is an action role-playing game for the Sega Saturn console, developed by

T&E Soft was a Japanese-based video game developer founded in 1982. Although they have made games with a wide variety of genres, they are primarily known in the U.S. for their golf and puzzle video games. The original company exists today under the name ...

, published by Sega in Europe and Japan, and Atlus Software in North America. It is a remake of the original ''

Hydlide is an action role-playing game developed and published by T&E Soft. It was originally released for the NEC PC-6001 and PC-8801 computers in 1984, in Japan only; ports for the MSX, MSX2, FM-7 and NEC PC-9801 were released the following year ...

'', the first game in the series, but incorporated full

3D graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...

and a player character digitized from a live actor. On release, it received mixed reviews for its graphics, 3D environment and music, while receiving criticism for its gameplay.

Plot

The player takes on the role of a hero named Jim on a quest to defeat an evil demon named Varalys who has turned the princess of Hydlide into three fairies. Before confronting Varalys, the hero must find the fairies and three magical jewels to restore the princess to her regular self.

Gameplay

The game involves typical

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

(RPG) fare, in which the player roams the world (the titular Hydlide), searching through

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

s for weapons and armour. ''Virtual Hydlide'' differs by leveling the player character up only after completing certain objectives of the game, whereas most RPGs level the player character up once they have obtained a certain amount of

experience points An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...

. A different game world is generated each time a new game is started; instead of traditional

random dungeon A random dungeon is a dungeon in a role-playing video game which is procedurally generated by the computer using an algorithm, such that the dungeon is laid out differently every time the player enters it, and a player often never plays through q ...

s, the developers of ''Virtual Hydlide'' actually designed more than 20 different level maps for each of the seven dungeons, as well as more than 20 different maps for the

overworld An overworld (sometimes referred to as a hub world) is, in a broad sense, commonly an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other vide ...

. When starting a new game, the maps for the dungeons and overworld are randomly selected from their designated level sets. Thus, though every dungeon design was created by a human designer rather than a random level generator, there are more than 25 billion possible game worlds. Moreover, each game world is identified with an alphabetic code which may be entered when starting a new game, allowing players to replay favorite level designs or compete for

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in th ...

s on identical worlds. Non-

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

enemies do not appear in set locations, and continuously

respawn In video games, spawning is the live creation of a character, item or NPC. Respawning is the recreation of an entity after its death or destruction, perhaps after losing one of its lives. Despawning is the deletion of an entity from the game ...

in randomly determined locations.

Reception

On release, ''

Famicom Tsūshin formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' scored ''Virtual Hydlide'' a 27 out of 40.NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: VIRTUAL HYDLIDE. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.333. Pg.31. 5 May 1995. A critic for '' Next Generation'' gave it two out of five stars, saying that the game is "visually stunning" with its over-the-shoulder viewpoint and fully 3D environments, but suffers from awkward and "more-or-less tedious" gameplay. Tommy Glide of '' GamePro'', in contrast, said the visuals take time to get used to due to confusing camera angles, clunky scrolling, and graininess which makes it hard to spot items. He also criticized the outdated sound effects during combat and the difficulty in judging how distant enemies are. However, he praised the medieval orchestrated soundtrack and said the game "kind of grows on you", concluding that though most gamers would be put off by ''Virtual Hydlide'', some would find it worthwhile for its compelling next generation elements. '' GamePro'' gave ''Virtual Hydlide'' an overall score of 3.25 out of 5.

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* {{mobygames, /saturn/virtual-hydlide 1995 video games Action role-playing video games Atlus games Sega video games Sega Saturn games Sega Saturn-only games Video game remakes Video games using procedural generation Video games with 2.5D graphics Video games with digitized sprites Video games developed in Japan ja:ハイドライド#ヴァーチャルハイドライド