Rising Star Games brings Sadame or for its full title, Ishi-Sengoku-Den “Sadame” to the west and promises to deliver an exciting action RPG. Does it do just that?
One hundred years have passed since the Onin War. Havoc struck the heart of the holy city of Kyoto and the world flooded with evil spirits from the mountains and rivers. This land of Kawanakajima, surrounded by two large rivers, was once known for its fertile soil and praised in many folk songs. But now this land is poisoned, and the people are barely holding on as they live each day in fear of demons and the undead. In the midst of all this, a single traveller comes to Kawanakajima. Thats you, the hero! The narrative is pretty basic and essentially is something you’ll glide over as you play the game.
Sadame is an old school type of side scroller that makes the mission simple; beat all the enemies and the boss at the end to advance; however oddly enough it’s a game that has a lot of gameplay mechanics underneath, but not much else happening when it comes to actually moving around the stages and fighting enemies.
At the beginning of the game you can pick between 4 characters with each coming with their own strengths. You can pick a Samurai for strong melee combat, a Ninja for good mid to long range combat, a Monk for long range blasts or a Rogue for some long range- bow action.
The gameplay plays from a top down perspective using 2D sprite characters and backgrounds. Each Act is split up into stages and you must complete each stage before you can advance. This usually includes defeating all the enemies in each area including the boss at the end. What’s odd about this is that the enemies don’t do much to react to you and insist on mindlessly wandering around and attacking in one direction. There are no signs of it even trying to figure out where I may come from or attack next making the A.I. pretty brain dead.
Once the last enemy in an area is defeated, they drop coins and items. These items come in four rarities: Common, Rare, Epic and Legend. The rarer an item is the more effects it will provide. At the same time, these cannot just be equipped willy-nilly. There are character requirements for Mind, Focus and Body in order to equip certain items, so don’t be thinking you can run with something legendary from the get go.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P9vukT1AmU%5D
You can also gain more items by rescuing merchants from chests or defeating enemies. Once a stage is finished and you return to the armory, you can purchase more items from those you rescued. Luckily enough I never really found an item shortage while playing the game as the enemies present dropped quite a few, and there were always boxes/ chests present that you can pick up even more from.
The odd thing I found about this game was that it completely disregards the 3D functionality on the 3DS. Now it’s one thing to not utilise it to its full extent, but it’s another to completely abandon it altogether. Due to the camera view and art style, I believe Sadame could have really benefitted from that extra dimension, so it’s a shame that it wasn’t included.
Sadame is a game that doesn’t really do enough to make me become immersed within its gameplay or its story; there’s nothing really there to make me really care about it. The idea to give you classes to play around with Is good and the 2D sprite art hits me with a cool wave or nostalgia, however the gameplay is pretty lacking and the story does little to make me care about what’s actually happening.
If you want a quick-budget game to pick up, then this is for you! But if you are looking for more meaningful experiences, there are better offerings currently out there for the Nintendo 3DS.
