Neutopia II

The Good
The obvious reference this game is continually making is to the 2D "Legend of Zelda" games, (apart from "The Adventure of Link", of course). The similarities are obvious from the first moment of playing. You take control of a young boy who has the free-roam of a vast 2D environment. The world is broken up into screen-lengths, and the quest you undertake is somewhat at your discretion.

You are armed with a sword that has limited range, and you are able to move in eight discreet directions, battling various enemies throughout the "overworld" of the game. It is the player's goal to collect various new items and tools, while solving numerous dungeon-style levels, (referred to as "Labyrinths" in this game).

The first impression that I got about this title's game-play is that the story or quest progresses much faster than in the Zelda titles. Having played many of the latter games, I found it quite refreshing that good progress could be made in single sittings, whereas in Zelda games, I have often been limited as to the progress I can make in short play periods. This, I find, was a nice addition to Neutopia II's charm.

Musically this game is not too bad. Although I find the Overworld theme much too upbeat (you feel like rushing through everything because of it), the dungeon and interior themes are well composed and quite tasteful, maybe even catchy?

The Bad
There are a few drawbacks to this series that the Zelda games do not suffer. For example, the actual battle or fight mechanics in this game are quite unpolished. It is not uncommon that you are incidentally hurt by enemies that you have fairly struck - they often fly back towards you after you've struck them with your sword. There is no defense to this, and you often receive significant damage in what seems a truly unfair fashion.

Also, you take serious damage from even the most tiny or low-threat enemies. To compound this problem, you rarely see health power-ups in this game. Single hearts (again another Zelda reference) are very few and far between - so you will certainly get used to that file select screen!

There is a kind of empty mood to this game as well. You rarely see any NPCs out in the Overworld, so there is dire sense of meaningless most of the time. Also, the environments themselves seem a little heartless and plain. There are not many artistic touches to convince the player that the towns and villages are worth fighting for, not to mention the lack of personal history or details concerning the protagonist.

The Bottom Line
But, even though these things do harm the game's overall score, there is a unique charm to Neutopia II that does mean it is recommended. The game-play itself (although at times flawed), lends itself to a one-more-try aspect. And the steep difficulty will challenge Zelda players to the utmost. You really do feel like the labyrinths are vast, hostile environments where you are really not welcome. This I cannot say for Zelda games, as you often feel King of the dungeon before you've even found the main item!

These older titles like Neutopia II appeal to me because of their obscurity and complete obsolescence. It is a nice window back into the gaming past, where a minority system tried to gain some ground in the RPG/adventure genre. I recommend a good try at this title.

The Good
As someone that has failed over and over to "click" with the classic top down Zelda games for various reasons, I was surprised to find myself enjoying both Neutopia and its sequel given how overt the games are in their influences.

The core gameplay is quite enjoyable: one button to attack, the other to use your item. Finding enjoyment in this simplicity works in tangent with the easy to follow route the game sends you on. Directions are given bluntly by NPC's and the simple English they speak in makes knowing where you need to go a breeze, unlike Nintendo's classic title.

Also dissimilar to TLoZ, Neutopia's secrets are (somewhat) logical, even if incredibly rudimentary. Burn down a certain tree, push a certain rock and boom, reward. Having "infinite" tries at discovering the secrets - in comparison to Zelda's finite use of bombing random walls - means it never feels like you're fighting archaic game design... there are other reasons it feels like that!

Presentation wise the game is a step up from the original. More diversity in the score and general increase in quality for both said score and visuals makes Neutopia 2 pleasant to look and listen to. They wont stick with you like say TLoZ's overworld theme, but they serve their purpose well in moment-to-moment gameplay.

The Bad
If there was one single thing that killed Neutopia for me it would be the hideously imprecise hit detection system. Unfortunately that transfers over to the sequel, albeit maybe a little less egregious, but still highly unpleasant.

The problem lies in the fact the game seems to draw hitboxes around sprites rather the objects, meaning logically, standing above a target, even if there is a massive gap between you, will result in you taking damage because you're technically touching their hitbox i.e. their sprite. It doesn't help that certain enemies very in size or create the illusion of flight through shadows. So to attack a flying enemy you merely walk up a few tiles and strike the sprite, even though in theory and in the logic the game wants you to believe that shouldn't be possible.

Other issues are all tied to gameplay, notably how the game ramps up in difficulty in annoying ways. Rather than have enemies with unique attack patterns, they simply either get bigger or faster, usually with more broken hitboxes or projectiles which always feels off.

My other gripe would be with the dungeon design which actually took somewhat of a step back from the original, relying more on Zelda's "bomb random walls" philosophy than any rational puzzle solving. "Push random block" also becomes more prevalent in these sections and make the dungeons feel like a slog to get through, resulting in bosses which somehow have even worse hitbox detection due to unique movement and attack patterns.

The Bottom Line
The Legend of Zelda. If you like the The Legend of Zelda and doesn't have some weird elitist mindset (i.e. are okay with game blatantly ripping it off), there is substantial enjoyment to be had. As someone that has never liked TLoZ, I quite enjoyed the first few hours of Neutopia 2 due to it's 8 direction movement and overall simplicity. I just think the flaws I highlighted get more prevalent as the game goes on and I eventually couldn't take any more.