In a land inhabited by dwarfs, amazons, and barbarians, only one person is up to the king's plea... Ax Battler. Donning a blue helmet with wings, a blue armored vest, blue armored briefs, and wielding a long sword, this warrior is sent on a daunting quest: retrieve the stolen Golden Axe from Death Adder! Being part of the Golden Axe series of hack n' slash games, one would expect the usual slicing of multiple enemies and casting of fantastical magic in open fields with this Game Gear addition. But in an interesting twist, Ax Battler the game forgoes most of its roots in favor of combining several genres.
When the opening sequence begins and the visuals are shown for the first time... it's an overhead perspective with small cutesy character sprites! Most of your journey takes place in this style, traveling a linear overhead map with plains, deserts, and mountains; occasionally you'll enter a town, talk with residents, and obtain a new password. This set-up has all the markings of a traditional role-playing game, which is surprising to say about a Golden Axe title. And just like a classic RPG, you will constantly have random enemy encounters on your trek. So that begs the question: how's the combat?
Credit: Aspect/SEGA
Credit: Aspect/SEGAAs a random fight commences, the perspective suddenly switches to a side view where Ax Battler and an opponent, both now normally-proportioned, duke it out in a contained area. Here, battles almost play like typical Golden Axe fights, except they occur on a single plane, thus limiting movement. There's now a bigger emphasis on learning the different attack patterns of varying enemy types, such as when to dodge a leaping skeleton or stop just short of a knight's swing of their sword. This is fine. What is not fine is what constitutes as a penalty in these battles; if you get hit just once, the fight abruptly concludes and you get sent back to the overhead map.
That's stupid.
The reason for this "design" is that it's part of a bigger gameplay structure tied to your survival. Your character has three health bars, each taking one or two hits to knock off depending on an enemy's strength. The only way you can replenish your health is to rest at an inn inside each town, and you must pay for this with vases; yes, the very same vases used to cast magic. You wanna know where you collect vases? You get them when you win random battles... The whole thing comes off awkward and poorly-executed, especially since you can still grind vases regardless. The devs try to "counter" this by increasing the vase inn cost the further you travel, but it's still a silly penalty to include.
Now here's what makes this really goofy: there's actual side-scrolling sections that play out normally and aren't tied down to the "one-hit" rule. On top of that, you don't even obtain vases in these segments!
As for these segments, if you've played a typical action-platform title, then nothing new is really offered here. A lot of it comes down to memorizing enemy movement and attack patterns, which is what you do with video games in general, but the problem here is that the patterns in question are pretty basic stuff; these involve bats dropping from trees and rushing when you get near, or... well, the majority of basic enemies walking back and forth on a platform. The only reason any of these encounters get "hard," particularly later in your journey, is when multiple enemies are close together, and you have to learn the correct approach and attacks to use.
Or you can simply cast magic to clear the screen...
Credit: Aspect/SEGA
Credit: Aspect/SEGAAx Battler is a very generic experience, to the point where it's a bore just to reach the final climatic battle with Death Adder. It's a get-you-by product that does everything decently, but doesn't do anything impressively. Essentially, the game's greatest sin is that it never goes all the way. This is frustrating, because the biggest elephant in the room hasn't been addressed: Ax Battler is a Zelda II clone. From the overhead travel and the side-view action sequences, to learning moves from wise men in towns, the game is very blatant about it. But it's like the devs tried their best to tip-toe around being a copycat, since the game never fully embraces any part it's imitating.
At the very least, the brave souls who play through this game get to have a dramatic Death Adder battle in his weird trap castle, right? In what feels like a final slap to the face, you're not even allowed that; the climatic fight is a cutscene that takes place in a dark room. It gets worse: the entire time your character is standing completely still, the battle plays out as a narration in a text box.
Unless you're a huge fan of the series, keep your distance from Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe and leave it a legend.
A myth, even.
