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Fatal Labyrinth is a game you desperately want to like, but it just doesn’t let you. An RPG with over three dozen levels, its random dungeons make each playthrough unique, and the presentation and exploration are very fun. However, Sega’s inexplicable decision to omit a password or save feature nearly ruins the entire experience, and you’re left with a massive quest that has to be done in a single sitting.
When you think of RPGs, the Genesis isn’t the first console to come to mind. There are quite a few memorable ones on the system here in America, such as the Phantasy Star series, the Shining games and Warsong (Langrisser Hikari) but the genre was never really supported as well as it was on either the PC-Engine or the SNES. In fact, most of the RPGs that did come out on the Mega Drive and Mega CD never got released stateside and were left behind in Japan, where the language barrier looms as large as the Great Wall of China.
The first stab at an RPG by the arcade legends at AM2, Sword of Vermilion got some things right and just a tab bit more wrong. The result was a mediocre effort that, while worth playing, isn’t what would be expected by such a talented team. Chalk it up to growing pains?
If ever there was a reason to buy a Sega CD, Lunar: The Silver Star was it. Although remade masterfully for the Playstation, the Sega CD version was a stunning RPG for its time and something that owners of the system could smirk about when their friends came over. This was why they had spent all that money. This was the reward for their months of suffering at the hands of poor FMV games and lackluster ports. This was the über adventure they had waited so eagerly for and it was good, damn good.
Faery Tale Adventure in my opinion was a very good game; not as good as the Phantasy Star series or a lot of other Genesis RPG’s, but still capable of providing hours of challenge and exploration.