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Lady Sia When I was shopping for some new GBA games, I saw Lady Sia on sale, marked down to $18 which is a great price for a game. Of course, no amount of money is worth a bad game, so read on to see if this game would be worth your $18.
Story
A terrible race of pitiless beastmen, the T'soa, are sweeping across the land of Athorre, led by the evil sorcerer Onimen. The leaders of the kingdoms within Athorre don't know what to do, and are each looking after their own interests. Lady Sia, princess of Myriad, tells the rulers of the other kingdoms that they need to band together, but her cries fall on deaf ears. She is betrayed be the very people she is trying to warn, and is imprisoned in her own castle. A mysterious stranger frees her, and she leaves to gather her possessions that were stolen and persuade the other leaders that they need to act against the T'soa now, while freeing prisoners that have been captured by the beastmen along the way.
The story is okay, nothing new and innovated really, basic, standard fare. Of course, platform games are never about the story in the first place, so the lack of a quality plot is no real detriment to the enjoyment of the game.
Gameplay
Gameplay is fairly standard fare for a platformer, with left or right on the d-pad to move and down to crouch (you can also crawl by pushing left or right once in crouch mode), up will allow Sia to look up, A to jump, and finally B to attack with Sia's sword. If you time your attacks right, you can achieve a combo attack made up of three sword strokes. After Sia learns to control some magic, you can charge a magic missile by holding B down to make the magic ball larger, or just tapping the button will fire a small one. The controls work very well, and there are no major problems, just a few more minor ones. The first problem is that sometimes it's hard to get Sia to stand exactly where you want her to once you stop running. Not a major problem, it just seems that sometimes when you stop after running you slide a little, making it difficult in cases to climb ladders or pull switches. The other problem is that when Sia does her combo attack, she steps forward with the last stroke of her blade. Once again, not really a major problem, it just means care is required when using the combo attack near a ledge, because if you're not cautious it is quite possible to fall. One thing that does make the levels more difficult is that when you reach a checkpoint, the health status is saved. So if Sia reaches a checkpoint with low health, it can be hard for her to progress farther into the level without dying. Of course, there are unlimited continues, so in the end it's not really much of a problem.
Throughout the game you can collect gems and save prisoners from the T'soas by cutting their bonds and freeing them. At the end of the level, the performance is ranked on a scale of 1-100 based on several factors, those factors including how high the health is, length of time in completing the level, number of gems collected, total power in the ring, and how many prisoners you saved. The game is a little too difficult at first, however, after playing for a while you get the hang of it and it's not quite as frustrating. The early levels are definitely a little difficult to move around at points, but it's not a problem once you get used to the controls.
Lifespan
Lady Sia presents quite a challenge, there are about 36 levels in all, and once a perfect 100 is scored in each level within a world, a secret level is unlocked. The rating system does provide some replay value, and for perfectionist players there's really quite a challenge to be had. Even for those who are not perfectionists, Lady Sia should provide an ample challenge.
Graphics
The graphics in Lady Sia are bright and easy to see, and importantly have fluid animation. Some people have complained that it's hard to differentiate from which platforms are in the background and which you can standing on, but I never had a problem with it, there is a noticeable different style for the fore- and background. The game has a hand drawn, cheerful look, and many of the Game Boy Advance’s hardware capabilities are used, with swinging platforms, rotating fans, and multiple scrolling layers that are executed extremely well. Enemies are always distinguishable from the background and easy to see, so you have a fair chance of attacking them without sustaining damage. The only drawback, and it's a minor one, is that when you're entering a level, there are loading times, of about three to five seconds, which really shouldn’t be present on a cartridge game.
Music/ Sound
The music is cheerful and fairly well produced. Occasionally it becomes repetitive, but those times are few and far between. Generally it is easy to listen to and suits the levels perfectly, with the sound effects working well in conjunction. The music in the levels is nicely varied, the tunes provide the same overall mood throughout but it does provide some nice variety from level to level. All in all, the music and sound effects are a little above average, nicely done but nothing you‘ll wish you had a copy of the CD soundtrack for.
Closing Comments
Lady Sia is a great game for people who like hack and slash action platformers, want an inexpensive game to tide them over until they can save for some A-Grade titles, or just want an enjoyable, above average platformer. This game hasn’t received much publicity, but don’t let that act as a deterrent, it's still a worthy game with only a few minor flaws in gameplay which really doesn’t impact on the overall quality, and it is a game with acceptable graphics and sound. If you can find it cheap somewhere, it is a worthwhile purchase.
Final Score: 8/10
- Review by Mia | |
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