2025: I'm playing through a barrage of Action-Adventures that star dudes with swords.

[UnDubious]

View attachment 56551
I started Golvellius - Valley of Doom. Just when I was starting to enjoy myself, I get this screen.
Did anyone who ever played the game managed to solve this puzzle without looking up a guide?

IIRC I beat it without a guide... but I don't remember that screen in particular. There are definitely some screens where I had to go around slashing at and trying to push every rock until something happened. After killing all the enemies, of course.

BTW, for recommendations - the SNES port of Xak you played is terrible, and several times grindier than the untranslated PC Engine CD version, but Xak III is in English too and good.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Alright so Golvellius turned out to be good time. Jokes on me for doubting Compile.
Full review - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-special-golvellius-valley-of-doom.html

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

I hate to double-post, so here's double the reviews.
Arcus Odyssey - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-special-arcus-odyssey.html
Radia Senki: Reimeihen - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-special-radia-senki-reimeihen.html

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Triple-post, triple the reviews.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-special-legend-of-zelda-links.html
Final Fantasy Adventure - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-special-final-fantasy-adventure.html
Sword of Mana - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/05/2025-special-sword-of-mana.html

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Quadruple-post, quadruple the rev- nah I'm kidding.
There's only one review
It's Record of Lodoss War - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/05/2025-special-record-of-lodoss-war.html
I played through this once decades ago. Pleasantly surprising that even now it retains enough sauce to get another 15+ hours of playtime from me.
The next game will hopefully be Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. I've really enjoyed what I played of it so far, but I keep getting sidetracked.

 

[UnDubious]

Quadruple-post, quadruple the rev- nah I'm kidding.
There's only one review
It's Record of Lodoss War - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/2025/05/2025-special-record-of-lodoss-war.html
I played through this once decades ago. Pleasantly surprising that even now it retains enough sauce to get another 15+ hours of playtime from me.
The next game will hopefully be Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. I've really enjoyed what I played of it so far, but I keep getting sidetracked.

Lodoss War on the Dreamcast is really pretty great. I didn't think it'd be my style when I started it, but I got super into it once it opened up early and I realized how much you can strengthen your character by combining different skills and whatnot. By the end I was all-powerful.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Indeed.
Building up a monster of a main character with nearly 20,000 HP who kills nearly everything in a single hit is really satisfying.

I'll have to check out Shining Force Neo and EXA. They're both by the same developer.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

I've been away for some time, but I finally got through another game.
This time it's something very different.
Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
...except it's the SNES port

2025 Special - Brandish 2: The Planet Buster

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

A few more games done and reviewed

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

2025 Special - Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Crystal Beans: From Dungeon Explorer

2025 Special - Crystal Beans: From Dungeon Explorer

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Ys 4: Mask of the Sun

2025 Special - Ys 4: Mask of the Sun

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Played through it several times before, but I gave Light Crusader another go.
Full review

2025 Special - Light Crusader

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

I've also dropped a couple articles for the upcoming 2026 Special, which will focus on side-scrolling games starring ladies with weapons.

Kendo Rage

2026 Special - Kendo Rage

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Syd of Valis

2026 Special - Syd of Valis

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

 

[UnDubious]

Played through it several times before, but I gave Light Crusader another go.
Full review

2025 Special - Light Crusader

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

I've also dropped a couple articles for the upcoming 2026 Special, which will focus on side-scrolling games starring ladies with weapons.

Kendo Rage

2026 Special - Kendo Rage

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Syd of Valis

2026 Special - Syd of Valis

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

You really started with the worst. Syd of Valis and Kendo Rage?

I like Light Crusader, it's a very Western-style action dungeon crawler from a Japanese developer. I tried it on a whim at the time (not sure whether I rented it or bought it used for cheap) and it felt like I had found a Sega Genesis Diablo.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

You really started with the worst. Syd of Valis and Kendo Rage?

Might as well get them out of the way early so I can focus on the good stuff next year.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

Sylvan Tale for the Sega Game Gear

2025 Special - Sylvan Tale

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

The Legend of Oasis for the Sega Saturn

2025 Special - The Legend of Oasis

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

 

[SherionVane]

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From The Legend of Zelda to Ys, Brain Lord to Beyond Oasis, and everything in between. I'm spending my 2025 catching up on all of the top-down action-adventure games starring guys who carry swords. As you can see from the collage above, I've already completed 27* games.
As a bonus, every game is getting a review on my blog. - https://pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com/

The next three titles I plan on covering are:
Crusader of Centy, Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, and The Magic of Scheherazade.

I made this thread to seek out suggestions for other games that fit the criteria. It doesn't explicitly have to be retro or a Zelda-like either. It could be something akin to Arcus Odyssey for all I care; as long as it's 2D, has a top-down view, and a guy with a sword is a playable character. Although, to be honest, I'm trying to avoid roguelikes, so preemptive apologies to all of the Shiren fans out there.

Thoughts and comments are also appreciated.


*26 if you count Ys 1 & 2 as one game.

nice blog

 

[UnDubious]

Sylvan Tale for the Sega Game Gear

2025 Special - Sylvan Tale

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

The Legend of Oasis for the Sega Saturn

2025 Special - The Legend of Oasis

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

Two good ones. I had Legend of Oasis back then, you're right that too few people have played it. I never got the "inferior sequel to Beyond Oasis" thing either. Legend is even cooler in some ways. Really overlooked. Sylvan Tale is a nice little game, the kind of thing the Game Gear was made for.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

A genre that still stay here.

 

[pepsimanvsjoe]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

2025 Special - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

pepsimanvsjoe.blogspot.com

I've been trying to play Deadly Towers, and it's going about as well as expected...

What you're seeing here is the hero getting swarmed by superpowered bats that do 40 damage when they make contact.
This area is what's called a Parallel Zone, and it houses equipment necessary for beating the game. However, the second I enter the zone I get eaten by bats. To counter this, I'll have to go visit a dungeon (which has 100+ rooms) to grind one specific enemy for a ton of cash to get healing potions, all so I can try to enter this Zone again and maybe not die immediately.
Yeesh...