Welcome once again to this NEC of the woods as I play another TurboGrafx-16 game to completion in front of your very eyes. This month's game is Neutopia: An action-adventure game from Hudson - the guys behind Bomberman and Adventure Island and almost every TG16 game of note. It's also an unrepentant Zelda clone, but I'll have plenty to say about that in the screenshot captions themselves. It is not, as I initially suspected, a Bob Barker-endorsed veterinarian simulator.
Neutopia was suggested by @video_game_king, he of nobility from the Sea of Tranquility. As thanks, I've decided to steal his long-form LP thread structure currently being utilized by his Persona 3 screenshot blog. Imitation is the sincerest form of gratitude, or something. Expect this TM-12 to be way longer than usual.
I Wanted to See Your Neutopia, But Now I See It's More of a Fruitopia
Welcome to Neutopia! Do we have a concept page for "Swords In Game Titles" yet? Let's get cracking, people. Here's another good example of that: The Legend of Zelda.Oh jeez, can I change my name?Oh jeez, can he change his name?What's the expression? Don't put all your medallions in the same Princess? Close enough. Hey, maybe Princess Aurora was sleeping on the job, am I right? Anyone? Walt Disney?Ghost medallions, huh. Do well in life and maybe they'll imprison your tormented spirit within garish jewelry too. I think I got some spam once that asked me if Dirth was my arch enemy. I believe there was also a line about making something as hard as stone.You mean wisdom, power and courage, right?I think "unleash" can only be reserved for powers of evil. Why would you leash the powers of good? Is this one of those "keep the population miserable and subservient" type scenarios? One for each labyrinth, it turns out. You needed me to tell you that.Oh right, the compass. This game does do one thing that the first Zelda doesn't: Gives you some idea of which direction you ought to be heading. Of course, it can't do the big overworld map with a flashing symbol that Link to the Past does, but that game did come out a couple years later. I'm giving Neutopia a break for that one.That's... awfully presumptuous. Maybe I'm not her type?So this is here is the inventory screen/pause menu. We got our compass (we have to pause the game to check it, conveniently), some dungeon-only stuff on the right and our equipment on the left. Pretty straightforward.There's a whole mess of these little stairs everywhere. This game isn't hurting for NPCs as this blog will no doubt demonstrate.The very first non-story NPC we meet gives us this sweet book.This game has saves but also passwords. I haven't figured that out yet.Also, some more hints about the compass. Well, "hint" is a strong word. We're just being told how it works again.Yeah, the compass works in dungeons too. Doesn't always help, given how circuitous they can be.Really? All of them? I was planning on holding a few back to give Dirth a chance, you know?Lest I forget.Oh wow, that's... overt.
Next time, in the comments: More NPCs. Also, I guess I probably stumble across the first dungeon.
