Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure

aka: LBA, Little Big Adventure, Little Big Adventure (Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure), Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Adventure, Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Classic
Moby ID: 748
DOS Specs
Buy on PlayStation
$46.06 used on Amazon
Buy on Windows
$9.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

Somewhere in the universe, there is a beautiful planet called Twinsun. It is populated by four different races, which have been living in peace and prosperity, until a mad scientist Dr. Funfrock of the Quetch (human-like) race used his newly invented cloning and teleporting techniques to create an army of fearsome soldiers and become the planet's dictator. Twinsun's inhabitants have not lost hope, placing their faith in the old legend about the benevolent goddess Sendell who would save the world. However, Dr. Funfrock totalitarian regime forbade displaying any images of the goddess and her worship.

A young Quetch named Twinsen was just a regular fellow until he had a dream, which surprisingly involved the outlawed goddess. It seems that Dr. Funfrock was no stranger to mind control; in his opinion, even dreaming of the goddess was illegal, and he promptly ordered to put the perpetrator in prison. Now the unlikely hero must find a way to escape and eventually save his planet from the clutches of its insane ruler.

Little Big Adventure (Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure in the US) is primarily an adventure game with strong action elements. As usually in adventure games, the hero must talk to other characters, and collect and use objects. However, not all the problems have to be solved with dialogue and item manipulation. The player can activate four different behavior modes for Twinsen: Normal, Aggressive, Athletic, and Discreet. The first is used for peaceful exploration and conversations; Aggressive mode allows Twinsen to punch and kick other characters; Athletic mode must be applied when it becomes necessary to run quickly and jump; Discreet effectively puts Twinsen in a stealth mode, making it possible to sneak by hostile character unnoticed. While activation of a particular mode is often required to solve a problem, many situations can be dealt with in different ways.

The game universe is rendered with characters in full 3D, while the environment uses isometric graphic tiles. The CD version (which was released earlier than the floppy one) features pre-rendered animated cutscenes, audio music and speech; all these features are absent from the floppy disk version.

Spellings

  • リトル ビッグ アドベンチャー - Japanese spelling
  • 双子星传奇 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

64 People (60 developers, 4 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 34 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 132 ratings with 6 reviews)

Relentless: The Greatest Adventure

The Good
Everything about playing this game is absolutely incredible. It truly is the best game I have ever played. I would recommend it over any other game I have experienced.

The Bad
Getting the game to work, on the other hand, can be a real pain in the rear. Even if your computer has MS-DOS, chances are the game won't work. Installation is enormously confusing. I haven't played this game for a couple of years now, only because... I CAN'T! If I had a way to, any way, I would be playing it every day. Another thing, the sound never worked for me back when I still was able to play it. I didn't have the right sound card or something. The music worked, but all of the sound effects and dialogue were nonexistent.

The Bottom Line
This game overall is, in my opinion, the best game available. In an objective observer's point of view, it would probably be considered one of the greatest. Although I have not played it for all these long years, I cherish it dearly and have become almost sentimentally attached to its memory. I know that it sounds absolutely absurd, but it really was the most gratifying gaming experiences I have ever had. It has amazing graphics in DOS mode (which is the only mode it plays in on PC). Really, the graphics are unreal. The plot and interaction with other characters is wonderful and enchanting. The deep, magical details which are so intricately woven into the game are amazing and very pleasing to experience.

DOS · by zach sims (1) · 2004

Beautiful, Nostalgic, Epic, Accessible

The Good
This game is simple to pick up and play, highly addictive, complex and deep under the surface with a nice learning curve. There are tons of characters to talk to, all rather strange. Character development is some of the best I've seen in a game. The atmosphere is very strong. The soundtrack is catchy, beautiful and atmospheric. The plotline drives the game, and drives you all the way to the end where you find it hard to let go.

The Bad
This game doesn't like Windows!

The Bottom Line
A cute, French action-adventure title with amazing atmosphere, addictive gameplay and fascinating plot. I know, it sounds cliched, but I've played a lot of games and this is great stuff, uniquely brilliant.

DOS · by Tom White (12) · 2004

So good, it might even make you start liking the French

The Good
Specifically, I loved the clean, innocent look and feel of the game, as well as its French quirkiness and style. This game is absolutely charming. It's like the movie "The Princess Bride;" on the surface it seems to be made for kids, but deep down it's really for adults. This game is easily in my Top Ten favorite games of all time, and might well be in the Top Five.

The Bad
As I remember, the controls were a bit tough to manage in some of the action sequences, but I finished the game (a compliment in itself) and I'm by no stretch of the imagination an action junkie.

The Bottom Line
Relentless is a tough game to describe, because there really isn't another game quite like it. There are a lot that are like it in one way or another, but taken as a whole, it's kind of unique. I guess it's best described as a third-person isometric adventure, with some shooter and arcade elements. But whatever it is, do yourself a favor and pick it up!

DOS · by Jim Newland (56) · 2001

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Free today on GOG Cantillon (75782) Nov 8, 2014
Little big adventure silent @ss&sin Jul 19, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Little Big Adventure appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Originally, this game was was meant to be made for the SNES, with the use of the Super FX chip. Also, in early previews, the was mention of Twinsen being able to drive vehicles. The final version of the game lack this feature but it is included in the sequel.

LBAWin

It is not easy to get to run this game on modern PC's. For different reasons the game has its difficulties with DosBox. The best way to play it would be LBAWin, a Windows port created by a former Adeline programmer. It requires the original DOS disc to play and can be downloaded here.

Technology

The programmers used some tricks in this game: The game's soundtrack is made of both redbook audio and midi syntesizer. The video mode is SVGA for most of the game, but if you zoom, the game uses standard VGA.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • May 1995 (Issue #130) – Adventure of the Year
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #71 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking

Information also contributed by Mark Ennis and micnictic

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Loki.

Windows added by Picard. Blacknut, Android, Macintosh added by Sciere. iPad, iPhone added by Kabushi. PC-98, FM Towns added by Terok Nor. PlayStation added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Itay Brenner, Isdaron, Jeanne, //dbz:, Sciere, Solid Flamingo, Crawly, CaesarZX, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, ZeTomes, Kayburt, completer90.

Game added January 14, 2000. Last modified October 2, 2023.