Neutopia
ニュートピア1989Neutopia
ニュートピアAn overhead adventure often compared to The Legend of Zelda.
Neutopia is an overhead action adventure from Hudson Soft. The player explores a land split into four spheres and gathers eight medallions. Reviewers often compare it to The Legend of Zelda, and many praised it for improving on that model.
| RELEASED IN JAPAN | 17 November 1989 |
|---|---|
| RELEASED IN NORTH AMERICA | 15 April 1990, on TurboGrafx-16 |
| DEVELOPER | Hudson Soft |
| SAVE SYSTEM | Passwords |
Jazeta moves across the overworld with the control pad and attacks with a sword. Items such as a fire rod and falcon shoes help with puzzles and travel.
Each medallion sits in a crypt guarded by a boss. Collecting a medallion or finding a monk raises the life meter.
Some caves need fire or bombs to open. Passwords are the main save system, and the Book of Revival lets you continue from the last one.
The land was once at peace, guarded by Princess Aurora and eight medallions. Dirth turned the ancestors to stone, stole the medallions and took the princess.
The young warrior Jazeta sets out with a charmed compass to recover them. After all eight, the player can reach the North Pole, where Dirth waits.
Critics often point to long passwords and weak collision detection. The game returned on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, and on Wii U in 2014 and 2017.
A sequel, Neutopia II, followed on the console.
Neutopia is one of the best-known adventure games on the console. It shows that the PC Engine could support a long top-down adventure with a large world and a save system.
- Jazeta disappears, so his son becomes the hero of Neutopia II.
- Power Play reviewed the PC Engine version in February 1990.
- The game uses a charmed compass to guide the player toward the medallions.
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