Long ago, in a far away place, there was a land called "Neutopia."
It was a land of peace and prosperity where people worshipped at the Sacred Shrine. A beautiful Princess, Aurora, blessed the people with her wisdom and kindness.
Until one day, the Evil Demon Dirth appeared.
The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Neutopia, which was released in North America in April 1990.
Neutopia is an adventure RPG that looks a lot like a mix between the visual style of the first Legend of Zelda on NES and A Link to the Past on SNES.
The visuals are much higher fidelity than the Legend of Zelda on the NES but not quite as good looking as A Link to the Past. All things considered though, the game looks really good, and since this is the closest thing to a Zelda game on the TurboGrafx, it's more than good enough.
The music is pretty good as well, but of course The Legend of Zelda has some of the most iconic music of all time, so it's not a fair comparison. On its own merits, Neutopia has perfectly fine music, but there is certainly better on the TurboGrafx.
Gameplay-wise, Neutopia feels very close to the original Legend of Zelda, complete with a very similar feeling overworld, and even more similar feeling dungeons. There are bats, skeletons, and other enemies that look better than anything on the NES, but basically look like The Legend of Zelda was remastered. There are even walls you can bomb to open passage-ways. Like I said, it's VERY similar to Legend of Zelda.
One aspect that is similar to A Link to the Past, is the locked Boss doors that need a special key found somewhere in each dungeon to unlock.
Overall, the boss fight mechanics are fairly simple but very similar to The Legend of Zelda. (Sorry for all the comparisons, but this game REALLY feels similar and it's hard not to.)
In the overworld, you can use a fire wand to burn trees and reveal secret rooms. Does that sound familiar? I know I make A LOT of comparisons, but honestly its not a bad thing overall that it feels so similar to The Legend of Zelda.
You can watch some of my beginning gameplay from Neutopia in the video below:
Overall I really enjoyed my time playing Neutopia and I think I would have played a lot of this back in the day if I had it as a kid. While it's certainly not up to the same quality as [that famous NES game I keep comparing it to] it is more than fun enough.
While I enjoyed playing Neutopia I'm eager to move onto the next game on my TurboGrafx journey:
Ys Book I and II
I've never played any of the Ys games before, but I've always wanted to try and get into them. Looks like this might be my opportunity.
Until next time!