Oh man that Sakuraba soundtrack hits me right in the nostalgia feels! Til this day it is one of my favorite Sega CD soundtracks that I would regularly just sit and listen to.
I'm genuinely shocked to find out not only did Telenet make a game for the Sharp X68000 but that this game in particular started there as well. Whenever I think of Telenet Japan or their subsidiaries like Wolf Team, Laser Soft, and Rennovation I think of the Megadrive and PC Engine. I was also going to say that intro for the x68k was immaculate and makes me wonder how long it took them too coordinate and put all that together the way they did? Also, to see that type of tile/sprite animated introduction in 1990 is a bit revolutionary and wasn't seen hardly ever that I can think of with the exception of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden, Captain Tsubasa, and Freedom Force on the NES/Famicom maybe? If anyone knows of earlier examples please do share because I find the timeline and growth of 8-bit through 16-bit graphics fascinating. 😀
The opening cinematic and soundtrack was my showpiece item for my launch Sega CD. As the pack-in, there wasn’t much else to be excited about when showing my snes lovin friends
@@RetroCore so true. The Sega CD was such an enigma. At launch, I felt like I had the most powerful system available, but it was super clear that the software wasnt up to the task. Now, its clear that the hardware wasnt that great either, but I still love the system
Great comparison! I had no idea this game started on the Sharp X68000. I always felt this game never got the recognition and respect it deserved. Hopefully now that more and more people are embracing indie games and retro games this will start to change. Thanks for the video.
Sol-Deace is a fantastic game. Hard as hell too. I never realized the original was on X-68000 though. I'm actually quite impressed how the Genesis port stacks up to the X-68000 port. There are some graphical effects that I think Genesis pulls off a little better, but for the most part X-68000 looks amazing. And, though I was familiar with the Sega CD ports existence, I never played it. I surprised it runs with all that sprite flicker. The CD soundtrack is nice, but you gotta admitthose Genesis chip tunes really sound great. I always loved when developers knew what they were doing with that Yamaha chip. This game has got some of my favorite Genesis music.
I kinda liked this on the mega-cd back in the day, always had a soft spot for mech-spider legs in shooters, they fill the screen and make boss fights interesting.
Omg.... i was so lucky to have a mega cd in 93 - thanx dad. I loved the sol-feace music and used level 4 as my introduction music on my channel (before it turned into just a personal vlog channel and i actually delved into the paranormal etc) before using silpheeds hyperspace tune as my intro - then finally the space harrier theme but remixed by mitch murder *for which some scam artist called merlin, tries to copyright claim mitches remix pretending the song is called adorn-yellow or something ridiculous.... Either way. Sol-feace has a lot of memories for me and ties me directly with my late father who left jan 2nd this year. Ill never forget after just receiving the mega cd and playing cobra command; i wanted to go out and play with my mates and dad quipped "thats it? Your bored of it now? All that money for 2 hours?" No dad...i wanted to show my mates 😅 Also....I NEED TO PLAY THAT X68K VERSION. IT LOOKS AMAZING! never knew it existed!
One of my favorite shooters/soundtracks ever! I had the Sega CD version growing up, so I love that one the most. Motoi Sakuraba always creates such amazing music ❤
I actually won this game with a lottery ticket. I was too young to buy them myself at the time, but one was given to me and I won $80 on it. The next trip I took to Electronics Boutique, I bought Sol-Deace on the Genesis. When I was lucky enough to get a SEGA-CD a few years later, it came with the US version of Sol-Feace packed in with it (in digipak holder). It was a cool bonus, but I liked the Genesis version better. The SEGA-CD's music was nice, but those chip tunes on the Genesis were just as good in many ways. And while the SEGA-CD had the great opening animation, the Genesis port absolutely killed the SEGA-CD version's ending. The Genesis ending was better in every way, and the "Star Wars" text scroll was a pretty cool little trick. It didn't set the shmup world on fire, but it was a fun little game.
Sol-Deace is on the Wolfteam cartridge for the Evercade, and I couldn't BELIEVE how the Genesis version replicates everything in-game that the Mega-CD version does. How did it handle that much rotation so smoothly? If it's individual sprite frames drawn to animate in a 360 degree circle, there's a hell of a lot of them.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 yeah, Motorola68000 was the real deal. But Two Motorola 68000 (1 from megadrive + 1 from megacd) could made arcade games almost pixel perfect. But nobody gave a shiet back then.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 But you also seldom saw it on the raw Genesis before Treasure made it their staple in 1993, and when you did you could usually tell there was technically trickery going on. Individual sprites being moved or bi-directional line-scroll that's not really 'rotation' but looks close enough to it. Before that the most eye-opening example of rotation-but-not-really would be the emerald stages in Sonic 1. But Sol-Feace/Deace looks like the real deal.
Thank you for the sol-feace I always loved the sega cd for the music version and looking closer at it, it seems to have more detail in places but also Lacks some.
While Sonic the Hedgehog was the first Mega Drive to use multiple frames of animation to do sprite rotation (but with a choppy result), Sol-Feace was the first one to do it smoothly and possibly inspiring other games, like Mega Turrican and The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
I had the western version long time ago. Many years later played the Megadrive one in a 130 Games in 1 cartdrige. That was a great surprise because I didn't know about their existence. Both good conversions
Wolf Team games were rough to look at but many were great to play. Granada is a real solid entry that I really do like. They did make some pretty bad stuff though such as Earnest Evans and Anettee Futatabi on the Mega CD.
Great video! Worth mentioning is the mega cd soundtrack is basically just a render of either of the Roland SC55 or CM64 midi music from the x68k version. I forgot which tho.
Nice! I picked this up a few years ago for a Mega CD I'd found for sale cheap together with a mk1 Mega Drive. Only none of them ever worked, although it might have just been my TV refusing to sync. It's great to see more X68000 games -- there seems to be an absolute goldmine among them, and same for the PC-98 and FM Towns.
Love this game, I'm used to the Mega CD PAL version, it has less slowdowns than both NTSC versions (as per usual for PAL versions). Also a weird thing about the US (Sega CD) release, is that it has a slightly different intro song, no clue why.
I've had this in my megadrive collection for years, but never actually played it. ...I do unironically want that original wolf team intro as my phone's alarm clock sound though, it would work really well
A great battle cheers Mark, I enjoy a bit of wolf team now and again and this came with my Japanese Mega CD, I'm so glad you mentioned the extra sound effects though as I played a pal version a while ago and was waiting for the scraping metal sounds on the first boss as I always thought they sounded ace, obviously it didn't have them and I was left doubting my memory. After hitting the old age of 50 those moments are becoming more regular lol.
Glad you enjoyed it and yeah, very odd how the extra sound effects were removed from the western release. On the plus side, at least the music could be listed to without interruption 👍
What I find interesting, is that some of the scenes you use from the game, remind me of elements of Sonic and Tales; where at the end they are going to the Death Egg but before that Sonic has to fight through the craft robotic is on. At least to my eyes anyway.
Looks very interesting! The Sharp X68000 version seem to be the best, all other versions have missing effects or the Starfield not looking so good (colourful nebulas missing etc.)
Greetings, Mark!! This is the case of the average shmup that becomes a joy to play due to the incredible soundtrack in the Mega CD version (I own a repro disc of it, as prices skyrocket…😢). Just wished there was an orchestrated/played by a real band soundtrack disc.
The soundtrack really is the star of this game. It is a shame the Japanese version had the sound effects dubbed over the music. While it works well in game, it ruins the music tracks of you listen to them in a CD player.
Another shooter that I didn't know existed... Sad to be me... Thanks for the vid again Mark. Defintely will try to find the mega cd or megadrive version :) I remember that the Sharp console has one Castlevania remake which I really did like, which was ported to PS 1
Much as they liked using them, Wolf Team never could get their multijointed sprites to look as good as Treasure’s. They sure did use a lot more rotation, though.
I have the Sega CD version, which can still be had fairly cheaply in the US (unlike Sol-Deace). But I had never seen the X68000 version, and noticed on the character designs for that one, I could swear they look like Haruhiko Mikimoto created them (yep, 80s anime fan here :))
I’ve heard of Sol Feace and while I never played it, I’ve always enjoyed its soundtrack and the Mega CD has the best soundtrack thanks to red book audio but o like FM soundtracks with the Sharp X68000 version being my favourite out of the 2 while the Mega Drive version sounds very good but having less sound channels hurts the Mega Drive version slightly but Motoi Sakaruba’s compositions shine with all the versions. Anyway great battle of the ports and one i enjoyed which was a nice surprise.
It isn't one of the best shmups for their respective systems but I like it. I've got the Genesis version thanks to the re-release by Retro-Bit. Always liked it since I found it on an emulator long time ago, it has that Wolf Team flavor to it and I dig it a lot. Their games aren't masterpieces but they have a ton of charm.
I had always assumed this game was a Sega original. The X6800 game looks great, of course. I have both the CD and cart versions. I always wondered why they altered the name since it's the same game. Not a bad shooter. Borderline bullet hell but doable. Stands out a bit from the rest due to all of the grabby armature throughout.
What a soundtrack this game hase! For my personal taste, I find the X68000 version using a Roland CM-64 is superior even to the redbook CD audio of the Mega CD!
I love learning about the history of development and sound effects/foley in video games. For example, you don't have to tell me the team, or at least the composer, that worked on this game must have done work on Earth Defense Force (arcade/SNES) because the sound effect when exploding an enemy is the exact same. Similar to how COMPILE shooters use similar sound effects.
I didn't know this was originally a Sharp X68000 game. I've never understood why Sega of America renamed everything under the sun, but stuck with a name on a headline title that all the kids at school thought sounded like feces. Or why they made this the pack-in when it didn't do anything with the hardware, and compared unfavourably to Turbo Duo pack-in Gate of Thunder which launched in North America at the same time. Still, one of these days I'll pony up for a Mega CD, and for sure this'll be one of the games I get.
The game appears to use special sprite rotation with many of the enemies, but since it came to regular megadrive we can see its actually being done on the megadrive hardware and wasn't using any of the Sega CD power. But I would say they never planned to bring it to cartridge, until cart size increased and the CD wasn't as popular as planned..
I always thought the Mega CD version was the original version but them most of if not all of WolfTeam’s games started on the Sharp X68000 and hopefully we’ll get a battle of the ports of Granada.
Spot on. I'm a Sega fan to the core and had this on Sega CD. In no way did this compete against Gate of Thunder. It hurts to say that. Great Battle of the Ports though.
Wolfteam never really pushed the X68k to its fullest potential, but they definitely knew the Mega Drive hardware very well. I do have to wonder why the Mega CD version has more flicker and slowdown than the cartridge version, because I can't think of any technical reason that should happen. Maybe they just gave the cartridge version extra polish considering it released about a year later. But either way, it's pretty impressive they got these kind of effects on the MD, as it wasn't very often you saw scaling/rotation effects this early in the system's life. And imo, the FM synth of the X68k and MD sounds better than the CD music, so it's really a win-win for the Mega Drive here.
The only reason the cartridge version has less flicker and slowdown is because they had extra time to tidy up the code. There was about a years difference in development time.
Even by the slowdown, it is incredible to think Sol-Deace is a better launch title for MCD than Heavy Nova (and a week later, Funky Horror Band). BTW 7:04 I wouldn't be surprised if the title was changed to avoid jokes on gaming magazines by calling the game as *Sol-Feces* (I accidentally called the game as such once).
Yes. The Amiga 500 was 700$ compared to the X68000's $2500 price tag (and it was japan-only). Because of the price there really weren't that many games made for it sadly, and now it is a collector's item so is still around that price. Moreover because of that very, very few games took advantage of the full potential of its hardware while there are still games made today for the Amiga that push it to its limits. The only real note is that the X68000 used an objectively superior FM sound chip, but FM is notoriously hard to make music for compared to the Amiga's standard PCM sound.
Sharp had custom graphics part developed by Hudson along with the Yamaha sound and an HardDrive made it a much more powerful system than the western 16bit computers
The opening cinema animation in the Mega-CD has bad screen tearing (but only on the animation updates, not the scrolling parts). That was really noticeable to me and my friends when this port came out (and distracting) - as other CD games didn't seem to have this issue. Earnest Evens had this issue on the MegaCD as well. Someone at Wolfteam didn't know how to do vram updates hahah.
It never occurred to me that the cartridge was only on the Genesis and never on the MD, but yeah, Deace is a slightly superior version compared to Feace on Sega CD.
Just a guess… but in the North American market, Feace is very close to the pronunciation for the words Feces and Fecal, so probably why the name change to Deace (similar to how Japanese Puck-Man changed to Pac-Man)
It is worth playing the Mega Drive and Mega CD versions just to realize all that goes into the Mega CD version. The enemies pop out of the screen. There's the anime in the opening. Sol Feace is one great R-Type clone. With its excellent gameplay, Sol Feace can proudly sit at the same table as Keio Flying Squadron, Robo Aleste and Lords of Thunder. In my opinion, Sol Feace actually stands ABOVE those titles.
Only way to get the jp. Sega CD as import during launch was as a bundle with 3 games. Sol Feace, Heavy Nova and Earnest Evans. God put me on a hard trial here as Sega fan, while I disliked Earnest Evans from the start with the terrible controls I really despised Heavy Nova. Solf Feace was the best of the bunch but still barely mediocre and far from what I wanted to see from my brand new CD attachment. Salvation did arrive with Road Avenger, Sonic CD and ofc. Final Fight CD.
It's shame that side-scrolling shooters are out of favor in gaming today. They are so much fun to play. It's seems like unless it 3D console game developers aren't interested. A spaceship side-scrolling shooter would look amazing with today's graphics and it wouldn't cost a massive amount of money to make either. Today's 3D First-Person Shooters are taking 4-5 years to make, in that time the Devs could make four 2D side-scrolling shooters and they would sell well.
Soul Feace on Sega CD was about all I wanted to play on it in 1992. I found it easily as well done as Whip Rush, better than ThunderForce 3, and any of the Gradius games. R-Type and Life Force were my all time favorite Shooters until I got tired of bullet hell and sequels.
The pacing and backgroounds seemed better to me. Not blowing up when you hit the ground was also a cool feature. Don't get me wrong though, I think Thunderforce III is one of the best Shooters ever made, and propably inspired the others.
I understand why calling it Sol-Deace in US Release. A lot of kids would make a nice mess of the original name - in the lines of Angry Nerd obsession with poop. It wasn't a bad game, it just didn't had a real soul.
My guess on the US name change was that the second word sounds like the first syllable of a synonym for poop. Would be a bit hard to take the game seriously with that. Again it's a guess.
I had no idea this was originally an X68000 game! In fact I had it all backwards thinking the MegaDrive version came first and the MegaCD version was a lazy update with some FMV slapped on. 😅 My brother had the MegaCD release and the FMV blew us away back in the day. I found the game stupidly hard though, I’m not sure if we ever beat it, or if we did, it was probably with cheats. The music was excellent though, even the chip tune versions are awesome. Why did they change the name to Deace? Is it because Feace looks a bit like the word faeces? 💩
You may be surprised to know that the Mega CD version has no FMV. All those animations are powered by the console. They could also be done on the Mega Drive had the cartridge size been huge.
@@RetroCore That’s interesting, I must play it again as it’s been so long since I looked at it! That also explains why the X68000 cut scenes looked so similar!
@@random_an0nunfortunately that was mostly the case, however 'better' music is subjective unless you mostly like cheesy rearrangements performed in a Modern Jazz styled Elevator music style. Some Sol-Feace music is outstanding however.
I get the feeling they renamed it "Sol-Deace" because the original can be easily twisted into "Sol-Feces." Seems like something the immature teenagers this game would be the main demographic of would spread, so why give them the satisfaction?
Speaking of western release mega cd. THAT SUX!!! (Sound effects removal) Plus the dubbin on the talking was laughably out of sync. My mates and i used to wet ourselves laughing at the intro with mouths movin and no talking for 3 seconds or so...
I think it's possible that the reason why they changed the name from "Sol Feace" to "Sol Deace" was because "Feace" sounded a bit too much like "Feces". Just my theory. My Game theo... nevermind. lol Still, regardless if it's Feace or Deace, Sol is a great game!
@@itsmatt517 My guess is because their programming roots were from the X68000 days, so they went for other systems with the same CPU, I beiieve they have a few games on SNES too, but not sure if they were outsourced to other companies for the programming.
I’ve heard of Sol Feace and while I never played it, I’ve always enjoyed its soundtrack and the Mega CD has the best soundtrack thanks to red book audio but o like FM soundtracks with the Sharp X68000 version being my favourite out of the 2 while the Mega Drive version sounds very good but having less sound channels hurts the Mega Drive version slightly but Motoi Sakaruba’s compositions shine with all the versions. Anyway great battle of the ports and one i enjoyed which was a nice surprise.
![Sol-Feace Longplay (Sega CD) [QHD]](/img/n.gif)
Fun fact: The rogue computer's name is "GCS-WT" or "Game Creative Staff: Wolf Team"
The only other friend I had at the time with a Sega CD pointed that out to me and it has lived rent-free in my head ever since.
Oh interesting
That stage 2 BGM is still an absolute jam.
Oh man that Sakuraba soundtrack hits me right in the nostalgia feels! Til this day it is one of my favorite Sega CD soundtracks that I would regularly just sit and listen to.
I'm genuinely shocked to find out not only did Telenet make a game for the Sharp X68000 but that this game in particular started there as well. Whenever I think of Telenet Japan or their subsidiaries like Wolf Team, Laser Soft, and Rennovation I think of the Megadrive and PC Engine. I was also going to say that intro for the x68k was immaculate and makes me wonder how long it took them too coordinate and put all that together the way they did? Also, to see that type of tile/sprite animated introduction in 1990 is a bit revolutionary and wasn't seen hardly ever that I can think of with the exception of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden, Captain Tsubasa, and Freedom Force on the NES/Famicom maybe? If anyone knows of earlier examples please do share because I find the timeline and growth of 8-bit through 16-bit graphics fascinating. 😀
The opening cinematic and soundtrack was my showpiece item for my launch Sega CD. As the pack-in, there wasn’t much else to be excited about when showing my snes lovin friends
And the sad thing is that the intro could be done on a Mega Drive if super large cartridge sizes existed back then.
@@RetroCore so true. The Sega CD was such an enigma. At launch, I felt like I had the most powerful system available, but it was super clear that the software wasnt up to the task. Now, its clear that the hardware wasnt that great either, but I still love the system
Great comparison! I had no idea this game started on the Sharp X68000. I always felt this game never got the recognition and respect it deserved. Hopefully now that more and more people are embracing indie games and retro games this will start to change. Thanks for the video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sol-Deace is a fantastic game. Hard as hell too. I never realized the original was on X-68000 though. I'm actually quite impressed how the Genesis port stacks up to the X-68000 port. There are some graphical effects that I think Genesis pulls off a little better, but for the most part X-68000 looks amazing. And, though I was familiar with the Sega CD ports existence, I never played it. I surprised it runs with all that sprite flicker. The CD soundtrack is nice, but you gotta admitthose Genesis chip tunes really sound great. I always loved when developers knew what they were doing with that Yamaha chip. This game has got some of my favorite Genesis music.
I kinda liked this on the mega-cd back in the day, always had a soft spot for mech-spider legs in shooters, they fill the screen and make boss fights interesting.
Motoi Sakuraba is a darn good composer. He's also the main Star Ocean composer and has provided plenty for the Mario sport titles.
Motoi Sakuraba slayed this soundtrack
I've got to say it's one of my favourites.
My Favorite Port of Sol-Feace was on X68000 with amazing MT-32 Music and Sega CD that I love both of the music.
Omg.... i was so lucky to have a mega cd in 93 - thanx dad. I loved the sol-feace music and used level 4 as my introduction music on my channel (before it turned into just a personal vlog channel and i actually delved into the paranormal etc) before using silpheeds hyperspace tune as my intro - then finally the space harrier theme but remixed by mitch murder *for which some scam artist called merlin, tries to copyright claim mitches remix pretending the song is called adorn-yellow or something ridiculous....
Either way. Sol-feace has a lot of memories for me and ties me directly with my late father who left jan 2nd this year.
Ill never forget after just receiving the mega cd and playing cobra command; i wanted to go out and play with my mates and dad quipped "thats it? Your bored of it now? All that money for 2 hours?"
No dad...i wanted to show my mates 😅
Also....I NEED TO PLAY THAT X68K VERSION. IT LOOKS AMAZING! never knew it existed!
Sorry to hear about the recent passing of your dad but the memories are here forever. 👍
Probably my favourite of the Japanese Launch era. MegaCD games I bought. Nice one 👍
Same here but then again there wasn't too much to choose from.
Man I really love the soundtrack from the mega cd version. Thanks Mark 👍🏼
Glad you like it!
One of my favorite shooters/soundtracks ever! I had the Sega CD version growing up, so I love that one the most. Motoi Sakuraba always creates such amazing music ❤
Couldn't agree more!
Loved the SCD ost of this game. I still have a lot of nostalgia for this game 😊
I actually won this game with a lottery ticket. I was too young to buy them myself at the time, but one was given to me and I won $80 on it. The next trip I took to Electronics Boutique, I bought Sol-Deace on the Genesis. When I was lucky enough to get a SEGA-CD a few years later, it came with the US version of Sol-Feace packed in with it (in digipak holder). It was a cool bonus, but I liked the Genesis version better. The SEGA-CD's music was nice, but those chip tunes on the Genesis were just as good in many ways. And while the SEGA-CD had the great opening animation, the Genesis port absolutely killed the SEGA-CD version's ending. The Genesis ending was better in every way, and the "Star Wars" text scroll was a pretty cool little trick.
It didn't set the shmup world on fire, but it was a fun little game.
The ending on the cartridge version is also better.
Oh my! what a great game for this weeks edition Mark. I 'll be having popcorn and soda pop to enjoy this brother man. 8^)
Anthony...
Sol-Deace is on the Wolfteam cartridge for the Evercade, and I couldn't BELIEVE how the Genesis version replicates everything in-game that the Mega-CD version does. How did it handle that much rotation so smoothly? If it's individual sprite frames drawn to animate in a 360 degree circle, there's a hell of a lot of them.
Because the mega cd version is just a megadrive game. There is no enhancement as been with almost every megacd game.
And that’s power of the Motorola 68000 which enables the Mega Drive to run games like Panorama Cotton so smoothly with its amazing graphical effects.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 yeah, Motorola68000 was the real deal.
But Two Motorola 68000 (1 from megadrive + 1 from megacd) could made arcade games almost pixel perfect. But nobody gave a shiet back then.
@@ENFDO I did. Final Fight on the Mega-CD.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 But you also seldom saw it on the raw Genesis before Treasure made it their staple in 1993, and when you did you could usually tell there was technically trickery going on. Individual sprites being moved or bi-directional line-scroll that's not really 'rotation' but looks close enough to it. Before that the most eye-opening example of rotation-but-not-really would be the emerald stages in Sonic 1. But Sol-Feace/Deace looks like the real deal.
Thank you for the sol-feace I always loved the sega cd for the music version and looking closer at it, it seems to have more detail in places but also Lacks some.
Glad you enjoy it!
While Sonic the Hedgehog was the first Mega Drive to use multiple frames of animation to do sprite rotation (but with a choppy result), Sol-Feace was the first one to do it smoothly and possibly inspiring other games, like Mega Turrican and The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
In Sonic the Hedgehog's case, there was a 60 FPS switch available that just went unused for some reason. Most ROM hacks enable that switch
I had the western version long time ago. Many years later played the Megadrive one in a 130 Games in 1 cartdrige. That was a great surprise because I didn't know about their existence. Both good conversions
…I’m not sure I ever realized there was an x68000 version. Very cool.
Same here.
Not only that but it was the original. Same With Granada and a few others.
I only had a Genesis growing up but I loved Wolf Team's games, every one. They were truly special.
Wolf Team games were rough to look at but many were great to play. Granada is a real solid entry that I really do like. They did make some pretty bad stuff though such as Earnest Evans and Anettee Futatabi on the Mega CD.
I’m glad you confirmed extra six on the jpn Cd copy as when that intro played I swore there were more sounds than I remembered
Great video! Worth mentioning is the mega cd soundtrack is basically just a render of either of the Roland SC55 or CM64 midi music from the x68k version. I forgot which tho.
That's right. I'm not sure which but it is one of them.
I could be wrong, but in my opinion the drums on the Mega CD version are a little different than those of the SC-55 and CM-64 (I have both).
Nice! I picked this up a few years ago for a Mega CD I'd found for sale cheap together with a mk1 Mega Drive. Only none of them ever worked, although it might have just been my TV refusing to sync. It's great to see more X68000 games -- there seems to be an absolute goldmine among them, and same for the PC-98 and FM Towns.
The mega cd sound track is pretty much the sharps MT-32 Midi sound track, always liked this game.
Pretty much.
Love this game, I'm used to the Mega CD PAL version, it has less slowdowns than both NTSC versions (as per usual for PAL versions).
Also a weird thing about the US (Sega CD) release, is that it has a slightly different intro song, no clue why.
Oh, I didnt know the US CD version had a slightly different intro song. Need to check that out. Thanks for the heads up.
@@RetroCore Correction on my part:
The PAL version is the one that is different, but it's the one I'm used to sounding like that 😄
I've had this in my megadrive collection for years, but never actually played it. ...I do unironically want that original wolf team intro as my phone's alarm clock sound though, it would work really well
A great battle cheers Mark, I enjoy a bit of wolf team now and again and this came with my Japanese Mega CD, I'm so glad you mentioned the extra sound effects though as I played a pal version a while ago and was waiting for the scraping metal sounds on the first boss as I always thought they sounded ace, obviously it didn't have them and I was left doubting my memory. After hitting the old age of 50 those moments are becoming more regular lol.
Glad you enjoyed it and yeah, very odd how the extra sound effects were removed from the western release.
On the plus side, at least the music could be listed to without interruption 👍
What I find interesting, is that some of the scenes you use from the game, remind me of elements of Sonic and Tales; where at the end they are going to the Death Egg but before that Sonic has to fight through the craft robotic is on. At least to my eyes anyway.
Looks very interesting! The Sharp X68000 version seem to be the best, all other versions have missing effects or the Starfield not looking so good (colourful nebulas missing etc.)
Greetings, Mark!! This is the case of the average shmup that becomes a joy to play due to the incredible soundtrack in the Mega CD version (I own a repro disc of it, as prices skyrocket…😢). Just wished there was an orchestrated/played by a real band soundtrack disc.
The soundtrack really is the star of this game. It is a shame the Japanese version had the sound effects dubbed over the music. While it works well in game, it ruins the music tracks of you listen to them in a CD player.
It was a smart move porting the game on the Genesis.
Yep, it could reach more people that way.
I had a Japanese import Sega cd before it came out in the uk.. Sol-Feace was one of the games I got with it.. that soundtrack is epic
The soundtrack is indeed epic. 👍
I remember seeing Sol Feace on Sega CD in the US and I always assumed it was the CD version. Now I know better.
It was. Sol Feace is the Sega CD release. Sol *Deace* is the Genesis release.
For as good FM music WolfTeam is able to pump out for the Mega Drive so often, they usually have the worst FM sfx for explosions.
Lol, they sure do. Also for weapons. One of the weapons in this game sounds like wet fats.
Hey! Once again, 🐺team really know how to make good use of the Mega Drive hardware, especially the sound chip! 🐺👍🏻
Another shooter that I didn't know existed... Sad to be me... Thanks for the vid again Mark. Defintely will try to find the mega cd or megadrive version :) I remember that the Sharp console has one Castlevania remake which I really did like, which was ported to PS 1
The Mega CD version should be easy to find as it was the pack-in game for a while.
Much as they liked using them, Wolf Team never could get their multijointed sprites to look as good as Treasure’s. They sure did use a lot more rotation, though.
Omg i dont know what wolfteam was thinking of when they made earnest evans main sprite move like a poorly coordinated marionette.
@@joshfacio9379they were trying to make a point of sprite rotation for rotations sake there, Evans is Jank of the lowest order.
Earnest Evens was indeed a failed experiment
Brutal STG is brutal.
So here in America we got Sol-Feace & Sol-Deace?
That's so weird. I had thought Sol-Deace came out first.
Yep, the Sega CD version was Sol-Feace followed a year later by the cart Sol-Deace.
I have the Sega CD version, which can still be had fairly cheaply in the US (unlike Sol-Deace). But I had never seen the X68000 version, and noticed on the character designs for that one, I could swear they look like Haruhiko Mikimoto created them (yep, 80s anime fan here :))
Very possible but then again they do look a little generic.
I’ve heard of Sol Feace and while I never played it, I’ve always enjoyed its soundtrack and the Mega CD has the best soundtrack thanks to red book audio but o like FM soundtracks with the Sharp X68000 version being my favourite out of the 2 while the Mega Drive version sounds very good but having less sound channels hurts the Mega Drive version slightly but Motoi Sakaruba’s compositions shine with all the versions. Anyway great battle of the ports and one i enjoyed which was a nice surprise.
While I do think Sol-Feace isn't a great game I do have a soft spot for it. Most likely due to the soundtrack.
@@RetroCore the soundtrack definitely helps it.
It isn't one of the best shmups for their respective systems but I like it. I've got the Genesis version thanks to the re-release by Retro-Bit. Always liked it since I found it on an emulator long time ago, it has that Wolf Team flavor to it and I dig it a lot. Their games aren't masterpieces but they have a ton of charm.
Totally agree. Wolf Team are kind of jank but with a touch of class.
I never had any of the hardware this game was ported to, but I love a good shooter, so I missed out. "Brow out the enemy's Pluto base"? Oh, dear
I played the genesis version, but never beat it. Fun game indeed.
The last stage is crazy.
I had always assumed this game was a Sega original. The X6800 game looks great, of course.
I have both the CD and cart versions. I always wondered why they altered the name since it's the same game. Not a bad shooter. Borderline bullet hell but doable. Stands out a bit from the rest due to all of the grabby armature throughout.
What a soundtrack this game hase! For my personal taste, I find the X68000 version using a Roland CM-64 is superior even to the redbook CD audio of the Mega CD!
I love learning about the history of development and sound effects/foley in video games. For example, you don't have to tell me the team, or at least the composer, that worked on this game must have done work on Earth Defense Force (arcade/SNES) because the sound effect when exploding an enemy is the exact same. Similar to how COMPILE shooters use similar sound effects.
Some developers did share a comon sound effects library.
I didn't know this was originally a Sharp X68000 game. I've never understood why Sega of America renamed everything under the sun, but stuck with a name on a headline title that all the kids at school thought sounded like feces. Or why they made this the pack-in when it didn't do anything with the hardware, and compared unfavourably to Turbo Duo pack-in Gate of Thunder which launched in North America at the same time. Still, one of these days I'll pony up for a Mega CD, and for sure this'll be one of the games I get.
"I've never understood why Sega of America..." is the start of so MANY questions. Sigh.
The game appears to use special sprite rotation with many of the enemies, but since it came to regular megadrive we can see its actually being done on the megadrive hardware and wasn't using any of the Sega CD power.
But I would say they never planned to bring it to cartridge, until cart size increased and the CD wasn't as popular as planned..
I always thought the Mega CD version was the original version but them most of if not all of WolfTeam’s games started on the Sharp X68000 and hopefully we’ll get a battle of the ports of Granada.
Sadly there's one 2 versions of Granada. Again with the original on the X68000.
Spot on. I'm a Sega fan to the core and had this on Sega CD. In no way did this compete against Gate of Thunder. It hurts to say that. Great Battle of the Ports though.
Wolfteam never really pushed the X68k to its fullest potential, but they definitely knew the Mega Drive hardware very well. I do have to wonder why the Mega CD version has more flicker and slowdown than the cartridge version, because I can't think of any technical reason that should happen. Maybe they just gave the cartridge version extra polish considering it released about a year later. But either way, it's pretty impressive they got these kind of effects on the MD, as it wasn't very often you saw scaling/rotation effects this early in the system's life. And imo, the FM synth of the X68k and MD sounds better than the CD music, so it's really a win-win for the Mega Drive here.
The only reason the cartridge version has less flicker and slowdown is because they had extra time to tidy up the code. There was about a years difference in development time.
Even by the slowdown, it is incredible to think Sol-Deace is a better launch title for MCD than Heavy Nova (and a week later, Funky Horror Band).
BTW 7:04 I wouldn't be surprised if the title was changed to avoid jokes on gaming magazines by calling the game as *Sol-Feces* (I accidentally called the game as such once).
Only the cartridge version was renamed to Sol-Deace, the US CD version kept its original name.
Nice game:)
Is the Sharp X68000 basically the PC equivalent of what the NEOGEO is to consoles.. ie: Superior to the Amiga, Atari and other 16 bit computers?
Yes. The Amiga 500 was 700$ compared to the X68000's $2500 price tag (and it was japan-only). Because of the price there really weren't that many games made for it sadly, and now it is a collector's item so is still around that price. Moreover because of that very, very few games took advantage of the full potential of its hardware while there are still games made today for the Amiga that push it to its limits.
The only real note is that the X68000 used an objectively superior FM sound chip, but FM is notoriously hard to make music for compared to the Amiga's standard PCM sound.
Sharp had custom graphics part developed by Hudson along with the Yamaha sound and an HardDrive made it a much more powerful system than the western 16bit computers
It's a japanese home computer of the early 90s....It was the developer machine for many arcades of that era
@@federicocatelli8785and for good reason
It's with this game I discovered Mega CD was region locked XD
Bummer.
I really need to figure out how to make x68k emulation works on retroarch...
The opening cinema animation in the Mega-CD has bad screen tearing (but only on the animation updates, not the scrolling parts). That was really noticeable to me and my friends when this port came out (and distracting) - as other CD games didn't seem to have this issue. Earnest Evens had this issue on the MegaCD as well. Someone at Wolfteam didn't know how to do vram updates hahah.
It's typical Wolf Team jank 😅
It never occurred to me that the cartridge was only on the Genesis and never on the MD, but yeah, Deace is a slightly superior version compared to Feace on Sega CD.
Just a guess… but in the North American market, Feace is very close to the pronunciation for the words Feces and Fecal, so probably why the name change to Deace (similar to how Japanese Puck-Man changed to Pac-Man)
But the CD version was released in the states as Sol-Feace.
It is worth playing the Mega Drive and Mega CD versions just to realize all that goes into the Mega CD version. The enemies pop out of the screen. There's the anime in the opening. Sol Feace is one great R-Type clone. With its excellent gameplay, Sol Feace can proudly sit at the same table as Keio Flying Squadron, Robo Aleste and Lords of Thunder. In my opinion, Sol Feace actually stands ABOVE those titles.
Only way to get the jp. Sega CD as import during launch was as a bundle with 3 games. Sol Feace, Heavy Nova and Earnest Evans. God put me on a hard trial here as Sega fan, while I disliked Earnest Evans from the start with the terrible controls I really despised Heavy Nova. Solf Feace was the best of the bunch but still barely mediocre and far from what I wanted to see from my brand new CD attachment. Salvation did arrive with Road Avenger, Sonic CD and ofc. Final Fight CD.
Oh man, Heavy Nova was bloody awful. That crap is also on the PC Engine CD.
Sol-Deace nuts.
It's shame that side-scrolling shooters are out of favor in gaming today. They are so much fun to play. It's seems like unless it 3D console game developers aren't interested. A spaceship side-scrolling shooter would look amazing with today's graphics and it wouldn't cost a massive amount of money to make either. Today's 3D First-Person Shooters are taking 4-5 years to make, in that time the Devs could make four 2D side-scrolling shooters and they would sell well.
good old sol faeces
Absolute kicking soundtrack on the Mega/Sega CD. Shame about the name though. lol.
Soul Feace on Sega CD was about all I wanted to play on it in 1992. I found it easily as well done as Whip Rush, better than ThunderForce 3, and any of the Gradius games. R-Type and Life Force were my all time favorite Shooters until I got tired of bullet hell and sequels.
Better than Thunder Force III?
The pacing and backgroounds seemed better to me. Not blowing up when you hit the ground was also a cool feature. Don't get me wrong though, I think Thunderforce III is one of the best Shooters ever made, and propably inspired the others.
Are there any Macross games that were released on multiple platforms? As a franchise, it is a Japanese exclusive.
Hmm, there's not many if any. Macross games typically only come out on one system.
I understand why calling it Sol-Deace in US Release. A lot of kids would make a nice mess of the original name - in the lines of Angry Nerd obsession with poop. It wasn't a bad game, it just didn't had a real soul.
The soundtrack makes this game playable. Without it I would not have finished it.
I agree. The soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting here.
5:47 “BROW” instead of “BLOW”.
Japanese L and R moment
Yep, noticed that myself 😂
I found the British (or at least British-sounding) dub of the Sega CD version interesting as a kid, I prefer the JP voices now though
Ah, that's Australian not British. Always thought it sounded odd as you very really get Aussi English in games of that age.
@@RetroCore Huh, interesting. I know there was some anime dubbed in the UK back in the day but didn't know Australia had any dubbing studios
My guess on the US name change was that the second word sounds like the first syllable of a synonym for poop. Would be a bit hard to take the game seriously with that. Again it's a guess.
Well it's got the same Sol Feace name on the Sega CD North American pack in so who knows in that case
@@Teknoman again it's a guess, but some might not have noticed at first.
"Removed for the western release"... WHY?!
Just why did the Genesis version have a better ending than the CD original?
More time to produce the game I guess.
🥰🤩🥰
I played this on CD. It wasn't bad, but the gameplay didn't stand out. It was only some rotating on the cartridge version that caught the attention.
It's a pretty average game to be honest.
Never trust a game whose title literally contains the word Feces.
I had no idea this was originally an X68000 game! In fact I had it all backwards thinking the MegaDrive version came first and the MegaCD version was a lazy update with some FMV slapped on. 😅
My brother had the MegaCD release and the FMV blew us away back in the day. I found the game stupidly hard though, I’m not sure if we ever beat it, or if we did, it was probably with cheats. The music was excellent though, even the chip tune versions are awesome.
Why did they change the name to Deace? Is it because Feace looks a bit like the word faeces? 💩
You may be surprised to know that the Mega CD version has no FMV. All those animations are powered by the console. They could also be done on the Mega Drive had the cartridge size been huge.
@@RetroCore That’s interesting, I must play it again as it’s been so long since I looked at it! That also explains why the X68000 cut scenes looked so similar!
Sol-Deace nuts GOT 'EM!
Or as it was known when I was a kid Solid Faeces
Really wasn't doing the Sega CD any favors when cartridge versions of some of the games were better.
wat? the cd versions had better sound.
@@random_an0nunfortunately that was mostly the case, however 'better' music is subjective unless you mostly like cheesy rearrangements performed in a Modern Jazz styled Elevator music style.
Some Sol-Feace music is outstanding however.
Agreed. The Mega CD port should have added all manner of extra effects.
I get the feeling they renamed it "Sol-Deace" because the original can be easily twisted into "Sol-Feces." Seems like something the immature teenagers this game would be the main demographic of would spread, so why give them the satisfaction?
A versão do Sharp é bem melhor! Uma coisa que me incomoda é que a Wolf Team nao sabia usar os efeitos sonoros de uma forma satisfatória no Mega.
Very true. The sound effects are very weak on the Mega Drive version.
Wonder why they renamed it to Sol-Deace ?
Heard of Black Hole Assault?
Speaking of western release mega cd.
THAT SUX!!! (Sound effects removal)
Plus the dubbin on the talking was laughably out of sync.
My mates and i used to wet ourselves laughing at the intro with mouths movin and no talking for 3 seconds or so...
You should watch 70's Kung-Fu movies...
The dubbing is also a little out of sync on the Japanese version as well but no where near as bad as the western release.
I think it's possible that the reason why they changed the name from "Sol Feace" to "Sol Deace" was because "Feace" sounded a bit too much like "Feces".
Just my theory. My Game theo... nevermind. lol
Still, regardless if it's Feace or Deace, Sol is a great game!
Yeah Id guess that's pretty obvious
Always thought it was an exclusive to Sega megadrive
Granada, also by wolf team and Arcus Odessy, again on the Mega Drive both started life on the X68000. Maybe axis FZ did as well.
Sol-Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace Deace Feace
I was sooo disappointed with this, having splurge £270 on a launch day UK Mega CD, it seemed so disappointing.
I can see why. At least Cobra Comand did something cool even if it was a shallow game.
Surprised it only got ported to the Mega-Cd and MegaDrive considering neither were especially popular in Japan
Not AS popular, they still did well, most of the best games on both systems are from Japan (sadly a big portion remained JP-only)
@@L2Nuku Just surprised it didn’t see SNES and PC Engine ports with it being a Japanese game
@@itsmatt517 My guess is because their programming roots were from the X68000 days, so they went for other systems with the same CPU, I beiieve they have a few games on SNES too, but not sure if they were outsourced to other companies for the programming.
@@L2Nuku All I know is that I checked sales and Super Famicom sold about 17million in Japan whilst MegaDrive sold less than 4million there
@@itsmatt517sales mean nothing regards quality, Japan loves Nintendo, Sony always been second place too.
So... Genesis wins?
I think the X68000 is the best.
Stinky, awful, rinky-dink overrated Wolfteam shooting game. I think we can all guess why they changed the F to a D.
Nice trolling 🎉
@@Marmite101 ah pft. This is so average it hurts.
@@iwanttocomplain Tag name checks out
@@solarflare9078 I bet you aren't even a real solar flare.
@@solarflare9078 does it bother you I said something you disagreed with?
Do you accuse me of contrarianism?
I’ve heard of Sol Feace and while I never played it, I’ve always enjoyed its soundtrack and the Mega CD has the best soundtrack thanks to red book audio but o like FM soundtracks with the Sharp X68000 version being my favourite out of the 2 while the Mega Drive version sounds very good but having less sound channels hurts the Mega Drive version slightly but Motoi Sakaruba’s compositions shine with all the versions. Anyway great battle of the ports and one i enjoyed which was a nice surprise.