Released in 1996, Guardian Heroes was Treasure's first game on the Sega Saturn. Featuring a wildly branching story, fully animated characters, and apocalyptic boss fights, Guardian Heroes is likely the most detailed and visually chaotic beat 'em up ever created. The story revolves around an undead swordsman, a crazy wizard, and two opposing spiritual forces. This was also one of the few Saturn games that made use of the 6-player functionality through a deathmatch arena.
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Single-segment Golden Silver path with Ginjirou 0:32:47 by Mandela Shabazz.
Author's comments:
Perhaps I should preface these comments by noting that although this is a beat 'em up at heart, some characters have the move list complexity more suited to a fighting game. That said; I choose to play as Ginjiro Ibushi because he is the only main character that could be described as a fighter and a battle mage. Whether magic attacks or physical hits, Ginjiro is known for his rapid rate of massive combos (which can get into the hundreds when talking about the number of hits being laid out).
Rather than trying to explain everything here, I will discuss aspects of gameplay as they arise. I will also try to give you a decent summarization of what storylines are flying by during dialogue segments. Each level has one to three areas that must be conquered and typically there is some kind of boss fight in the last area.
We join our heroes gathered around the dinner table at the local inn. Han, the group's tank has just found a badass sword on his daily adventure. Suddenly a woman in red armor (Serena) busts through the door, tells you not to use that sword, and warns you that the royal knights are coming. Some guards begin rushing into the room and the heroes jump out the window.
If I were to stay in this room and fight the knights with Serena, the room gradually catches on fire until we are forced to leave. Instead I quickly use two magic attacks and leave. The reason for this is that using magic gives you EXP (whether you hit enemies or not). The first one is called thunder palm and it is my most powerful move, though it may not look like much now. The second one is a teleport move that costs the most MP and gives the most EXP. When done right at the start, those two magic attacks actually kick me up to lvl 6. You get an HP/MP boost whenever you go to a new area, so you will always see me use my remaining magic before the area changes.
We drop down to the streets and find more knights are after us. Let me talk about Ginjiro's physical attacks just so you'll know what you're going to see. Unlike magic, you only get EXP when a physical attack hits an enemy (even if they are already dead). You can also get some MP back by hitting (living) enemies.
There are many more moves and move variations that I use here and there but these are the main ones you'll see.
So we get chased to the outskirts of town and briefly encounter prince Valgar before he sets his giant robot upon us. This robot (and almost all others) can be killed with just one thunder palm, but I spend a few extra seconds to get some more EXP off it.
So then Han jumps in with his new sword and starts to say something but then he gets struck by lightning. Now we witness the revival of the Golden Warrior aka Undead Hero. After the GW takes care of our robot problem, the stage ends.
This is a very short level. At first the Golden Warrior is trying to kill Serena but then it is discovered that he will obey verbal commands. Let me explain a little more about the GW. He's my NPC ally for the rest of the game, his physical strikes rock hardcore, but he's really more of a liability in that he is the most common cause of my death. There are six commands that I can issue but the only one I use is "Berserk" and not until much later in the game.
We fight some guards, then zombies start popping up, then more guards. There was a royal upheaval many years ago where the old royal khans were ousted by the Valgar family and their wizard, Kanon (more later). The GW and these zombies are fallen soldiers from that conflict that the sword has reawakened.
At the end I get to make my first branch decision. I select "You may go to town without fear" cause I'm ballsy like that.
Perhaps I should explain about the luck stat since that's all I'm raising in-between levels. I might be wrong about some of this, because it is just what I have observed in playing. Luck determines the rate and strength of critical attacks, the rate and amount of MP regenerated by physical attacks, the amount of HP/MP that is restored when going to a new area, and it seems like it can occasionally lower the cost of magic attacks as well as damage done to you. So, it's really a good stat for magic users and for people that don't want to raise things like STRength (physical damage), VITality (HP), or MENtality (MP). AGiLity isn't necessary since Ginjiro is already so fast.
Anyway, it's just more brawling with knights through the first area.
Robots blow up when they die, I say this because we're now inside Kanon's royal robot warehouse. You're also going so see a lot of blocking in this stage so let me talk about that. Blocking greatly decreases damage and if you are knocked down to 0 HP while blocking, you will not die. As you can see, when someone is electrocuted, burned, or frozen, these elemental status effects are contagious to nearby friends and enemies. Blocking also protects against this unless the person is directly overlapping you. I guess I should also point out that there is a mid-ground and background plane that I have access too but for a number of reasons I try to keep all the action in the foreground.
Some lowly guards run in crying about a giant, sword-wielding zombie and a purple-haired ninja. Then blam! Kanon gets fed up with their failures. He sics his most advanced robot soldier, Silver, on us. After negotiating my way through Silver's defenses and nearly killing him, I am presented with the options "Close in on Kanon" or "Retreat and to go to the nearby village". Of course, I choose the ballsiest choice. Serena joins us and more robots drop in.
Robot ambush! The knights that lead the guard groups have very long range and can come in quite powerful variations. There is a sign at the end that lets me teleport to the arena for extra EXP battles but I don't have time for that!
If I stay in the foreground, the guards in back never activate and I can just bypass them. This area is essentially me and GW rocking our way through the ranks of the kingdom's army. You might even notice that if the guards get too low on health, they'll sometimes just drop their swords and try to run away. At the end we find Kanon and Valgar chillin.
STORY SEQUENCE (skip to stage 22 if you don't care)
Serena pops in again. Then prince Valgar's sister, Lucia (in blue) runs up and voices her discontent with Kanon's power mongering. Kanon gets all electrically angry. Valgar tells Lucia to split. Kanon reveals that Serena is the daughter of the khans, the rightful royal family. Valgar can't handle the truth. The GW takes a run at Kanon but is countered with a paralyzation spell. It is now revealed that the Golden Warrior was the last soldier to die defending the khans. Then we all go on a hallucinogenic history lesson courtesy of Kanon.
So there are Sky Spirits and Earth Spirits and they don't like each other. Humans were caught in the middle of this conflict. The Sky Spirits gave humans magic power so humans helped drive the Earth Spirits underground. The Sky Spirits reconsidered the power that they gave to humans and decided to stick the surviving wizards underground too, just to be safe. Kanon, a wizard from that time vowed revenge. Using his magic he eventually escaped back to the surface. The khans didn't trust his wizardly powers, so he initiated the coup and put the Valgar family in power while he raised a wizard/robot army to fight the Sky Spirits. Prince Valgar gets blasted away by Kanon's magic and now it is the heroes' turn to speak.
Admittedly, I choose the least ballsy reply "This is the way it must be." It's best to simply agree because Kanon is a seriously hardcore boss. He might be the hardest in the game considering that you encounter him only half way through. You can have Serena, GW, you, and another friend playing and Kanon will still slap you around with his magic. In any case, the GW wakes up and Kanon gets scared and teleports away. Now a voice speaks to you and then teleports your crew away as well.
Kanon is surprised to see us catch up with him in this cave (though we seem to have lost Serena in transit). Then King Valgar appears. Kanon, at the height of his confusion, is struck dead by King Valgar's lightning. Now the King reveals that he is actually Xenovia, Queen of the Earth Spirits. Apparently she still held a grudge against the wizard. She says that there is much that Kanon did not tell you about the Earth and Sky Spirits. I then get to make a decision!
I elect to "Return to the Castle" because I'm afraid of Gods!
No fighting = No EXP :(
Now you will see what raising INTelligence does to magic attacks. On the second group I set the GW to Berserk because there are these new enemies called banishers that can set up area of effect healing spells and shield spells, which is quite annoying to my purpose. The Berserk state gives the GW access to incredibly powerful magic attacks and makes him go bonkers. If I get caught up in these deadly attacks, it can very quickly spell The End for me. One of the deadliest groups of enemies in the entire game is the group of short mages. If one gets an ice spell on you and freezes you, they usually all turn and cast ice spells on you (which kills).
Silver's upgraded form, Golden Silver, introduces itself by taking princess Lucia hostage. A moral dilemma arises: "Try to save Lucia", "Attack and sacrifice Lucia", or "Hope for a miricle". I go ahead and try to save the girl but Golden Silver grabs her and runs while leaving me and GW to fight more robots. These robots demonstrate how lasers can rock me.
I set GW on Berserk at the start and we brawl our way through knights, robots, and a few mages. There's actually a secret boss fight I found while trying to speedrun this area. On the last group you can keep running to the right for several screens and eventually a fight will start with the Silver that I fought back in stage four plus two giant flying robots. Unfortunately, I found that this is simply unnecessary and more time consuming than just killing the regular groups.
We've finally tracked down Golden Silver, his entourage of robots, and his captive, Lucia. Valgar sweeps in and assassinates one of the robots. Golden Silver flies off. More robots drop in but Valgar says he'll take care of Lucia, so me and GW can pursue Golden Silver.
Golden Silver is displeased that Kanon is dead and states that robots will now rule humans in his stead. He then throws off his cape and starts whooping my ass. I get GW set to Berserk and then I have to fight for my own survival. Gunstar Heroes players (or speedrun watchers) may remember Golden Silver was the last boss of that game as well and this incarnation he has all the same little shapes helping him plus a whole bunch more moves. It ends happily, though.
You can read the ending yourself. This game was one of the reasons to own the Saturn; I actually got my copy for free when this guy decided to throw it in with my purchase of Panzer Dragoon Saga. It took me a while to even put the disc in the Saturn because I didn't immediately recognize it as a Treasure game (the US cover art makes it look like a lame RPG). But while I eventually got rid of PDS, I've always held onto Guardian Heroes. It's a hella cool game, and remember, you've only seen a small fraction of it by watching this.
Single-segment Golden Silver path with Nicole 0:26:17 by Jose Llado.
Author's comments: