare when the running creatures and dogs get at you. And I STILL get burned by caterpillars sitting in the high grass with one hit left just before hitting the next screen.

What also sucks is how the game is so arbitrary. You can only see what you need to see by talking to some guy in a village. Like why wouldn't the tree just be there already? "Landau, go visit the tree in the Uchin forest." "Okay." You get there and: "The tree is not here, try the Nano forest!" Thanks, guys.

[Stan]

Yeah, I know, that's another thing. To get the villagers to say what you need them to say you have to talk to them several times, which amounts to you just coming in the house a kabillion times until it happens. Didn't I just step in your house two seconds ago? Why not just tell me then what I needed to know? This is where programming comes in (curse my goal to learn), the game is essentially set up so that you access features by triggering responses. It waits for you to enter a certain amount of times and boom. They should have at least had them saying different things or made the villages more expansive so there was more to do. Where do I have to go? Oh, how could I miss, the ONE door open in this place?

[grolt]

May 21, 2008 17:00:50 GMT Stan said:

Yeah, I know, that's another thing. To get the villagers to say what you need them to say you have to talk to them several times, which amounts to you just coming in the house a kabillion times until it happens. Didn't I just step in your house two seconds ago? Why not just tell me then what I needed to know? This is where programming comes in (curse my goal to learn), the game is essentially set up so that you access features by triggering responses. It waits for you to enter a certain amount of times and boom. They should have at least had them saying different things or made the villages more expansive so there was more to do. Where do I have to go? Oh, how could I miss, the ONE door open in this place?

Haha, yeah, the one door thing is really lame. When I first started playing I was pretty excited to see all the shops in each building, thinking that later on they'd be open and that I'd make a few friends. If not that, then at least buy a few extra lives. Nope. Every village instead only has one male, and that male is crying. It appears as if every male is a brother or relative of the other, thanks to the pallet swapping. No wonder Da Road was able to take over, the land is filled with incestuous men.

What they say also irks me, as it does almost every other SMS RPG. It's like they didn't even try to infuse any principals of literature whatsoever. Like you take this journey on foot where, if the map is to scale, it would have taken you days to finally reach the village, and what does the guy have to say to you? "Balyajina is not the same as it once was." That's it. Or "Shagant is overrun with thieves!" Like would it have killed for a few more lines of exposition. What has changed in the land? Why can the thieves thrive? Who the hell is Landau? Why the hell are caterpillars the size of my leg? I understand these games were intended for kids, but you've got to have a pretty big imagination to make it seem more like just a bunch of program cues.

Or my favorite, in Golden Axe Warrior, where you finally get the axe and plow through the forest and lo and behold, a human stands there. Oh sweet discovery, surely this man has grave tales of his journey through the haunted woods, on how exile has brought him great sorrow, how his finding has made him realize the true value of human life. "Card games are 10p, are you interested?" What? For real? You've got a shop in the woods that can only be accessed by cutting down a bible's worth of trees? I guess that's why it took until the 1900's for capitalism to really thrive.

I thought Ys did a good job of really beefing up the story to more than just your standard "Go here to find x weapon. Would you like to sleep? Please save our village." stuff in all the other games. I actually cared for those little pixels. Golvellius is funny, just changing words like "You" into "Thy". Classy.

But on the whole, most 8-bit RPGs just feel like some programmed activity ("Okay, fellas, this one is a green guy running through the woods. Have at it!") that's only really shaped through the box art and manual. Like, cart only, you really only know you're a hero that needs to do three things so the game will program you king. It's like watching a movie and having the boom dip into frame - the suspension of disbelief is gone, and you see the game only as the code that it is.

Well, that was a rant, but you know I really do enjoy the game. I just wish they'd put a little more effort into these things. It couldn't have been tough. Adding a few more text bits, opening a few more doors. Oh, Lord!

[grolt]

So I decided to have at this one so I can finish it and finally file it away. I'm getting pretty far, and actually enjoying it quite a bit. That part where you have to fight five guys in front of the king is awesome dungeon crawler stuff!

But this screenshot I took takes the cake:



Engrish, anyone?

[grolt]

Good finish...I'm glad I finally beat this sucker. It's just so tedious, sort of like ALEX KIDD IN HIGH-TECH WORLD, but still somehow strangely addicting. The ending was cool, although they kind of phoned it in just using pictures from all the previous shop characters. What I did like though, was after you defeated the final boss, that you weren't done until you got to your castle to be crowned. So during that journey, anyone you ran into would pump you up saying stuff like "You'll make a fine king!" They really let you savor the moment in this game, which is nice.

Now, I reckon, it's SpellCaster time!