Legend of Sayuki (PS2)

 I've recently been playing Pocky and Rocky Reshrined, which as you'd expect from the high quality of Tengo Project's other games, represents excellence at a level to which most game developers can only hope to aspire. But it reminded me of Legend of Sayuki (also known as Heavenly Guardian or Yukinko Daisenpuu ~Sayuki to Koyuki no Hie-Hie Daisoudou~), a "Pocky and Rocky in all but name" that was released on PS2 to little fanfare in 2008. It really is in all but name, too, as it was originally intended to be part of that much-loved series, until negotiations with Square-Enix fell through and they had to (slightly) re-theme it.

 

So instead of a shrine maiden running around banishing youkai and other monsters, you're a snow goddess doing that. Your raison d'etre is to gather the ingredients necessary to lift a curse from a local boy. You'll go through various environments, like a snowy forest (that seems to gradually become a springtime forest as you progress through it), a massive gambling den inhabited by monsters (the game calls it a casino, but it's more like an old-fashioned Japanese gambling den than the glitzy western-style casino the name implies), and a haunted cave full of fungus and crystals. And the boss of that third stage is as far as I've been able to get so far, as it's a horrible fight where a big evil doll throws books at you, along with magic hearts that mess with your controls.

 

It's a pretty good game! There's a bunch of differently-coloured weapon powers you can gets, of varying degrees of usefulness (note:don't get the green power up that appears just before the first bossfight! It's too short range for that battle!), as well as the expected health restore items, and health meter extension items. An interesting mechanic comes in the form of the little snow bunny that constantly follows you around. As you shoot, it also shoots a little snowflake at a slower rate. This snowflake temporarily freezes enemies it hits, and frozen enemies drop spirit flames. Spirit flames are collected to increase your MP, and you can spend twenty-five MP to activate the snow bunny's special attack, causing it to run around freezing nearby enemies and their shots en masse.

 

I think this might be the key to higher scoring, though I have been mostly focussed on survival to the extent that I haven't paid a lot of attention to that aspect of the game. But something you really should know about this attack is that if you use it wisely, it can be self-sustaining. Enemies frozen in larger groups drop more spirit flames, so if you use it at the right times, you can easily collect more MP than the attack costs to activate. This is especially useful to know when you're about to fight a boss that becomes a lot easier with well-timed special attacks. Which isn't every boss, as the first boss at least doesn't use a lot of projectiles, so the best thing to do there is find the best place to stand and shoot, and the easy ways to avoid its few different attacks. But now I'm just telling you basic shooting game technique.

 

Legend of Sayuki is a pretty decent game all-round. It's not as good as any of the actual Pocky and Rocky/Kiki Kaikai games, and definitely not even close to reshrined, but it's still definitely worth your time. And though I feel like I'm becoming a stuck record on this subject recently, I also feel the need to point out that this is once again one to emulate, as like most PS2 budget titles, it's currently being sold for hundreds of pounds by people who definitely don't deserve any of your money.