Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
306A playthrough of NEC's 1990 action-adventure game for the TurboGrafx-16, Neutopia.
Neutopia is a Hudson-developed game that has no qualms with wearing its inspiration on its sleeve. It has regularly been called a Zelda clone over the years, and while that label isn't entirely accurate, it borrows quite liberally from Nintendo's 1986 megahit - so much so that, according to the personal blog of Hiromasa Iwasaki (who was working as a programmer on Ys I & II at the time), Keigo Yasuda and "Kinchan" created Neutopia because they loved The Legend of Zelda and wanted something similar to it on the PC Engine. I imagine many such games over the years had similar origin stories.
It's an action-adventure starring Jazeta, a young guy with a penchant for swordsmanship who is destined to save the land of Neutopia. Dirth, the bad guy, has kidnapped Princess Aurora. Aurora is the only one is capable of dispelling the evil, but she needs the eight medals to unseal her powers, and these medals have been hidden in eight labyrinths. So, yeah, there is a lot of Zelda in Neutopia's DNA.
There are some important differences, though. Neutopia emphasizes exploration, but it's a much more linear game. There are four subworlds, each with two dungeons, and both dungeons in area have to be cleared before you can move on.
It also focuses more on world-building through dialog. There are *a lot* of NPCs hanging out, ready to provide guidance, save points/passwords, character upgrades, or sometimes even just a friendly greeting, and the quality of the translation is far better than you'll find in most TG16 games. If the utter lack of direction provided in The Legend of Zelda has ever intimidated or befuddled you, you might well find that Neutopia's gentler, more "modern" approach is easier to digest in 2021. The same goes for the graphics and sound - the Turbo's hardware was a big step up from the NES's, and Neutopia takes advantage of that fact.
(That last boss music rocks so hard!)
The controls are comfortably rigid and reliable and the combat flows well, especially once you've found the fire rod that can attack from a fair distance. The enemies can put up a reasonable fight, but it doesn't take long to get a feel for their patterns and to start cleaning house.
Neutopia doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does do a good job at reproducing it while introducing a few innovations of its own. It also filled a void left by Zelda II for those that wanted, and expected, a game similar to the first that they'd already fallen in love with and mastered. Calling it a clone makes Neutopia sound like a cynical cash grab, but it never feels that way. There was a lot of effort and care put into it, and it shows.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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