☀️ Written: May 14th-23rd, 2024 ☀️
Distributed by: Turbo Technologies
Disclaimer: might contain spoilers
Hello, gamers and readers alike, welcome to my blog and thank you for taking the time to tune in today, I really appreciate it!
Screengrabbed while watching Replay Burners' respective Moon Cresta and Crazy Climber 60fps gameplay videos on YouTube
Enter director/game designer Shigeki Fujiwara, who had been working in the video game industry as far back as 1980, having designed, planned, and directed Nichibutsu arcade classics Moon Cresta and Crazy Climber. After several years of his tenure spent with that firm, Fujiwara would leave Nichibutsu and offer up his services to Hudson Soft by the decade's end. Among his many credited contributions to video games are acting as game designer for Nihon Bussan's Doraemon: Meikyū Daisakusen/Cratermaze, planning advisor
for Inter State's Super Star Soldier, directed Media Rings Corporation's Spin Pair, produced Hudson Soft's Bomberman II/Dynablaster, handled production management for Soldier Blade, directed the NEC-based Bomberman '93, directed and produced Birthday's
special advisor for Graphic Research Company's Bomberman Fantasy Race, supervised A.I's Bomberman Hero, Hudson Soft's Baku Bomberman 2/Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, Hudson Soft and h.a.n.d.'s Bomberman Online, and Game Arts' Bomberman Generation, acted as producer for Bomberman Jetters for the Game Boy Advance and for the Nintendo GameCube, and promoted Racjin's Bomberman Land Series: Bomberman Kart DX, et al.
Images from GameFAQs
Directed and designed by Fujiwara, programmed by Kaneta and Tobisawa, with Kazuhiko Hitade in charge of handling public relations, Neutopia II would be released by Hudson Soft for the NEC PC Engine console in Japan on September 27th, 1991, with a North American TurboGrafx-16 release following suit less than a year later in 1992 which would be distributed by the American video game firm Turbo Technologies.
The wife of Jazeta, with their son by her stead, wakes up out of bed, feeling that she had a nightmare until she quickly realizes her husband was attempting to communicate with her telepathically. She explains the situation to her progeny, how Jazeta went off to investigate the resurging labyrinths, and expresses concern that something terrible may have happened to him. With prior training by his father and with some helpful advice by his mother, the son sets off on a big quest to look for Jazeta and to see to it that the evil that had occurred many years ago in Neutopia by the hands of Dirth doesn't transpire again.
Left: Embarking on a quest to search for his father | Right: Gee, well, someone's biased......... Agreed
In the top-down action-adventure game Neutopia II, you take control of the next descendant in the line of Murdock the son of Jazeta (whom you can assign a name that is up to six characters at the start of a new game, or if you press "End" without having input anything he'll be given the default name "HUDSON") whom you can maneuver and move around in any one of eight directions with relative ease, attack with his sword with the I button in the direction he faced at the moment you pressed the button, with the II button reserved for the
Left: About to engage in battle with ninja lizards! Also, since when did Piglet wear blue, and why does he look evil? | Right: Yeah, that's about the size of it
secondary items and weapons you'll find in your travels which you can select and highlight whenever you access the inventory screen with the Run button (for which you'll see a map of your current location any time you step foot inside a labyrinth, but only for the present level you are at in the event that the labyrinth has got more than one floor). Throughout the course of the game there are items that will prove to be of invaluable aid to you, which you'll procure by either collecting the contents inside a chest or pick up after a downed monster randomly drops it or buy inside a shop provided you've got the requisite amount of gold at
Left: Disposing of yellow slime | Right: When touching a randomly dropped ice crystal, all onscreen enemies will be encased and immediately destroyed
your disposal: silver coins that are worth 10 gold, golden coins that are worth 50 gold, moneybags that will net you 100 gold, a bomb (for which will recoup four every time you pick them up), a heart that will replenish one whole block of lost health, magic rings that reduce all presently onscreen monsters to weaker ones (which you can use just once), a pair of wings that when you use it will transport you back to the last spot that you received a password (which also amount to single use items), medicines of vitality which will completely replenish your health no matter how much of it you may had by the time you use it (which you can
Left: Bombing a wall revealing a secret path | Right: Unique slime creatures abound
carry up to two at a time), an hourglass that will momentarily freeze all monster activity in the present screen upon touching it until it either rides itself out or until you walk over to the next screen, and on rare instances there are ice crystals which upon making contact with will encase every remaining monster in the current screen in crystal which shortly after will break and shatter down to pieces. Whenever Jazeta's son ventures inside the labyrinths, there are four crucial items you will find: the next strongest piece of equipment (whether it be a sword or armor or shield), a crystal ball which will show you the majority of the labyrinths' layout
Left: Hissing snakes | Right: Dark spirit
(not all the rooms) when referring to the map in the inventory screen, a key to access the crypt where the monster guarding the labyrinth lies in wait for battle, and after having defeated the boss (as well as earning an extra block's worth of health capacity when reigning victorious) you can claim a vital item that will help you progress further ahead. In the overworld there are secret compartments that are sealed in which can only be accessed by
Left: Oh, no, zombies!!! 🧟 | Right: Jazeta's son is no mere human, he's a Murdock
setting a bomb and placing it in front of the doorway, there are also secret stairs that are found in one of a few ways: by destroying a tall structure with an elemental staff, taking out every monster in the same screen, or pushing a particular rock (sometimes, having you do it after taking down all the monsters in said screen). When accessing the inventory menu while inside the labyrinth the charmed compass will guide you in the proper direction.
Left: According to the secret monster slideshow, these baddies have been assigned the name "Forky Pig"! 🐷 PFFFFT, NO!!! 🤣 I'm dying!!! | Right: Using the Chalice of Agony to change the lethal red lava to safely passable blue ice
Neutopia II is a very visually appeasing game to look at, with colorfully detailed graphic background design by Yutaka Satō (who also worked on the design assisted Birthday's Daikaijū Monogatari, did the visual design for Super Bomberman 5, and design directed Baku Bomberman/Bomberman 64 and Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth), endearingly drawn character designs by Fumie Takaoka (who also worked on designing the characters for Hudson Soft's Salad no Kuni no Tomato-hime/Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom and Red Company's Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru, as well as worked on graphic design for Bomberman '93), and image character design handled by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko.
Left: Quaint little town | Right: Not with that rude customer service, I won't! 😠
I love the title screen sequence as it starts off black, lightning strikes down, and then slowly reveals the ominously cloudy backdrop with the Sun Sword embedded in the rocks, it's a really effective visual. I like that there are different designs of the homes for each town and village, with the one residing next to Yurius shrine having affably designed blue roofed houses, there's a couple towns that have got quaint wooden cottages, and in the Northern region there's a village full of igloos to name a few of them, with the interior designs of the homes having a welcome quality about them that appear different depending on what region of Neutopia you are presently in when you accessed them. There's very well-designed
Left: Eight rocks | Right: Awww, yeah, now we're talking! 🔥
environments such as the woods and forests with a palpable sense of detail with the grassy plains (depending where you are in all of Neutopia, there might be wholesome green trees or even trees visibly affected by the cold frost especially those on top of plains that are a frigid shade of green), I like the added detail of grain on the sand, and the snow section is soothingly colored white. One standout environment is when submerging yourself underwater after you acquire the aqua lung it looks incredible and is stunning to look at given the console's hardware limitations, for there are continuous wave effects of the subtle variety as you roam around the soft bed of underwater sand enthrallingly embossed in a cold color
Left: Half-man/half-scorpion | Right: Oof, those seemingly normal rocks sprang to life
scheme with every hue and shade of blue imaginable. It leaves me in awe each time I see it in motion, brief though your stay there may be (Hudson Soft would apply a similar effect in Bomberman '94 two years after making this game) and is among my favorite locales in Neutopia II. 🤩 The floor pattern inside the labyrinth is solidly designed as are the walls in all four corners, with each one having a significantly different color palette with the occasional room that has got nice-looking dark colored flowing water, and I like how during the twin towers labyrinth any time you're crossing the bridge from one tower to the next the
Left: Stopping to receive a password | Right: Remember those sword traps? They're back!
open sky is fully inundated with clouds that help augment atmospheric depth. Jazeta's son is well-designed, he is clearly a Murdock what with his brown hair and battle-ready equipment except for his round and youthful face as well as his hairstyle being a little spiked up. His walk animation is decent, his sword attack and magic conjuring sprite is well-formed, and just like his father before him in the event that your health has become fully depleted he spins around until he falls on his back and receives a halo above his head. I like the color selection of each his pieces of armor (starting off with green, then blue, then silver, and finally gold), and the way each subsequent shield is ornately designed is a very nice touch. The monster
Left: Peek-a-Bat | Right: Push the right block to unlock all doors
gallery is colorfully designed, well-animated, and far more expressive than the ones in the first game which make them a bit more endearing to look at: among the many examples are ninja lizards wielding katanas, evil pigs with pitchforks, drooling zombies that sprout from the ground, half men/half scorpions hybrid monsters, rock monsters that feign being ordinary rocks only to reveal themselves upon you approaching closer to them, fully armored skeletons with sword and shield in hand, translucent slime with tiny bodies that sometimes jump out of them, balls of flame that morph into flame bats, spinning sorceresses that lock
Left: Must contend with an army of Bonny Benny skeletons | Right: Twin battle against a pair of Butterfrees magot moths 🦋
fire onto you the moment you're in their crosshairs, lightheartedly menacing snakes that hiss with their tongues, seemingly innocuous trees that suddenly spring to life and reveal a menacing face with branches acting as arms, hopping toads, anthropomorphic chameleons that sometimes become invisible by blending in with the background, snowbound fuzzballs that would sometimes roll toward the direction you're at, bite-sized cloak monsters that do a front flip with each jump until they attack with a ball and chain, dog-like werewolf monsters on the prowl, floating sheet monsters, blue-eyed mummies, jellyfish that occasionally spark after a while, scaly aquatic spear-wielding monsters, red crabs, angry-eyed evil knights,
Left: "You have desecrated our circle with your presence, human, you must perish!" | Right: Watching a bunch of toads hopping left and right from afar
torch-carrying occult members with the intimidating lightning and shading (compared to all the other monsters), scythe-wielding reapers that make their entrance known by first appearing as a small cloud until they reveal themselves, dragons that breathe fire if you step right in front of them in somewhat close proximity, purple horned blob monsters that perpetually bounce around, fire-breathing pharaohs, spiders that spew out their web toward you, blocks that spring to life revealing a block-based automatons that lumber about, and flame-colored flying squirrels (which I had no idea I wanted to see as monsters in the action-adventure genre until I saw them for the first time). When accessing the password screen from the title, there is a password that you can input--"Thats_Entertainment_Neutopia"--
Left: Quickly attending to Princess Keia's care with the Manipula herb | Right: The shrine goddess points the way with her chalice
which will grant you access to a slideshow of all the monsters you face throughout the game right down to the bosses whom all have all got names (which range from clear identifier to wordplay or pun-based name schemes wherein Hudson Soft's creative team appeared to have fully embraced their silly headspace). The bosses are all well-designed with their towering and intimidating stature, like the magot moths who sometimes stop to spread their pheromones in the southern direction who despite their allegiance to evil do look cute with their butterfly-like design and green eyes as they flap their wings fluidly, a giant robot whose body is comprised of a big block of ice (which coincidentally takes place on top of an icy
Left: Be alert, some trees might suddenly spring to life and catch you unawares should you approach them 🌲 | Right: Wooden cottages
floor), the kraken with its flaky tentacles whose eyes are fixated on Jazeta's son no matter where he is in relation to it, a giant Medusa head whose face progressively becomes less beautiful and more scaly and demonic-looking the more damage you inflict upon her, a fiery salamander who alternates between moving towards you or gliding around it circles its body, and Dirth has made a comeback with his red cloak and horned helmet whose design is improved with his yellow eyes and regal purple robe.Composing the music and providing the sound effects for this sequel is Hudson Soft veteran Keita Hoshi, who has got an extended list of audio-based credits to his name.
for Red Company's Tengai Makyō Zero, was among the sound staff for Saturn Bomberman, provided sound and music technical support for Super Bomberman 5, worked on programming sound for Baku Bomberman/Bomberman 64, did sound programming for the fourth through eighth installments of the Mario Party franchise (except for Mario Party 6 which he acted as sound director for, even for Mario Party Advance), acted as sound
Left: Just killed an evil tree | Right: Imps with bat-like wings
Keita Hoshi is a highly talented composer who does a remarkable job at stepping into this sequel's composer role previously handled by Tomotsune Maeno in the first game, he even took the liberty of making his own renditions of some of the themes originally composed by Maeno which does an effective job at lending a sense of continuity in regard to sound: the heroic Neutopia title march this time around has got a more bombastic quality to it that really gets you pumped the for the adventure to come, the theme whenever you talk with a non-merchant NPC has got a slower tempo with an added level of gravitas to it, when
Left: Bug extermination time 🐛 | Right: Literal flame bats
venturing inside Pladon Labyrinth there is an ever-foreboding rendition of the original game's memorable labyrinth theme that sounds just as good (if not better), there's a very slow and melodically somber rendition of the first game's land sphere theme when the young knight finally meets up with his father Jazeta albeit under very unfortunate circumstances which makes it Neutopia II's saddest theme out of the bunch, and Dirth's theme has been elevated in quality but is no less engaging as Jazeta's son is fighting for all the good and goodwill of Neutopia. Evidently the spiritually soothing Yurius Shrine theme of Neutopia II
Left: Haunted room | Right: Plan your movements carefully and with good timing so as to not receive damage by those perpetually operated floor saws
was a remix of a theme that Maeno previously composed, but in all the times I played the first Neutopia I never once came across a scenario where this theme would've played (so I found it surprising that this wasn't an original Hoshi composition at all). As for the rest of the soundtrack, Hoshi has created music with a wide range that perfectly befits the tone and atmosphere for the respective scenarios and villages, segments of the world of Neutopia, as well as the labyrinths themselves. 😃 There are four different town themes in the game: Jazeta's family town theme sounds quaint with how light it is before their son departs on a big adventure, the town theme across from Yurius Shrine is bouncy and welcoming, the
Left: Be mindful of your surroundings, some seemingly normal treasure chests might act as sword traps, too | Right: Follow the winding path, take your time when approaching the sword trap blocks, rinse and repeat until you reach the center (especially on the way back)
common town theme that plays for the majority of the subsequent towns is friendly and approachable with its small-town country vibe, finally the igloo town theme found in the colder region of Neutopia sounds very chilly and atmospheric given the frigid nature of its surroundings. When venturing through the world of Neutopia there are six themes depending on which region you're at: the first overworld theme after departing the home town is energetically fast-paced with a well-founded adventurous flair, the second overworld theme kicks things into high gear and gets you pumped for more action, the third overworld theme for when you traverse through the snow and ice is a real head bopper with how chilly it
Left: Spinning sorceresses | Right: Weretoad
sounds, the fourth overworld theme for when you travel underwater sounds beautiful yet atmospherically melancholic with an apt array of bubble-like sounds, the fifth overworld theme has got effective amount of supercharged guitar riffs and slap bass as you're nearing a volcano, lastly the final sixth overworld theme is engrossingly catchy and preps for the things to come while navigating the desert. The main labyrinth theme really engrosses you into the action of these labyrinths with its quietly atmospheric yet strangely inviting, the normal boss theme is bouncily hectic all around, the theme for whenever you find yourself inside a cavern has got a lightheartedly menacing quality to it, and Atra Labyrinth's theme where Dirth
Left: Reemerging from the cave with a brand-spanking new shield on hand | Right: Putting the newly acquired rainbow drops to good use
resides has got an ominously faster tempo with an ever-increasing amount of stakes. The ending theme has got a nicely reflective feeling to it with an appropriately moderate pace throughout the majority of it except near the end where the tempo picks up all of a sudden until it finally segues to a perfectly thought-out denouement music-wise, which is soon followed by a congratulatory and uproariously upbeat credits theme that I find myself gleefully bopping my head to its rhythm that I love listening to so much it makes playing through this game so much worth it (occasionally it does give off vibes of the all-time great Ryuji Sasai and Tadahiro Nitta's staff roll music from Micro Cabin's Xak: The Art of Visual Stage, which is also one such credits theme I love listening to on a frequent basis). 😄
Left: Using his newly acquired wind staff to dispose of those chameleons | Right: There is nothing more to teach him
Neutopia II has a hidden sound test which can be accessed when inputting "Music_From_Neutopia" (exactly like that) in the password screen when accessing it from the title, where you can listen to the music and myriad of sound effects to your heart's content. The sound effects Hoshi creates for this game are also well-conceived (even making his own rendition of Toshiaki Takimoto's item found cue from the first game): I like the flaming sounds for when the fire staff is used as well as the whoosh and crackle sounds for when the wind and lightning staff are utilized in action respectively, the bomb sounds are
Left: Fuzzballs | Right: Ball and chain-wielding hopping monsters
brief yet effective, the "shing" from the sword lunge is good, and there's a "ping"-like deflect sound any time a projectile hits one of Jazeta's sons more powerful set of shields. When reduced to having a dangerously low amount of health remaining, there is a constant beep sound that follows until you either replenish it completely or restore just enough of it that you're right above that mark, though in this case Hoshi had the decency to keep the sound
Left: Standing by the entrance of Manton Labyrinth | Right: Activated a series of simultaneously fired yet conveniently arranged set of arrow traps
effect volume evenly balanced so it doesn't obstruct the music or become all-too grating like it was the case with the first Neutopia title. I do think it's a step in the right direction and makes for a more tolerable experience for the ears whenever you find yourself in these dire straits should you not be careful, but ultimately I think it would've been better off for there not to have been a never-ending alarm sound cue to begin with.
Left: "I'm not a ghoOoOost, I'm a sheEeEeEet!" 👻 | Right: Walking diagonally
Each time you approach a village, or you come across a random cave entrance that just so happens to be near the closest labyrinth you have to go to next, you'll meet up with a heavily robed and hooded NPC that will ask you if you want to receive a password which you have a choice to accept or to deny. If you say "yes", you will be brought back to the last spot you received a password when using the wings to escape a labyrinth or when you find your health completely depleted. Much as it was the case with the previous Neutopia, should you have
Left: Stepping on certain floor switches will make specific tiles flip over and be replaced with a bed of spikes which you can undo by stepping on it again | Right: These gravitational spiked-ball chains make a comeback, too!
played it on the NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 console with a CD or a Plus add-on you would be given the ability to save (and override) your current progress on any one of the system RAM's four files in its cabinet. Also like the first game, this is the version of the game that Hudson Soft would digitally rerelease on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and Konami would digitally rerelease on the Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console downloadable service in 2014 and in 2017 in Japan and in the West respectively.
Seriously, Hudson Soft doubled the password character count from 24 to 48 (!!!!!!!!)
With the suspended saves, it does render the password system a bit meaningless, but it is still there for those who wish to pick up their progress as originally intended. In the case of Neutopia II, however, I doubt it. Less characters, not more! 😖 This mentality that certain video games needed to have ridiculously convoluted and complexly long passwords was a cursed one and should never have been normalized, it comes across as cognitively dissonant.
I only learned that Neutopia had a sequel during the days of "VC-Reviews" as the website had been called at the time (sometime after learning of the first game elsewhere), but during the days of the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console I downloaded games from its downloadable service from January 2007 (which was when I received the console) until around May of 2009 (after which I've largely been focusing on collecting physical retro video games). In the Summer of 2008 I downloaded the first game, but I never looked into Neutopia II. I liked the first game
Gee, when you word it like that, it sounds very silly
back when I first played it but not enough to immediately seek out the sequel, a regrettable decision in retrospect. Several years down the line, I thought I had lost the opportunity to catch up with the sequel for good (having stopped downloading VC games altogether, and not owning an NEC PC Engine or TurboGrafx console), until Konami suddenly surprised us Western gamers by digitally rereleasing PC Engine and TurboGrafx games on the Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console on a gradual basis starting on July of 2016. All of a sudden, there was
a second chance at catching up with games from this format that I completely missed out on during the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console days which I was very excited about. 😄 The day Neutopia II was digitally rereleased this time around, which was on June 8th, 2017, I was quick to download it (it would be my fourth NEC-based download title on the Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console after Inter State's Super Star Soldier, after Hudson Soft's Bomberman '94, after Now Production's New Adventure Island in 2016). Absolutely worth it!!! 👍
Left: "Mummy Dearest", huh? Hear they absolutely abhor wire hangers (and are border on abusive divas) | Right: Heeheehee, who needs to serpentine and trigger the traps when the rainbow drops can just help me get across in a straight fashion? 😁
Like its predecessor before it, Neutopia II received largely positive reviews which it is still continuing to receive even in retrospect: with Consoles + giving it a 91%, GameFan magazine gave it an 85% and an 89% verdict, Génération 4 gave it a 90%, Joypad a 92%, the German Video Games magazine awarded it an 82%, and Play Time gave it an 81% which were among the best ratings it got, however there were some firms that were a bit less than impressed or felt somewhat underwhelmed such as the French-based Joystick magazine that gave the
Left: Weredogs guard the crypt and attack at will | Right: Fighting against Roboid
sequel the most damning indictment with a 40% which is all kinds of harsh, German multi-platform magazine gave it Aktueller Software Markt gave it an 8 out of 12, Famitsu gave it a 27 out of 40 verdict, Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a 28 out of 40, and TurboPlay magazine ended up giving Neutopia II 7 stars out of 10. The biggest criticism leveled against this game by some of the people that played it is that it wasn't really that distinguishable from the first game. I get the impression that some felt Hudson Soft played things a bit safe when
Left: Exploring the underwater depths of Neutopia and cautiously sauntering past whirlpools | Right: Electric jellyfish 🪼
working on Neutopia II, which appears to be the case as some have remarked it as a polished retread of the first game. If you took away the enhancements introduced in this follow-up, its screen-by-screen format and gameplay is not all that dissimilar to Neutopia's plus the endgame for the labyrinths haven't changed: explore the area, battle monsters within even in situations where the doors close on you, be wary of traps, procure crystal ball to see the majority of the map's layout in the current floor, bomb walls you suspect lead to a secret room or a shortcut to a residing room, upgrade a piece of equipment by locating its treasure chest, occasionally come across a poor NPC chained up to a wall, find the key that grants you
Left: "No 'Under the Sea' for you!" 🦀 | Right: Navigating through an underwater seabed
access to the crypt, fight against a boss inside the crypt, and collect the vital item in its back room after defeating it. And the battle against Dirth at the end of the game plays out like it did in the first game where the room becomes pitch black, try to throw you off by appearing in twos, where you have to strike at the real Dirth whilst being mindful of his dark magic used against you at that point. Now, I acknowledge that Neutopia II adheres closely to its precursor's formula, I don't dispute it and can see why that would be off-putting for some,
Left: Screwheads (or screwtops), these monsters make a return from the first game | Right: Them and the sentient liquid
but the thing is I'm not that bothered by this personally because the proceedings this time around feel smoothly polished. For starters, you can move in eight directions instead of exclusively in a square-pattern, which I am all for, when it comes to the action-adventure genre I generally gravitate towards games of this ilk where you're free to roam around in all directions. Now that's not to say I entirely forego these kinds of games where you're only
Left: Exit right | Right: Firing off gusts of wind against those crossbow-wielding armored soldiers
reduced to moving in just four directions, there are action-adventure games from this category that I do enjoy and find myself revisiting once in a while, like AlfaSystem's Ys Book I & II, Kemco's Nintendo 16-bit port of Zoom's Lagoon, Quintet's SoulBlader/SoulBlazer, Tokyo Shoseki's Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, Software Creations' Equinox, and even
Hudson Soft's first Neutopia I don't mind coming back to once in a while despite its occasionally rigid and antiquated nature, just to name plenty of examples. Nine times out ten, however, I personally have more fun playing action-adventure games that allow you to move in all eight directions for there's more mileage and range with these conditions. 😃
Left: Traps galore | Right: Using the right warp to reach the treasure chest in the middle
Now obviously it doesn't end there, movement feels a lot smoother here plus you can attack with your sword while still walking forward (albeit in the direction you're presently facing) as opposed to just while you're remaining stationary which makes sword-based combat feel more comfortable and at ease. Neutopia doesn't have as much of a sphere system this time around, but nonetheless its world feels big with a variety of environments (including exploring underwater once you've acquired the aqua lung that enables you to breathe down
Left: Alright, time to avenge... | Right: Jazeta?!?! 😧 Oh no, what a cruel twist of fate!!
there long enough to venture through it and access Pladon Labyrinth) even though two of the different regions can be accessed exclusively through Yurius Shrine. There are towns and villages in this sequel which act as a safe haven for you, as opposed to exclusively having NPCs residing in (sealed) caves or secret stairways in the midst of danger with the monsters around (which also applies here but is no longer exclusive to just that) where in the first game the Sacred Shrine acted as sanctuary for Jazeta. The helpful items from the first game do make a comeback here, such as moonbeam moss to brighten dark rooms to see the layout,
Left: Accessing Yurius Shrine's secret passage with his deceased father's sword | Right: What a lovely mural, too bad I have to blow it up to get inside the obviously hidden cave
rainbow drops that enable you to cross tile-sized gaps to the other side, falcon shoes to move about at a quicker pace, and the ever-reliable fire staff which is a great secondary weapon, and among these mainstays Jazeta's son gets to experience new items that are beneficial to his quest in the long run once acquiring them: outside of the fire staff there are now two additional elemental power staffs in the form of the wind staff and the lightning staff which have a varying range of potency and range based on how much health you presently have,
Left: In which Jazeta's son exercises his lightning powers | Right: Striking down these angry-eyed soldiers repeatedly
there is the Chalice of Agony which you can pour onto the lava to help cross over to the other side in order to make your way to the town residing by Yurius Shrine, eventually you come across a pair of snow boots which will help keep you from slipping whenever treading on the snow or on the ice, and the aforementioned aqua lung is an invaluable tool to help explore the underwater depths. There are a couple extra set of secondary weapons as well, but I hardly ever rely on them: there's the boomerang which you can buy inside a shop but can only carry one so when you throw it you better be able to catch it once it rebounds towards you
Left: The secret monster slideshow apparently categorizes these ones as wolves... great design, I've got to say | Right: Igloo village
otherwise you completely lose it, as for the other weapon it is a flail that is found in Manton Labyrinth which can reach very far and can be flailed around but unfortunately it is cursed and depletes you of 10 gold with each use (only recommended for the truly desperate). Bosses converse with you now before each battle outside of just Dirth at the end (where the battle already was set in motion the second you entered their crypt) and speak again after suffering defeat at your hand; two of Neutopia II's later bosses don't require navigating a maze-like labyrinth to reach them, as you can just enter the fray after entering the volcano
Left: "Ice" locale | Right: "Eh, don't mind us, we're just... surveying these premises, yeah, that's what we're doing! Nothing suspicious about that!"
and after finding a secret set of stairs by the lake respectively. Outside of the usual assortment of traps when it comes to the labyrinths--rooms locking you in until you slay all the monsters in the room and/or push a specific block, being mindful of the blocks that produce swords on all four sides (including fake treasure chests later on to attempt to thwart you off), arrows flying at you the moment you step on particular switches, evading firepower emanating from some evil statues, and possibly having to deal with a slew of like enemies popping out from inside a hole (at points contending with more than one of these scenarios at once)--there are new obstacles in your path during the course of the game such as conveyors
Left: Inside the first floor of the right tower of the ice-themed twin towers | Right: Oh, no, brainwashed/brainwashing antisemitic radical left Marxists the occult!!!! 😱
that slide you across, sawblades on the floor that go back and forth, warps that transport you to different parts of the room, floor switches that activate spikes (sometimes conveniently circled around treasure chests), and in the final two labyrinths are moments stepping on a seemingly normal tile will trigger randomly placed spike traps which is enough to keep you on your toes. The bosses put up a bit more of a fight this time around, you still have to be mindful of timing your attacks and when to dodge them if not their projectiles but they are better paced and handled overall. Before the battle with Dirth begins he snatches away all
Left: Oh, no, not these stupid grinny cloud monsters that split in two with each stab and perpetually bounce in an erratic manner in which you can't tell where immediately! 😩 | Right: Those dragons exhaling their morning breath... that's also their name
your power elemental staffs which he can use against you so that the only means to land a hit on him is by using the Sun Sword at reasonably close range, but it doesn't appear that he's learned anything from when he fought against Jazeta in the first game as he's still relying on his old strategy. Being that this sequel has you take control of the son of the hero of the first game, Jazeta, whenever you talk to an NPC who makes mention of the revered hero they will constantly refer to him when speaking to the progeny as "your father". Over and over again. If you're the sort to play the drinking game, do not under any circumstances do it for this game, you'd become highly inebriated before having reached the first labyrinth--nay, before stepping foot outside of home, that is an unhealthy amount of times at the very start! 😣
Left: Walking from one tower to another | Right: Made it to one of the upper levels
There is the occasional NPC that uses alternatives such as "your old man" or "your pops", but those are few and far between. Due to sticking closely to formula, some of the issues that stemmed from the first game do rear their ugly heads again (not as annoying nor as prevalent as it was the case in Neutopia, mind, but they are still unneeded nuisances when the do occur): collision detection is still iffy in spots (particularly with monsters who will touch you even though based on the shadows below they should be a lot higher than you, especially the kinds that erratically bounce in an unpredictable direction, like the purple blob monsters and the clouds that split in two with each sword attack), you have to be properly positioned whenever you walk across a gap with the rainbow drops, bomb conservation is still key for
Left: These grim reapers are adorably creepy with their green hoods and chibi design | Right: Jazeta's son receives the ocarina flute needed to wake the sleeping ice giant
you absolutely need some to reach anything that will aid you in the long run or in an item that helps you progress for you cannot risk running out of them before that point otherwise you'll spend the next few minutes fighting monsters and respawning them in the hopes that they might leave behind some bombs for you to procure, and when your health is completely sapped you'll be sent back to the last spot you got your password with your collected gold being halved and might have to resort to money farming in order to afford buying two medicines of vitality to be better prepared (with the introduction of the money bag gaining you 100 gold, it helps) that at a later point you may have to resort to backtrack all the way to
Left: Hidden crossway | Right: Side jumping monsters
Yurius Shrine and visit the town residing next to it in order to spend a decent amount of gold for them there as the farther you go along the more expensive items become, it's not a game breaker but it does take a considerable amount of time. There appears to be a major discrepancy here regarding a specific character that makes me scratch my head: in the first game it was implied and suggested that Jazeta ended up with Princess Aurora after saving her from Dirth, but it appears that things have not played out like that as far as this game is concerned as his son doesn't appear to be of royalty, and she's identified by her daughter
Left: Chipping away at Medusa's true appearance with each attack landed on her (no turning to stone involved) | Right: The ice giant rewards Jazeta's son for waking him from his cursed slumber imposed by Dirth by giving him the first of four medallions needed to access Atra Labyrinth
Princess Keia as "Princess Lily" in Neutopia II when that wasn't her name there (either this was a case of a mistranslation or it was a nickname given to her that wasn't previously established, it wasn't like it was easy to miss or anything as her name was among the very first things informed by the Sacred Shrine's matriarch to Jazeta); I do not believe the progeny knight and Princess Keia are brother and sister, it would make no sense for there to be a separated at birth plot. 🤨 Things wrap up nicely after Dirth's defeat, but when you stick
Left: Behold the Sun Sword, the most powerful weapon in the game | Right: Precariously navigating on top of a lava field
through to the end of the credits it cuts back to Atra Labyrinth where for a brief moment the Sun Sword is flying from the rubble before it instantly freeze frames in black and white teasing an upcoming Neutopia III, which ended up never coming to fruition for one reason or another. 😞 Now one might make a case that Neutopia didn't need a sequel to begin with (working fine as its own self-contained adventure), but with Dirth bringing up a valid point
Left: Rounding out the angry knights in one spot to give them what's coming | Right: Flying stag beetles 🪲
Now it's true that there were plenty games during the '90s that dropped a sequel bait but ended up not delivering, either due to viability reasons or financial ones. If I were younger I would've made a big deal over it, but when it eventually catches up to you increasingly that 95% of news media are untrustworthy because of their agendas and biases, terminology is getting misappropriated left and right that it renders communication ineffective, college professors and politicians deliberately prey on ignorance (including those who continue to lie about the economy doing so great when it's not) because they bank on obliviousness in the hopes to distract you from what's happening, bad actors and/or agitators who make a mockery of teaching by using the position to indoctrinate in the name of "teaching" which makes one weary when hearing that term, a distressing percentage of people seem to be developing a severe case of alethophobia (including those who've unwisely adopted gatekeeper culture) to the point that you question how the world even got to this point, rationale and common decency are on a steep decline to a worrying degree, celebrities are so far out of touch with reality that they appear to miss the big picture of what's happening in the real world, and hate growing in depressing numbers that morale is at an all-time low......
Left: These Grimace-colored blob monsters make a return, but at least they're not grinny monster cloud levels of annoying and irritating | Right: Breaking open a path needed to enter that volcano 🌋
some things just don't become that important anymore to dwell on for a long period of time--one would rather be aware than unaware (regrettably, it's not something one knows immediately but learns over time). 😔 Rather than lament the absence of a third game, however, as much as it would've been nice to see the Murdock saga continue, we can celebrate that (for the short amount of time it had) Hudson Soft has crafted a solid two-game action-adventure series with Neutopia and Neutopia II, which I'm very happy exist. 😀 Before the first game, Kōji Kaneta and Masato Tobisawa had no experience programming for
Left: Fire salamander battle | Right: Two continents connected once again
the action-adventure genre, with the sequel it feels like Kaneta and Tobisawa were more confident in their programming skills (despite the gameplay skewing close to formula) after accumulating experience with the 1989 predecessor. I love how smooth and at ease the movement controls feel this time around and how you can move in eight directions (which I always welcome, you could even move in eight directions in Micro Cabin's 1989 hit Xak: The Art of Visual Stage), it's fairly linear in its approach (with the occasional backtracking for
Left: To heal, yes! | Right: Those palm trees are in the way, burn them all! 🌴
story reasons or for resupplying purposes), there's a gradual sense of flow with its difficulty slowly increasing during the course of the game, and despite some personal nitpicks I have it's never unreasonable to play, especially when playing the two games back-to-back (sometimes in reverse order). In terms of enjoyment value, I find Neutopia II to be the most fun to play out of the two as I personally consider it to be an improvement. 👍
Left: Better hope your fire magic somehow lands a hit on Zorbon, because he is among the most uncomfortable boss fights in Neutopia II (and he divides in two with enough hits sustained) | Right: Fire-breathing pharaohs
Given that the NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 is an 8-bit console, the Neutopia games could almost pass off as 16-bit games on a visual basis if you didn't know any better, especially in the case of Neutopia II with its pristine and well-chosen color palette. Neither game is very long, either, which plays in part to making it easy to come back to them once in a while: respectively, the first game would take two to two and a half hours and the sequel two and a half to three hours to play through at best (i.e. staying focused, knowing exactly which NPCs to visit, using bombs sparingly and not loosely, and trying not to die thereby resorting to money farming as well as finding a spot to completely heal therefore taking up time).
Left: Not quite Dennis or Sigourney, but these Web Weavers are all right 🕸 | Right: No exaggeration, but Hudson Soft has officially referred to these inchworm monsters are "Jumpin' Jeehozifats" ... Not in a million years did I ever imagine that this exclamatory statement would be used as a name for anything (albeit as wordplay as that's not the correct spelling of "Jehoshaphat", obviously)
There is something to be said about the fact Jazeta was a mute protagonist in the first game, only for his son to take fill in those shoes for this game as now his old man has dialogue during a pivotal moment. It's genuinely shocking the first time playing it seeing things play out this way, fighting the kraken inside Pladon Labyrinth (which you got a brief glimpse of during the mother's nightmare) only to find out too late that it was Jazeta. The triumphant land sphere march that was Jazeta's heroic theme in the first game has now, under these tragic circumstances, been turned into his funeral dirge with a slow and sadder tempo.
Left: "Unless you're Jimmy Buffett and you're here to serenade us all with spider kind's favorite song 'Don't Bug Me', PISS OFF!!!! 😡 You arachnocidal humans suck! You destroy everything you touch, yet you call us monsters?!?" | Right: Don't let those cyclops monsters clobber you with their clubs, otherwise you'll be paralyzed for a couple seconds
You genuinely do not see it coming when playing Neutopia II for the first time, but if the sudden reinstatement of the first Neutopia's labyrinth theme was any indication inside this labyrinth in particular, then it probably served as a hint toward the direction it was heading in thematically (albeit a subtle one). Hudson Soft had no qualms in killing off a previously established character with Jazeta, and with his final moments they wrote him off in a respectful manner. Father and son had at last reunited, but not in the way envisioned.
Left: Stabbing malleable mono-eyed slime monsters | Right: Petal attack 🌸
Much as it was the case with the first game, Neutopia II is regarded as a clone of Nintendo's Zelda no Densetsu/The Legend of Zelda. I'm not blind that this game skewed closely to the first game in regards to core gameplay, or that both borrowed elements from the aforementioned action-adventure game. Borrowed elements? Yes, the team that worked on it had a clear love for the first Zelda. Outright cloned? No. There is a fine line between the two (video games borrow from each other all the time), and the way I see it both Neutopia games do just enough to give them their own sense of identity and are worthy games to play
Left: So after being tasked to stand from a specific spot to place all four medallions in their slot, Dirth's domain Atra Labyrinth rises from the ground and is ready to access | Right: "We are the devoted Mr. Nutz fan club, fear us!!!" 😈🐿️
in their own right. For the NEC console devotees, these two titles were the closest one could play an action-adventure game such as the 1986 Nintendo 8-bit classic at the time. So the Neutopia games did not really break new ground with the genre, nor have they forever redefined the action-adventure genre like their Nintendo-centric influencer had (and would do so again in 1991 with Zelda's third series entry on the Super Famicom Kamigami no Triforce, localized for the SNES in 1992 as A Link to the Past, to much greater effect with
Left: Block monsters guarding Dirth's crypt | Right: For as evil as he is, he sure is courteous
super polished gameplay, aesthetically wholesome and intricately detailed environments, enthralling worldbuilding, a boatload of charm, and a masterstroke in empathy generated storytelling which many subsequent action-adventure games aimed to strive for but could rarely match up with), but I think Hudson Soft should be respected for attempting to put their own spin on these types of games and crafting something worthwhile in the process.
Left: Uh, oh, entropy and Dirth battle time! | Right: Celebrating Neutopia's new era of peace
Neutopia II is a very polished action-adventure game, Shigeki Fujiwara and team have crafted a very enjoyable game that is a very worthy follow-up to Hudson Soft's 1989 classic and then some. The '90s was a decade filled to the brim with many action-adventure games that would be regarded as all-time classics, and with this one coming out so early in the proceedings the future was looking bright for the genre. Setting aside the sequel bait, this is a good way to bookend the second chapter in the Murdock saga. Not everyone might have been impressed, which I completely get what with it sticking to Neutopia's formula, but for me personally I speak for myself when I say that I love this game! 😍
(Oh, if only...)
My Personal Score: 9.0/10
● There is a code to radically alter the appearance of Jazeta's son when you input the name in all capital letters "KOALA" at the start, though that just applies to the English language TurboGrafx-16 version.
● In both Neutopia games there is an attract demo when you stay in the title screen for a long time. The first game had four, and I correctly surmised that Neutopia II would have double that number.
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