Dark Half (1996)

West One

Super Famicom

3.00 from 4 ratings

36 members have it in their collection · 1 playing now · 19 backlogged · 15 wish listed

Through the Light came the Darkness, and through the Darkness came the Light. They were inseparable in the beginning, and gave birth to each other. Rukyu appeared before all the other creatures, the great demon of darkness, later to be known as the Satan. The divine hero-god Roda went up to his dark realm to defeat him, but was struck … Read more
Through the Light came the Darkness, and through the Darkness came the Light. They were inseparable in the beginning, and gave birth to each other. Rukyu appeared before all the other creatures, the great demon of darkness, later to be known as the Satan. The divine hero-god Roda went up to his dark realm to defeat him, but was struck down, and presumed dead. But the hero couldn't die so easily: he swore to defeat Rukyu once and for all. Meanwhile, Rukyu doesn't just stay in his realm, waiting for Roda: he goes out to the world as a death-bringing sorcerer, and he is out for Roda... The game is quite different from most other RPGs, because it lets you play as both the "good" hero and the villain. The game is divided into chapters, and each chapter is played by either Roda or Rukyu. You switch the two heroes chapter-after-chapter, and lead them to their ultimate battle from two opposite sides. The entire game, including the battles, is viewed from an isometric perspective. The battles are random and turn-based, and the battle field is divided into squares you can position and move your characters on. Both Roda and Rukyu can have party members join them, and both attack mostly with magic. Rukyu uses a special energy called "Soul Power", while Roda cast one-time spells from scrolls he receives after battles. Read less
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Release dates

  • May 31, 1996 (Full Release) (Japan) Super Famicom
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Rating distribution

5 stars
0
4 stars
2
3 stars
1
2 stars
0
1 star
1
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Community All Reviews Statuses

Chovus

Status Chovus Feb 18, 2020

Beat the game. I enjoyed playing as the antagonist more than the hero because of the minion master playstyle. I pretty much sat back and let the minions do most of the work, throwing the occasional spell as needed. My offensive spells were high level though I more often used heal. Shield and strength were also good. For the hero …

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Beat the game. I enjoyed playing as the antagonist more than the hero because of the minion master playstyle. I pretty much sat back and let the minions do most of the work, throwing the occasional spell as needed. My offensive spells were high level though I more often used heal. Shield and strength were also good. For the hero I had him do most of the fighting. Gilbert stayed in the corner casting spells as needed; nukes, heals and buffs. I never saw a use for status ailments though monsters with sleep on hit were very effective. I save stat scummed all level ups to give the hero all improvements in hp, str and dex while Gilbert got all of the magic attack and spell upgrades. I collected most of the rays of hope and watched the good endings for both characters.

This game reminds me of FF13 Lightning's Return because of the stupid time limit. Even though there is enough time I found myself constantly trying to scrape every additional second through excessive save state scumming and using a walkthrough. I would often flee from battles while exploring to see if there was anything worthwhile and then load to do it for real while saving time. This time limit really detracted from my enjoyment of the game, though it does make sense for the antagonist; I really don't see why the hero is subject to it. Though the game has numerous other problems it is interesting enough that it was worth playing.

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