Defenders of Oasis Game by Sega Reviewed by Adrock gbcam@hotmail.com Save: Battery (Automatic Save) Released: 1992 **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: One of the few RPG's for the Game Gear. Does Sega get it right? **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Defenders of Oasis is your traditional, straightforward RPG. The battles and menus are set most like Dragon Warrior or Earthbound. The setting for this game's story is an Arabian style, with genies, kings and knights, magic lamps, lots of sand and what have you. The story is basically that you, the prince of Shanadar, must get the three rings before the empire does. The three rings, used together can free Ahriman. Ahriman is the main evil guy. The empire is trying to free Ahriman so he can wreak havoc, while the prince is trying to keep them from getting them. There are several cinemas in the game that show Ahriman beckoning with the empire to get those rings. The boy, Saleem, loses his father. There are some dramatic happenings in the game, compared to other portable RPG's. Along the way, three people come to your aid. One is the genie. While the genie can't equip armor, you use stuff like hemp, plating, and guilding to increase his max HP, MP and so on. He doesn't gain levels at all. The next is Saleem, the Captain's son. He is very weak when you start out but he can end up getting the most HP in the game. And your last member is Agmar. He's a theif who got jailed. He has a move called Hide, where he can't be hit by physical attacks. While he is hiding he can do a move called Assault, which does a lot more damage than normal attacks. You get all the members pretty early in the game. You don't get to name anyone... the Prince is always named "Prince" and Genie is always named "Genie". Pretty generic. The game goes by as chapters (like Shining Force). There are 5 chapters. The first one ends pretty quick but the later ones are longer. The game ends with a final battle against Ahriman. The puzzles and scenarios may not be Square quality, but that wasn't what I was really expecting anyways. For a system with very few RPG's, this one shines. It's a lot better than some of the RPG's on Game Boy. It will hold your attention for awhile. Oh, no need for a save on the menu when you play this game. It saves for you constantly. Liked: A very nice RPG for the Game Gear. A good challenge for novice RPG gamers. Hated: You don't get to name the characters, and they have pretty crappy names. More character development... sometimes the plot feels too plain. But, for being 8+ years old it holds up rather nice to today's selection. Advanced enough players might breeze through it, though... **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The characters are big. They are not squared off like in most portables... They are two sprites big, like Crystalis. There's very good use of color. None of that shades of red, shades of blue crap. Well, maybe in some places. But very few. There are lots of colors on screen. Everything is really big and easy to see. The text is easy to read. It can be rivaled against some of the SNES RPG's. The battle screens look like Dragon Warrior/Earthbound. You can't see your characters, and there's only a black background. It's all menus and pictures of your enemies, with no animation. Liked: Big characters. Cinemas. Really purty. Hated: Battle screen is simplistic, but the main screens and cinemas make up for that. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: The music has a very Arabian-esque feel. Some of the songs are even *gasp* memorable. Sound FX are there too. Liked: Good music! Hated: More songs... maybe. I have to give it only four stars, because it was really good but it wasn't heart gripping. RPG's are known for their great soundtracks. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: The menus are really simple to operate. My only gripe is no running on the maps. The game feels slow at times. Liked: Simple to operate. Hated: No running... **************************************************************************** Improve: I guess, just a deeper game. And the option to rename your characters. RIYL: Dragon Warrior, Earthbound, Final Fantasy Legend games. **************************************************************************** Final Words: RPG fan? Got Game Gear? Go to a used game store and FIND this! Huge RPG fan but no Game Gear? Buy a Game Gear "cheep" at Funcoland (for like $15 I saw in their ad) and get this game. While there isn't much replay, there are some items/spells that you might not get the first time. It's a well done RPG. You can't blame it for it's problems, it's like, 8 years old. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: **** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: **** Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 22 Final Score: %88 **************************************************************************** Here are some strategies from a Defenders of Oasis FAQ by Barry W. Cantin (BCantin@aol.com). If the Genie has all his MPs, use him to fight the harder monsters (not Ahriman) with one of the offensive spells. Be sure to use him regularly to heal everyone with the Almaty spell. Sometimes it's good to look for a fight with fairly weak monsters so that he can immediately cast "Halwtart" to go back into the Lamp and regenerate MPs. The party can stay out in mazes and caverns indefinitely using this technique. Keep the party completely stocked with Herbs, Holy Herbs, Snake Act, and Worm Act. They're not expensive and you never know what's going to happen. Always attack the same monster when being attacked by a group -- do NOT spread attacks over the whole group. This will limit the number of attacks the monsters can hit you with. When fighting monsters with the "fast drop attack" (they rise into the air for a round or so), after the monster has risen have all members PARRY (have Agmar HIDE) to reduce/minimize the damage from the attack. Other than the above case, in general it is NOT advantageous to use Agmar's HIDE/ASSAULT attack -- in the space of two attacks (say 200% damage) he will only get in one attack (equivalently about 150% damage). Only useful in above and when he's really hurt and needs to be healed. The "Pillow of Dreams", which can be bought at the Shanadar Goods shop, is not very useful if the Genie has the Halwtart spell.