Cyber Knight

Group SNE/Compile/Tonkin House - 1990 - Japan

HuCard

Usually when thinking about the Duo's rich RPG library things like voice acting, cutscenes and redbook soundtracks, or more specifically, the CD-ROM format come to mind. There are a number of cartridge-based RPGs, however, a handful of which range from good to even excellent. Often times these games get overlooked in favor of the "big name" titles.

Cyber Knight is one such adventure, conceived by Group SNE and programmed by veteran softhouse Compile. Imagine an entire galaxy at your fingertips, awaiting exploration. Imagine having total control over a team driving hand-picked mecha. Imagine a research and development department designing advanced armaments for your mecha based on alien technology encountered along the way. This is Cyber Knight.

Command your team and the crew of the space cruiser Swordfish on a quest to halt an insurgence by a rogue group of robots known as "Berserkers." You'll have to select your landing parties carefully, and make sure their mecha are properly equipped for the mission at hand before disembarking. Different mecha are capable of handling different numbers and types of weapons and have diverse durability, range and strength ratings. Experimenting with different mecha and equipment configurations is indeed a big part of the fun in Cyber Knight, and actually adds a degree of replay value.

Upon entering a new solar system, you'll be required to scan planets in order to determine viable landing spots. Much of the exploration in Cyber Knight is in fact played out in the Swordfish, traversing the galaxy. Once a habitable planet is found and you've successfully landed, reconnoiter is usually pretty straightforward.

Hardened Turbo fans familiar with Compile's other chip titles Alien & Devil's Crush and Blazing Lazers will be quick to note similarities in not only tunes but the instrumentation itself. Indeed, the Cyber Knight soundtrack is one of the best chiptune soundtracks on the console. The first time I powered up the game, I was immediately hypnotized by an opening track that hammers away behind the title screen story scroll. Similarities in palette choices and graphical design to the aforementioned games will also be evident, however visually speaking Cyber Knight is probably Compile's least impressive effort on the console. Still, while a 1992 Super NES port of the game features a much smoother color palette, I find Compile's original art on the Duo version much more appealing.

The biggest knock against Knight doesn't have anything to do with technical shortcomings, however. If you aren't able to read Japanese, you'll be headed nowhere fast without a walkthrough. The non-linear nature of the game precludes the chance of just plowing through blind. Luckily, a walkthrough exists for the SNES version that will tell you everything to need to know for success with the Duo version.

I had lots of fun with Cyber Knight, especially playing around with different mecha configurations and weapon assignments. In fact, you'll encounter some enemies resistant to certain types of weaponry which makes such experimentation a must. The fantastic soundtrack really helped make the experience a blast, with a handful of genuinely memorable tunes. People hoping to get anything out of Cyber Knight need to be prepared to deal with the language issues. That said, people ready and capable of handling this are in for a treat.

Cyber Knight

~ CYBER KNIGHT ~

Compile / Group SNE / Tonkin House

HuCard

1990

I bought this game only because I was looking for some cheap throw-ins while wrapping up a huge transaction, and CK was priced at a mere two bucks. I had no idea what it was about, but going by just the name, I suspected it to be an awful, archaic action title. It's actually a mecha RPG; I guess you could view it as sort of a "prehistoric" Xenogears.

Once I found out the truth, I wasn't exactly more eager to play it, as I didn't expect much from an ancient chip RPG at that time. But I was compelled to give it a fair chance by its incredible opening, which depicts spaceships locked in combat.

Obviously, the sequence isn't particularly special visually, but man, the music absolutely rocks (with some of the best drum sounds in a chip game, for sure), making the scene extremely intense. In fact, the soundtrack is good all the way through, with at least three or four other excellent tunes included in the high-quality batch. CK is worth playing through just to hear some good (and atypical) HuCard audio. But before you get going, you'll want to make sure that you've got two things:

1) A good guide. There's a great web page devoted to the Super Famicom version, and 95% of the walkthrough it links to is applicable to the PCE game, so you'll know where to go and what to do when you get there. There are a couple areas cited in the FAQ that I either didn't have to or wasn't allowed to visit, and one or two strings of events played out in a different order for me; but everything that you do need to do to beat the PCE version is mentioned in there.

2) Knowledge of katakana, at the least! I'm not usually one to try to dissuade folks from experimenting their way through an import RPG, but I really don't see it happening in this one. The game is just too complicated for people to fiddle their way to victory.

How complicated is it? Well, you know how annoying it can be when you're wandering around a town in a Japanese RPG and you're just trying to talk to the right person and trigger the next event? Well, imagine if you didn't just have to bumble around a small six-house village, but THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE instead. In Cyber Knight, you have to travel not only to different planets, but also to entirely different solar systems. And there isn't a simple defined path through the stars. The game is very open-ended, giving you access to lots of different locations at once, and you often have a number of separate quests you can pursue at any given time. Yes, the aforementioned FAQ does tell you where to go, but it won't help much if you can't read the in-game katakana.

The Cyber Knight play system is not simple by any means. You can select three of the six available characters to partake in a given quest, and you have to take into consideration their respective classes (whether they specialize in science or mechanics or whatever) because certain skills are needed in certain missions. You've also got five different mecha to select from, each with its own respective strengths and weaknesses, not to mention MANY different weapon types. You can lug along everything from lightsabers to plasma guns to nova flames to rocket launchers, although you'll need to experiment with all the different types to figure out which weapons work best against which foes. There are also assorted defense fields to mess around with. And even aboard your home base (a starship), you'll have plenty of different menus to figure out.

It might seem like a lot to contend with; Cyber Knight really is kind of like a modern RPG trapped in the body of an old one. But as is the case with quality modern games, once you get rolling with CK's system, it'll seem pretty simple after all, and you'll get to enjoy the finer points of the adventure. You'll rush to the aid of cavemen, robots, and big pink whales...

...while using your mighty weaponry to annihilate foes ranging from dinosaurs to bizarre, indescribable aliens, as the catchy music rocks all the while.

Actually, the adventure itself might prove a bit too simple for some. Once you arrive at a planet, you usually don't get to do much exploring or anything. You just talk to a particular person or solve a simple maze (only two locations have labyrinths that are at all complex) and get on with your business.

The appeal of the game, outside of the audio elements and the interesting acquaintances you make, mainly lies in the strategic combat, as you get to position your mecha on the field in addition to considering the weapon selection/experimentation aspects. But while the enemies you run into are intriguing concept-wise and can put up a fight, they don't look very good. CK isn't a top-tier game visually by any stretch of the imagination. You don't even get to fight any large enemies until the berserker queen at the very end.

But CK is still a very nice sleeper title if you're up for the reading requirements. From what I gather, there's a translated rendition of the Super Famicom version somewhere out there. But we all know that the cool way to play the game is on the PC Engine in a language we can't understand.