It is true that this style loses some of the iconic colours and brightness of the 16-bit era games, but it certainly doesn't look bad or ill-suited for the whole fantasy setting. Some will stand that the classics sprite work will always look superior, while others would enjoy the then state-of-the-art looks of the game. The art style is yet another departure for Psikyo: The entire game is presented with CGI pre-rendered models turned into sprites and backgrounds (think Donkey Kong Country) and is yet again another dividing factor for Psikyo fans. You can quickly use ‘L’ and ‘R’ to select the spells from a list on top of the screen, an improvement over the original arcade single button cycling and a legacy of the PlayStation/Saturn home ports. Spells cost mana to cast (the second bar below your HP one), you can refill it by way of melee attacks or pickups from fallen enemies. There is one extra character-exclusive spell ('Phoenix' for Kashon, 'Summon' for Tyora and 'Nightmare' for Vorg) making for a total of 11 distinct ways to wreak havoc on the screen. There are eight different spells you can learn throughout your quest: 'Fire', 'Freeze', 'Thunder', 'Meteor', 'Slow', 'Wind' and 'Fire Body'. Pressing both attack buttons (or the extra button enabled by Zerodiv’s emulation wrapper) casts a spell. Combos are done by repeatedly hitting the melee attack button and a direction. You have an attack button for projectiles and another for melee attacks. Gameplay-wise, Sol Divide plays similar to a regular horizontal scrolling shmup. Quite a lot of lore to digest right there, something not expected (but welcomed) from a Psikyo arcade game. ![]() Last, but certainly not least, is the betrayed Knight of Silverna, Vorg - he's mister average on all stats, but he is the only one not fighting to save the land (opting instead for a personal vendetta against Ifter). She has the weakest/fastest melee attacks, but more than makes up for that with very strong magic projectiles. Then there's Tyora, a Wizard from Rangforce and Guardian of its temple. First there's Kashon, the Prince of Neraphai and the hawk-people - he might not have very strong projectiles, but makes up for it by packing the biggest punches from the playable roster. Emperor Ifter has gone power mad and declared war on all neighbouring nations, naturally bringing destruction to the homeland of the three playable characters. Since you're also able to ‘level up’ your characters by expanding their total HP bar, it won't shock you to learn Sol Divide is a mix of traditional side-scrolling shmup antics, fighting game brawling and light RPG elements, resulting in a rather unique blend indeed.Īll is not well in the land of Shamain. Yes, you do freely fly around the screen, you do have a projectile fire button and you can even dispatch a few of the smaller enemies with it, but the main focus of the game is all about getting in close, unleashing melee combos to fill up your magic meter and managing a variety of spells to properly survive the boss fights. ![]() So is it a worthwhile addition to your ever-growing digital Switch arcade library?ĭon’t be fooled by the looks: this is not a shmup… for the most part at least. Loathed by many, but still revered by some, SOL DIVIDE -Sword Of Darkness- is now making a comeback in 2018 on Nintendo Switch. Unafraid to mix things up considerably, Psikyo’s established shmup formula was thrown out the window for this game, leaving many fans baffled when first introduced to it back in 1997.
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