Virtual Hydlide | Reviewing Every U.S. Saturn Game | Episode 13 of 246
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2019
- Patreon: / pandamoniumnick
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/pandamoniumnick
Get ready for an adventure so realistic, its characters are real people. From the third person perspective, you are controlling something animated with pictures of a real life actor. The games of today aren't even this real looking! This Sega Saturn exclusive, developed by T&E Soft and published by Atlus for North America, would live on to be among the console's most... memorable games? That's a word we can use to describe Virtual Hydlide accurately. Memorable.
Footage of the end of this game is thanks to NintendoComplete: • Virtual Hydlide (Satur...
I couldn't grit through all of Virtual Hydlide, so shoutout to them for somehow being able to.
I'm going with Septeber 1995 for the release month. Magazine ads began appearing in October with a Sega Visions review quote. Sega Visions says it came out in September: imgur.com/a/NGSVMGF
The game's files show a final build being completed on June 29th, 1995, so a September release is more than plausible. The American release date for Virtual Hydlide is poorly documented, much like the rest of the U.S. Saturn library.
Welcome to the series where I review every single Sega Saturn game released in North America by order of release date. I made a spreadsheet with all the games satakore.com has as American releases, listing them off by order of release date, including sources. All the games are narrowed down to the month they came out in the U.S.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Twitter is COOL: / pandamoniumgr
SOURCES FOR JAPANESE SALES FIGURES:
[1] i.imgur.com/Y5wVn8z.jpg
[2] www.neogaf.com/threads/media-...
[3] web.archive.org/web/2011052402... 
Игры
![Jordan Adetunji - KEHLANI REMIX (feat. Kehlani) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EeJ8n5PxFGE/mqdefault.jpg)
If you go back and forth between Virtual Hydlide and Pebble Beach Golf Links, you'll notice some distinct similarities between how both games render their graphics. Only T&E Soft was brave enough to attempt making a fully 3D open-world RPG using a golf game engine.
They were like Factor 5 with all of the balls and none of the programming witchcraft
I suppose Camelot Software did that but in reverse, turning an RPG game engine into a golf game
I know it's popular to hate on this game but I genuinely think it's ambitiousness is kind of endearing. Huge respect for trying to do a game like this in 1995
SEGADriven.com been playing video games since Pong...this was as revolutionary as gta 5 was recently. Hydlide was one of my favorites, in a day we played thru a game slowly, to enjoy the entire experience.
SEGADriven.com I agree, it even actually looks like a game I could still enjoy. I kinda like the gloomy world the devs made, and I like that it is randomly generated too. That’s one game I really wish I could try some day, to see if it is really as bad as people say (the FMVs are definitely bad sadly).
I remember playing this back in 1995 as kid and instantly loving it. It was up until then the best experience of an open-world game I'd had. And for many times and many years after that, I would dust off my sega saturn and play it through another time, simply for the nostalgia.
I remember on one of my earliest playthroughs accidentaly coming across a secret elevator that lead to an underground bunker, just out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It was a mere random square on the map that would activate the elevator that would lower me to it. I had the map handwritten to a piece of paper and remember marking the spot with an X. I used that cave to store some the equipment I wouldn't need to carry around, It was like a tiny bunker, very dark inside, don't remember other details.
And every time I would play the game again, I would dedicate some time trying to find that secret bunker, but I was never able to it...
This is the start of an arg
After watching this years ago, I spun a wheel with every saturn game ever on it, and virtual hydlide was the first one it landed on. I was like "oh glob, here we go" but the game actually turned out to be one of my all time favorites and I reveled in every moment of it
Just remember kids, always try something for yourself before forming an opinion on it
The bosses all actually having that chipper Japanese lady telling you to select the number of players for a voice is pretty funny
"You get tool" *Tool music plays* lol Hilarious.
It's like Morrowind for Saturn!
I love pandamonium weekends. I can't wait until we hit some of the gems of the Saturn, but I do love how dedicated and thorough you are even with games like this. Much respect.
Andrew Bofner 100% agree. I like this guys style and he needs more than ~350 views for an episode like this. Hopefully in time views will pick up.
@@RichardHartness I really hope so. He deserves to be as popular as most of the big retro game channels
Ok, call me crazy but I love how the lighting looks on this game engine. Its really decrepid and would be good for a horror game.
"You Get Sword!"
"You get Armour!"
That will never not be funny to me.
Damn, that Pebble Beach guy's commentary. I have to make a Doom mod with his comments.
PLEASE send me link if you make it. That sounds delightful.
Whenever we rented a Saturn as kids (no idea why we never bought one, or a PlayStation) i would always rent this too. I loved every aspect of it. Every advance felt earned.
That Malcolm in the Middle clip of Malcolm playing Sonic R with Stevie was pure gold!
Fishing.........with fishies.
Sometimes............they drown.
What's great about these vids is that it's spoken a) from a first playthough & b) through Jim's point of view. It's brilliantly written
Craig's words of encouragement would've been really helpful in this game.
These are some of the best retro reviews I've seen on youtube in many years. Thanks for all that you do, Panda!
Thanks Jim!
So based on how the map works, the world of Hydlide is not only a small planet, but specifically a small toroidal planet. Jim is fighting to save Donut World!
EATASSLAND is the utopia we all deserve.
I can't wait for you to get to Hexen, to hear your thoughts on it.
Intro always gets me hyped
Every ounce of liquid will be juiced from the fruits of the future !
This was your funniest review so far. I love your series.
Oh my land I HAVE to send this review to my dad! He genuinely loved this game and you give a fair outlook on everything! Plus, you shared what the vampire says! Hecking amazing!!
I had a good time when I rented this as a kid:)
I'd love to play a fan remake of this. I remember when it came out and saw screenshots of this game, man I was blown away. But then again, I thought it was a bigger world with lots of places to explore and things to do... boy was I wrong. As impressive as it may have been back then we still expected much more from this one.
I love your content! These videos are so more than just reviews and your doing some great work for the retro community.
Your Saturn reviews are great dude. Love them.
I love this review. Legit, love it.
Lol I was there in 1995 and I thought it was terrible to look at even back then
I can never disassociate the Dracula line with projared’s interpretation of
“Yes that’s enigmatic are you he you’re a pimp”
Enjoyed your review and the game. Kind of a guilty pleasure, just wished the save file was smaller.
whenever i see suspiciously high review scores i can't help but think that money must have exchanged hands...
We love Jim!
This was much better than ProJared's video on the game. As always panda, I love what you're doing. Never stop! BTW people probably always ask you this but how many Saturn game do you own? And when will you play... Pandemonium????
Virtua Bros Thank you for the kind words, Virtua Bro. I’m pretty sure I own about 40 legit copies. I burn many of my games since prices for most retro things are outrageous now. Many of my games are Japanese, my most prized ones being Dracula X (SOTN) and Darius Gaiden. Pandemonium came out in early 1997, putting it at game number 181 on my list. You can bet there will be a lot of panda memes in that review.
@@PandaMoniumReviews what game numbers are Dark Savior, RE1 and legend of Oasis?
Dark Savior Madara 163, 213 and 113. Might be a while, lol. If you’re ever curious, a link to my public spreadsheet of what game came out when is in the description of every video.
PandaMonium Reviews
I’ll wait, appreciate the fine work you’re doing. Keep it up.
They could of made this better. More NPC's with dialogue, towns, and a deeper storyline, and a proper level up system for grinding.
I once dug around old Google archives of the Sega Usenet group from 1995 to try to get an idea of when people at the time said various games were being found in stores for the Saturn. My best guess for Virtual Hydlide was Sept. 14, the same day as Minnesota Fats Pool Legend. As far as I could tell, they were the first games released for the Saturn in the month of September - nothing came out on its formerly planned launch day of Sept. 2.
Vote Jim for President of EATASSLAND!
if this game ran better I could see myself playing it a lot. love the vibe of the game.
One of the most balling games of all time. It's like a precursor to the modem wrpg!
Entertaining video, as always. I very ambitious game for its time. Although you joked about a sequel, it could have ironed out some of the imperfections of this one and could have been a decent game.
This is the closest a game has ever gotten to looking like a game in a TV show.
What do I mean? Well you know when you are watching a sitcom in the 90s or something and they are playing a videogame and the producers have never played a game so they just make an approximation of what they think their kids are playing. This is that game. The font especially looks like it had no thought put into it whatsoever.
If you have made a fantasy game and your font looks like you ripped it from a WordProcessor; then you have fucked up making a fantasy game.
You need more subscribers. Your channel makes me want to buy a Saturn.
T&E really fucked up by not putting The Walrus in this game.
I love your series:) btw it even kinda dismisses that stupid saying that Saturn had only VF Daytona and PD between MAy and November (which was meant to be Saturn's release month). I'm a sat diehard and destroyed countless keyboards during the years trying to prove that saying was false.. Now your show proves that there were many games between surprise launch and release! Not all of them were good but that's beyond the point!
This game should be a PC exclusive, among thousands and thousands of other bad ones that 2 or three people played back then. It's hard to imagine how anyone thought this was acceptable in any criteria.
I was drooling over this game's screenshots on magazines back in the day. This review finally showed me that I didn't miss much by never playing it, thanks.
Yeah this is pretty bad. It does have some cool aspects to it though. I actually like the graphics for being unique. If any Saturn emulators ever get an overclock feature maybe it would make the frame rate more playable.
Ethel Chip That would be fun to try out, I’m sure it make this much better. I’d also love to play Robotica on an overclocked emu.
I tried the game on an emulator, I think it's actually just capped at this framerate
I hope that the transition from Virtual Hydlide to Rayman won't be every bit as painful as I'm imagining.
Pimpeaux It’s been great. Rayman is hard, but at least it’s good.
Sir Jim's tree ability was manufactured by DARPA.
I just spit out my lunch because of the cave
No excuse for such a bad framerate with everything being sprites
It was the 90´s Dark Souls XD
I know the SS wasn't the easiest platform to program on but what exactly is dropping the frame rate in VH, the low poly geometry, the flat 2D billboard sprites, the short draw distance when indoors? Hydlide, a game so good that they remastered it on SS, I blame Japan heh O_o???
People often slam video sprites because there are so many bad examples but one only has to look at MK to see better costumes, cool looking actors, and better sprite detail mastering. You don't have to play as the UPS guy in cardboard armor.
Needs a HD remake with better voice, or More voice, and fixed frame rate and maybe the option to play in first person.
This game reminds me of Draconus Cult of the Wyrm for Dreamcast. ....but done in 1995..
Enclave for PC/XBOX, that game too, hangs out in the same genre.
Damn you Craig Stadler
Yes!!!
Startler looks like Nick Rochefort
You have to wonder how some games got sequels back in the day. Hydlide tricked me once into buying it on the genny. Never again.
So did you get a copyright notice for the 0.5 seconds of Tool? Great video and I have to say I was not expecting to see a colonoscopy but here we are.
Ken Williams The FBI hasn’t raided my home yet.
I don’t think anyone, not even myself, expected to see colonoscopy footage in this review.
@@PandaMoniumReviews I wasn't expecting to see my own when I had it done years ago, it was also the same day I learned I was "Opioid Resistant". Nothing like watching the guided tour of you!
Ken Williams Yikes, that doesn’t sound like a fun activity. I’m sure my time will come. :>
A few things:
-Your episodes are out of order
-I get a kick out of your humor
-I appreciate the research and tinkering around with the audio/translation
-I like how this episode was more of a playthrough review rather than just an overview.
Thanks, glad you’re liking the series. The episodes are out of order because I found new release dates mid-series. This shuffled things around.
@@PandaMoniumReviews Ahh okay that clarifies things a bit. You mentioned "last time with Shinobi Legions" and I was like, did I miss an episode/was it deleted? Haha.
@@TheBoneHeadClan At some point, I intend to go through and re-upload some of the out of place episodes. Once I finish the Double Switch video, I will be able to go through and re-upload those episodes all at once.
I bought this game when I got my Sega Saturn in 1995, I think it may be the prime example of how Not to make a videogame.
ID never played Virtual Hydlide (none intent to, either...) but Always thought "The graphis are a pretty peculiar concept. Can they have better execution?"
Even nowdays The game visuals are intersting. Probably The lesser problem in the final game.
Oh nooo!
sega saturn was the perfect example of chiefs executive not competence. they made a 2d power house, they refused to work with sony for a joint hardware and they stucked to program 3d games on a machine didn't created with 3d capabilities in mind.. shame on them
Worst $70 I ever spent.
YOWZA!! I would be livid
Can Jim swim?
Wait...did that announcer say combining 3 32-bit processors?! I thought the Saturn had 2 SH2 Hitachi processors?
It does, but it also has an SH-1. Using it as a selling point is a bit disingenuous though as IIRC it's used exclusively to control the CD drive.
@@Silanda
But isn't that a bit overkill on Sega's part? I remember one of the Saturn's problems was how expensive it was to manufacture. They never made a slim version not even in Japan. Had they cut the third 32-bit processor they could have saved a ton of money, I would think. Maybe replace it with a slow Motorola 68K...it wouldn't require much.
@@Sinn0100 Maybe they got a good deal given the amount of chips they were buying from Hitachi. The system was cost reduced a bit during its life, but it does almost feel like Sega's approach was to grab as many off the shelf components as possible (there's already a 68000 in there as well, handling sound).
I like your videos but I don't think Virtual Hydlide is that bad. And yeah, the maze makes sense if you play the game not in easy mode. Because then you have to explore your map! ;-)
Omg is this darksouls 1?
True story: I bought a Saturn shortly after launch, and I was so starved for games that I bought Virtual Hydlide. I played the hell out of it.
I was young, OK? I didn’t know any better! I DIDN’T KNOW!
The game doesn't seem bad. It looks like a very charming romp through a small fantasy world. Don't shame yourself for liking a particular game cause a reviewer said it was bad.
Atlus could have published Shin Megami Tensei devil summoner but the published this instead.
I will defend this game until I die. This was an extremely ambitious game with tons of forward thinking mechanics. The game also plays much better than expected and the music is great. Yes the FMV is cheesy and the framerate is the achilleas heel, but its reputation it has now isn't warranted. Is it a great game? The frame rate unfortunately prevents that. But is it a bad game? I don't think so.
I do wish there was more information about this game. There is no interviews, comments, or anything. I'd love to hear the though process of this game.
By the way, tremendous series. The Saturn is a console that has a hilarious history and its great that you making great videos celebrating it.
I would KILL (not really, but I would do a lot) to be able to interview a Virtual Hydlide dev. There has got to be a good story behind this game. Also, thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you are liking the series.
Stock JPEGS LOL
I was 12 year old with a launch year Saturn. This might be a very stupid take but 12 year old brains are often very stupid to begin with: If they had simply made the main character cooler looking this game would have been drastically more popular. I was very intrigued by this game but the main character's digitized graphics/animation were so lame that it ruined the appeal lol. Even then I knew it looked like some random office dude or Pizza delivery guy that they just tossed some garbage costume on. It sounds like a silly thing but stuff like that matters. Hell that's half the reason Mortal Kombat was successful lol.
Like an idiot I actually bought this wretched pile of crap when it first released.
Played it for a few hours, got sick of every aspect about it and promptly returned it. Thankfully EB Games allowed for returns back then.
3D gaming being new is not an excuse for dreck like this, even as a kid I knew better than all those reviewers. Shame on them for encouraging poor Saturn owners to play this by not blasting it to hell like it deserved.
This dude must be fun at parties...why dance with the girls, if you can just lean on the wall, saving my energy.