Turn based strategy
on the go
In North America we saw a pretty sparse
variety of games on the Sega Game Gear, a
lot of action titles were all that really hit
these shores. One title that did make it here
was Crystal Warriors, a little known title
that spawned a sequel in Japan. Royal Stone
is the more
refined of the two with
much better battle animations, overall
graphics and sound and a better story that
builds, somewhat, off of Crystal Warriors.
If you are familiar with newer titles such as
the Fire Emblem series (another that has
many good Japan only titles) then you are
already familiar with the battle system of
Royal Stone. Built on the Rock, Paper,
Scissors style of battle, Royal Stone expands
a bit with more battle options. Certain unit
types and weapons are strong/weak against
others. Learning the sway of the battles is
required for success in Royal Stone.
Much like Fire Emblem, Front Mission and
just about every other game in this genre,
the game is setup via a long, non interactive,
story sequence. Once you are familiar with
the situation of your character having
wronged the country you are thrust into
battle with an all but unknown group of foes
that want you dead. You start on one side of
the map by Tese Town while the enemy is
blocking the only exit out of the area- a path
through a small mountain range.
Defeating your enemies earn money and
experience points as usual. The trick here is
to wait to defeat the boss who is marked by
being a different color and has a speaking
role in the battles. Defeating the boss early
in the battle will cost your characters any
extra money and experience they could have
earned from the rest of the group of
creatures threatening them.
For a Game Gear game, Royal Stone, is
pretty darn amazing. The graphics are
superb,
colorful and there is a lot of little
details in the battle scenes. The battle
scenes are different too, rather than the
combatants occupying each side of the
screen, they are in a vertical
column
(your character facing up the screen while
the enemy faces down). Attacking and
defending are all animated onscreen in a
fashion that is much better than that of
similar titles like Phantasy Star and Final
Fantasy.
Royal Stone has a slightly more mature
storyline that may have been the reason that
Sega passed on bringing it over to North
America. Another reason is the longevity of
the Game Gear which was not going all that
strong in 1995, the year that Royal Stone
was released in Japan. Had Sega worked on
bringing this over, it would have been at
least late 1995 into early 1996 before it
would have been ready.
Also, in one
scene, your character is tied to a cross
looking contraption and dumped into the
water below. That probably effected Sega’s
reasoning to not localize Royal Stone.
Royal Stone shows off quite well what
the Game Gear was capable of in the
right hands.
Strategy fans, here is another quality
game, now in English. Play Royal
Stone on Game Gear as soon as
possible.
13
CARL WILLIAMS
Royal Stone is
the sequel to the
little known
Game Gear title,
Crystal Warriors.