By far my favorite saturn game so far (next to Panzer Dragoon Zwei). Great
anime characters filled with smooth animations. You can really tell that the
guys (and gals) from Treasure really spent some time on this one. For
instance, unlike other 2d action games (such as SFAlpha) where you turn and
your character just mirrors in the opposite direction (i.e. your character has
one blue sleeve and a green sleeve which faces the player, you turn and the
green sleeve still faces you, rather than the blue.) the characters from
guardian heroes actually 'turn'. They even swap the weapons from hand to hand
(you have to pause it just right to see it.) It's the attention to even the
littlest details which make this game even more incredible. The characters are
pretty much the typical cast of young adventurers: Han the warrior, Nicole the
cleric, Randy the lil' wizard guy who whoops ass with a stick, Serena the
well-rounded adventurer, Ginjirou the speedy ninja, and Undead Hero; a hero
who..er..is..undead!. All of the characters have a direct effect on the
storyline. The 6-player versus mode deserves praise in itself, with attributes
you can edit for every player! (there are 45 of them, rumored to be even
more.) You can play on teams, or duke it out all for all (there's nothing
more satisfying to see than a village god take out a flock of rabbits!) Also,
the combatants are given specific dialogue just for the vs. mode. Even cooler
is the special dialoge given when you pair up certain enemies against each
other. The endings are pretty cool too, though playing through some of the
same stages to get there gets a lil' tedious. I've still yet to figure out
which is the 'best' ending. Great gameplay topped off with tons of neat-o
tricks (secret moves, and gargantuan combos) make this game one worth pickin
up. Not to mention the price! Shoot- for $39 dollars, I'll say it's worth
the price, probably the cheapest new game for the saturn. I just hope other
companies follow in leiu. I've also heard there is a code for debug mode, and
another that allows you to play the game as any (well I should say most, you
can't play bosses or civilians) of the 45 characters in place of Nicole (it
shows that character's face in dialogue, but says Nicole's lines.) I've even
heard talk of a mode where you can play as Undead Hero, where he doesn't
speak, just grunts where there should be dialogue! Man, if this is true, this
game has incredible replay value. I can't say enough about this game. Show
support for Treasure's hard work and buy this game!