Game:

First Samurai (1991)

Duration: 1:48:38

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296

http://www.longplays.org

Played by: MadMatty

First Samurai, developed by Vivid Images and published by Image Works (Mirrorsoft) in 1992. Well..until Mirrorsoft went bankrupt and the game ended up actually being published by Ubisoft for the Commodore 64. The in game credits and title screen don't reflect this though.

“In Vivid Image’s stunning new development, a young warrior seeks vengeance in a future far beyond his own. In ancient Japan he saw his people and his master slaughtered by the Demon King. Swearing revenge, the young warrior invoked the power of the Wizard Mage and followed the Demon King across time and space. Now, in 2323AD, the young warrior finds his country ravaged by the Demon King’s hordes. Armed with the extensive teaching of his master and the Wizard Mage’s mystical sword, he has embarked upon a bloody one-man crusade from which there is no turning back. Death and dishonor is no consolation for failure. But he will not fail, for his is the …… First Samurai”

The game is a Conversion from the original Amiga version released in 1991. The initial plan was to have the game on a cartridge for the Commodore 64GS but was canceled to low sales of the system. Who knows what extra features the game would have had apart from minimal loading time, taking advantage of the instant access a cartridge can provide. The game was eventually released onto tape and disk.

I had played the demo quite a lot and quite enjoyed it as a kind of exploration action adventure game. After mulling it over, I eventually bought the game and is one of the very few which I paid full price for (no budget release). After getting the game home and firing it up you get a nice title screen with a short but nice piece of looping music. Who was to know that this is the only piece of music in the entire game! Moving on, there was no intro. Just a basic text screen and then on into the game. The was the first point of disappointment for me. After playing many System3 and Thalamus games, I expected a bit more from full price games in 1992.

Once into the game, you start off at the magic pot and this is where you will respawn when you die or drink a teleport potion. Now you need to wander around and find the magic items needed to get through the level. There will be many enemies which swarm around you and try to take your energy away. Killing them rewards you with magic. Once you have collected enough magic, you are rewarded with your sword. You can also empty your magic into magic points found during your travels to change your spawn point. On route you will encounter treasure chests which contain food for energy and other weapons. A lantern can also be found for revealing hidden chests. Unfortunately you can only hold one item/weapon at a time. Once you have all magic items, you can go to the end of the level and call upon the Wizard Mage (After collecting the Bell) to use the magic items allowing you to clear the level.

Levels 1-4 is one giant map. Really quite impressive for the C64. However, by the time you finish level 4 you really wish it was the end of the game. The constantly spawning enemies get annoying fast and navigating the levels, finding the right teleports and not wasting Bell pickups can make the game a chore. Id have been happy if the game ended there back when I bought the game. Level 5 is its own level and a nice change. Levels 6-8 is another huge map and 9-10 is the final map. Graphically the game is very impressive and the smooth scrolling works really well. Movement can be annoying as sometimes after a jump you end up in a slide which is very annoying when trying to land on small platforms. The longplay is a bit longer than needed as I explore and try to show as much of the map as I can and where all the objects are as well as any hidden ones that show up while I have the lantern.

So I finally get to the end of the game and …..a short text screen followed by a restart level option. Like with the opening, even though its a C64 game, I expected more. The lack of an intro/ending or interlude music really takes away from the game and leaves a sour taste after the not insubstantial effort needed to finish the game. I feel like they cheaped out a little using the tape loading music from hammerfist and the sound effects from Shadow Dancer.

00:00:00 Title Screen
00:01:55 Level 1
00:17:48 Level 2
00:29:30 Level 3
00:40:08 Level 4
00:46:53 Level 5
00:53:25 Level 6
01:05:10 Level 7
01:15:45 Level 8
01:28:35 Level 9
01:36:11 Level 10 -
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