Fiend Hunter is a side view, 2D action RPG that uses the hard-to-master control scheme of Prince of Persia. By that I mean that your character, Feed Sluster (the candidate for worst name ever in a video game until Star Ocean 4 was released) is well-animated and has many different moves he can pull off, but controls likes total shit until you get the hang of it. Not a big deal if you have the correct amount of chromosomes, but retards who are used to Mario-style easiness will definitely furrow their caveman brows and cry their little beady eyes out over it. Anyway, you'll be walking, running, crawling, jumping, jumping really far and pulling yourself up a lot of ledges throughout the course of the game.
Whenever Feed encounters an enemy he pulls out his weapon and the controls change. He can swing high, low, block, jump around, etc. It's almost like a Street Fighter game, except that you don't have to input combination commands to pull off moves. There's even magic attacks you can use which help out quite a bit. My only gripe with the battle system is that you can go from an enemy who is a cakewalk to the very next guy who will utterly DESTROY your anus. Some enemies are extremely cheap, and hitting flying enemies is a nightmare. But for the most part it's not too bad, and once you get down some cheap tactics of your own you can smite most enemies (except those flying ones).
The cinemas in this game are very nice with lots of animation and beautiful use of colors. Right Stuff may not have been the best company around but they sure know how to use the extra memory of the Duo to pump out some cool cinemas. The intro even has a half naked chick in it-- yeah she looks like a 12 year old boy, but at least they were trying. I also loved how they made Feed out to be a truly badass character instead of falling back on their instinctual Japanese penchant for faggotry in character design.
Fiend Hunter also features some minor RPG elements in the form of upgrading Feed and his sidekick Exy (the little blob of flame). Anytime you kill an enemy they drop a diamond which you can use to upgrade any of your or Exy's stats. Exy helps out quite a bit once he gets powered up so it's worth your time to invest some points in his growth.
Another nice feature is the ability to save anywhere. It might seem cheap, but trust me you'll need to utilize it. Some of the levels are VERY hard, and being able to reload and try again is a godsend. If you don't make it to the later levels with enough health and power ups, you're pretty much screwed, so reloads are highly recommended if you are doing poorly on a level. Fortunately there are plenty power ups and health items laying around if you bother to explore a little. There are also rings which will alter your stats a little, increase your health, etc, kind of similar to Ys.
The language barrier is minimal, it's a linear game that doesn't rely on much puzzle solving or interaction with characters. There are some puzzles and town exploration (only at the very beginning-- there aren't any other towns), but it's all secondary to the action.
NOTE- Everyone already knows Feed Sluster is a shameless Earnest Evans ripoff, who in turn was a shameless Indiana Jones ripoff.
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