On fête ce mardi 22 juin les 25 ans de Quake, dont l’influence directe et indirecte sur le jeu vidéo aura été considérable mais dont je retiens surtout très objectivement le merveilleux portage sur Saturn. C’est l’occasion de revoir le tout premier épisode de DF Retro (!) conçu à l’époque pour le vingtième anniversaire du jeu.
La dernière vidéo de Vysethedetermined est consacrée à Kōtetsu Reiki: Steeldom, autre jeu de 1996 qui a un tout petit peu moins marqué le medium.
Koutetsu Reiki: Steeldom is Technosoft’s follow-up to their previous game, Reverthion / Hyper Reverthion which was released for both Playstation and Sega Saturn. Released in 1996, the game was being developed parallel to other projects and was released not much longer than the Saturn port of Reverthion, which created an aggressive time table for the development team to overcome. There are many subtle changes mechanically between this work, the previous work, and the two ports, but to simplify things a bit, we’ll say that the Sega Saturn versions are the best versions to go with (due to spending more time in development and adding some extra quality of life changes over the PS originals). This game adopts a different setting and characters from the previous work, going for a Feudal Japanese fantasy approach. It’s hard to say if this is a good game or not, and in a few ways, it’s harder to enjoy than Reverthion, but we’ll discuss that later.
Steeldom takes place in the empire of Roukoku, a place once known as paradise on the Eastern end of the world with fertile land and beautiful water. Ten years prior to the start of the game, a fierce battle broke out at Mt. Jigoku that lasted almost fifty days and was fought using a supernatural secret power known as Ryuga, an ability that manifested various powers from the souls of individuals that are worn like suits of armor, but a powerful tyrant named Kougen led the charge against the empire and nearly brought it to ruin. In the end, he was narrowly defeated and sealed away by the former hero, Yugen, but the toll of the battle weighed heavily on him, as he had to rebuild the empire and deal with the aftermath of the battle (his wife was murdered, his son went missing, etc.), driving him mad. Now, as if his soul is somehow under the influence of Kougen, the only pleasure he finds in life is to oppress the commoners and the only joy the commoners have is wrapped in a silver lining - the empire’s sponsored Ryuga fighting tournament. Some fight for fame, others fight to test their strength, some do it for money, but all see it as their one main distraction and best chance to escape a life of poverty and misery…
As the game is an alternative version of Reverthion, you should probably know what that entails: a game that as somewhat loosely similar to Sega’s « Virtual On ». Yes, it is an arena game with mechanized warriors going head to head and yes, there are basic obstacles and adjustable arena sizes, but the game is mechanically quite different, and not for the better. To the game’s credit, it has quite a few additions to Reverthion’s core gameplay system – each character has more special attacks, a boost attack, the ability to « slide » (teleport) which is invincible, a search button to automatically target your opponent, combat voices for attacks, the ability to hover and move in air (which consumes a mobility gauge), a new ring-out nullification system (you CAN be ringed out, you just can’t accidentally walk out, but you can jump out or be knocked out), a down system which makes you invulnerable briefly when knocked down by a powerful attack, and even victory poses. With all this in its favor, it should be leaps and bounds above Reverthion right? Not exactly. While the effort is appreciated, the implementation of these mechanics are less than stellar.
Let’s just start with the controls in general: they still suck. Reverthion was one cumbersome game to play due to how movement was handled as you had to use the corners just to turn and it was an unnatural substitute for pre-analog movement (and would’ve probably been better with a Resident Evil or Robo Pit type system). This game is Reverthion with extra steps and the EXCLUSION of an easy weapon control feature. While you « can » search, it moves slowly and by the time you look one way, the opponent is already in another spot. It’s faster in air, but it’s easy to disrupt. Some attacks are far too easy for ring outs and send you flying a good third of the already small arena. Many attacks are far too slow and easy to interrupt, and the game has less of a shooting emphasis and more of a fighting emphasis now… which makes the slow and clunky movement seem even less forgiving. You CAN learn some simple tricks to win, but it feels more like exploitation than strategy. Versus mode is either a slow split screen affair, OR you can link up systems like Bushido Blade and a few other game’s of the day, which was a novel feature to Rev/Steel.
At least the game looked decent for its time with smooth 60FPS gameplay and that good old trademark Technosoft music, but the added voice samples are surprisingly low quality. Some of the game’s faults are even pointed out in the Saturn-exclusive « Development Postscript » hidden on the disc. While the game’s backstory is somewhat interesting, about a third of the characters deviate from the main plot and have unrelated endings. Oh well… this is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.
Particularité du jeu qui n’est pas développée ci-dessus, c’est l’un des très rares jeux compatibles avec le Taisen Cable (donc le câble “link” de réseau local) de la Saturn, au sujet duquel j’avais déjà pesté dans l’ancien temps à l’occasion des 25 ans de la Saturn.
Sorti le même jour que la console, donc le 22 novembre 1994, le Taisen Cable n’a été compatible avec aucun jeu avant la sortie de Gebockers en février 1996 (!). C’est tellement tard que Sega venait à l’époque de changer l’identité visuelle du packaging Saturn, ce qui signifie que la première version du câble avec une boîte dorée aura été un accessoire littéralement inutile tout au long de sa carrière commerciale.
Au final, seul le portage bidon de Doom sera compatible en Occident (hors bidouillages debug connus pour quelques jeux comme Hexen) et seuls six titres au Japon profiteront du câble: Gebockers, Reverthion, Steeldom, Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition, Doom et enfin Gun Griffon 2 en 1998. Il y a donc eu d’avantage de jeux Technosoft que de jeux Sega compatibles avec le câble de Sega.
Sans même considérer que le câble aurait bien aidé le premier portage de Daytona USA (avril 1995) sorti sans multi local, et même en ne considérant que les jeux sortis après Gebockers, le câble n’est donc assez inexplicablement pas compatible avec des titres aussi importants et « évidents » que Virtual On, Sega Rally Plus ou Sega Touring Car.
S’agissait-il pour Sega de ne pas trop concurrencer les fonctionnalités en ligne, fortement mises en avant pour tous ces jeux, avec du réseau local ? La synchro des consoles était-elle vraiment trop chiante à programmer ? Ça reste en tout cas la plus grosse arnaque de la console en matière de périphérique.
