I finished Sword Master again last night without the continue code. This game is really going to make me think hard about whether it deserves 2 1/2 stars or 3. I almost think it's challenging and fun enough to deserve 3, but there are some really stand-out flaws that could bring it down a notch:

1) The annoying glitches I mentioned above. Normally, I wouldn't fault a game too much for glitches, especially if you have to do something ultra-bizarre to get them to occur, but these glitches are so obvious that I can't figure out how they got past play testing. If you beat a boss when he's off-screen, he won't drop the item he's supposed to. If this happens on Boss 2, as I mentioned above that it did to me, the game becomes unplayable, because you need the wizard's power to pass Level 4. Also, I shouldn't just fall through a solid floor.

2) The final boss appears to be a battle of attrition, because blocking his attacks seems ineffective. Even if you could block them, he never rests, so you'd be blocking the entire time, unable to damage him. Not only is this bad in and of itself, there appears to be no way to beat the boss the first time through the game because you can't defeat enough enemies in the game to have the highest experience level necessary to outlast him. You'll have to start all over again at least once. I like challenges, but that it would be impossible to beat the last boss when you first get to him is rather cheap. And as I said above, playing through the first few stages with a high experience level is pointless.

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In other news, I started Dark Savior for the Saturn. This has been recommended to me a couple of times when I've mentioned on message boards that I like Alundra. I also think Sethra said it was one of her favorite Saturn games. The Working Designs critic said it "really sucks" (but he gave it a 6.5!!), but I dunno. So far, it doesn't seem all that bad except for the boss fights. The boss fights are done in a pseudo-fighting game style, but I've won all of them so far by button-mashing. The dungeon portions are kind of like Alundra 2 and Equinox. Umm...I think Ocarina of Time ripped this game off. Remember the part where you had to carry Princess Ruto around and throw her around in side the whale? Well, the part I'm working on now has you carrying around a lizard dude and throwing him around in a very similar manner...
I Crawl and 1000
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I won't be coming home" - Aftermath (Stranger's Land)
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