Sword of Honour
| Developer: Dynafield | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: Prestige | Sound: |
 | |
| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
| |
| Genre: Action | Lastability: |
 | |
| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
Good ninja and samurai games were rare back then, and they still are today. A little thought for Bushido Blade, Tenchu (PlayStation, 1998) (the music!), Way of the Samurai (PlayStation 2, 2002) and Sword of the Samurai (PlayStation 2, 2003) (the intro!). A real sword game would still make me buy a console without a second thought.
This one carries a certain charm, the moves are easy to pull off and fairly varied. That said, I still don’t quite get the point of the mouse control interface, which eats up part of the screen. While I’m at it, the jump mechanic feels clunky, and the constant respawning of enemies between screens becomes a real hassle.
Here’s a little tip: to use an item, press the corresponding function key (“F1” for the first slot, then “F2”, “F3”, etc.). However, to give an item, you need to use the mouse and click on it! There you go, this will save you an hour like I spent, running around pulling your hair out.
I also encountered some issues getting this game to run from start to finish without crashing. After several attempts, I can share my recipe:
- Download the following files from Planet Emulation:
Sword of Honour (1992)(Prestige)[cr DTC](Disk 1 of 2).adf
Sword of Honour (1992)(Prestige)[cr DTC](Disk 2 of 2).adf - Use WinUAE, Quickstart function, “A500” model, “1.2 ROM + Slow RAM” configuration (at the bottom), and uncheck the “DF1” drive.
Not all these steps may be necessary. Anyway, it seems to work on my end. Well, up to a point, since I got bored pretty quickly…
In a similar fashion, there’s also The Last Ninja (Commodore 64, 1987).
And more recent ones: The Path to Die (2019) and Trek to Yomi (2022).
|
