Revisiting Magician Lord

[ballzdeepx]

I got a bug up my ass to play through Magician Lord (AES) this week and figured I'd post my thoughts not that anyone gives a shit.

The game still holds up, and while it's not exactly the best gameplay for a platformer, when you consider the year it came out it has a ton going for it.

Theme and Graphics are fantastic and have aged very well.

Sound Samples and Music are phenomenal even though it was reused for some later stages (Stage 2/4/5 are epic) I honestly think MagLord has the best music on the system.

While the Elta isn't the most nimble to control, he is at least able to shoot upwards and downwards even in mid-air - this helps out a ton especially in stage 3

Multiple forms - while I personally don't use them unless i need health (or you have made it to the final boss) I feel most of them are pretty much worthless - it's cool they had the option, just seemed under-utilized.

The POW system - I personally feel this game shouldn't have had any POW meter at all - it feels perfect once you meter up to level 3 and I believe they did this instead of making the game a double loop like GnG. If you don't have full POW you pretty much will be unable to beat the stage 6 boss, and you will hit the same wall on the boss gauntlet.

I ended up having to unibios (adjusting pow to 3) in order to finish the game. and afterwards was able to 1cc the game no problem like this. I've seen some really skilled people 1cc this without enabling anything and really boils down to not taking one hit, or having one mis-step as Elta loses life and POW meter for every hit.

Anyways, if you ever swore the game off due to it's difficulty try setting the POW to 3 and memorize everything you can, a 1CC should be within reach.

It's a shame they never made a sequel, game holds up.

 

[max 330 mega]

I recently grabbed a copy again and was kinda bummed it turned out to be the continue from beginning of stage version of the rom. I'm gonna take your advice and set pow to 3 and see how much this helps out!

 

[ballzdeepx]

Go for it man, I have the same ver as well and it really doesnt put you too far back depending where in the stage you are. If you get to the second form of each boss, it should also let you continue there as well which really helps when you're learning.

 

[ggallegos1]

That stage 2 music was fantastic, probably one of my favorite tracks.

 

[Gaston]

Maglord is one of Neo Geo's great games, I don't care what anybody else says. That music, man o man. And the voice acting still cracks me up.

 

[yagamikun]

Love this game. The only stage that makes me want to throw my stick is stage 5 - that's the one with the annoying frog people I believe. I played it through last year after over 20 years. Game is still gorgeous and fun.

 

[RAZO]

I love this game just for the first stage music.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I just love everything about Magician Lord, in fact I would risk saying it's my favorite Neo game if not for the difficulty (I know, I know, git gud etc.) and the underused character transformations. The soundtrack alone is worth having the game around.

 

[Neo Alec]

I recently grabbed a copy again and was kinda bummed it turned out to be the continue from beginning of stage version of the rom. I'm gonna take your advice and set pow to 3 and see how much this helps out!

That's the good version. The credit-feeding one gets old very fast.

Curious why the OP thinks the other forms are worthless. If you can hold on to them, a lot of them can kill the bosses faster.

 

[ggallegos1]

I'm curious of other's opinion. Whenever I played it, I went into the Unibios setting and turned the timer off, so that the massive bug thing didn't come up and kill me when I was exploring. Does nyone else do that?

Also, that soundtrack needs a release as much as the Fatal Fury and KOF soundtracks lately.

 

[ballzdeepx]

That's the good version. The credit-feeding one gets old very fast.

Curious why the OP thinks the other forms are worthless. If you can hold on to them, a lot of them can kill the bosses faster.

Essentially I found that Elta has the best attack and mobility to deal with most situations. While there are times that new forms can boost your health, many of the orbs are in rooms or areas that are off the quickest path to the boss. I will say that the dragon form is useful for the final boss, but this game caters to moving quickly through the levels, if you explore then expect to be presented with increased enemies and cheap projectile chip damage.

 

[2D_mastur]

Love this game, wish I was better at it. Still, I enjoy the dark aesthetics and music. Engrish is top notch. I just can't be arsed to try to git gud.

 

[ballzdeepx]

I felt exactly the same, but once you figure out the paths and the best methods to dispatch the bosses, it's super enjoyable and can be beaten in around 20 minutes or less.

I think it took about 3 nights of playing for an hour or so for me.

 

[Kid Panda]

Told ya'll the game was good. Never listen to me.

 

[radiantsvgun]

The thing that stuck out on Mag Lord was the music and the visuals.

My biggest wall was the maze in stage 5? Brutal. Maybe when I have my time off I’ll revisit it with the AES setting. Props to Ballz for hanging in there.

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

That's the good version. The credit-feeding one gets old very fast.

Curious why the OP thinks the other forms are worthless. If you can hold on to them, a lot of them can kill the bosses faster.

This is the best version to learn the game. The other will literally spawn you in death zones and parts where you will die with no recourse. A lot of the enemies factor in you being powered up and some of the bosses (like the female + two females). If you respawn there with no power up it is a death sentence.

A lot of the other forms have there use but default is simply the best when upgraded imo. You can shoot like three magic beams and spawn kill enemies and bosses. Couple this with half jumping to move around and you can breeze through things.

 

[LoneSage]

The thing that stuck out on Mag Lord was the music and the visuals.

My biggest wall was the maze in stage 5? Brutal. Maybe when I have my time off I’ll revisit it with the AES setting. Props to Ballz for hanging in there.

Who tf thought putting a maze in an arcade platformer was a good idea in an already brutally difficult game? It was certainly lazy and greedy, which in turn prompted players to give up instead of put more money in to try again.

 

[Kid Fenris]

Magician Lord is exactly the sort of old action game I like: a big parade of grotesque monsters and bizarre sights. A creepy organic alien ribcage level? A hellhound with a billion spikes for eyes? A giant beehive creature that kills you if you take too long? Sure, throw it all in there.

It really feels like a console game crammed into the arcade. ADK supposedly made it too big at first, and in location tests players were getting a lot of mileage for their money by just exploring stages. So ADK cut down the levels and made everything harder (and probably added the timer monster). You can even find unused stuff by messing around.

https://twitter.com/ohfivepro/status/1268298340762095616?s=19

Too bad the Pocket Color version of Magician Lord got cancelled. Turning into different forms would've worked really well in a Metroid/Castlevania-style game.

 

[yagamikun]

I'm curious of other's opinion. Whenever I played it, I went into the Unibios setting and turned the timer off, so that the massive bug thing didn't come up and kill me when I was exploring. Does nyone else do that?

Also, that soundtrack needs a release as much as the Fatal Fury and KOF soundtracks lately.

Huh, never thought about that. The only time I timed out was trying to learn the labyrinth, but once I got it figured out it hasn't been much of a problem. But I do use the max power cheat, though. The game is hard enough and it takes the edge off of some casual play. I don't play it enough to ever "git gud" like I do, say, a Mega Man game, so it helps to not want to throw my stick at the TV in the stupid frog man level.

 

[ShaolinAce]

My first AES and Neo Geo game I got. Played it to death and yeah got stuck at the Maze and frog stage. Very satisfying to get through though. I only ever used the dragon and ninja mostly, the waterman is horrible and I barely got around to getting the Samurai or Poseidon. I like the mini bosses alot aswell. I have the good version too and I never change the difficulty. Never come across the timer boss much either.