History of: The Landstalker Series

[Melf]

Ever since the original Landstalker made its debut back in 1993, Climax Entertainment has repeatedly left us wanting more. Several spiritual sequels have been released, the greatest of all done by someone other than Climax itself. Now, with the franchise's upcoming return on the Sony PSP and Playstation consoles, Sega-16 takes a look back (http://www.sega-16.com/2006/04/history-of-landstalker/) at all the games released until now.

[Flash1087]

Landstalker was always a favorite among myself and my little group of friends; oddly enough, none of us ever finished it.

I'm eagerly awaiting the PSP version, if for no other reason than having something to play after I'm done with Mega Man Powered Up.

[j_factor]

I disagree with the article's praise of Alundra. I thought that was the worst of the bunch.

[kevinski]

The preview vid of the remake looks pretty decent. Honestly, though, I couldn't stand Landstalker, as its controls were absolutely horrible. As for being directly compared to Zelda games, just look at the main character. Try telling me that Climax made Nigel look like that entirely by coincidence.

Anyway, this article was still quite interesting to me, as I had no idea that Climax later became Crazy Games. Illbleed is easily my favorite game on Dreamcast, and I'd love to see a sequel to it. God, that game is awesome.

[David J.]

I thought Landstalker was related to the Oasis games?

[Melf]

Nope, they're totally different series.

I have to play Illbleed. I got it years ago for cheap and never got around to actually trying it out. I'm told it's campy and very B movie-like, which sounds cool.

[kevinski]

If you plan on trying Illbleed, you may want to more fully understand just what type of game it is. I recommend really reading up on the game first. (I recently submitted a review for Illbleed (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/dreamcast/review/R100102.html) to GameFAQs, in fact.) Once you're sure that you want the game, you should either find someone nearby who fully understands how to play the game or use a walkthrough in order to beat the first level or two. The game has a rather steep learning curve. It's definitely no RE game.

[Melf]

Ah cool, thanks. :)

[David J.]

Oh yeah, I really loved Dark Savior. I paid $10 and I was amazing, but a year after I bought it, I saw a cheap copy, and I should have picked up that mint copy for $3 when I saw it, even tho I owned the game.

[Demonic Weasel]

Ah Landstalker... I really liked that game even if I didn't like the controls. Isometric viewpoints never did it for me, even when they were as smooth and well-done as Landstalker. Dark Savior is great though.

[kevinski]

^ Light Crusader is an excellent isometric action RPG, and I felt that it generally plays much better than Landstalker. Honestly, I just could never get past Landstalker's horrible controls. Besides, the magic system in Light Crusader was kinda cool (albeit limited).

[Demonic Weasel]

Light Crusader was fun, but it could be so damn irritating. Who wants to spend half an hour trying to jump up and precisely the right angle to cut a rope?

Oh and on the subject of Timestalkers I don't understand why it's so hated. Admittedly it had some weaknesses, but I'm still very fond of my copy.

[David J.]

I think I got Timestalkers for a dustbunny and an acorn, and it was great.

[Melf]

You got gypped. :p

I can't help but feel so disappointed with Time Stalkers. So many cool characters and so much potential, and we got a random-level dungeon crawler instead.

[ary incorparated]

yeeees light crusader is a piece of cake had awesoem graphics and music a pretty fun game only neglected by those who find it difficult pratice makes art walktrough make a path trough the game,walktrough rules.Man i felt in sleep when playing lanstalkers,ill bet its a gerat game but not for me,the graphics where bit mish mash compared to snes,not much colors mashed togehter to creat a nice game,like green in walls that doesnt have to be stucked there,like 40 colors in screen total and noticable and the animation,none sawn in the first level,the first level got 0 to none atraction for the trying to find out gamer.extra processing and yes genesis could do up to 256 and actually beat snes in those RPG,s

[Benjamin]

You got gypped. :p

I can't help but feel so disappointed with Time Stalkers. So many cool characters and so much potential, and we got a random-level dungeon crawler instead.

Time Stalkers is a borderline brilliant game. Lots of reviews made unfair, misguided complaints about the rogue nature of the game ("you don't keep your levels?"), and the N64-quality graphics really hurt the game. That said, the story is pretty interesting though it takes quite a while to develop, and the combat engine is really nice. The game really opens up with the monster capture system, and it has among the better VMU games and interfaces with the main Dreamcast game around. Once you realize it's basically a rogue-based dungeon crawler meets Pokemon with tons of weapons to collect as well, it becomes all the more enjoyable (assuming you enjoy gotta catching them all :p ).

[108 Stars]

Landstalker is one of my all-time favourites!!!

Although I enjoyed Zelda 3 as well, I think Climax´ product pretty much wiped the floor with it. The controls were...hard to get used though, and some jumping passages were rather frustrating, but you could definately handle it with a bit of practice.
It´s a shame that none of it´s sequels was able to follow in Landstalker´s large footsteps, though Dark Saviour was not bad either (it was just way to short).

As for Timestalkers, I never played that. It got torn apart in German game magazines and I didn´t want my good memories of Landstalker to be damaged. Maybe I will give it a try someday...

I once played Ladystalker, but the japanese Text was too annoying for me then.

Light Crusader? I think it´s blasphemy to mention that piece of junk when talking about a real classic like Landstalker. Okay, "piece of junk" may be a little bit too harsh, but Light Crusader wasn´t even very good by the time it was released and wouldn´t be much of a loss if it was forgotten by now.

Does anyone know where I can find a map of the last dungeon of Landstalker?
I´m playing it again right now.

[ary incorparated]

BTW i think Land stalker was good but the after the years after land stalker te climax games faded horribly i played Dark savior i was absolutly dicgusted with it it played slowwer then any snes game could possibly imagine.

[Barracuda]

Time Stalkers is a borderline brilliant game. Lots of reviews made unfair, misguided complaints about the rogue nature of the game ("you don't keep your levels?"), and the N64-quality graphics really hurt the game. That said, the story is pretty interesting though it takes quite a while to develop, and the combat engine is really nice. The game really opens up with the monster capture system, and it has among the better VMU games and interfaces with the main Dreamcast game around. Once you realize it's basically a rogue-based dungeon crawler meets Pokemon with tons of weapons to collect as well, it becomes all the more enjoyable (assuming you enjoy gotta catching them all :p ).

I agree. I really enjoy Time Stalkers.

[ary incorparated]

Time Stalkers is a borderline brilliant game. Lots of reviews made unfair, misguided complaints about the rogue nature of the game ("you don't keep your levels?"), and the N64-quality graphics really hurt the game. That said, the story is pretty interesting though it takes quite a while to develop, and the combat engine is really nice. The game really opens up with the monster capture system, and it has among the better VMU games and interfaces with the main Dreamcast game around. Once you realize it's basically a rogue-based dungeon crawler meets Pokemon with tons of weapons to collect as well, it becomes all the more enjoyable (assuming you enjoy gotta catching them all :p ).

May i compare it to Super runabout i found em both on the same level of mediocorety,At least Super runabout had an unstopable intro tune.