So I started to play the connected Quintet games (Act Raiser, Soul Blazer, IoG and Terranigma) and I just finished this for the first time. I feel like I've spent my whole life hearing only good things but I don't really see why. The story seemed super meh, the characters were throw-away and the combat didn't change up enough to remain interesting.

I did like a few story beats such as the raft, and Hamlet's sacrifice and the score and artwork is solid, but overall I felt myself wanting it to end. If you love it, why? And if you agree with me, lemme know!

Smite knows maybe?

@fredchuckdave i really like soul blazer, im actually currently writing an article on how much I like it!

Yea, I have to admit that the plot is directionless, unable to tie together the themes which are admittedly worth exploring. But if I remember correctly, the combat had some weight behind it, you had some cool environments, the presentation was top notch, and maybe some other shit. If I don't remember correctly, read this blog I wrote on the subject.

I played it a few years back as I was running through that trilogy of Quintet games. The main thing I recall is the dialogue being incredibly funny. It had a very wordy plot and it was poorly translated so many of the lines were really bizarre and stilted.

I remember something like"I've read about being adrift, but I never thought it could happen to me... Sometimes disasters happen suddenly.

Gameplay wise I didn't like it much at all. Killing every enemy for a stat boost was an annoying feature and I preferred the open backtrackable nature of Soul Blazer to Illusion of gaia where you're constantly just drifting where the story takes you, no looking back, similarly to Saga Frontier 2 I suppose.

Although in the end I managed to finish it, unlike Terranigma, and I actually liked the feel of combat, the writing, and the art direction more in the third one. Just couldn't make it to the end of that game.

I loved Act Raiser and Soul Blazer and I remember being super excited to play this game. The first two are some of my favorite games of the era, maybe ever. That said though, I remember nothing about the other two, i don't even think I played Terranigma. I should probably clear out some time and go back, right?

No help here, I loved Soul Blazer and Terranigma is easily one of the best SNES games ever made, but ActRaiser and Illusion of Gaia never did it for me either.

@leafhouse said:

Awesome! Soul Blazer is probably my favorite Quintet game (with ActRaiser close behind). Probably half out of nostalgia, but I also genuinely did like a lot of the things about it, like gradually reviving a town and being able to explore new areas, and the large number of hidden optional items to find via late-game backtracking. It makes me sad that it never seems to get the love that some of Quintet's other SNES games did.

@leafhouse: I quite enjoyed Illusion of Gaia, but I would agree that it's no Soul Blazer. But, as you put it "a few story beats such as the raft, and Hamlet's sacrifice and the score and artwork is solid" are certainly reasons why I held it in high regard when I was younger. I also enjoyed the combat system.

The floating city was also something that sparked my imagination, and the whole thing just felt like a compelling adventure. I imagine it doesn't hold up as much as some other classics, but it was quite something for the time. :)

@truthtellah@cloudymusic I threw up a review of Soul Blazer, and since you guys are fans, lemme know whatchu think!