Altered Beast Genesis Longplay

Channel:

Absolute Longplay

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Published on June 3, 2019 8:17:56 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieh2fvBbCWU

Game:

Altered Beast (1988)

Duration: 22:28

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Altered Beast, called Juuouki (獣王記) in Japan, is a Sega System 16 arcade game released in 1988 by Sega. It was developed by the creator of Golden Axe, Makoto Uchida and shares many graphical similarities as a result. The game was notable as it allows the player to take on the form of various "Were Animals". The Japanese title roughly translates to "Beast King Chronicle".

In Ancient Rome, the evil Demon God, Neff, has kidnapped Zeus' Daughter, Athena. Zeus revives a centurion from the dead to rescue his daughter. This is where the first stage starts, with Zeus saying the famous "Rise from your grave!" line. The centurion must kill the Wolf-like Demons that flash multiple colors (the Mega Drive version lacks the flashing effect and the characters stay blue instead). Killing them unleashes a spirit ball that the player must grab in order to transform. The first two increase muscle mass slightly while the third spirit ball will transform the centurion into a beast depending in what stage the player is in. The Sega Master System version lacks the first muscle increase, jumping directly to the body builder physique.

Once the player has changed into a beast he/she can then confront Neff who will appear and say "Welcome to your doom!" and create a smoke cloud which then disappears revealing a boss monster that also depends on the current stage as well. If the player has not collected three spirit balls before reaching Neff, he will run away two times, after that the level will start over from the beginning. In the Sega Mega Drive version, you will have to fight Neff in human form on the third encounter. After each boss fight Neff's head appears from a hole in the ground and steals all three of the player's Spirit balls, causing the player to revert back to his/her normal state. The player then proceeds to jump down the hole continuing to follow Neff into the next stage.

Basically, in the arcade version, the ending acts like the whole game was a movie. All the monsters and the main characters remove their costumes and celebrate the completion of their movie with a toast and mugs of beer. Then it shows a drawn version of each person involved with the game's creation except that a white bar appears over their eyes, giving the impression that they don't want the player to actually see their faces. Typical Sega humor for that time period.

The Mega Drive version's ending is the same except that the movie cast sequence doesn't happen. Instead, the credits roll and the Centurion is standing off to the side of the screen with the background of Stage 1 behind him. Interestingly, the player can control the Centurion during this sequence. When he touches the words of the credits, he acts like an enemy knocked him down, but he will not die from it. In addition to this, if the player decides to play the Mega Drive version again without turning off the power, they will start from the beginning of the game, but there will be more powerful and dangerous enemies lurking in the earlier levels (many of the ones that appeared in Stages 4 and 5). The boss fights also become more fierce. The ending remains unchanged. After the third playthrough loop, enemies and bosses don't become stronger anymore.