Tag Archives: swords

Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 1]

Considered by many to be a Super Nintendo classic, but having never been released outside of Japan, Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995) has – in the past – been something of an enigma. A must-play game, but not available in English. That was: until an unofficial fan translation came out that changed all that.

Seiken Densetsu 3 is the third game in the Mana series (following Secret of Mana on the SNES (aka Seiken Densetsu 2), and Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy (aka Seiken Densetsu)), and it is one of those games that I had played before (although not for more than a few hours, just to get a taste of it), and had planned to play more of, at some point in future.

Continue reading Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 1]

Seiken Densetsu 3 Week

I recently spent some time playing and grabbing the legendary Super Nintendo game Seiken Densetsu 3 and couldn’t finish until I had completed it.

To say that the experience was “good” would be an understatement…

Seiken Densetsu 3 is a truly brilliant game with a lot to offer games-players who love a challenge. And a good old level-grinder. And a visual treat. In fact, I had so much fun grabbing this game that I have decided to make a series out of the resulting screenshots.

This week I’m going to be publishing grabs of my adventure over the space of five days, showing the game from start to finish. I’ll also be writing about individual aspects of the game in each episode.

Don’t worry about spoilers. My grabs show only a fraction of the available game, played through with just one party. One of the great things about Seiken Densetsu 3 is that you can play with different party configurations and the storyline will change as you go. I’ll explain more about that over the coming week.

Few games deserve five whole days dedicated to them, but Seiken Densetsu 3 is a masterpiece of 2D graphical art, I think, from start to finish. Incredible boss battles; memorable music; brilliant interface; multi-language versions – I’ll look in more detail at these as the week progresses.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Squaresoft‘s Seiken Densetsu 3, by The King of Grabs.

Seiken Densetsu 3 Week
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 1]
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 2]
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 3]
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 4]
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 5]

More: Seiken Densetsu 3 on Wikipedia

 

Seiken Densetsu 3 Bosses 01 - Full Metal Hagger

Seiken Densetsu 3 Bosses 06 - Bill and Ben

Skies of Arcadia Legends, GameCube

This classic level-grinder first came out on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000 and was later remade for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002.

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Dungeon Master, Atari ST

This is the one: Dungeon Master – the Atari ST original. One of the best games ever made, and among my favourite games of all time…

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Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Megadrive/Genesis

For my money: THE best game on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.

Sega‘s very own level-grinding RPG franchise comes to full fruition in this fourth instalment of the Phantasy Star series, first released in 1993.

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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, GameCube

Nintendo‘s 2002 release of their tenth Legend of Zelda game (if you count Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages as two games, which I do) was a real leap, in terms of graphical presentation.

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Orc Attack, ZX Spectrum

First published by Thorn EMI on the Atari 8-bit in 1983, and later on the ZX Spectrum in 1984, Orc Attack is a great little game in which you play as a knight, defending a castle rampart from attacking orcs.

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Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, PlayStation

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a superb party-based, level-grinding RPG, first released on the Sega Saturn in 1996 (as Lunar: The Silver Star), and brilliantly remade for the Sony PlayStation in 1998.

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Legend of Grimrock, PC

This incredible “indie” dungeon crawler absolutely drips atmosphere and is bloody terrifying in places! It’s a heck of a challenge too…

Legend of Grimrock plays very much in the mould of Dungeon Master, and other first-person, tile-based RPGs, but it does it so much better than almost all of the others.

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Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, PC

The second of two ground-breaking Ultima Underworld games made by Blue Sky Productions (later to become Looking Glass Technologies) and Origin Systems.

Labyrinth of Worlds, first released in 1993, again features a very early (and successful) attempt to create a Role-Playing Game with a fully-explorable 3D environment. Both this – and its predecessor, The Stygian Abyss – were developed concurrently, and were a significant leap forward in terms of software technology at the time.

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