Developer: Psikyo
Publisher: XS Games
Rated: E for Everyone
Released: 11 March 2003
Completed: 4 August 2017

Sol Divide is a 1996 video game for the arcades developed by Japanese studio Psikyo. It was later ported to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and later PlayStation. With 3 characters to choose from, players will battle their way through various levels in order to beat the evil Iftar who holds the magical sword Sol Divide.

Sol Divide is an interesting beast. A relatively obscure arcade game that attempted to meld a horizontal shoot 'em up with melee combat, it was later ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation in Japan by Atlus, before XS Games published it in the west. Just because it tried something new doesn't automatically make it worthy of your attention. The game's short length, ugly graphics, lack of a save mechanic (more on that later), and uneven difficulty mean you're probably better off skipping it, even with the incredibly cheap price tag on the secondary market.

Psikyo is a company best known for their shooters, and in many cases they're well worth it for fans of the genre. They've made some very successful and capable franchises including Aero Fighters, Gunbird, Strikers 1945, and the criminally underrated Zero Gunner titles - not to mention their awesome collaboration with Capcom, Cannon Spike. I mention the latter because, in many ways, Sol Divide is like a spiritual predecessor. Both games are by and large shoot 'em ups with melee combat elements, feature several characters to choose from, and whisk players through a variety of incredibly short stages culminating in an impressively large - often very easy - boss battle. The difference is Cannon Spike does it much, much better.

Whereas Cannon Spike is a multi-directional shooter, Sol Divide is strictly played on a 2D horizontal plane. Players can choose from three characters, each with slight variances that mostly come in the different spells they can use. Unlike most shooters that use a generic screen-clearing bomb attack, Sol Divide allows players to collect magic spells which they can switch on the fly. Some are devastating single-use spells, capable of inflicting massive damage on bosses and wiping out lesser enemies completely, while others are dependent on your mana meter, which can be replenished by using your melee attack. Most of the enemies are bullet sponges, rendering your ranged shot practically useless anyway.

Each stage is remarkably short, some lasting barely a minute before the boss encounter. Most of the bosses are complete pushovers until the game's final stages, where suddenly the gap between stages widens and failing the second or last of three consecutive bosses means you have to play the entire run over again. Why the sudden shift in formula is beyond me, and it was here that the game really started to lose me with a trio of frustrating bosses.

If you're great at shmups, however, you can probably clear the entirety of Sol Divide's arcade mode in about 15 minutes. There are branching paths to increase replayability, but no matter which set of boring stages you tackle, it's a short arcade game at heart. In an effort to combat this, Psikyo added an exclusive original mode to the home release. It's a nice touch, and I commend their effort to add additional content, but like the base game it's just not very fun.

The original mode focuses a bit more on the RPG elements, allowing players to level up as they defeat enemies and collect items through a 17 level run. The problem is dying sends you back to the very beginning, and you lose you accumulated items. You do keep your level, which means a longer lifebar, but your stats such as shot power are halved. The only recourse is to slog through and grind, grind, grind. Oh, and you have to do it all in one sitting because they stupidly removed the save mode that was present in the Japanese version of the game!

Speaking of, I hope you can read Japanese, because the ending was not localized. That's right. Completing the game nets you a few static images with Japanese text. The intro is in English, so what the fuck? To make matters worse, Sol Divide was released in English arcades! There is already an English-language version in existence! Why is it not on this disc?

Graphically, Sol Divide is a pretty ugly game. Originally released in 1997, it featured the use of pre-rendered CG sprites, a la Donkey Kong Country, but everything here looks grainy and washed out. The backgrounds are forgettable, and the enemy designs are just sort of weird. Shinobi origin codes. The bosses are the only thing that really stand out.

At least the control is precise, which is a requirement for any shooter, but the question is why would you want to play it? You'd be much better off picking up Mobile Light Force on PS1 which, despite the ATROCIOUS and misleading Charlie's Angels-style cover art, is actually a port of the superior Gunbird. Psikyo is so much better than this.

Sol Divide was completed on a real PlayStation with no cheats.