After playing Dust: An Elysian Tail, a 2D side-scrolling hack-and-slash that was definitely not my usual genre to play, I decided to take on another classic type of game that I never got into back in the day due to their inherent difficulty and clunkiness. That was the isometric view action-platformer, where the character on screen moves northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest, rather than the normal north, east, south and west compass directions.
The arcade classics Qbert, Congo Bongo, and Crystal Castles all had this viewpoint and their share of difficulties in learning how to make the character go in the direction you want and jump the direction you want, with Crystal Castles actually using a trakball and having the character run at ludicrous speed, only jumping to avoid contact with the enemies. It was essentially isometric Pac-man ahead of Pac-Mania.
Of course, the trakball worked perfectly in the flawless isometric arcade game Marble Madness.
My first and brief foray into a larger game with this perspective was Fairlight for the Commodore 64, and I remember little of my attempts to play it other than awkward controls. It might be a masterpiece for all I know, I had bought it used and cheap late in my Commodore 64 years and by then had a backlog of games that I was eager to play anyway.
Another one I tried around that time was Solstice for the NES. Briefly. Based on my previous experiences in this type of game, then, I had passed by Light Crusader on my Sega Genesis Mini, until I was feeling like something different.
So I dove into Light Crusader, from the legendary Japanese studio Treasure, with some trepidation. My fear was that I would hit a wall of frustration with some crazy hard jump or enemy that would be really overpowered. I was pleasantly surprised to find little frustration and some really challenging puzzles.
The game starts in a castle that’s in a small town, and you’re quickly tasked with finding out why the townsfolk are disappearing. From there it’s delving under the town into a multi-level dungeon. The action is about what I expected, with the character slashing in an arc that the game usually recognizes as a hit when close to the enemies, but nothing in the control there felt precise. If one is going to play an older game, one must simply work with the controls that are there and learn what works and what doesn't. Light Crusader's combat works.
The game's magic system absolutely shines though. The player picks up charges for each of the four elements - Water, Fire, Earth, and Air - and then casts a spell by using one of those charges. However, combining two, three, or even all four of those elements casts a different spell. So if one just casts Fire, using one fire charge, they get a fireball that hits one opponent. Casting Fire and Earth together creates a new spell called meteor that sends a fireball bouncing around the room causing much more damage.
I didn't engage the magic system at all in the beginning, but as I accumulated more of the charges, I started to play with it until it became an essential part of the gameplay. I did not have a paper manual with me, so exploring the magic system was as much fun as exploring the dungeons. I know, I could have gone running to the internet to uncover it, but anytime I play through an old game I really try not to let the internet be a tool I use to beat it.
The dungeons themselves are a delight, too. There seems to be a 50/50 mix of puzzle rooms and combat rooms, which was a good balance, as the puzzles were challenging but not unfair. Yes, there were hard isometric jumps and precise timing required in a lot of places, none of which generated frustration. Sometimes, coming back later to a room I had found myself stuck was all I needed to get moving forward.
There is a lot going on in each dungeon level, and they sometimes have a theme, like a Goblin Town and a Wizard Guild. There are people to rescue (they get out on their own once you free them), a goblin fight arena, and so much more. There are plenty of save points and healing fountains, and the Sega Genesis Mini has the option to save anywhere as well, reducing frustration.
Loot comes at a fair pace and I rarely returned to the shop in town to restock. Boss battles were pretty epic, too, and full of variety. As you can tell, I enjoyed this classic, and that joy reaffirms my direction of playing old videogames is justified. Light Crusader had as many "wow" moments for me as The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom did this year, and if that's not a great endorsement, I don't know what is.
It's isometric done right. Good job, Treasure!
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