Isometric Treasure: Landstalker for Sega Genesis - A Review | hungrygoriya 

I appreciate you for having the patience for all the games I didn't. There's a whole corner of the gaming world I've always been adjacent to but never successfully immersed in. Your channel brings me to places I'd never reach alone.

When I was a kid I had Nintendo, but a friend had Sega. So it was always fun talking about games we came across for our respective systems. One day he got a hold of Landstalker and he was having troubles figuring out the controls. He wasn’t that good with isometric. I was on the other end so it turned into a rare case were I would be playing the game well he watched. We fell in love with it and wished for something more. This game has ended up as iconic to Genesis as Sonic, Phantasy Star or Shining Force! It’s one of the few games I still have now with the box. I think I’ve played it so many times it’s play style is second nature. Although I do have to unlearn after I play 😅 I think the one thing that made my friend and I almost quit was in the second town. We just couldn’t figure out how to proceed until we figured out a kid was behind a building that you couldn’t tell you could go behind there! This is when we learned how to check everything! We left no stone unturned! Cause you never know! I think they were trying to go for a more humorous approach to the characters and design. Unfortunately they could only do so much with a 16-bit machine. I did like the idea that you aren’t on a quest to save the world! You might at one point save a princess, but that is never the end goal. Our hero is a treasure Hunter! That is why he went to the island and that is his end goal. Sure it does make him a bit shallow but it is a different plot then the usual If anyone made it this far and has a Switch, there is a great collection of Genesis (Genesis Classics) games that has Landstalker on it! As well as a few other gems when you’re done Well, that’s it for my post review rant! Love your selection of games! I’ve had a blast going through your reviews 😊

I love how this game just is an Old-School version of Alundra. It has everything. The Big boots, the swagger walk cycle, the stacking things on top of each other just for fun, the pretty amazing feeling of exploration... Landstalker is just one of those games that would have been up high on my favourites list if I had it during my childhood.

Such a underrated game.

Used to love watching my dad play this back in the day. Pretty sure the guys who developed this went on to create Alundra. If you enjoyed Landstalker, you will LOVE Alundra. It's such an overlooked masterpiece.

Hungry Goriya is a Canadian national treasure. The reviews are so compelling that I can't help but watch them all, even if I haven't necessarily played or even intend to play the game in question.

Glad to see another upload from you, I love your narratives! Please keep doing what you're doing!

According to various internet sources (the earliest seems to be one FAQ from David Richey and Victor Trent in 1995), the Lifestock indeed increases both hitpoints and attack strangth. Apparently nobody tested yet if attack strength can overflow. Swords don't make much of a difference regarding non-magical attacks according to another source.

Oooo, this one is near the top of my Genesis "really want to play" list! I do own on it on a few platforms. It reminds me so much of late 80s and early 90s comedy fantasy adventure anime and I can't help but love that vibe xD

I Love Landstalker, that game frickin changed me. I love that game

Time to discover a new game before bed time. It's worth repeating that your volume and tone are easy on the ears.

I was an SNES kid but then I got step brothers and they had a Genesis. They introduced me to this game and we all loved it. It was a treat watching you stream it!

this game definitely needed a drop shadow for so of those tough platforming areas. the developer "Climax" made several of these isometric adventure/platformer games, one of which is a DS game "Steal Princess" which was a Puzzle/Platformer also featuring a greedy treasure hunter with a fairy companion!!! its quite good!!

Awesome, have been wanting this one! Have always been ambivalent about this game, it looks awesome but I've never been able to fully get in to it.

Glad to see a video on this one! It was a lot of fun to watch, and I think it was the game you were playing when I first found you on Twitch.

I love this review and episode so much. Honestly, it's your best work yet! Thank you for an episode that I will watch over and over again. I'm pretty sure there is a sequel to this game too and then a spiritual successor named Alundra for the PS1 as well. I'm no historian but they are all great games I'm sure you'll love.

One thing I really want to see an isometric style game, probably not a platformer, is take advantage of the shortcomings of the style and create 'impossible' layouts for part of the game. Probably not the whole game but a dream sequence or final/secret stage would be good candidates.

I really enjoy this aesthetic! Great review. 😁

your observations about Lyle(Nigel)'s boots and the sfx were great. About the sfx, something that devs sometimes do when inserting assets is just record their own voice and pitch them up or down and will use that as placeholder, which I suspect is the case here, or intentionally (Something like Yoshi). The reason I know this is because the little sounds that Lyle makes are actually him speaking japanese. When putting an object down he says 'kore'(this) and the sound when he gets hit 'Itai'(ouch), so the funny chicken noises are just the sound guy doing his best to make death noises and pitching them up as well lol.

One of the tricks with nigel's big feet is if you hang his toes off an edge and there's a moving platform that connects to the edge, you will automatically be transferred to the moving platform. It helps when you can't tell where the platform is like in the blue room you showcased. That being said, it's a shame he has such big feet but the color doesn't change to match the boot type like his chest plate and sword do

I could have sworn you'd covered this game previously... looking through your videos I found out not only was I wrong but that you've been doing the youtube thing for a lot longer than I'd realized. Good video, Landstalker is a fantastic game.

Nigel did have some noble traits, and he did saved Fara and that wizard dude, after all. Yeah, he was motivated mostly by greed but I never imagined him doing anything stomach-turning. Thank you for reviewing one of my childhood faves 😊 your channel is so underrated!

I love how the giant oversized boots get their own section in the review! xD

Just found your channel via this review! Landstalker was one of my childhood favorites, and I'm glad you enjoyed it too! There's really only one jumping puzzle (which you highlighted) that I found especially troublesome when I played it when I was younger, and I think Landstalker's 3D perspective is part of why I have really good spatial reasoning skills as an adult. I'm glad you pointed out Nigel's feet, too - I've always found them to be kind of cartoonishly cute. Looking through your other reviews on here, I have to say, you do a really good job of reviewing these classics. Your scripting is really thoughtfully articulated while also being pretty brief. Hope you keep up the great work, I look forward to seeing more of these!

I remember spending the grand majority of a summer on this game. It's so fantastic and I would say my favourite part was the crypt with all the riddles you must figure out in order to move on. I also liked that it was in the basement of some random house buried in the corner of the town.

OH MAN I LOVE THIS GAME!! I was looking for it for ever as a kid, and my parents got me Light Crusader based on my description. (fun game too) but this one is just so much fun.

Always glad when I discover a channel and they're still uploading new content, means it will take longer for me to get through them all lol

I was thrilled to watch you play through this one live, as it's one of my favorite games I had growing up! That final dungeon stumped me for a month as I remember trying to brainstorm about it at school, but you knocked it out without much trouble at all, and even finished all the bosses in the end off without the best armor. Another prime example of why playing these games with no hints or guides results in some very unique stuff as we've seen in the past!

Love your reviews and especially this one! Started watching your Twitch channel as well.

Watching a Hungry Goriya video is a great way to relax at the end of the day!

I just got Equinox last night. What a coincidence you review this lol. Will have to give it a try!

I loved this game. Did anyone else have the Sega Channel back in the day? It was the greatest thing ever. You paid a monthly fee to Comcast and got access to a boatload of rotating Genesis games every month. It's how I enjoyed all these classics without ever owning them.

Oh my god I can't believe you're covering this!

YES! This is one of those games I played years ago that has stuck with me. I was not able to beat it until I went back and played as an adult but I remember this was a fun and unique game. Tons of secrets and interesting dialog. This game also made me want to try and play LadyStalker which I heard was the sequel but never did play it. On a side note, my mind is absolutely blown regarding the HP/Attack correlation. I have not noticed that nor heard that before but it does make sense. I played the game and used mental gymnastics to swap between swords using elemental damage to exploit weakness, but that was more than likely all in my head. I am going to look deeper into this. As always awesome video and thank you for sharing!

As someone who grew up with an 8 bit Nintendo and only got to play it well into the 16 bit cycle, i love seeing all the things i missed. Thank you so much for sharing these videos! 🎉

I don't recall having those issues with the controls when I played Landstalker a few years ago. Maybe it's because this and Q*Bert are the only isometric games I've really played with a controller or joystick. I guess I didn't have to unlearn a more standard control scheme. I don't remember a huge amount of my playthrough, but I did remember falling into that ghost pit countless times though.

Great review! As usual, a really thoughtful encapsulation of the good and bad in this game. I randomly returned to this one a while ago and finally completed it. It was a very rewarding experience, for sure, and something I always wanted to finish since we'd only rented the game as kids. I loved the section with the riddles in the tombs - those are some of the most memorable and fun puzzles I've experienced in a game. Agreed on the soundtrack, I love the composer and the music is great, but a few more songs sprinkled in would've worked wonders. His work on Shining Force 2 was breathtaking

This one looks interesting but man, I don't think I'd have the patience for some of those isometric jumps it was asking of you! Great video!

I just picked up a copy of Landstalker last weekend because I heard good things about it. I haven't had time to play it yet, so I figured I would check out your review to see what to expect. As always, I loved your video, and it made me excited to play the game. Your reviews really are the best. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for reviewing this game, I liked it alot back in my childhood. You made some good points, about what could be better, but also appreciated the good stuff.

I've been waiting for this since we talked about it in the comments of your Solstice review! It's an acquired taste, for sure, but one i've definitely acquired for myself. Easily my favourite Genesis game. I got around the control issues by simply using the diagonals at all times. You can use them without using the cardinal directions at all. Much smoother. Also, I dunno, i liked the characters and the goofy cartoon story. Nigel makes like he's motivated entirely by gold, but he also gives up the lithograph for Friday, so he's not totally heartless. It was a nice change from the bog standard fantasy adventure game story.

Nice, I loved this game as a kid, and still find it pretty charming. I always got stuck as a kid in the riddle dungeon where you have to solve all those riddles (some of which are pretty cryptic) to get ferried across the water.

I came onto RU-vid for something, I don't remember what now because as soon as I saw this I HAD to watch it. This was one of my favorite games when I was a child, it just stuck out that much to me and it still holds a special place in my heart. Its been a long time since I played it so I don't even know if I remember the bit about his armor changing colors or not. Outside of that, everything you said was spot on. I'm just really happy someone covered this game.

I'm glad you made this video, I played this as a kid and couldn't remember the name of it for nothing. So when I seen this in the RU-vid feed I was happy. I remembered it being on the SNES though guess I remembered it wrong, probably was one of those games I got to play on the sega channel what a great thing that was back then.

What a great review. Your narrative is immersive, I felt that way. You can clearly make the connection between what you hear and what you see. Remarkable work. Who knows, maybe I'll try the game. What is for sure, is that I will remember your review. Keep it up, girl.

I played through this one a few years ago, and enjoyed it fairly well. I’ve similar gripes as what you’ve stated in the video. I really enjoy your channel. Many of the niche adventure genre games you showcase are ones that I too have come across and enjoy, but sometimes you put up ones that I haven’t played, and it gives me something to go check out.

This was my absolute favorite Genesis game. I already had it on the Switch collection, but I'm loving playing through again via the online addition with an actual Genesis style controller. I suppose I could have done it via the collection before, but the buttons aren't mapped properly and I didn't want to remap them. Also, Nigel is motivated by the treasure hunt more than the treasure itself, but you literally have no way of finding that out without beating the game, which is no simple task. Once he's richer than Midas, Friday mentions another hidden treasure and he's all in regardless.

2:05 - Right away I said to myself, "Wait, where have I seen that green bird with the spear before?" He's almost a dead ringer for the Chest Beak enemy from Shining in The Darkness. A little quick Google research later and I discovered that both of the artists credited to Landstalker also worked on Shining Force: Hidehiro Yoshida and Yoshitaka Tamaki. =)

One of my favorite games as a kid. So glad to see such a detailed and thorough appreciation for it!

Remember playing this as a kid, recalled enjoying it, but got to a part in what I think were called the Dwarven Mines or something like that where the isometric platforming got really hard, so I stopped playing. I think I have the game in one of those Sega collections, so I definitely want to go back and finish it someday.

That bit about Nigel being a greedy murderer made me laugh pretty hard. The accompanying visuals provided by HG made it even funnier. I hope Alundra makes her playlist some day.

I always hoped you would give your thoughts on this classic! I used to play this game non stop as a child, and I remember it vividly- the first time I had played it on a black and white television (my grandmother forbid the use of her floor model colored television lol) It is easily my favorite game of all time. Such nostalgia! Thank you for uploading this! 💜

When I do my grocery shopping I pick up each item one at a time and throw it at the cashier, purchase it, then I leave the store and return so I can buy the next item. Finally a game that reflects my life! Anyway, thanks for the great video as always!

Fantastic game, fantastic video. Glad you enjoyed this one HG. Played the heck out of it as a kid!

Ah, Landstalker. I would put it in my top 100 videogames list. I'm glad you liked it, too! The isometric perspective is hard to sell, considering the puzzles hang on that most of the time. On the other hand, I personally really like the sounds. They might be goofy but it adds a lot to the charm.

Man, I absolutely love how this game looks. Also, I wish isometric's would make a comeback. Like, I am still upset that Falcom went full 3D.

Thanks HG! I remember more games from back then with no instructions, but the instructions came in the manual, or on the back of the box.

It was a treat finally diving into Landstalker and Crusader of Centy a couple years ago. Some of the best non-Zelda Zelda games

I remember playing this on Sega as a kid, thinking to myself that graphics couldn't get any better than this, and it felt like a full 3D game to me at the time, looking back I still love this game for LIFE, and could play it through another 6 times!!!..

Never noticed any hidden leveling up system, very interesting. Back in the day the story was a breath of fresh air compaired to the usual "chosen one has to defeat a great evil".

Just yesterday, I was binging a few vids waiting for the next release. You really give me such a hankering to play some retro games.

One of my favorite games of all time! ❤️ I still playthrough it every few years.

After getting every game available for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Collection on Steam, I realized this was one of them, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. I barely have any experience with isometric games, and the control scheme is definitely taking some getting used to. It looks fantastic and seems pretty straight forward. If the characters aren't all that great or likeable, it's not a dealbreaker for me as long as they're written consistently. There are two other games in that collection as well that I'd recommend, an RPG/beat 'em up named Beyond Oasis and an isometric dungeon crawler named Light Crusader. I haven't played much of either but I really like what I've seen so far from both, Light Crusader especially. Even though it's an isometric perspective, the character moves exactly how you think they would based on your inputs, making it possibly one of the most natural-feeling control schemes I've encountered in a video game. I felt fully in control of my character from my first movement.

That book stacking at the end of the video 😂 I missed a lot of the Landstalker streams so I didn't see much of this while you were doing it. The controls sound nightmarish. I can't imagine what they were thinking when someone sat in a design meeting and said "You know what would work really well? Requiring an extra input to change direction." Also, the thing about having no information on the performance of equipment reminded me of when you streamed Azure Dreams. There's no need for any game to be so cryptic about which equipment is better.

Loved this game as a kid, it was nice to see some fair criticism levied!

Ghost Assault sounds like a great band name

I think they made the boots so large to give a better sense of how big of a space the character occupies, the boots basically form a 1x1 square area.

I played Landstaker via Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Classics years ago and ran into a wall when I had to deal with one of the moving platform puzzles. It's the one at 16:28, in fact!

Damn,I remember playing, beating, and loving this game as a teenager.

Always a pleasure when hungr goryia updates

I was just thinking of you. Jeremy Parish did a video of A Boy an his Blob and Crystalis, which made me think of you. When I was done watching the video this review appeared in my feed. YES! I always wanted to play Landstalker, but I still need to play Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness, Beyond Oasis and Crusader of Centy. It needs to get in line because those are all games I KNOW I will like.

I hope everyone appreciates your Trinitron! A thing of beauty!

Love this game. I first played it when i was 13 back in 1994. Took me at least 6-8 gos until I finally killed the dragon and finished the game though . :) around 6 years ago I ended up buying it second hand off eBay . There will be a day where I’ll play it again and play it in my 50’s lol. Bring back my childhood memories :)

You might also enjoy Light Crusader on the Genesis: it's another isometric RPG/platformer/puzzler. It lacks the charm of Landstalker, but the character has a shadow and can move in 8 directions instead of just the 4 diagonals. I found that Landstalker really leaned into the confusion created by its perspective in a way that I found a bit frustrating as I played through it. I kept picturing the designer cackling to themself every time I missed a jump. Light Crusader didn't have that particular issue, although it has its own problems with jankiness here and there. I just finished playing through it after previously completing Landstalker and craving more isometric action. I think it has lower highs and higher lows than Landstalker, if that makes any sense. It certainly seems better than some of the stuff you've suffered through for your channel!

I also loved the vibe in the outdoor sections.

Excellent review. I enjoyed this game despite the high frustration factor. Looking back, it's probably the best game Climax Entertainment ever made. I think I've mentioned before in these comments that Dark Savior on the Saturn made me want to punch a wall. It took Climax's signature obtuse isometric jumping challenges and cranked them up to 11. At least that's my recollection -- I haven't played through these games in decades.

I've just discovered this channel and I'm loving it

9:58 "I thank you from the bottom of my heart." Yes.

I enjoy the Zen moment you bring to the internet. Share your pleasure with these old gems. I haven't played them as they were before my time or were out of reach at the time.

Hmm, rethinking this one now. I started the game about 4-5 times, and couldn’t make myself play past the first 20 minutes or so. I remember the music on this title being amazing back in the day, and it still seems to hold up. For a while, I thought that the Genesis sound hardware was cursed and in the hands of the right composer it can actually do some impressive things. As always, thanks for the huge effort that you put into these videos. Much appreciated.

Another fine review.😀 Landstalker is one of my most beloved games of all time. It had so many aspects and moments that were unusual for a console game back in the days. For example, the concert with Mr. Ludwig in the banquet room and the subsequent quest in the crypt of Mercator were so memorable.

Hey hi! This channel is great. Your verbal economy is perfect. I watch now just for the vibe.

Love when you do videos on games that have come to NSO. Interesting to hear the differences from modern hardware, and makes me way more interested in playing games I've never heard of before :).

The visuals are about all I remember from playing this... probably something like 12 years ago? They took the usually muddy palette of the Genesis and made something very charming out of it. Not sure if you've played Light Crusader, but that is also an isometric Action-Adventure with a heavy emphasis on puzzles that you might enjoy; the controls are generally more fluid, for one thing, and I say that as someone who's not great at isometric platforming.

It is normal to get used to the perspective of this game. You are a good gamer, the learning curve of this game gets the best of us. I used to go to my friends house to watch him play. I never brought up the courage to play this yet. If I get the time I will try this. Good review as always.😁❤

Another side note: I used to put my dads shoes on and run around the house pretending I was Nigel, because his shoes are so prominent 😂

Great review! And thank you very much for mentioning those hacks, because I was unaware of them and had written this game off as having an annoying control scheme. For me, the game is far better with one of the hacks that you mentioned. The better one for people who have played the classic isometric games is the one called "Alternate Controls" by Jon Najar, because it gives you what I consider the standard isometric controls (as in Solstice and Snake Rattle & Roll), in other words, when you press up your character goes diagonally up and right. The other hack, titled "Improved Controls (MIJET)" by Pennywise, makes it so that pressing up makes your guy go diagonally up and left, which no classic game has done to my knowledge. Maybe there's some beloved ZX Spectrum game that did that, but anyone in North America will probably want the "alternate" hack.

Landstalker was my first isometric platformer so the controls didn't seem so odd. Replaying it did take time to adjust. I still swear by the tank controls for the early Resident Evils and Silent Hills, So the controls that work for me is suspect for everyone else,

Oh, this one's neat! I've always liked the atmosphere, the fun dialogues and just the general gameplay. There's also Ladystalker (on SNES/SFC), but it came out only in Japan, unfortunately, so not many people have played it in the West.

Yo, thank you for featuring my favorite Genesis game. About to watch!

Love your commentary. Especially the bionic commando one. I felt exactly the same way about how gratifying it felt finally getting the muscle memory for the claw to be successful along with your working designs commentary. Have you played Shining Force 2 yet? Would love a commentary ! Good old working designs

The Genesis graphics always reminded me of computer graphics of the time. It's like I have nostalgia for the Genesis even though I didn't play it much, because of the graphics/colors.

The bandit dungeon Ryuma has a room where I can't understand how you can get into the door without some time stop ability. Regardless how fast I am I reach the gate before it closes 0.5 seconds to 1 seconds to late.

One of the only Camelot games I still don't own a physical copy of. I'm a collector of their work owing to a long love of Shining Force. Glad to be able to enjoy such a long and thorough review!

I remember getting stuck on this game back in the day at the part with all the underground riddle rooms.

Watching this video makes me want to see an Alundra video from you! I've never been able to get into Landstalker, but Alundra is one of my faves.

I still play this game once a year on my old Sega Mega Drive.

I really like the background graphics in landstalker. Look a little like dioramas!

I remember playing (and beating) this game! And to be honest, having been a veteran of many Nintendo games with awful controls I didn't have a hard time with the controls on it. I did like how graphically colorful and detailed this game was. Only thing missing was a shadow beneath the PC so you could tell where you were jumping (just like Solstice). Thanks for reviewing this!

Great video!