Astal - A Sega Saturn Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ย. 2024
- Early in the Sega Saturn's life, there was a 2D platformer by the name of Astal. It would be overlooked and forgotten in its day, but has gone on to be a fan favorite among collectors and enthusiasts.
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I bought the Saturn and this game when I was in the army stationed in Savannah GA. Babbage’s in the mall….. me and my buddy played the hell out of this while drinking 40’s
The Saturn didn't have many games that could still be considered graphical masterpiece today, but you better believe Astal was one of them
Absolutely. It was an early game in the systems life, too. Had the Saturn been a 5 or 6 year system, I can only imagine what an Astal 2 would have looked like.
Not sure if anyone gives a shit but if you're stoned like me during the covid times then you can stream all the new movies and series on instaflixxer. Been binge watching with my gf for the last months =)
@Genesis Grant Yea, I have been using InstaFlixxer for years myself :)
@Genesis Grant yup, I have been watching on instaflixxer for since november myself :)
@Genesis Grant Yup, I have been using InstaFlixxer for months myself :)
Thabk you sega lord , i shed a tear watching the intro
Looks like a winner that went unappreciated.
It truly was.
A unbelievable masterpiece, a 2D tour de force of insane proportions.
Astal shows what the Saturn can do, it blew me away back then and still to this day.
The stage "Sea of Clouds" to this day is full of the most amazing, jaw-dropping 2D visuals ever created, imho.
This game was one of my first games and still favorites the themes, beauty and how hard it was when I was a child was perfect
Memories , my childhood was awesome
Oh, man... I carry the fondest feelings for this game! thanks a lot for making this video, Sega Lord X!
This game looks sick wish it got more attention
I decided to start a TH-cam channel, creating OST playlists from mostly Sega video games & thanks to this channel, my first playlist is Astal :)
That opening was really awesome! Great take on this game! Excellent episode SLX!
That intro was awesome yhanks for showing
No problem. Glad you enjoyed it.
I didnt like it much as a game,but visually is a classic showcase of Saturns 2d capabilities.
Princess Crown also has similar art
I'm discovering a lot of gems thanks to your videos. Back then I didn't have a Saturn, so I missed out on some great games.
These days I'm loving Panzer Dragoon, I find it fascinating since the first level, I loved the water, the ruins, the music, it was like entering a different world, and I know it has its lore of thousands of years.
This game looks amazing!!.
By the way, I hate that stupid trend when things had to be 3D and people thought 2D looked "bad" or old. I always supported 2D, pixel art, I never stopped liking it, I think both 3D and 2D games can coexist. And 2D stands the test of time a lot better, 90s 2D games still look gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous. Really should have proved to Sega that they should have stuck with 2D for one more console but I suppose that just couldn't happen. Should have made a sequel to add to the game play and I don't wish for sequels. It failed here because it was a weird new ip with probably little marketing. Hell, they forgot the spine label! Doh
Very little marketing. It was released in late September in the US, and by then the PS1 had sent the market into a polygon frenzy. It never stood a chance.
@@SegaLordX that's kind of ironic because Rayman was released the same month around the same time, and that game sold the complete opposite
@@pixelythegamer3260 Oddworld is another 2D game that was a massive hit on the PS.
I just realized how similar the idea of Astal's jeweled "shackles" are to another major character over the last fifteen years...😉
which one? i don't know what you mean
Cratos?
This was my favorite game on the Saturn. I used to always rent this from Blockbuster.
That anime intro was nice. The song gave me good 90's vibes. 🦄🦄🦄
"Get away from me you stupid bird, quit following me" lol idk why I still remember that line
Amazing..... Astal was one of my first 10 Saturn games, and I loved it.
I still have the US versión of the game, and I played it to the end... It is hard, but not impossible.
I belive the difficulty is perfect.
I never felt either Astal was difficult for a seasoned platformer fan. But the genre often drew in younger players, or mainstream players, that may not have the skill to cope with the difficulty. It's difficult to pass off a new mascot style character driven platformer when so few are able to actually get anywhere in the game.
This is definitely the Saturn game I need to get my hands on next.
One of the best forgotten side scrollers so original
And yet this game probably looks way better today than any 3d game that ever came out in 1995. I know hindsight is 20/20 and at the time ppl were riding the high of new tech, but to constantly hear of the rise of 3d causing gamers back then to let so many lovely 2d games die always makes me wanna slap someone across time lol
3D games weren't really worth bothering with until Super Mario 64 came out, 3D games with a D pad except for racing games and Crash Bandicoot 1 are clunky and not much fun.
I was always interested in this title. Especially since I love the original Rayman, which is a beautiful 2D platformer as well. After your review I’m going to give this one a shot.
I would have liked you to go more in-depth, the review is stating the obvious quite often; nice graphics and sound. But what about gameplay and its variety? Maybe compare it so similar games in be genre and tell us why exactly Astal is worth while? Don’t mean to be harsh but longer review would
Be appreciated! After all, you are the King of Saturn to me 🤘🏻
Astal's gameplay is pretty straight forward. I mentioned that it's often the games biggest complaint. I could have mentioned the bird companion gameplay. I'll try and be more thorough in the future.
Sega Lord X great to see you respond to feedback so cool and friendly. Keep it up man, your love for Sega is shared by many!
I can answer this for you bro if you still haven't yet checked out this awesome game. Let me know.
astral could use a sequel!
Se ring this clip entices a Little Kinda fascination and it makes me think of when i first saw a clip of another game on Saturn. Also reminds me of a summer when i tried kolona via my cousins for.they owned Playstation.
You should really try this game, Jan Freidun. You may like it.
It's ironic now that I go back and play 2D Saturn games more than 3D Sat, PSX, and N64 games, because the 3D of that generation is just so primitive. I can still play Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 3 just fine, but some of the 3D coming out on all three platforms back then was just atrocious. They didn't age well. And yet those bad 3D games still sold like hotcakes, because everybody had to have 3D no matter how bad it looked. The 2D games of that era still hold up, though.
Its too true, mid-1990's with the N64, and PSX, doing everything 3D it just wasn't the time to release 2D regardless of how sick they were. People wanted next-gen 3D polygons. I only appreciate a good 2D now because I like the art style and the simple gameplay. When the Saturn and PSX were on the market I wanted to see some sick 3D worlds, not side-scrolling platformers. But this game looks legit and your review makes me want to give it a shot.
It's amazing how that era turned out. Everyone wanted polygons in the 90's, yet it's the 2D stuff from then that has aged the best.
Frankly, as someone who turned 15 the year that the Saturn was released in North America, I wanted both new 3D worlds *and* new 2D games with more colors than had ever been possible on the 16-bit consoles.
It's like Pixar telling people who say that '2D animation is dead because 3D animation is so much better', "Actually, we at Pixar really love 2D animation.".
Both formats are viable forms for meaningful expression that will stand the test of time.
Just because we are capable of taking the first exciting steps into 3D games does not mean that we should not make better looking 2D games than have ever existed.
By the same token, just because we can make the most beautiful 2D games that have ever been to-date is no reason to not take the first shaky steps into the new frontier of 3D gaming.
It's funny how it all went down. The PS1 and N64 did 2D by fudging 3D, and the Saturn did 3D by fudging 2D. The Saturn was the only console that had 2D capabilities built into its architecture. You have to remember at that point we'd been playing 2D games for around 20 years, while the arcade had Virtua Fighter and Daytona etc. The gulf between home and arcade was massive, and we were all sick of sidescrollers at that point.
few cool 2d games not ported to new systems: ghost sweeper mikami (snes) , melfand stories (snes) . p.s. we finally got trials of mana (1995) on Switch
I doubt l will ever be able to play this unless it becomes a digital release one day. :(
Great review again Chap.:)
Astal would make a great Sega Ages release on the Nintendo Switch. We can only hope it happens.
Sega Lord X Please Sega you must do it.Fingers crossed.
Why can't you play this on a Saturn?
virtua fighter is not on the Switch either ....strange
They can keep exploring 2d games today.
Thanks!❤
You're welcome 😊
I now own the Japanese version had the u.s release when Saturn was out back than. I remember the voice acting from Astal in the u.s being decent. Doesn't the u.s.a version have the games story in the opening? I can't remember.
€100
Impresif the satrun had a lot of unused power that was unfortunately was misused
I am trying this game on my Odroid. I still am not sure how i feel about emulation but some of these games are hard to find
Hello Sega lord x. As always thank you for your videos. I got this game a few days ago, thanks for your info on It, and it’s the Japanese Version. My question is can you save your progress? It doesn’t seem like you can. I look at the book, my save files in the console, and the net I can’t find anyway to save it. Please help.
Nice video I still have the game in my library, think I may have to dust off the old Saturn and give this a roll... This game was one of the first Saturn titles I ever seen. Plus this intro looks oddly similar to the Sonic CD into....mmmm....
Please help ....
From which game you got the sound track used in the outro ???
It's from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
@@SegaLordX Thank you very much ... I've suffered trying to remember
Hey Sega Lord X, what is the reason for the absence of a title/logo on the spine of the NA release of Astal?
Because Sega of America sucked. ;)
3:09 In fairness, North American copies of Astal do still offer the Japanese vocals to the intro song, if you play the disc in an audio CD player.
I completely understand Sega of America not publishing a game to an American audience with untranslated foreign language elements.
The removal of Leda singing "Sega" on the Sega screen was an odd choice, though.
Altering the game difficulty was unfortunate also.
The hideous North American front cover art isn't doing anyone any favors, either.
It's so sad, since the original Japanese art for the game is so beautiful.
Even though the game has a stage select code, I always regretted that it didn't support saving to the Saturn's internal storage or memory cart with multiple save files.
Sega leaving the song on the disc was a poor substitute. And it wasn't the fact that Sega removed the Japanese lyrics, its that it wasn't replaced with anything of similar quality. It just left it instrumental. In the 32-bit age. You know, when games were suppose to be more than their cartridge counterparts?
Sega simply went ultra skimpy on the release because it had no faith in its own software. No real advertising for the game. The art and case wasn't given a second thought.
Hell man, in the absence of a traditional Sonic game, had Sega given Astal a more westernized story, vocals, and ad campaign, it could have been an early mascot for them. The game was drop dead gorgeous, and nobody knew it because Sega didn't care about it.
From the way that you pretty much always diss the western releases, though, and nearly always recommend the Japanese import over localized copies of Saturn games, I get the feeling that even if SEGA *had* hired an English-speaking singer to record English vocals for the Astal theme song, that you would just be telling everyone how inferior the English vocals are and how they should get the Japanese copy instead.
Perhaps you feel that that is an unfair generalization of your views?
I really do enjoy your coverage and am very happy that your content is back online, but that one quirk of yours always leaves me a bit bemused.
On your point that the Astal theme song in the west didn't have vocals and therefore somehow wasn't 'more than its cartridge contemporaries': CD quality audio is CD quality audio, whether it be instrumental or including vocals. I mean, that's like viewing the lack of vocals on an orchestral audio CD as technologically lacking for not utilizing the human voice.
In the case of Astal, I may actually agree with you about the deficiencies of the NA edition vs the JP edition more so than any other Saturn game, since I really can't stand the front cover of the NA release, whereas I love the original art style.
I remember scoping out Saturn game cases back in '95.
At first, I didn't give Astal's case a look, just because the US front cover art was so bad, but once I got a look at the back of the case it was a whole other story and the game went on my wanted list.
I might be mistaken but I thought that I remembered Astal ads in gaming magazines back in the day.
I acknowledge that that's not the same as TV ads, but (if print ads did exist) I'm not sure it's fair to say that Sega didn't promote it at all. If what I'm remembering are only game magazine reviews of Astal, then I concede that point to you.
I also remember visiting Toys 'R' Us and them having the game on display on the Saturn and playing it there for quite a while one afternoon. My youngest brother actually went on to buy the game before I could afford to - the first game he bought entirely on his own, and it was the second full Saturn game our family ever owned, about one month after I'd finally saved up enough to buy the system on my own.
One thing that we may agree on is that Saturn front cover box art in North American releases often did their source art/games no justice.
When I saw the front box covers for Clockwork Knight 1 and Bug, I could hardly believe how bad they looked.
In Bug's case, I happened to have seen game footage before I saw the box, so I already knew that the actual game looked good (pop-in aside) and that I was interested. Once I got my Saturn with the playable Clockwork Knight 2 demo, I realized that that was a series worth considering too; the US box art just wasn't selling the game.
In other words, even when Clockwork Knight 1 and Bug used original/official art assets, they were posed in awkward unattractive ways that are:
a) unlike what you encounter in-game
b) not a good sales pitch.
You may well disagree with me on this point, but I think that Astal, Bug, and Clockwork Knight all had mascot potential.
When you argue for Astal being given a more western story, I really don't know what you're envisioning/suggesting there. I mean, that could really go off the rails quite badly if we were depending on an American team who didn't create the game creating completely new English cutscenes with new animation and removing the existing narrated slideshow interludes between levels.
If the quality of hypothetical English vocals for the theme song and credits song or 'westernized story' (whatever form you're imagining) had been equivalent to the quality of the NA cover art (after all, whoever created that cover presumably wasn't *trying* to make the game look bad), then I'm glad that we got things as untouched as they were.
If the hypothetical English vocals had been bad, yes, I would have ripped them apart. The problem with simply removing them is you got LESS than the Japanese version in NA. The Japanese development team chose to include a highly emotional theme song to the game for a reason. Even the Japanese songs lone English line, "let me try again!", fit the game absolutely perfectly. It was a redemption tale, after all.
As for westernizing the story, I meant that in the strictest sense. It needed simplification and clarification. The Japanese story was bloated and had an entire act before the game even began.
Sega was guilty of many things during the Saturn era, and we definitely agree on the box art and layout. It was criminal what they did to Astal and many other games.
I can respect your view that if the original had vocals in the theme song, then the job of the localization team is not complete until we have a 1:1 translation of all spoken, sung, or printed Japanese language to English.
On the other hand, it seems strange to then criticise the game for having an opening cinematic and for you (who is arguing that the mere removal of lyrics is an affront) to then suggest that parts of the actual story be removed.
It's not as if Astal's 3-minute opening cinematic is as long as Panzer Dragoon Saga's before you get to gameplay. I suppose that since I never had any problem understanding Astal's mythology, I just don't see what people would remove.
If we're arguing for the preservation of all parts of a piece of art, then turning right around and arguing for the removal of other parts of it, I don't really follow the argument.
The only way that this game could've get more attention is that if this game was released a year earlier on something like the sega cd via the 32x, similar to night trap, slam city, and corps killer, that way the game could've get better sales, and more attention
Astal is an odd one, it looks great no doubt , and has that neat mechanic involving the bird. On the other hand the gameplay is quite simplistic, more so than quite a few MD and SNES games. In that regard I feel like Rayman is the better 2D platformer in 1995.
I have to wonder if Astal was created as a sort of tech demo game designed to show off the Saturn's 2D capabilities . It may well have been in production for the system before it was revised for 3D (which I think honestly just involved the extra CPU and maybe some extra RAM)
I like Rayman. Astal is a different level for me. The art, characters, music, bosses, absolutely destroy the content in Rayman. Two strongly contrasting styles of game design.
Sega Lord X when I first seen astral I was amazed by its beautiful artwork. If it wasn't for the Saturn suprise. We definely would have seen a sequel from astal and others as well.
that bird :')
astal looks nice ...but Arc the Lad 1 (1995) is another beautiful game everyone should get
Does astal was launched in modern consoles or its just to saturn...here in brazil/brasil its kind of hard find a saturn in good shape
Saturn only, the Japanese version is usually a little cheaper and better.
Does anyone have advice on a good usb converter to use my controller on the laptop? I would like to play SMS and Genesis, but should I get the adapter for Saturn just to have more buttons? Or is it better just to plug in the Genesis controller?
The Saturn controller is the best controller ever made for 2D gameplay IMO.
Yeah I don't get something here if rayman was popular why wasn't astal as popular, both where 2D platforners when 3D platforners where all the rage, it's a question you have to ask, both had a similar ideology towards gameplay in a way
Astal was almost certainly a victim of Saturn's failed US launch and proceeding game drought. When it came out, PS1 was right on top of it too, so nobody really cared. It was quickly lost in the shuffle.
Sega Lord X I can see that
Big downside to rentals. Publishers made games punishing to prevent you from beating it in 3-5 days
I had this awsome game which also has a 2 player mode back in 1995. Unfortunately there was this over the top industry push was all about the polygons. So it got bad reviews and sold poorly. In the end all those polygons of the 64 bit and under era is now in the trash bin of history. Astal is better than any ps and n64 game.
Sega as always are mad for not localising this to PAL.
This is what people called games drought?!
Cool. Best looking pixel art, on par with The Last Blade.
God bless, Proverbs 31
I've only played Astal up to the ice level, and so far I find the level design to be mediocre.
Pretty much every level is a straight path from left to right, I like the bosses though.
Overall I think the SNES got much better 2D platformers in 1995, like Yoshi's Island and Donkey Kong Country 2.
Rayman is alright, but having to break all of the electoon cages, some of which spawn just as you're about to exit the level, is a pain. The limited continues on top of that are what made me give up on that game.
It's a shame that there weren't many more traditional 2D platformers for the Saturn and PlayStation after 1995.
Astal definitely fell under the category of style over substance. The game wasn't particularly long, and as you said, the level design was rather simple. Astal excelled in its graphical, sound, and character design. It was a showpiece for the new hardware. Those boss battles were awesome though.
Bug! went too far in the other direction; elaborate maze like levels that were far too long. The game was also frustrating with the sheer number of instant death falls. And those f--ing bubbles in the swamp level!
It wouldve been huge if sega Couldve pulled it off on 32x at its launch in 94 instead of saturn ( which i doubt but im no dev) by 95 everyone wanted ugly 3d in every game instead of timeless presentation
Concerning the changes to the American verson, and of coarse decisions by SOA altogether, I just wonder if there was mole trying to ruin Sega.
I have often wondered myself if the bitter rivalry between managements led to dissent intent on wrecking aspects of Sega's success. The story of that stretch of Sega's history should be taught in business 101 around the globe on how NOT to run a multi-million dollar company.
I feel you are being way too forgiving on this. Yes, as far as audio goes Astal is great, visually it's fine, but there's other 2D games on both Saturn and PS1 that look better. And for gameplay... it is slow and clunky as balls. There are several faster and more fun to play games on all systems that were relevant at the time. It might have been 8/10 back when it was released, but would you really look at all of Saturn's liblary and still rate it at that?
Why did western game developers insist on making games harder? They totally ruined streets of rage 3 which is frustrating and almost unplayable compared to the japanese original bk3.
Astal lacks some star power. It needs Arnold Schwarzeneger, Shreck, a Ninja Turtle, some Xman or why not... Sonic's girlfriend Amy!
SEGA of America really ruined SEGA.