Psikyo, the development team best known for shooters such as Gunbird, Striker 1945, and Sengoku Blade are back with another addition to their family of shooting games, this one titled Sol Divide. Sol Divide is a side-scrolling shooter that places you in a fantasy world filled with dragons, wizards, gryphons, and armored knights as your opposition. Unusual for a shooting game, aside from its fantastic premise, is the fact that there's actually a storyline here. Sure it's your basic RPG-style heroes vs. the evil empire kind of thing, but hey, at least it's got a story.
In Sol Divide, you're able to select one of three different characters (or two if you're playing two-player), Tyora, Kashon, or Vorg. Tyora is a sorceress whose strength is a powerful long-distance attack; while her close quarter combat skills leave much to be desired. Kashon is a mightyblue warrior who is handy with a club, but a little sparse on the firepower. Vorg, predictably, is a happy median between the other two, making him the most balanced of the group.
In Arcade Mode (appropriately named, as it's Psikyo's direct port from the arcade game), you basically go through the motions and attempt to plow your way through the game, facing a myriad of monsters and enemies along the way. At your disposal is a club or sword of some nature for dealing with enemies at close range. Each character, as well, has a long-range attack that can be powered up by defeating certain enemies. As you progress through the game, certain enemies will also leave behind health potions that will either raise your HP total or fill up some of your life bar.
Other potions will refill your magic bar, which leads to another feature. During the game, depending on what monsters you manage to kill, they will often leave behind a power-up of some sort that you can either use for as long as your magic bar has energy, or sometimes only as aone-time deal. Magic spells come in all shapes and sizes, and range from flame-throwing antics to summoning a huge ice-goddess to freeze your enemies in their tracks.
As another unusual move for a shooting game, Psikyo has included an "Original Mode.'"Original Mode is basically the same as the Arcade Mode, except that this time around you are given an inventory with which you must manage the items you collect. You can pick up HP potions, spells, power-ups, and all kinds of paraphernalia to help you get through the game. Unfortunately, if you can't read Japanese you'll have a tough time figuring out what does what.
As far as the graphics are concerned, aside from the gorgeously rendered CG intro, this game is 2D. There is not a polygon in sight, so forget it. This is what you call an old-school game. That having been said, it should also be noted that this game is probably one of the most extravagantly lush looking side-scrollers to date. Although lacking the pyrotechnics of other recent games like G. Darius and Thunderforce V, Sol Divide more than makes up for it with highly-detailed, beautifully animated characters, and backgrounds that look like oil-paintings. The sound effects are almost a little misplaced, in that they often sound like they'd be better used in something like a Gradius or a Salamander, rather than in a shooter with an RPG feel. Each monster, however, makes an appropriately authentic sound, even though, the creatures, too, are limited to grunts and roars. Musically the soundtrack is very well done, if you like orchestral themes of a medieval nature.
Unfortunately, despite the interesting premise and the thoughtful execution, Sol Divide does have its drawbacks. First, the game seems to be made up of short sequences rather than the shooting games of old, in which you would fly through an extremely long level before meeting the boss. In Sol Divide, each sequence can last as little as 15-20 seconds before moving on to the next episode. Boss encounters happen almost as much as regular combat. In fact, the game feels like a really large collection of bosses.
The only thing that breaks up the progression of the game is the world map that pops up between certain levels, offering you a choice of which way you want to go. Another thing that makes this game fairly difficult is the size of your character. While big enough to appreciate the amount of detail on each character, you'll soon find that your healthy girth becomes a hindrance when trying to avoid the swarm of enemy fire heading your way. Instead of stealthily avoiding the shots with your agile little ship, instead you have a relatively large character trying to fit through little spaces that aren't there. Additionally, whenever the enemy comes close enough to engage in hand-to-hand, you'll find it's really just a matter of who out-clubs who first, as it's very difficult to avoid your opponent's blows. It is these problems precisely, in addition to the incredibly cheap bosses that make it difficult to finish the game on all but the easiest of settings ('monkey' level being the lowest).
So if you're looking for a shooter with originality and flair to spare, Sol Divide just might be the ticket. It's an old-fashioned shooter with very little pretense for being anything else. As a game it has flaws, but Psikyo can't be blamed for taking a chance on an otherwise stale genre. Certainly not a must-have, but certainly worth playing.
