Game Link Download

Sure, there’s quite a bit of the same stock-standard RPG plot elements we’re all familiar with, but there are some interesting twists throughout, and more than one cliché is turned on its ear by the time the game ends. More impressive than the overall storyline, though, is the moment-to-moment writing. The writers have imbued every random townsperson with interesting thoughts and opinions, and many even have unique responses depending on which character’s leading your party when you speak to them. It’s enough to have me searching each town, making sure I’ve talked to everyone, and I can’t say I’ve done that in more than a decade.

So, Black Sigil will see players traversing the globe, going from town to town with stops at numerous dungeons along the way. Black Sigil very clearly tries to match those SNES classics, and everything from level design to the Mode-7 world map to the game’s font recalls the RPGs of the 16-bit era. All the traditional RPG elements are here: shops, inns, and taverns are everywhere, dungeons are sprawling mazes that always culminate in a boss fight, and enemies are encountered randomly while exploring each area. Sadly, combat is where many of the game’s flaws become evident.

The actual battle system itself isn’t bad. The game pretty much borrows Chrono Trigger’s battle system whole cloth, complete with ATB meters that dictate when you get a turn, attacks that can hit multiple enemies depending on their battlefield location, and combo attacks that let characters join forces to deliver massive damage. It also brings a few new ideas to the table. Characters can run around the battle screen freely whenever their turn meter is full (to position themselves for attacks or retreat to heal). The game also has a different take on item use: while your party can store as many items as you want, each character can only use eight types of items that have been equipped to them.

The problems with combat in this game begin on the map screen. Simply put, the encounter rate is absurdly high – sometimes you’ll get into a fight within seconds of ending the previous battle. The problem’s made worse by the slow speed of combat: with standard encounters taking between 20 to 45 seconds, it’s easy for your dungeon exploration to get de-railed by a chance series of fights that could take up to a few minutes to finish. Being able to move around the battlefield is a nice option, I guess, though real tactical uses for this ability are few and far between. The game’s item-equipping system makes sense in theory, but the game only allows you to equip each type of item to one character at a time. So, for example, your basic healing item (Blue Herbs) can only be carried and used by one character at any given time. Aside from not making much sense from a storyline perspective (wouldn’t you want everyone in your adventuring group to have some healing items with them?), this can ruin your gaming session if, say, the guy holding the revival items goes down during a boss fight. Other little omissions (like the complete lack of any kind of battle transition – the screen just fades to black) seem like oversights, but add to the unsatisfying feeling of combat in this game.



It’s a shame that the combat is as frustrating as it is, because otherwise the game presents a lot to like. As I said, the story is pretty interesting and the writing is always enjoyable. There’s a huge overworld to explore, full of diverse locations. The dungeon design also deserves a mention. Instead of simply twisty passages full of battles and treasure chests, dungeons are designed like puzzles, and making your way to the end requires you to figure out the solution. It’s reminiscent of the Golden Sun series or Zelda, where each dungeon requires you to be smart as well as win fights.

Aesthetically, Black Sigil comes very close to living up to its inspirations. The intricate pixel characters and locations are extremely well-done. Again, Chrono Trigger is obviously the inspiration – while the art design isn’t quite as inspired, the characters and environments look almost as good as those in Square’s time-travelling epic. Special environmental effects deserve special mention: the snow in the game’s opening scenes is some of the prettiest in 2D RPG history. The music, too, is almost-but-not-quite on par with the 16-bit greats. It’s an epic score to be sure, with intense themes for battle and plenty of emotional stuff to accompany story scenes.

Black Sigil is a love letter to the great RPG epics of the past, and while it doesn’t really live up to that legacy, it does remind us what made those games so great in the first place. If, like me, you grew up on the role-playing masterpieces of the Super Nintendo, you’ll likely find Black Sigil to be a fun nostalgic adventure. Still, I have a hard time believing that anyone raised in the post-FF7 RPG landscape will find much of interest here.


By Dylan Platt, www.gamezone.com