Lords of Thunder (TurboGrafx CD) Playthrough
241A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1993 shoot 'em up for the TurboGrafx CD, Lords of Thunder.
As a follow-up to one of the TurboGrafx CD's most celebrated shooters (https://youtu.be/PJbkTvoJbeM), Lords of Thunder had some mighty big shoes to fill when it dropped a year later in early 1993.
Like Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder was created by Red Company, a Japanese developer that regularly worked with Hudson and came to be known for the Bonk and Tengai Makyou series. But more specifically, this shooter was the work of Red Kaminarimon, a team at Red that was largely made up of ex-Technosoft employees who had previously worked on the Thunderforce games.
And let me tell you, that pedigree and talent are on full display here. Red Kaminarimon was clearly swinging for the fences with Lords of Thunder, and in the end, they didn't merely knock the ball out of the park. They sent it into orbit.
Lords of Thunder is a thoroughly metal fantasy-themed shooter in which you take control of Landis, a knight on a quest to save the world of Mistral from an evil dictator who has summoned an evil god.
You can tackle the first six continents in any order you like, and before heading into each stage, you pick the elemental suit of armor you'd like to wear. Your armor determines which weapons you'll have access to - the water armor, for example, can flood the screen with walls of weak projectiles, while the earth armor's narrow lightning beams can shred a heavily armored enemy's defenses in an instant - and each suit can be powered up to increase the potency and range of its attacks. If you prefer to get up close and personal with your enemies, you can pull out a sword and start hacking away, and if you ever find yourself in a tight spot, you can set off an elemental bomb attack to reclaim a bit of breathing room.
There's a lot of strategy involved in choosing the right weapon for the job, and the system does a great job of catering to different play styles. The same goes for the way the game handles its difficulty balance: normal mode is excellent for shmup newbies trying to learn the ropes, and the Super mode is perfect for masochists who love learning bullet hell patterns and studying hit boxes. For everyone else, the Hard mode puts up a good challenge without going too far over the top.
The game is a total blast to play, and though the gameplay could easily carry the weight of the entire package on its own, a big part of the fun is the presentation. The huge enemy sprites, the chaotic sprays of bullets and fire, the parallax scrolling, and the amount of detail and color packed into every scene all impress, especially given how there's virtually no flicker or slowdown, and oh my god, the soundtrack! In terms of music, I'd place Lords of Thunder at the top of the Turbo CD ladder, right alongside Wanderers from Ys. If you're a fan of screaming guitar anthems filled with catchy hooks, you'll fall for this soundtrack hard, I promise.
(Psst... check out this vid I put together using both the Turbo and the Sega CD versions of the OST: https://youtu.be/9KL1la9UnOw)
In summary, Lords of Thunder kicks ass. I don't think much else needs said.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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