Equinox

Equinox



I haven't done a Video Game Peek in a while, since Startropics and Mystical Ninja. Let's do another one! Equinox is fairly unknown like these two. Well, I've been mentioning this game a lot on TNFS.

Myself wrote:I usually name myself Equinox, based after the SNES game of the same name.

Myself wrote:Equinox, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and Earthbound are the games that I think has perfect soundtrack.

Myself wrote:Equinox is one my favorite SNES games.

In this TNT, I'm going to talk about Equinox, which is one of my favorite Super Nintendo games. I think most of you don't really know about this game, so let's take a peek at this game.



Equinox
Developed by Software Creations, Published by Sony Imagesoft
1994, SNES

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Day 1

Let me introduce the main character first.


The guy who is standing right here is Glendaal, the main character of this game. No, he is not from the Middle East, he just dresses up like this way. Since this game doesn't have a real story, he is pretty much a silent hero. His mission is to defeat the evil magician Sonia, who kidnapped his father, Shadax. Let's see how you can help his adventure by playing this game.


The main objective of this game is to travel through the dungeons, get twelve tokens located inside the dungeon, and then head to the boss room and fight the boss. At this point, you might think like "What is this? Another Zelda Clone?", but Equinox has its special factors that make it different from the other dungeon exploring games.


1. Its Perspective. You don't see this kind of perspective really well on video games, right? Actually, because of this, the controls take some time to get used to. Pressing Left heads to Left Up, Pressing Down heads to Left Down, and so on. However, if you get used to these tricky controls, you will actually have a lot of fun with the new controls.


2. The very good use of Trial and Error, which makes you think. This will take a long time to explain. Some of you might think "Wait a second. How can be a Trial and Error used in a good way?". But Trial and Error in Equinox is different. Equinox is actually a pretty tough game. Enemy placements can make you hard to avoid stuff, and the boss pattern is pretty erratic. And what's more, you will die in one hit.

You might ask for 'What is the life bar for, then?' That's actually like the extra lives in platformer games. If you die, you will start again at the room where you died. Anyways, you'll first have to analyze the enemies' location, the boss's pattern, and that kind of stuff when you first get into the room. Then, once you analyzed their patterns, you will have to make use of it when avoiding the enemies and defying the bosses. I like how some 'thinking' was required on a normal dungeon crawling game. You won't get this on other games, where you don't die after one hit.


Getting to fully analyze the room might take some time, so you must not be afraid of dying, really. Once you died in the room you had problems with, you probably encountered what you did wrong at the part. Learning that, you can think of a plan to avoid those obstacles, and do it right the second time. And there are quite a lot of healing items in those dungeons, so just don't use all of your lives.

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And so, I've talked about gameplay of Equinox which makes it special compared to others. On Day 2, I am going to talk about the setting of this game, like the overall feeling of the dungeons and the music. Anyways, goodbye!

Seems like an interesting game, I've actually never heard of it until now! (although I'm sure I read your posts about it before and just didn't think about them, lol)

A SNES title huh? I'll try it out on my SNES emulator & see what I think of it. Seems interesting. :3

It seems like a cool game and I guess the sales where not good if a second game was never made sadly.

Day 2

Let's continue my Equinox Talk! Today, I will talk about the music of this game which makes this game very captivating.


Equinox actually has a darker vibe than the other dungeon crawling games. It is probably because the stunning graphics (the floors, the tiles, etc) are pretty much based after the real medieval dungeons. Also, the fact that the graphic designers used shadows on the top and the bottom at the screen helps this.

But the best thing is the music. You know what? This is the game with the best music. It even beats Earthbound's music. Take a listen.





Equinox's music is very atmospheric, and it suits the perfect feeling when you go inside a dungeon. First of all the quality of the music itself is great, using the full power of the SNES. There are variety of sounds which right fit in to the soundtrack- like the water drops, the fire sounds, and much more.

A single music is also long enough, that it won't really get repetitive and I give kudos to the composers for making music this long. And in some dungeons, the music stops along the way, and it goes mute for a long time, and then suddenly starts again, which really helps the dark feeling of the game. It is so great that I could release it as an album and sell it on stores. It would sell better than Justin Bieber's music so why not?


And finally, the Boss Music of this game is probably the best music in the entire video gaming world. It used special instruments, a wonderful melody, and combined them to make an absolute art of music. It fits the boss fights so well! The fact that it goes faster and faster along how the boss is beaten also makes this music better.


Though Equinox is great, it is a very hard game. The 'thinking' trial and error part and the new perspective gets some time to get used to, and the dungeons are much complex than the ones on Zelda and the other games. While beating the worlds one by one would give you a lot of satisfaction, I would only recommend it for gaming experts. Try playing this if you get bored with Zelda or other dungeon crawling games, and want some new fun.

I guess the sales where not good if a second game was never made sadly.

One of the viewers said this, and when there's not a sequel, there was a prequel to this game, actually! On Day 3, we will take a peek at this game's prequel. (I won't reveal the name yet.) Anyways, goodbye!

The music is great and the game being hard is not a big deal since most games on the SNES where like that. I can't wait for day 3 though.

I'll have to listen to the music later then if it's that good. (I don't have the time right now) A lot of SNES music is great though. It'll be interesting to hear about the prequel.

Final Day


Now then, let's talk about the prequel of this game, Solstice. I won't explain this as much as Equinox, since obviously Equinox is the main thing for this TNT.



Solstice
Developed by Software Creations, Published by CSG Imagesoft
1990, NES


Let me introduce the main character first. This is Shadax. Yes, he is the person who got kidnapped at Equinox, and he is Glendaal's father. I have no idea how a European look person like Shadax has a Middle East child like Glendaal, but let's excuse this. The plot is simple, a villain called Morbius captured the princess, so Shadax has to get six pieces of the Staff of Demnos to defeat him. Cliche, but it works.


The gameplay is very simmilar to Equinox. The perspective and the controls are same, you still die in one hit, and et cetra. However, there are some differences, making this game much harder than Equinox.


1. You only have a one dungeon to go through. While Equinox had eight different dungeons you had to go through one by one, Solstice only has one dungeon to explore, with you having to find the six pieces of the staff to complete the game. However, the dungeon is confusing enough, so you would still spend a lot of time drawing maps and getting lost. And of course, there are no save points unlike Equinox, so you would have to do it in one go.


2. This game is much less helpful on health, and you don't get an attack to use. That farther increases the trial and error factor of the game, since you would have to start over if you didn't plan your moves wisely. Also the fact that you don't get an attack makes making moves even harder, since you would have to do things defensively. Also, 3. There are more trial and error puzzles in this game, so you would have to try everything before passing.

So, consider Solstice as a harder version of Equinox. But that difficulty could be unbearable considering Equinox was already a very hard game. This game won't really give you the fun as Equinox will do, however, I would recommend this game if you are going to play Equinox. Play Solstice first, either beat it or give up if it is too hard, and play Equinox and see how the developers improved the game overall.


Well then, thank you for listening my talk about Equinox and Solstice. As I said it before, I would really recommend you to play them if you get tired of other dungeon crawlers, like Zelda, and you'd like to try something new. You won't regret the experience. Well then, Goodbye!

-Talk Over-

It seems more like can you last the whole game type of thing in a different way.

Hi,

I registered now. Also I really like Equinox.

^ Hey! I hope to see you around.

So,
since I really like the game EQUINOX, a few months ago,

I took a used PC and I started to study the C language to try to remake this beautiful game.

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