"Super Famicom Redhead Trilogy" Part III: Slayers

Post 00036 | December 29th 2023

What do an exorcist, an 15th century Spanish pirate and powerful sorceress have in common? Well, if they have ever featured in a Super Famicom game, chances are they are redheads. After realising the last two games I have written about on here were Super Famicom games starring ginger women, I thought I would make this a trilogy with Slayers released exclusively in Japan in 1994.

For those unfamiliar with Slayers, it is a series of comedic fantasy novels, manga, and anime starring sorceress Lina Inverse, a powerful spellcaster with an appetite for treasure and edible things in general. She's joined by a host of other characters, including the scatterbrained himbo knight Gourry and Zelgadiss, who's looking for a lift the chimera curse from his body. The series had its heyday in the 90's and 00's and was a adapted for lots of different formats, including manga, radio dramas, and video games such as the game we'll be looking at today. I'll be playing using the 2010 fan translation published by Matt's Messy Room and Dynamic Designs.

I have to say that Slayers is not a particularly good game. It is a run-of-the-mill RPG with some characters from the Slayers anime sprinkled on. Or rather, the game came out before the anime, meaning it is actually based on the series of light novels. That means if went to play the game because you are a fan of the anime, you will be actually be as confused as Lina is, and she's suffering from amnesia. Right from the beginning, we are greeted with Connie who seems very adamant that she and Lina go way back. I have to assume she's from the light novels even though Internet searches doesn't bring anything up. I notice J-Novel Club are currently releasing the series in English but I haven't had the time to read them. However, as you progress in the game, you do start meeting familiar faces. Of course, this brings its own problems. As new characters arrive, the old ones gets abandoned without notice, meaning you are likely to lose some of your best equipment. Also, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadiss all join your party at level 99 which completely takes the incentive away from battling in the later part of the game.

Speaking of the battle system, its fairly simple and doesn't bring much new to the table. Each character has the ability to attack and do a special move, which varies depending on the character. While most of special moves involve attacking all enemies in differing ways, Lina instead has the ability to call commands, effectively automating the other party members. I didn't find it to be terribly useful however. You can't set commands for each individual party member, meaning you can't have your fighter go all out while another focuses on healing. Enemies have weaknesses to some types of magic and may be resistant to others, but all except the most low-level spells have names picked from Slayers and with no in-game explanation of what the different spells do, it does get pretty confusing. I haven't been able to find any logic to the names. Bram Fang and Bram Gush are for instance wind attacks, while Bram Blazer is, you guessed it, astral. Even if you know your lore it doesn't always help; Dynast Breath usually traps its victim in ice, while in the game it is a water move. It looks like the original manual has a section explaining the different spells, but to my knowledge it hasn't been translated, so you'd be forgiven for using a guide to figure out what spell does what.

That said, I fell like I have been a negative Nancy towards this game, which isn't my intention. I did finish the game after all, and did enjoy it despite its shortcomings. In fact, most points I want to make can be summed up with "it's great, although…". Graphically, character portraits and enemy designs look great, but the characters on the top-down view would have looked dated even in 1994. I've certainly heard worse soundtracks on the Super Nintendo, although if you were hoping something like those distinct high-energy 90's jams that Megumi Hayashibara brought to the anime, you will be disappointed.

And then there's the story. Making a game from an existing franchise is always a delicate art, and in this case, it does feel a lot like world of Slayers was shoehorned into a generic RPG mould. Amnesia is probably the most unimaginative answer to why the most powerful sorceress starts out as a level 1 knowing only the most basic of spells. This is further exemplified by the fact that her personality traits and general behaviour remain intact. She's still a treasure seeking bandit basher with an insatiable appetite, so fans of the series will recognise her. It just seems very convenient.

Anyhow, the main story quest consists of her travelling around with her companions hoping this will jog her memory. And by travelling, I mean fast travelling; Rather than having an overworld to explore, Slayers has a world map containing a series of locations you can pick from a menu, with more getting unlocked as hear about them in the game. Each location usually comes with its own side quest. There are multiple regions, but it is never mentioned how you travel between them - You just pick "change region" from the menu. Each location usually comes with its own side quest, ranging from "please kill this scary monster" to "help, my kid has been abducted". As the party helps the people in need they are usually rewarded by hearing about another location that they decide to venture to. It is an unconventional way to make an RPG. Rather than feeling like you are travelling the world it feels like you are starting another chapter in a book. Of course, if nothing else, the lack of a coherent world does save a lot of time and at about 20 hours, the game is also pretty short for an RPG. In fact, I was surprised when I saved my game and saw the save file was labelled "final maze". Maybe because the main quest is so uninspired I wasn't expecting it to be reaching its conclusion that soon. The game seems to know its short as well, seeing the end screen is interrupted by half of the characters complaining about how little screen time they were afforded. It does trigger some post-game content that reunites you with all the different characters (albeit at the level they were when they left the party).

The game doesn't have an explorable world map, but instead lets you fast travel from location to location. Locations gets unlocked as you learn of them during the story.

That's not to say that the story doesn't have it's charming moments though. Like, for instance, whenever you save the game Minna the journal keeper offers to share what she wrote. This is usually accompanied by a crude drawing and an unflattering explanation of what Lina has been up to. The way Naga leaves your party is another funny episode (Spoiler: The party is tasked with wiping out some orcs. Naga, brash as ever, decides to use a powerful spell that destroys the entire city. A very pissed chancellor then forces her to stay behind to rebuild the place). I do get the feeling the translation team took some liberties along the way though. In one scenario, a town is up in arms over a missing book and one guy in particular is ready to - and I feel I need to bring a content warning to all survivors of torture out there - strip, waterboard, and force the perpetrator to listen to Elton John. I realise it is meant to be a comedic overreaction about a stolen book, but this is just such a Bush era thing to write and it just hasn't aged particularly well, even if you don't take offence at the line. It stands out like a sore thumb in an otherwise very well-polished localisation.

If nothing else, you have to admit there's contrast between the two comedic styles.

In conclusion, Slayers is an RPG, and a very standard one at that. I enjoyed it, but I have a hard time recommending it if you are a newcomer to the genre - there are definitely better RPGs for the system. I wouldn't necessarily say its mandatory to play for casual fans of the anime either as it is non-canonical and predates the anime. If you want to delve deeper into the series I would recommend picking up the light novels instead.