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(c)1993 Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)
Cartridge SHVC-EX ESPG48
Action/Adventure/Puzzle Game
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Released in America as
Equinox
( SNS-EX-USA )
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Released in Europe as
Equinox
( SNSP-EX-### )
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Solstice 2 is an action/puzzle/adventure game by Software Creations
and published by Sony Imagesoft. It is also the sequel of Solstice
released for the Famicom system in 1990. The young Glendaal is on a
mission to deliver his father Shadax, powerful wizard (and hero of the first game)
kidnapped by his apprentice, the evil sorceress Sonia.
Each of the seven visited worlds hides vast underground dungeons and
Glendaal must collect twelve magic blue orbs hidden within
their walls. Like with Solstice, the first game of the series,
Solstice 2 uses cleverly designed 3D-isometric graphics. But unlike
the first opus, the world-map can also rotate using the neat Super Famicom's
hardware deformation effects. Our hero starts his journey empty handed, and his
fist task is to find weapons and magic spells. Each dungeon contains one hidden
weapon (dagger, shuriken, axe etc...) and one hidden spell (Unlike weapons, some
spells are essential to complete the game). Once all the orbs are collected,
the area's guardian can be summoned and (hopefully) defeated. Upon victory,
Glendaal will increase his health and magic powers and also collect one of
the five strings for his magic harp. But the secret of the music instrument
has been long lost and who knows what will happen to Glendaal
when he first uses it...
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Teaser text from the American version:
As Glendaal, you wake to a horrifying scene.
Evil forces have reduced the town of Galedonia to
rubble and turned the villagers into mutant zombies
and demons. Your father, the wizard Shadax, must
be found, for only he has the magical powers to
challenge the evil Sonia. The search for Shadax
takes you through overworld and underworld battle
zones, from strategic attack positions high in the
clouds to eight mysterious dungeons below - loaded with ghosts,
wind demons and traps galore. Moving from dungeon to gungeon,
you'll search for the hidden mystical tokens which must be found to
complete a game so real that it's hard to believe it's really a game!
Equinox, new from Some Imagesoft.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
O
V
s
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Solstice 2 amazes at first glance - the visuals are incredible and the
3D-isometric graphics and the overall feel of the game is rather nice (the bosses are jaw-dropping).
Same for the sound effects and musics throughout the game which nicely contribute to the ambience
of the various locations. Controls can be tricky at first (which is often the case for
3D-isometric games), Glendaal can only move at a 45° angle along four directions
and the collision detection is rather unfair but things get better as the game progresses.
One of my only complaint about the game would go for some of the character designs -
some monsters look a bit uninspired and somehow out of place (like the ghosts) and
there's only a handful of them with various color variations. All in all, Solstice 2
is a fun, unusual, yet frustrating action/puzzle game with an unbalanced difficulty
curve and, worse, occasionally unfair (and tricky) situations. This game is
definitively not for everyone.
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