Virtual Hydlide (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
544A playthrough of Atlus's 1995 action role-playing game for the Sega Saturn, Virtual Hydlide.
Played through on the default (easy) difficulty level. Since the primary difference between the difficulty levels lies in how useful the map is, it didn't seem necessary to prolong the length of the game by running all over the randomly generated map without any clue as to where to go. I think that the compromise makes for a far more entertaining video overall - hopefully you agree.
Virtual Hydlide, despite being published in the US by Atlus, was made by T&E Soft. Does that name ring any bells? They're most well known in America for their golf games, like Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Saturn and 3DO, Waialae on the SNES & N64, among others. Now, if you look at the way those games use digitized sprites, and you look at how this game uses them, there's a clear similarity, don't you think?
I personally love the look. I don't care that the game is notorious for its graphics - and rightfully so with a framerate that tends to hover somewhere between 5-15fps depending on what's going on. It's all super-chunky, it chugs worse than a pickled bar vet, and the main character looks like a complete tool (just check out his aptly named "Fairy armor"!), but somehow, all of these things coalesce into something that's extremely endearing. Have you ever had an animal in your neighborhood that is go grotesque that nobody has the heart to turn it away? A cat with one eye and a severe case of the mange that everyone feeds despite the public health risk or how much they complain about it?
Well, Virtual Hydlide is that cat. Nobody seems to want to admit that they love it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a good many of the people that played this for any length of time found something redeeming in it.
I know that it was branded as a "perfect" remake of the original Hydlide game, and I suggest ignoring that claim. Any version of the original Hydlide game is far from this, and no game would benefit from being associated with the NES title. Sure, they share a basic structure, but Virtual Hydlide, in all of its tackiest 90s finery, is quite a different beast. It's engaging, and it's fun. It's mercifully easy and short (which it really had to be for how difficult the framerate can make it to do even simple things such as opening chests and picking up items). And it's SUPER hokey in the best way possible. The voices that the bosses speak in (mainly just phrases in Japanese slowed down and played backwards) are super creepy and oddly fitting, the enemy designs are sometimes great, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes will leave you just wondering WTF?
Oh, and the soundtrack is insanely good. Not in the way the FMV bits are - the ironic sort of way. The music is actually really, really good. Check out the lava cave music!
Whether you love it or hate it, there's no denying that Virtual Hydlide is a unique and memorable experience. I've always found it to be a good one, though.
Finally, If you've ever dreamt of a rail-cart sequence that tops the ones in SMRPG or FF6, well, hahahaha - this one does it!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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