Golden Axe prequel? Interesting concept executed poorly

User Rating: 4.5 | Ax Battler: Golden Axe Densetsu GG
Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe is recognized as Sega's answer to Zelda II for a reason; it is. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I just wanted to point that out right off the bat.

The game begins with the most basic and uninspired story of any RPG. There is a Golden Axe that is all powerful. It has been stolen by someone with bad intentions. You must retrieve it - now go, Ax Battler! Wait a minute, your parents named you Ax Battler, yet you fight only with a sword? I guess Ax Battler is rebellious.

From here you set off on a very Zelda II like adventure complete with over world map and side-scrolling combat and dungeon areas. You learn new combat skills by training in towns. The dungeons are not too bad and the controls are fine. The main problem is I feel the same way about Ax Battler as I do Zelda II. They both combine the RPG and adventure genres but don't do either particularly well. I would have preferred a typical RPG with experience points over a random battle system where you don't even gain experience from said battles. Oh and if you get hit ONCE in a random battle the battle is over. You get tossed back to the over world map, now with less energy. If you win the battle then you get a magic vase or two. But you can only carry up to 31. But anyway....

The biggest thing that I hated was that anytime you die you go all the way back to the last town you visited. There are no save points, only passwords (one pw per town). I did not have the patience to legitimately play through this game, however, I did finish it with some cheating.

The graphics are fine. The music is great. The music is definitely the best thing about the Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe.

Ratings by category on the 10 scale:

GRAPHICS: 8
BATTLE SYSTEM: 2
MUSIC: 9
STORY: 1
FUN: 1