System: Arcade, Neo Geo Aes, Neo Geo CD, Nintendo Switch
Original Release Date: July 25, 1991
Publisher: Alpha Denshi
Developer: Alpha Denshi
ACA NEOGEO CROSSED SWORDS (Crossed Swords from here on out) is a port of an arcade game that Dr. Potts and I played at some pizza parlor in the town where we grew up. I only remember playing the game a handful of times, maybe five or fewer, and recall that when the game was taken out of that pizza place, I continued to look for the game until I discovered it last year as part of the ACA NEOGEO arcade ports on the Nintendo Switch.
Let us be clear about something before we go any further. I 100% recognize that all of the fondness I have for this game is through blood-tinted nostalgia goggles handed to me from my 11/12-year-old self. This game is a slog, taking nearly two hours to play from start to finish. Because this is an arcade port, I could plug as many fictional digital quarters into the game as I wanted and by the time I finally killed the main boss, I had gone through 84 credits or $21.00 in quarters, assuming that 1 credit was $0.25 and I cannot imagine that it was a premium $0.50/credit game. When Dr. Potts and I would play, I think I would max out at $2.00 at most, more than likely it was probably only $1.00. Plus what 11-year-old is going to stand at an arcade cabinet for nearly two hours while their family eats pizza without them and bring along $21 in quarters?
In Crossed Swords, you play as Knight of Journey (yes, that is the character's name, or at least what they are referred to as by the King and Princess) who sets out to help the King of Belkana stop the evil Warlord Nausizz. Partway through the game, the Princess is kidnapped and the King tasks you with saving her. The game is played in semi-first person in that Knight of Journey has a wireframe instead of a filled-in body so that you can see what types of attacks the enemies are using. You have a usable shield that can block high and low attacks, but only one at a time. You start out the game with a sword that you can upgrade by making purchases from traveling merchants and occasionally townspeople will give you an enchanted blade or an heirloom shied; I honestly do not know if you can accidentally miss the townspeople giving you upgraded gear, because if they always show up, then the gear seems pretty much pointless. After all, you have to take it and the game scales accordingly.
The format of the game is repetitive. You begin a stage, fight three to five (maybe more) enemies followed by a boss, and then you move onto the next stage. Thankfully, you only fight one enemy at a time although at times you can see a couple of enemies hanging out in the background who you will be fighting next. Your attacks consist of a high/low weapon attack, a magic attack, a ranged magic attack, and a berzerker attack that will also drain your life and, I think, you can only perform if your power level is maxed out (meaning it is flashing and you have not taken damage in the last couple of seconds. And taking damage in this game is something that will happen all the damn time. With each enemy capable of performing high and low attacks, it is up to you to be able to notice the tells, however subtle, which attack the enemy is going to perform. Because I am the paranoid type, I am about 75.47% convinced that the game cheats, performing attacks in the direction that your shield is not placed in; so if you are blocking high they will attack low and vice versa.
Thankfully, I can cheese my own berzerk attack all I want because I have an unlimited supply of quarters. This would be a useful tactic, except that the developers must have thought about that because there are several boss monsters (who in typical RPG fashion turn into regular monsters after their first encounter) who can block your berzerk attacks (looking at you Satan Goat, Blue Sword Knight, Gold Wing Knight, and every Crab), so you are left to your own skill and luck hopefully blocking at least one attack which will often give you an opening to hit them at least once.
I feel like Crossed Swords is a decent arcade game, especially when played in the early '90s and maybe it could be a fun couch co-op game played in a single evening. It, however, is not a great single-player experience. The format of the game becomes repetitive by the time the Princess is kidnapped, which should be when the game really takes off. If anything, it can get frustrating in the later levels with enemies frequently blocking you and not being able to pull off the berzerk attack. Really the game is twice as long as it needed to be with nearly 50 stages spread out among seven chapters; although you will not visit every stage as there are some points where you choose one of two directions to go, these choices only happen a handful of times. Had this game only been 25 stages, it could have been a tighter experience and a lot more fun with some replay value to visit the areas you did not go to the first time. As it plays right now, I have no interest in seeing how the Courtyard was different than the Back Door to the castle, or the Port side of the Land Battleship was different than the Starboard side. I was also sad finding out that there was no online co-op, although I should not have expected it, so until Dr. Potts and I are again in the same room for an evening (sleepover?), we will have to play our respective digital copies of Crossed Swords.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
I'm the Last on the Planets
I'm the Last on the Planets
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