Chakan The Forever Man
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Chakan is one of my favorite Genesis action games. Not too
many games gets as cool as this one or offer this much
challenged. Everything about this game I truly enjoyed. The
graphics sound, the eerie music, the weapons everything.
This has got to be one of the hardest games ever it took me
literal months to beat this, I had to put more hours in on
this game than I did on Final Fantasy VIII, and this is just
an action game! The story was a great one too, and it was
pretty advanced for 1991, well that was this game's problem,
that was the year of Sega, and with all the hits Sega had
this was forgotten.
Story 9.0/10
You are Chakan a master swordsman. In the entire known world
you have beaten everyone there is and know one can beat you.
At the height of your fame and glory you challenge Death
himself to a duel. Death accepts your challenge, if you lose
its your soul if you win you live an immortal life. After a
grueling battle you topple the undead goul. He grants your
request for infinite life. There is a catch to this however,
you soon get very old to the point you are very old and want
to die. Death then makes another deal with you saying if you
rid all the evil in the world he will let you die in peace.
This is your journey as Chakan the forever man and it is
quite a good and sad story.
Visuals 8.0/10
The graphics on this game was very good. Everything was
highly detailed. Chakan was a fairly large sprite and moved
fluently, he carried two large swords and used them quite
well. The ghoulish undead enemies you faced were done well
too. The backgrounds were very gothic looking with caverns,
and fire spawned pits. Everything looks very good and there
aren't any palette swaps which you would aspect in a game
like this. Everything the graphics department was done well
from sprite size too the amount of colors in the background
nothing looked faded or distorted, and the Genesis pulled
off a high resolution colors in this game.
Audio 7.5/10
The music in this game was down right spooky. From the
lightning bolt theme to the very sad and violin death tolls
you heard during the stage select part of the game.
Everything gave you a sense of death and strangeness. The
sound FX were good too, from the swipe of Chakan's sword to
the ghoulish was enemies scream when their souls were
released added more to the frightening atmosphere. All
though some of the themes in the game weren't scary enough
but the later stages were, and it would send chills down my
spine whenever I heard the outside stage music. The sound
department worked well with the graphics to produce a
downright frightening game.
Game Play 9.0/10
This game was for 1 player only. You were Chakan and your
main weapons were 2 swords. When the game started you have 4
stages to chose from each stage had about 3 sub stages.
Which were all equally hard. On each stage you got a
different weapon, which were optional to use besides just
the two swords. The Weapons were Axe Sickle, Hammer and
Staff. Each one served their own purpose because you had to
do something which each one on another stage. For instance
one stage you have to break down doors, you have to use the
hammer, which you find in another stage. You also use
alchemy, which is mixing potions. Each potion gives you a
temporary effect. There are 8 different combinations I
think. One gives you a blue flame that comes out of your
sword; another gives you red flame beams. There is another
mixture that gives you lightening bolts; there is another
mixture that makes you jump higher There are other ones as
well like invisibility and exit. Your are also timed by an
hour clock that is in the bottom left corner of your screen.
When the hour clock runs out you have to start from the
beginning. There aren't any lives really every time you die
you come right back to life. Even though you do have to
start at the outside stage where you pick your levels. Some
stages require you to find a particular type of potion to
combine because some places are inaccessible without say
high jump or super speed. The difficulty is adjustable, but
I have to warn you even with the easiest difficulty this
game is mega hard, and this is one of those titles where you
don't get an ending without it being on the medium
difficulty. Their isn't any save or password feature.
Overall 8.0/10
This is still a very good game. The only small problem I had
with it is its replay value. This game is very hard to beat
and obviously no one can beat it in a single sitting unless
you really get into it. Which is hard to considering the
insanely high difficulty level of some of the later stages.
You have to really prove yourself to beat this one and it is
almost impossible to master. The fun factor is medium it is
cool to experiment with different potions to see what the
out come is, you should learn it because you may pull an
unwanted spell, like Exit when you don't need it. I think if
this somehow had a 2 player simultaneous mode it would be a
lot easier, and more enjoyable to play. This game tends to
get a little drab at some points, and you may feel there is
no way to beat certain enemies don't give up their always
is. I would still recommend this to anyone who is looking
for a very good, graphically and overall challenging Genesis
game. I wouldn't advise you to play this at night it gets a
little bit frightening especially for the younger players.
OR
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