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PALADIN'S QUEST Company: Enix Released: October 1993 Genre: Turn-based RPG Graphics: 7.0 Control: 4.5 Sound/Music: 4.5 Storyline: 6.0 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 SUPER-NES.COM

Enix are well known as one of the top rpg publishers of the 16-bit era, but even the best have a bad day here and there. Paladin's Quest happens to be one of those bad days. While I wouldn't go so far as to call the game unplayable, it's so redundant and uninspiring that it's about as close to unplayable as you can get. Not only does the game start off slowly but it actually gets worse the longer you play it. There's no real pacing to the events and you're not even given much in the way of dialog from the many characters you'll encounter throughout the game. The Super Nintendo system has the unique distinction of sporting a large number of quality rpg titles. Sadly, Paladin's Quest isn't one of them. It's at least fair to say that the visuals in Paladin's Quest are unique. The art style is immediately noticeable even from looking at screenshots of the game. The lack of detail and the pastel color choices might seem strange at first glance, but it's clear that the developers were going for something a little different and it somehow manages to create a very distinctive visual experience. The only problem with using these types of smooth visuals is that they tend to make the characters and enemies look a little flat. The game does feature a lot of variety in the various towns and landscapes so you'll always have something fresh to look at around each corner. The graphics style might not win any points for detail and realism, but it at least brings something a bit unique and original to the table in an otherwise generic rpg offering. The Super Nintendo system was always known for having a powerful sound chip capable of bringing some outstanding musical offerings to its games.  Someone obviously forgot to inform the developers of Paladin's Quest about it. While the many tracks found throughout the game are decent enough, there's really not one standout track in the entire game. The battle music, which you'll spend most of your time in the game listening to, is about as bland and repetitive as any you'll hear in an rpg and even the music playing in the many villages of the game seem wildly out of place. There's really no rhyme or reason with the way the music is used and it gives the impression that the developers had no real direction when they put this title together. Paladin's Quest is about as bland a musical experience as you'll likely encounter in a Super Nintendo rpg title. The one thing you can at least say about the developers of this game is that they were consistent. Most areas in the game are quite sluggish and the game play itself isn't much different. Moving around is done at a slow pace and since there's no dash button, there's really nothing you can do about it. The combat system is pretty much your standard turn-based engine, but even it feels thrown together and not very well thought out. Since you'll be doing battle every few steps you take, you'll get a hefty dose of it from the very beginning. As if all of this weren't enough, even navigating the menus and equipping items is a painful process as well. Playing Paladin's Quest is better likened to being sucked down into a pool of quicksand. The more you fight it, the more it pulls you down. Staying with this game long enough to complete it is more of a lesson in futility than any type of adventurous challenge. There are some diehard rpg fans that might actually be able to stick it out through this entire game, but most rpg fans will likely tire of this quest long before actually beating the game. For the most part Paladin's Quest feels like a very cheap Phantasy Star clone, and a bad one at that. The storyline is boring, the music is bland, and the game play itself is sluggish and offers absolutely nothing more than a sloppy attempt at a generic turn-based rpg. There are way too many great rpgs available for the Super Nintendo system to even remotely consider playing this one. Unless you're just one of those gamers that has to play every rpg out there you might want to pass on this one.