The game that I will talk about today, is one of those titles that are very unknown, of those games that despite being very entertaining and fun, very few people have ever played it or know it. Surprisingly the developers of this game worked together with the Japanese animation studio Gainax, which are known for having created the emblematic Neon Genesis Evangelion, so this game has elements and designs in the style of anime.
Today's Retro Review is about: Alisia Dragoon.
Alisia Dragoon takes us to a magical medieval world, the style of this game reminded me of the classic series Xena: Warrior Princess, due to its aesthetics. But the argument of this video game, is quite simple, but it is the necessary to go into the story. This story is basically going to be based on the salvation of humanity and the revenge of our protagonist. We are told that some years ago there was a great demon, Baldur, who was causing all kinds of disasters in the kingdom, however, a powerful wizard was in charge of sealing this demon and banishing him in order to return peace. However, after some time, the hero wizard was killed by one of the demon's followers, right in front of his daughter when she was still a child, this girl is the main character of the game, who after seeing the murder of her own father, from that day on she was ready to train until she became a powerful warrior and wizard, all with the purpose of being able to defeat the powerful demon Baldur when he returns once more to cause terror to the kingdom and the planet.
As for the graphic aspect, Alisia Dragoon is a game that stands out a lot for its great use of colors, although they are not very bright colors, it is due to the variety of these that have been implemented in the scenarios makes this video game, despite being almost 30 years old, not look so bad today. As I mentioned before, Alisia Dragoon reminds me of the series Xena: Warrior Princess and that is due to its medieval aesthetics and fantasy.
So we can see a lot of scenarios recreating places like: dungeons, castles, magical forests, caves, there is quite a variety of scenarios and although they do not have such a high level of detail, is due to its characteristic style of drawing, makes it a visually pleasant game. The character design is quite correct, especially the final boss designs, since they have quite big sprites compared to our main character, there are final boss designs that look like creatures from Lovecraft's books, creatures are grotesque and very deformed, but in a good sense as far as design is concerned. Others, on the other hand, are simpler, but still have quite remarkable details. And although we are in a medieval world, in certain scenarios we can see some more technological elements, so this game has certain steampunk elements, to say the least, that create a quite interesting contrast.
However, a negative point with regard to the graphic aspect, is that the animations in the characters are a bit scarce, there is not much variety of movement, so there is not so much fluidity of movement as far as animation is concerned, they look a bit static and this, is a game of this style, which is action, adventures and platforms, is a rather negative aspect, although it is still a fairly enjoyable title.
Alisia Dragoon's soundtrack is quite enjoyable, with melodies that are in harmony and fit very well with all the magical-fantasy-medieval aspect that this game presents. Music that transmits action, epicity and heroism, just enough to accompany our mission of revenge and salvation of humanity, but especially for revenge. On the other hand, the sound effects are regular, they don't sound as good as you might think, they need a better audio quality and sound effect variation.
Video Author
Alisia Dragoon is a game that manages to unite several genres, among them we have: action, platforms, exploration, run and gun and even certain elements of the RPG genre, creating a pretty fun game having several of the most entertaining video game genres in the video game industry.
Our main protagonist, Alisia, is a powerful sorceress who will have to go through a series of scenarios defeating every enemy who dares to challenge her using her most powerful magical attacks, in the purest style of the Run and Gun genre. The platform genre in Alisia Dragoon is very present, due to the shape of the scenarios it is mandatory to overcome certain obstacles by using our best jumping skills, however, because this game also presents exploration elements, we can also find other ways to advance through the scenario, as we can find other paths that transport us to the next one.
As a good action game in the scenarios, at first sight or hidden in some alternative route, we can find items that will improve Alisia, being of great help when fighting against the final bosses. But Alisia is not going to go alone in her mission to save the world, as she will have the help of her 4 dragons, which each have their own skills, being able to throw fireballs, throw boomerangs that will go all over the screen, damaging every living enemy, Another dragon is able to cause great damage through spheres because they accumulate energy and finally, we have a dragon that can also perform fire attacks, but with a greater field of damage and as with our main character, with the power items we find, our dragons can also improve their stats, in this case their life bar.
Alisia Dragoon is an excellent game which very few people know and which is worth playing. Full of action from beginning to end and with simple but effective mechanics and very well implemented in the gameplay.