Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord (Sega Master System) Review

~by tankMage (January 2024)

Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord Home Page

SMS Game Catalog

Score: 7.5/10 (Satisfactory)

How did Hydlide get sequels while this game did not?

Miracle Warriors is one of only three turn based RPGs made for the SMS. It’s also probably the weakest of the trio, though it has a lot to offer in its own way. First off, it’s important to understand that this is a remake, because Miracle Warriors originally came out for the PC-88. I won’t go into detail about the different versions of the game as Hardcore Gaming 101 did an excellent article about it (the link to which is at the end of this review) but I will say the SMS version was better in many ways and worse in others. As RPGs go, this one is kind of clunky and just as difficult to figure out as many of its contemporaries. In fact, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the bizarre user interface and the translation was arguably worse than that of Phantasy Star.

However, there’s something special about this game that makes it enjoyable to play in spite of all its foibles. The quest structure really encourages players to get out into the world and explore. Dungeons tend to be rare and they feel more special than they do in other 8-Bit RPGs as a result. Players also have to manage their resources carefully and use strategy to defeat many of the bosses, rather than just grind levels out until everyone can muscle down the enemy. And the soundtrack is so good it deserves an award. All in all, Miracle Warriors has a lot of problems that I’ll go into later, but its also got a lot of personality that makes it worth playing if you’re the curious type.

Thou art the descendant of Iason….where have we heard that before?

The in-game dialogue is a bit vague and confusing, but the manual does a good job laying out the plot for players. About a thousand years ago a shepherd named Iason accidentally unleashed the Dark Lord upon the world. While the Dark Lord’s armies rampaged across the countryside, Iason trained with the White Monks in hopes of saving the world. The training paid off and Iason managed to drive his foe back to the Gate of Pandora from whence he came. Iason was celebrated as a hero for fixing the problem (which he caused in the first place) and retired to being a shepherd again, but not before foretelling the return of the Dark Lord.

Fast forward a few centuries and the descendant of Iason (you!) has been summoned to the castle with an urgent task. The Dark Lord is about to return and it’s up to you to stop him. You’re told to seek out a sage in a village, who in turns tells you to seek out three heroes and legendary weapons that can stop the villain. It’s all pretty basic and reminiscent of the first Dragon Quest game. The translation is a mess and uses fake Elizabethan English badly on top of it, so sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s going on or what do do for that matter.

Despite all of the things working against it, the story does a good job of putting the player in the hero’s shoes and not only makes players feel like the hero has to prove himself, but also imparts a sense of dread at the imminent return of the Dark Lord. Maybe it’s all the NPCs you meet that want to help or the tons of dangerous monsters Iason’s heir must defeat; either way a shadow seems to hang over the game world.

There’s not much backstory to the heroes, aside from so-and-so is a pirate or a dancer or whatever, and there’s not much lore, but the game world still feels alive. Townspeople provide hints as well as occasional quips, and players can even talk to friendly characters they meet in random encounters. There’s even a primitive morality system since the player can kill innocent merchants and other NPCs he or she meets on the world map. Doing so lowers your character score and you can actually become evil if you kill enough good guys. This doesn’t have a huge impact on gameplay, but some towns will not admit the player if his or her character score is too low. This also affects how some enemies react to the player if he or she talks to them, but it’s a minor feature for the most part.

Whats up with the fairy?

One thing worth noting about the story is the fairy that follows the hero around. She never speaks nor acts and is not referenced by any of the NPCs It’s kind of strange since she apparently talked in other versions of the game. It’s possible she has a few lines and I thought it was the hero since there’s nothing that indicates who is speaking in the dialogue boxes. It’s also possible they ran out of time and money while remaking the game and just left her in as a dummy character.

The world is the dungeon!

While Miracle Warriors has a few dungeons, players will spend most of their time on the world map looking for allies, grinding, buying stuff, and fighting bosses. This may not sound exciting and it does get boring at times, but it also works in the game’s favor for the most part. Traveling is pretty dangerous unless you are a much higher level than the monsters in the area. Running away from enemies is a gamble too, because they will attack each of the player’s heroes every time he or she fails to flee. Consequently, it’s important to memorize where towns are and use the healer at each one as a waypoint while exploring. Investigating new areas and fighting bosses can be pretty tense as a result of this system, so in the end it puts some much needed meat on this title’s bones.

A simple battle system that somehow drew me in.

The battle system in Miracle Warriors is unusual. Each hero’s HP is displayed by a bar rather than numbers, same for exp. On top of that, only one hero can attack per turn. This may sound lame, but it adds some strategy to combat rather than just blasting enemies with spells and weapons. I often had to decide who I wanted to use in combat and the relative strength of each hero really matters until everyone’s gear is fully upgraded.

Players are given magical items to even the odds in battle, which adds another layer of strategy to the game since they have to be bought or acquired. This often requires exploration and planning, especially before boss fights. It’s a good idea, just be warned that it makes the game backtracky.

While I enjoyed the battle system, I couldn’t help but, feel the devs missed an opportunity to give the heroes more abilities that would have made them stand out. Aside from having weapons and armor with different names, everyone is the same in terms of stats and abilities aside from Medi. Oddly, Medi is the only character with special skills that give her the ability to pick locks and get critical hits. It would have been great if each hero had his or her own gimmick. Maybe one character would always attack before the monster and another could do extra damage to certain enemies. Heck, even slightly different attack and defense values would have helped. It’s like they caught on to a good idea, then totally forgot about it.

Thou art dead.

This game is tough. I have been playing RPGs since 1991 and Miracle Warriors killed my party more times than every other RPG I’ve played in the past ten years with the exception of something like NetHack. You have to be really careful not to fight things that are too powerful or you will die. You will also need to locate magical items to fight bosses, because they will probably kill you if you do not. I even died, because I didn’t pack enough herbs for a simple trip. The game really punishes you for dying, because it’s Game Over if you wipe and you have to find a special village to resuscitate fallen comrades…for a huge fee! This may be off putting to some people, but I liked the challenge.

Uh, where do I go next?

This is another one of those RPGs where it is really hard to figure out what you have to do sometimes. The translation is partly to blame, but some of the puzzles are just really clever. In fact you’re gonna have to piece together a lot of subtle clues to find the last boss…unless you are like me and just looked it up online hehe.

Cool monster bro.

The graphics for this game are kind of generic and meh outside of the fact that they are SMS graphics. If you compare pics of this port to the NES version you’ll see what I mean. That said, the monsters look really cool and were very imaginative. It was refreshing to play an RPG that wasn’t packed with giant spiders, goblins, orcs, and the like, though there are skeletons, but that’s fine. That said, some animations would have been nice to see since the screen just flashes when someone attacks.

The User Interface from Hell!!

The user interface is just plain weird and I can’t think of anything like it. About a quarter of the screen is dominated by a window that features the heroes on a sandy plain with mountains in the background. Sometimes the plain turns into water if you are using the boat to cross a body of water, which looks really strange like everyone walking on water…oh that’s why the game is called Miracle Warriors!

The upper right corner is home to the actual map where the party is represented by a box. The map is really small and it’s hard to see where you are going due to the party’s limited range of vision. I think this was done for the sake of realism, but it just comes off as sucky. The lower half of the screen is just status stuff. As you may have guessed, the setup is pretty dreadful and should have been reversed, with the map being the big screen and the heroes being in the little window.

At least the menus work fairly well and are easy to use for a game from this era. Though, they screwed up here as well by burying the save function in a menu option that reads “Quit”. That threw me off for a few minutes since I wanted to save and was afraid to chose Quit, since that implies ending the game. Sheesh.

A sound track worthy of a true Miracle Warrior.

I love the music. In fact, I think I like it better than Phantasy Star’s soundtrack, which is also superb. The songs are catchy and fit the mood of the game perfectly. If anything, the BGM rescued this game by giving it some emotional impact. The sound effects are also pretty good all things considered, which is something Phantasy Star didn’t manage to accomplish.

Final Thoughts

Miracle Warriors is a really flawed game that’s not for everyone. I almost didn’t play it, because it was tough to see past its poor user interface at first. That said, you may find some enjoyment in this RPG if you are really into the genre. Aside from that SMS RPGs are a rare breed indeed so it’s special just as a curiosity piece in my opinion.

Here’s an excellent review/comparison of Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord from Hardcore Gaming 101 that goes into detail about other versions of the game:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/miracle-warriors-seal-of-the-dark-lord/

Thanks checking out my Miracle Warriors review!

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