Developer: Game Arts Publisher: Sega Release: 1992 Genre: Action
1992 was a fantastic year for Sega and the Genesis. Fresh off the break out success of Sonic the Hedgehog their development teams cranked out hit after hit. Third parties also took notice, and one by one former Nintendo exclusive partners like Konami came to the system. In that shuffle however many a great title was lost. Alisia Dragoon arrived with little fanfare which is a god damn shame as the game is excellent. If the difficulty were a tad lower it would have been a borderline classic.
Alisia Dragoon is the product of Game Arts. Long time gamers will recognize the name from Lunar and Grandia. But they have a longer library of titles spanning multiple genres such as shooters like Silpheed and the mech action series Gun Griffon. Alisia Dragoon was created in partnership with animation studio Gainax. Of course aside from the in game art you would never know it as Sega of America gave it the Boris Vallejo treatment, erasing all traces of its anime roots. That might work for Golden Axe but probably did the game more harm than good. Don’t let that stop you from picking up a really great title with a cool hook.
You’ll have to adjust to the game’s main mechanic first to enjoy it. Alisia’s only means of attack is a homing thunder spell. Regardless of how much enemies attack your tracking thunder will attack all of them simultaneously. There is a meter that charges automatically in between attacks and determines its strength. At full power it unleashes a rolling blast of lightning that that sweeps the entire screen. You aren’t always starting from 0; the meter is always near full after every attack. It’s the last 25% that charges slowly. Generally you’ll want to wait until full power to progress although that isn’t always an option. Luckily you have some help.
In addition to her thunder Alisia can summon one of four companions at any time. These are pretty exotic, from a dragoon to a little ball of flame. These helpers follow along and assist, becoming more aggressive as they grow stronger. Like Alisia their attack power and hit points can be upgraded by finding well hidden power-ups. You will have to be careful as they can die and won’t come back unless you find a rare revival item. The only downside to your familiars is that you have no control over their behavior. Once summoned they will attack of their own volition. Generally they will assist you and become more aggressive as they increase in power. It works but could have been better.
The nature of Alisia’s thunder gives the game a unique feel to its action. The prudent strategy would be to wait until full power to move forward. However enemies respawn at almost every turn, urging you forward. The game can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a nonstop action adventure or a methodical platformer. That in itself is not bad; the game is adept at doing both. But for those that like consistency the varying pacing can be a bit frustrating.
The level design is great with plenty of secrets enticing you to thoroughly explore each stage. Aside from increasing your life bar your attack power can be boosted up to eight levels. By the middle of the game you’ll need that extra strength. Early on the game enemies don’t spawn as frequently. But that ends quickly. It makes it hard to enjoy the game’s stellar production values. The half sci-fi/fantasy mish mash is interesting and similar to Lunar now that I think about it. While challenging the boss battles are awesome, both in scale and design. And the soundtrack is simply amazing.
But yes, that difficulty. The one thing holding Alisia Dragoon back from true greatness is its high challenge. You have a single life and have to find 1-ups to earn continues. I can tell you right now that they are extremely well hidden. Alisia can take quite a bit of punishment before death. But that means little before you’ve had a chance to raise your maximum hit points. Don’t be surprised if you die frequently early on. In my opinion every enemy seems to take a few too many hits to kill. You can suffer few mistakes, especially against bosses. But if you persevere by stage three or four you’ll have a much longer life bar and increased your attack power enough survive longer. At that point you can enjoy the game instead of worrying about death constantly. With better balancing Alisia Dragoon could have been truly amazing.
In Closing
Games like Alisia Dragoon are the reason why I do this. This is a great game, borderline phenomenal, that has gone unnoticed all these years. A unique mechanic and high production values make it one of the best games you’ve never heard of. If you can deal with a high difficulty than Alisia Dragoon is a great purchase.
