A stunning achievement for sidescrolling action rpgs that deservedly became a cult and is still massively enjoyable.
Guardian Heroes was one of those games, a cult game, an instant classic, an incredibly enjoyable experience, a quirky sense of humor, intriguing charaters both main and non player, a great anime style that permeated throughout the entire game, and a phenomenal epic branching storyline that would take at least 10 playthroughs to see in its entirety.
From the moment you see the heavily anime intro (which looks like it was the intro to a real anime series its that good) you get the vibe its going to be special, I am watching it now and I am still awed.
The gameplay brought a few a things new to the sides scrolling action rpg beat 'em genre; parallel lanes to battle in, a tactically controllable AI as well a sweet set of moves for each character and a massively branching storyline.
However the biggest trick it brought was weaving the whole set of ideas old and new into a hugely enjoyable ultra replayable menagerie that has me revisiting it time and time again over the last 12 years. Its so good that I would pay the full 40 quid again for an update to bring it to the next gen consoles.
So how does it achieve this feat, I suppose it is attention to detail and it feels like it was written by people who love animes and this game genre. They throw multitudes of opponents at you of different types, species, size, technology and bizarreness but they give you a sweet set of moves and magic to dispose all of it while trying to keep a hit combo going. I once had a hit combo of 700 going through Ginjirou electric spell on 10 simultaneous enemies. And the air juggles !!! You think you can make them go on forever.
On top of that the AI just don't just sit there and take it. They'll put enough of a fight that you need to have your wits about you, making this game immensely balanced and never too frustrating to play.
The characters you meet will make far more of an impression than the time they normally survive on screen. This is in part due to their styling, particularly the boss characters, and the strong characters written into them by the script, you'll remember which ones you particularly hate and like after discovering a few of the storylines. The translation comes off as just a bit cheesy and stilted but that is a huge part of its charm.
The player characters are cool and well designed Ginjirou is my fave (ninja warror) but there is also Han the swordsman, Randy the mage and Nicole the healer (she can fight too). Each have their own distinct playstyles. It also supported co-op which was manic fun especially when the game scaled up the number of enemies. And you had an rpg element where you customise your character as you played to compliment or fill out your play style.
And that story or should I say stories: unreal. You start off with a conversation about a sword you've found and then all hell breaks loose and doesn't let up. Then the branching storyline has you thinking all paths lead to the same place... oh no. I only discovered how awesomely different the stories are by accident because when I finished it the first time I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to play again... chose a different path and whoah a "I had no idea the story could do that!" expression of surprise rocked me. After that I was hooked trying to find all the possible combinations and boy is it worth it. The ultra story route is the best but also the hardest and I am still convinced that I have seen every path through the game as I am sure there is one stage I still haven't seen after well over 60 playthroughs of the game.
The music holds up equally well, typically very anime like and bizarre, but very catchy. Its meshes with the game fantastically and despite listening to it loads I still never turn it down or wish it stop, it just wouldn't be Guardian Heroes without it.
On top of that if you had the 6 player adaptor you could have 6 of your mates battle it out in an arena mode where 45 characters are selectable for absolute mayhem.
All in all Guardian Heroes deserves its cult status with aplomb. Having been written by Treasure the quality was assured. But they delivered above and beyond with this game. They wove a tapestry of fun and let us kick the hell out of it and after all was said and done we just couldn't help getting some more. The game though not unique in style was unique in experience and that is a far better compliment and one that is so rarely deserved these days.
Its games like this that make you realise that games don't have to be repetitive dross or unimaginative. It also makes you realise that companies like Treasure doing their own thing and doing it with a sense of conviction and pride will always be remembered long after the EA's of this world have vanished.