Volgarr the Viking: Rastan-clone kickstarter

[Ex-Cyber]

Golden Axe is pretty sparse on the horrible fishmen and horrible monsters in general. If your skin isn't crawling, it isn't hardcore.

Also, Rastan is a way better Conan clone than Ax Battler.

[gameoverDude]

Got a healthy love of Rastan, right here. The game was hardcore:

* Things are decent enough to die in a single blow.

* You ever stick your foot in a shallow pool of water and instantly disintegrate?

* Rastan knows squats are the key to success. He does triple damage when he jumps; do you?

* The music is critical for wrapping the entire thing together. Anything less hardcore would not be metal.

The sequels were sad abominations though.

A great example of visceral mechanics and presentation all around though.

I've cleared the Japanese version of Rastan once on MAME. I love how jumping slashes do extra damage on bosses and the armored castle guards. The red "poisons" don't do much damage, but give you a big chunk of points when taken.

Rastan Saga II has an excellent soundtrack (thanks OGR) but the game play really bites. It was done by a different team who obviously didn't know what made the first so good. RSII has stiff control featuring botched jumps. You can block, but it's near useless in boss battles. Bosses often end up plowing through your block and killing you by bodily contact.

Then there's the totally linear level design, which is baffling after the first game had some branching paths. Genesis RSII is a faithful port, which is not good in this case when it brings over all the arcade's faults. An 8 meg re-port of the original Rastan would've been a better deal.

Nenko Nishimura was not on the RSII team to oversee character design, and it shows in the ugly art. Astyanax from Jaleco looks more like a Rastan game than RSII- and there is a "Nenko" listed in the credits for that one.

Warrior Blade RSIII is different but still good. I think the Rastan character was put in there for recognizability.

[Despatche]

rastan saga ii (and iii) is probably an entirely different game that somehow wound up with the rastan branding; kinda like metal black, but worse

the mega drive port fixes quite a few things even as it keeps everything else and is technically a better game than the original; there should have been a sega cd port with the funny font and the original music

stop complaining about the jumps... that goes for juuouki as well

[undamned]

Moral of the thread: I need to play through Rastan.
-ud

[FIL]

At least it doesn't use Cave Story graphics like every other indie game.

[EmperorIng]

Moral of the thread: I need to play through Rastan.
-ud

If there's one thing this thread has made me do is go and get a MAME rom of Rastan.

Now I too can RETURN TO THE TIME OF HIGH ADVENTURE

[Drum]

Rastan is cool, but it doesn't really demand a full playthrough - once you've seen the first couple of stages you've seen the whole game pretty much.

[drauch]

Moral of the thread: I need to play through Rastan.
-ud

Me too, man. I play through some of Rastan III last night after reading this. So awesome. I live for fantasy.

[Mischief Maker]

Part of the success of the original Conan the Barbarian is that it was made entirely without pretense. While the vast majority of imitators that followed played up the goofiness of the sword and sandal genre at least a little (including Conan the Destroyer) Conan the Barbarian in no way acted as if the material playing was anything less than the most serious movie ever made, including the soundtrack.

Rastan is the same. Listen to that soundtrack! This is not "video-gamey" music, it could easily be arranged into an orchestral soundtrack with pounding drums, strings, and hunting horns.

Edit: a little breezy an arrangement for my tastes, but hey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVHGy9XEF9I#t=6m15s

[GaijinPunch]

Only other soundtrack that gives me close to the same amount of Nostalgia is Night Striker. Taito again (surprise!).

[blackoak]

Part of the success of the original Conan the Barbarian is that it was made entirely without pretense. While the vast majority of imitators that followed played up the goofiness of the sword and sandal genre at least a little (including Conan the Destroyer) Conan the Barbarian in no way acted as if the material playing was anything less than the most serious movie ever made, including the soundtrack.

Right on. It has humor, too, but it isnt the kind of humor that winks at the audience, or feels partially like an apology. And its seriousness is also different from the supposed psychological realism trend that film/tv is going through nowadays.

[szycag]

Thanks Mischief Maker for recommending Spiderman Web of Shadows. 45% complete on it so far. It's like Ubisoft's TMNT on GBA (for the big emphasis on chaining attacks) mixed with Shadow Complex. I thought I had played everything worth playing on DS by now!

[Mischief Maker]

Thanks Mischief Maker for recommending Spiderman Web of Shadows. 45% complete on it so far. It's like Ubisoft's TMNT on GBA (for the big emphasis on chaining attacks) mixed with Shadow Complex. I thought I had played everything worth playing on DS by now!

No problem. Just don't make the mistake of thinking Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions DS will be anywhere near as good.

I with WoS had some sort of "Dante must Die" mode. Oh well.

Meanwhile it doesn't look like Volrgarr is gonna reach its branching path stretch goal.

[CMoon]

Part of the success of the original Conan the Barbarian is that it was made entirely without pretense. While the vast majority of imitators that followed played up the goofiness of the sword and sandal genre at least a little (including Conan the Destroyer) Conan the Barbarian in no way acted as if the material playing was anything less than the most serious movie ever made, including the soundtrack.

Right on. It has humor, too, but it isnt the kind of humor that winks at the audience, or feels partially like an apology. And its seriousness is also different from the supposed psychological realism trend that film/tv is going through nowadays.

+1 only because we don't have a like button.