In the early 90s publisher Enix had one of my all time favorite developers under their wing. This company, Quintet, was responsible for several action RPGs in their heyday. The most famous of these include Actraiser and Terranigma. They never had a hit as big as Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Despite this, Quintet’s games are still remembered today by many hardcore gamers. It seems to me that the most frequently ignored of the bunch is a title called Soul Blazer. I first encountered this release at a video rental store as a child. Funny enough I originally went there to rent Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. That one was out, and I had to broaden my horizons. The back of the box sold me, and Soul Blazer turned out to become my favorite action RPG. In my opinion it is in the same league as Final Fantasy as Chrono Trigger.
Soul Blazer takes place in a fantasy world medieval world watched over by a deity known as “The Master.” The leader of one of the kingdoms has made a deal with an evil force known as Deathtoll and has exchanged the souls of his subjects for prosperity. You play as an angel of sorts sent from up above to free the captive spirits and eventually defeat Deathtoll. Concepts such as religion made Nintendo nervous in the early nineties, and therefore some aspects of the scenario had to be edited for the wide audience this game was released to.
On the surface Soul Blazer is very similar to traditional Zelda games. You view the action from an overhead view as you traverse through dungeons defeating enemies with the use of your handy sword. This game relies significantly more on RPG elements though; you have a life bar but it increases by gaining levels through experience points you receive by defeating enemies. Unlike in Zelda this game does not rely on puzzles instead focusing more on combat and exploration.
The game is divided up into different areas which can be best considered as levels. Each one of these features a town area as well as dungeon. When you first begin these villages are empty and devoid of life. As I mentioned earlier all of the kingdoms souls have been captured, and you have to venture into the dungeons to free them. These areas are filled with monster lairs from which enemies emerge. Each one has a set number of foes, and defeating all of them transforms the red glowing lair into a green switch. Stepping on this results in two possible effects. Either the terrain in the dungeon will transform to unlock the path forward, or you will be transported back to the village as a soul is released or an element of the environment is altered.
This makes for a fun measure of progress. You can return to the town area at any time and see how much of it has been restored. It’s possible to interact with all of the characters that have been released. There are some really interesting side stories to discover. Many times you have to return in order to get an item, or interact with a character to progress. This can be a little annoying, but the developers have made included shortcuts and even warp blocks to alleviate the pain of backtracking. At the end of each dungeon awaits a big bad boss character. These are challenging and very well designed for such an early action RPG. The developers throw warp zones right before each one which means you won’t have to wander all the way through the dungeon if you die which is nice.
If there’s one complaint I have it is the fact that your obtaining new items is a fairly linear process. Each level has one spell, one piece of armor, and one sword to obtain, and Soul Blazer doesn’t deviate from this formula until the very end. The magic is pretty generic, but the interesting twist is that spell effects generally come out of the orb that spins around your character. This means that timing is a bigger key here, and it makes combat more interesting. Also cool is the fact that magic spells cost gems which are dropped by enemies in varying sizes. What I like is the fact that all of the swords and armor have special effects. This makes them very different from one another.
These all serve very specific purposes due to this, and you’ll find yourself switching between them throughout the adventure. One of the best examples of this is the zantetsu sword. This is the only one capable of defeating metal enemies. The spirit sword allows you to damage ghosts, the lucky blade that increases the size of gems monsters drop, and more. Armors apply various effects such as allowing you to walk over hot ground, breathe underwater, one even cuts the number of gems magic spells require, and more. Most of the equipment is very significant here.
Normally I’m a little apprehensive about backtracking in games. Soul Blazer handles it in an enjoyable way. It’s rewarding to see your progress toward rebuilding each of the town areas. The side stories of many of the NPCs are interesting. This is one of the few games I’ve felt compelled to speak with each of them because of the charm they add to the scenario. What’s interesting about backtracking in this game is that you won’t be able to release all of the monster lairs on your first time through. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, some enemies can only be destroyed with specific weapons, and the game throws some of these into the early dungeons. Many times this simply unlocks hidden items, but other times the characters are mostly unrelated to the main story.
This is a pretty early Super Nintendo game. This means that the graphics are rather simple. Environments tend to be a little barren in the town areas with a significant amount of repeating tiles (no doubt in an effort to save cartridge space). There are only a few different NPC models. Unimportant characters generally all look alike in each of the different town areas. Dungeons fare quite a bit better with more diverse scenery. The background animations go a long way to making this feel like a living breathing world. Enemies and characters repeat at a frequent rate, but this isn’t a big deal because there’s still a lot of different foes to strike down.
What’s nice is the fact that every area features new graphics for monsters and characters alike and this is one of the few early RPGs that doesn’t simply rely heavily on palette swaps which is really nice. The game does suffer from that typical early SNES slowdown, but it’s never overbearing and is by no means a constant issue. Soul Blazer is a colorful game with a unique art style and despite being simple I like the graphics.
Soul Blazer’s soundtrack is one of my favorites. The composer, Yukihide Takekawa, did an absolutely incredible job with the music here and he created a very unique style. The somber notes in the town theme is extremely memorable and atmospheric. My only complaint is the fact that this track is recycled in each of the villages. The dungeon themes are mostly original from one another, and many areas feature more than one. They repeat every once in a while, but not enough to overstay their welcome.
The real highlight in my opinion is the ending theme which really hits home the conclusion of the story. In the official soundtrack release the composer actually included a vocal version of this song which goes to show how much work was put into it. The sound effects sound really nice as well. I’ve always found it odd that they were basically recycled from Quintet’s previous game Actraiser. Overall the music and effects are extremely memorable and well done. This is one of the first video game soundtracks I ever owned.
The SNES has no shortage of excellent RPGs, and it’s easy to see why Soul Blazer was overlooked. It wasn’t heavily advertised, and had to go up against similar games. These include the likes of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana. In my opinion Soul Blazer beats out both of those by a country mile. The gameplay mechanics are unique, the dungeons are well designed, and the scenario is haunting and memorable. This is easily my favorite action RPG of all time, and it’s a crying shame it hasn’t been released on the Wii virtual console or through any other digital service. The cartridge isn’t particularly cheap on Ebay, but it’s well worth the price.
