Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner as I have another Zelda clone to go over once again. The Genesis much like the TurboGrafx wasn’t really known as a console for adventure and RPG titles. Of course, there were some exceptions like Phantasy Star and Shining Force that got developed by Sega. Even some one-off titles like Landstalker or Light Crusader would hit this system. The Genesis was always known for its Sonic, action and sports games which would populate the console’s library. Despite being a clone of the famous Elven princess, it actually does some things different from the typical style. Instead of using tools to solve puzzles and getting through each level, you use the ability of animals’ that join the hero. The theme is about animals and monsters that at one time dominated world. Then a light bathed the world and would force the monsters into hiding as humans began to dominate. Now, something has changed as the monsters who have thought to have disappear long ago have returned. It’s not that most engaging plot, but at least Sega attempted something new for a theme.
Gameplay The gameplay follows any standards found in the genre during the 90s. You explore a level, face a boss at the end and progress to the following area. The controls felt smooth and in no way were they clucky as seen in Neutopia II. Slashing the sword at an arch is still a welcoming feature and Sega clearly studied Nintendo’s ideas. I'll give Sega one thing, and that’s creating their own version of the spin attack with the throwing sword technique. It allows you to sling the blade like a boomerang and will hit the enemies as the sword returns. The ability is very versatile in more than throwing the sword as it can open pathways in the levels when equipping a certain animal friend. An example is either using Cecil (squirrel) so the blade can bounce against the walls or Monarchy (butterfly) helps guild the weapon, so you can reach a switch. The player doesn’t receive any tools or secondary weapons but instead uses animals as their ally. They act like the tools and secondary weapons and getting some of them is often optional at times. Flash makes the hero run faster, Chilly (Penguin) gives an ice attack to the sword, Inferno (lion) causes a flame attack and Leviathan causes the player to attack and charge faster. The most versatile animals were Moa, Dodo and Chilly as I used them the most to get through the levels.
Some levels are aligned with puzzles that would have you solve them to navigate. The stages are not designed with dungeons in mind but as an area’s environment instead. It’s a lot better than what Hudson did in Neutopia II as they choose to stick with the same format from the Original Zelda. In fact, the level design is very different from Zelda: A Link to the Past. The player will still encounter a few dungeon levels, but they won’t have the traditional puzzle solving. That’s where combing two animal allies when equipped comes into play. In Castle Freesia, I needed to combine Inferno and Cecil to reach a switch that was encased in ice. For the boss battles, they provide creative challenges as you have to figure out how to beat them. The best example comes from Roxie in Babel Tower as you had to pick the right moment to damage the heart. Another great boss battle was with Georama as Chilly was needed to cause the blob creature to become vulnerable. Then you would use Inferno to cause damage from his fire attack. It was a little similar to Zelda ALTTP’s boss battles and how they were typically designed. Its challenges like these that can make a difference for the gameplay and figuring out a weakness is one of them.
The flaws, on the other hand, are really minor here compared to Neutopia II. The sword slashing feels loose as if he is lazily wielding it. Even though the slash feels a little impactful but before the second strike, it seems like I’m not hitting the enemies. In Zelda, the strikes always felt impactful and even slashing of the sword came off direct. Another thing that seems like an issue (since there is no armor upgrades) is every enemy, and environment hazard takes one point of health away. The enemies’ challenge doesn’t change that much, and their difficulty remains the same aside from attacking the player differently. I noticed the bosses also cause one-point damage no matter what they do to the player. When designing a boss battle, a developer has to make these enemies more challenging than the common foes. The bosses do have various challenges that makes the player figure out how to defeat each one. However, these foes need to come off a lot more difficult than merely taking one point of health away. Rating: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation
The visuals are very detailed with immense special effects and animation as I took notice to during my play session. The environments came off lush and colorful and goes beyond being above average. These locations were diverse in their themes ranging from valleys and beaches to a tower and an Ice Castle. The environmental effects were nice additions and truly played to the locations’ strengths. In the town of Soleil, shadows of clouds passing overhead is always seen moving about. If it isn’t the clouds passing overhead, then the other elements like wind and animated backgrounds adds to these places. The wind gushing in Anemone Beach and the clouds background passing under Place of Peace as you progressed created liveliness. The music for each location sounded great and at times truly catchy like the overworld map theme. That’s the best thing about the soundtrack and its how they were able to hook me into most of the music. Between the grind rock style in Water Lily, Boss Battle 1 and 3 or the soft tones of Town, Overworld Map and Rafflesia Training Grounds, almost all theme sounded great. The best of them all were from the enchanted tones of Castle Freesia, Root Temple and Place of Peace. Sega really hit this perfectly and captured the right feeling for these old environments.
The theme was a pleasant surprise as for once you are not some male hero trying to save a damsel. The story is relatively about Humans pushing back monsters into the darkness. It turns out that humans were part of the problem instead of solely being the monsters fault. Some intriguing parts of the plot could’ve been address a little more but acted more like a challenge then a narrative. A male NPC monster blob named Slimey fell for a human girl so much he asked a wizard to turn him into a human boy. I realized this was a side quest material but as soon as you find out how turn the hero back to normal, it’s then forgotten. On top of that, in the same part where the slime NPC kids are playing outside, it shows what really is the problem when Amon a swordsman assaults them. It’s small story arcs like this that causes you think these “monsters” are in fact, not the villains. I mean these slime kids are just like human children who want to play outside but humans try to ambush them. Of course, Amon (the guy you encounter at the start) isn’t a bad guy himself, but it’s his ignorance to the fact that the monsters weren’t the problem. As mentioned before, the monsters or humans are not the sole problem as its both sides who contribute to the issue. Honestly, Sega needed to go more into the theme than vaguely put short arcs like this around.
Now, I noticed some problems with the levels details and most of them were missing key features. The environments could’ve used better art in terms of prominent structures like statues. There wasn’t much story being told in the environment as seen in Zelda: A Link to the Past. I couldn’t recognize any places that maintained any structures that told a story of the location’s history. Not every story needs explaining through its dialogue as the environments can do that as well. The art style isn’t bad and is genuinely good, but the lack of environmental structures like statues made this come off bland. With the lack of defined characteristics and artistic design on the buildings hurts the presentation. In places such as Babel Tower, Castle Freesia, Root Temple and Camellia Desert Temple would have really benefited from it. I know I keep bringing up Zelda: ALTTP often, but that game set a whole new standard in environment design. Even those random statues in the prairie section always made me wonder what they could mean. It was also on some of the temples like Thieves Town or the East Palace which shows how far Nintendo went. When the designers peak your interest and have you guessing what a random statue could mean, then they did their job. Rating: 8.6/10 Features/Content For its time, CoC followed the current standard for an adventure title, and it can take about 3 to 4 hours to complete. There is a save system included and no other add-ons is needed. For once, Sega includes no password system in its Zelda clone as that was constantly a stigma in other games of its kind. There are several animal friends to find as an option and can give extra abilities like moving faster or healing your health. The Training Grounds gets included and has most of the hazards and obstacles found throughout the adventure to get past. There are a Beginners, Intermedium and Expert courses which can give the players medals. After collecting all of them, you then receive the holy sword that doubles your attack from the King. Of course, these developers needed to do more than simply slap a side quest like this through the game. You don’t get the holy sword until the end and that’s truly ridiculous to get a level two weapon that late. That’s like obtaining the Master Sword as a level two weapon in Ganon’s Tower in ALTTP instead of the middle of the main quest. Sega literally put no thought into that concept aside have a training ground. They should’ve turned Slimey’s love for a human girl into a side quest because that would’ve been ideal. Even extra side quests like helping people or collecting other things as a bonus is something this game needed. Overall, the content was a lot better than most other clones of its kind. Rating: 8.0/10 Final Rating CoC is a significantly better clone then some out on the other consoles at the time. The Adventure was of quality length (taking 3 to 4 hours) to finish and is sure to engage most gamers. The gameplay nearly followed the trends of the genre such as wielding the sword at an arc and having an attack technique. I must commend Sega for using a different type of level design and item system for the areas. Using an animal ability system was a great way to compensate for the lack of tools or secondary weapons. The graphics were far beyond being above average and came off great in most instances. The presentation is what you would expect from a great Genesis game to look like and this got everything from the visual to the soundtrack right. The game isn’t perfect by any stretch as there are some minor issues that should’ve been cleaned up. These problems come from there not being enough environmental props and side quests to take up. There are more ways to tell a story then through dialogue as these locations were actually perfect for such features. Just including a statue or art work on a temple goes a long way in telling a story of the level. Sega also needed to go into the relationship between humans and monsters as there was a lot of potential left untouched. You can’t go wrong with having more games like CoC trying to emulate Zelda’s style. Gameplay: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.6/10 Features/Content: 8.0/10 Final Rating: 8.3/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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