Shapeshifter
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
One thing that I've learned from many years of playing video
games is that, no matter how farfetched they may seem,
people should always believe ancient prophecies. Many a
video game land has been conquered or terrorized after the
foolish folks who inhabit these fantasy worlds refused to
listed to the 'ancient prophecies' of some wizard or wise
man. Such is the case in Shapeshifter. The citizens of
Krellion were spoiled by the peace and prosperity brought
about by five kind, powerful wizards, and refused to take
heed of their ancestors' warnings. Well, wouldn't you know
it: the wizards have been captured and three evil beings
known as the 'Dark Ones' now have plans to conquer
Krellion. Having already desecrated many of the lands
bordering Krellion, the Dark Ones are now preparing to move
in for the kill. Residents of the 's hadow Realm', the Dark
Ones will be unable to make their move until the summer
equinox rolls around, so thankfully, there's still time to
do something. The responsibility of saving the world falls
on a very unlikely hero whose name is Lykos. Referred to as
a 'barbarian' by many of the people he meets, Lykos may
not be the classiest or best-dressed guy who lives in
Krellion. But he does possess two things that separate him
from most of the barbarians that you come across in life: a
very big heart, and the ability to change into different
types of mighty creatures.
Shapeshifter may seem like your typical side-scrolling,
hack-and-slash adventure game upon first glance, but it is
actually far more deep and challenging than most any title
that falls into that genre. Shapeshifter is quite similar to
games such as Metroid and Symphony of the Night in that it
isn't divided up into levels; instead, it presents you with
a single, enormous world to explore. As Lykos, your mission
is to find and free the members of the Ring of Five (the
benevolent sorcerers who brought peace to Krellion) and
destroy the Dark Ones before they are able to enter the
land. There are also dozens of tasks and sub-quests that
must be completed along the way.
The game commences in Lykos' home town. You'll have to chat
with a few folks in order to figure out where to go and what
to do; as a matter of fact, Lykos initially has no idea of
the danger that is looming. The first segment of the game
doesn't even have anything to do with the Ring of Five;
instead, it involves an attack on Lykos' town by some
hostile arachnids. It isn't until after you've done some
exploring that Lykos will come across a mysterious old woman
who fills him in on the goal of the Dark Ones and hints at
his destiny as savior of Krellion. This old woman pops up a
number of times during the game in order to offer Lykos some
confusing, ambiguous advice. She's the only true ally that
Lykos has, and while her bizarre speeches may annoy Lykos in
the beginning, he eventually comes to view and respect her
as his mentor of sorts. It isn't until the Dark Ones are
defeated that her true identity is finally revealed.
Lykos doesn't possess any weapons or armor at the beginning
of the game; his only method of attack is kicking. However,
there is a weapon shop in his home town in which he can
purchase an axe, a mace, or a bow and arrow after he
acquires some money. Actually, these three items are the
only weapons which Lykos will have at his disposal in the
entire game. Being that you'll probably acquire the
strongest weapon (the bow) very early in the game, it may
seem that Shapeshifter is painfully lacking in variety and
attack options.
Thankfully, this is not the case. Each time that Lykos frees
a member of the Ring of Five, he is granted the power to
transform into a particular powerful creature. The forms
that Lykos may assume during his adventure are the Black
Panther, the Psionic Shark, the Rock Troll, and the Gold
Dragon (actually, there is a fifth form that Lykos assumes
for the final battle, but as it isn't mentioned in the
instruction manual I will keep it a secret here). Each
creature has different ways of attacking and different
special abilities. The black panther is quite swift and can
jump very well, while the psionic shark can travel
underwater and the gold dragon can fly. While the panther
attacks with its claws, the troll packs a wallop with his
fists and the dragon can breathe fire at its foes.
While Shapeshifter is by no means a linear game, it is
necessary to attain the various shapes in a specific order.
In order to rescue the wizard who grants you the ability to
transform into the psionic shark, you'll need the leaping
abilities of the panther. Similarly, before you gain the
power to become a rock troll, you'll need to travel
underwater as a shark. The various forms are useful for more
than just their special abilities and attacks, however. One
of the major puzzles in the game involves communicating with
a race of beings who refuse to speak to humans; they will
only speak to you after you have approached them in one of
your other forms.
Each shape, including Lykos' natural human form, can be
powered-up twice by finding special black orbs that are
scattered about the land. Picking up one of these orbs as a
human will allow Lykos to make better use of his weapons
(for instance, he'll be able to fling his axe at the enemies
whereas he was previously only capable of hand-to-hand
combat). Should he pick up an orb while he is in the shape
of another creature, that particular creature will be
capable of new, more powerful attacks. One of the neatest
attacks is the rock troll's ability to leap into the air and
stomp on the ground, causing the whole screen to shake and
temporarily freezing all of the enemies in the vicinity.
As awesome as these creatures are, you won't have the luxury
of being able to use them whenever you want or for as long
as you want. Each time that you transform into a different
shape will cost you a certain number of gems. You begin the
game with twenty gems, and there are plenty of them that can
be found lying around throughout Krellion. Although they may
seem abundant, if you aren't prudent when assuming different
forms, then you'll be short on them when you need them the
most near the conclusion of the game. While transforming
into a panther only costs a single gem, the troll requires
three and the dragon, four. In other words, you'll use up
gems at a much faster rate later in the game when you'll
need the dragon's services. To make matters more
complicated, you're only allowed to remain in a certain
shape for three minutes. When those three minutes are up,
you won't be required to transform back into a human, but
you will have to give up a certain number of gems (the
number depends on what shape you're using). Thankfully, when
you free the fifth and final wizard you'll be able to change
shapes as frequently as you want without having to worry
about gems. You'll probably be just about out of gems when
you're presented with this ability by the wizards (I was
actually down to one gem the first time that I played
through the game), so it will come as a great relief to
learn that gems will no longer be necessary to transform.
Along with the gems and orbs, you can also pick up money and
healing potions during your adventure. These items are
usually dropped by enemy creatures after you've slayed them.
Money isn't all that important in this game. You may need to
save up a bit to buy a bow at the beginning of the game, but
when you finally arrive at an armor shop you'll probably
have more than enough cash to buy whatever you want. There
are other types of shops that you can visit, including a
fortune-teller and a healer, but none of them are all that
helpful. The fortune-teller speaks mainly in riddles and is
more for amusement than anything else, while the game
automatically heals you at certain frequent intervals,
making the healer's shop unnecessary. At the top of the
screen is a window that displays the sun and the moon. Every
ten minutes, the moon passes in front of the sun, causing an
eclipse. Lykos' health is completely restored every time
that an eclipse occurs, so as long as you have enough
patience, you can basically heal yourself whenever you want.
The control in Shapeshifter is generally decent, although
some of the various forms are a bit difficult to use at
first. The panther controls well except for the fact that
all four of its feet must be securely planted on a platform
- or else it will fall off. With some very narrow ledges to
traverse in certain places, this can become a huge problem.
The rock troll is a clumsy mess altogether. He's painfully
slow and he can't jump well at all; of course, the one
sequence that demands his use requires you to jump from one
moving platform to another.
The frustration doesn't end with the controls, however. The
only place in the entire game that you can save is in your
home town. Making things more difficult is that you only
have nine lives to complete the lengthy, difficult quest.
You really can't afford to lose any more than one or two
lives while saving any one wizard. It's not good enough to
simply complete a task - you must be able to do it while
losing as few lives as possible. You'll likely have to
repeat many sub-quests dozens of times before you're finally
able to not only accomplish your goal, but also make it back
to your home town to save, all while only losing one or two lives.
The aforementioned factors help make Shapeshifter a very
difficult and frustrating game, but it's not always
challenging for the wrong reasons. Not only will you have to
explore the land thoroughly in order to discover certain,
secret passages and paths, but you'll also have to devise
some strategic plans to defeat your enemies - specifically
the bosses. While the first couple of bosses can be defeated
simply by standing in one spot and bludgeoning them to
death, the rest of these monstrosities will require some
thought and strategy if you're to get by them. You'll have
to determine which shape you should use, where you should
stand, what angle you should attack from, and what patterns
the monsters fall into. These confrontations are very
difficult, but they can also be very rewarding; it feels
great when you finally figure out an effective attack
strategy and easily do away with a boss that had seemed
impossible just a short while before.
The graphics in Shapeshifter are among the most impressive
that the Turbografx CD unit had ever produced. Picture a far
more detailed and beautiful version of The Legendary Axe,
and you'll know exactly what to expect from this title. The
bosses are gigantic and the world of Krellion just explodes
with color. Especially impressive are the scrolling effects;
not only are the backgrounds multi-layered, but the ground
that you walk on scrolls along in a unique, realistic way
that gives you the impression that you're viewing the action
from a specific point of view, rather than just moving along
from side to side along with the camera.
The music in the game is wonderful and varied. While most of
the tracks contribute to the medieval feel of the game,
there's also a pretty decent rock song included that plays
during the credits at the end of the game. And while some of
the tracks are a bit boring and generic, the music really
comes through when it needs to, particularly when you take
on the bosses. The boss track is fast, intense, and very
dramatic; it really gets your adrenaline pumping - which
might actually help you keep on your toes during these very
long and difficult battles.
While the sound effects in the game are solid, the voice
acting is absolutely excellent. With the possible exception
of Ys Book I and II, Shapeshifter has the best voice acting
that I've ever heard in a video game. It's interesting to
listen to Lykos speak at different points in the game; while
he's usually a very polite and kind young gentleman, he
actually sounds quite serious and grim - and even
intimidating - when he's warning a certain acquaintance of
the consequences should she betray him. The Dark Ones
themselves sound convincingly evil, and every voice in the
game sounds sincere and realistic. In other words, you can
tell that a great deal of effort was put into this, and that
people weren't simply reading off of cards in order to
provide the voices for the game.
Although Shapeshifter is one of my favorite games of all
time, I certainly would not recommend it to everyone. It's
among the toughest and most frustrating games I've ever
played, and if you're not willing to repeat a great many
segments in order to get good at it, you'll get sick of it
very quickly, and it will only serve to collect dust on your
game shelf. But if you put in some time and effort and you
really feel as if you're up to the challenge, you'll
discover a very beautiful, rewarding video game that is
truly of the highest quality.
Overall: 9 out of 10
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