Melee does a decent amount of damage, but it comes at a cost: namely, you gotta be up close and personal with whatever you’re hitting, a cardinal no-no when it comes to shmup games. The melee is why I referenced Vorg as the only character to really use. This game isn’t long enough for me to sit there and work out all the kinks, so I just stuck to fire, freeze and lightning, because those gave results. Seriously, there’s this wind spell that I casted that filled the screen with little wind animations, took almost all my magic and not a foe on screen seemed to care. This actually adds some great versatility to a horizontal shooter outside of “save up my bombs for the boss.” The only downside I found is some of the spells don’t do a goddamn thing. Some, like the standard flame spell, take only a small amount of magic (a bar that refills as you slay enemies), whereas others, like the massive room freeze spell, take a lot more but also immobilize all the foes for a few seconds. The magic system is actually pretty interesting, because you pick up spells as they’re randomly dropped from enemies the further you progress in the game. Besides just waves of bullets to shoot, Sol Divide also asks that you balance two additional mechanics: magic and melee. That’s because Psikyo decided to try a little something different and mixed in some craziness with their horizontal shooting approach. You take point as one of three characters, but, as you find out quickly, only the main warrior, Vorg, is really worth playing.
![sol divide saturn vs ps1 sol divide saturn vs ps1](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3pQAAOSwWrNcP56i/s-l640.jpg)
Then, seven years later, the demon reappears and is ready to wield some crazy powerful stones and destroy the world, so, naturally, you gotta stop him. There’s this plot that’s happening, but it’s honestly crazy broken in terms of both translation and actual cohesion with what some folk would call “logic.” Basically, there was this demon dude who wanted to steal stones of power, and a warrior/king tried to stop him but was too late. It’s a sword and sorcery type adventure game that presents and plays as a horizontal shmup. Sol Divide – Sword of Darkness is the weirdest attempt I’ve seen a gaming studio make to both try new things and keep firmly entrenched in their comfort zone.
![sol divide saturn vs ps1 sol divide saturn vs ps1](https://now.estarland.com/images/products/76/37676/185059.jpg)
After all, if the formula works, why screw with the ingredients? So when I see Psikyo is doing a variant on a shooting game, I get a little excited, and a little hesitant. Vlambeer has tried every game type under the sun and, miraculously, found love with twin stick shooting (so much love they never made another game, but that’s a different story). But it’s also true with certain variants of gaming mechanics. There’s really no middle ground: either Mario is suddenly driving Go Karts and it becomes a massive franchise or Luigi is using a time machine and everyone wishes they could erase that memory.
![sol divide saturn vs ps1 sol divide saturn vs ps1](http://www.gamingsanctuary.com/DragonBlazeARCPIC.jpg)
When game companies try to move outside of their comfort zones, I feel like it either is a spectacular success or a spectacular failure.