Name: Kya: Dark LineageGenre: Action Adventure Platformer(with an awesome brawler like battle system!)
Developer: Eden Games
Publisher: Atari
Release Year: 2003
Systems: PS2
Check out what I wrote beside the genre section and you will see the one of the biggest reasons why I think this game should get a sequel. On to the Story!
Insert big bad wolf joke here
Kya: Dark Lineage begins with the protagonist Kya and her half-brother Frank home alone. In her upstairs bedroom, Kya hears a suspicious noise and follows it downstairs to finds Frank in a previously unknown room in the basement. While speaking about Kya's father, Frank unwittingly finishes a mysterious puzzle on a table, opening a portal which sucks in both Kya and Frank. Kya awakens with three Nativs (animal-like creatures) looking down on her. They are then ambushed and chased through a jungle by feral werewolves called the Wolfen/Wolfun. All but one of the Nativs were captured during the chase. Kya and Aton eventually reach a strange village, called Nativ City, and meets the village leader Atea.
Atea explains that the Wolfen/Wolfun are merely Nativs mutated by Brazul. Kya resolves to save Frank and is introduced to Akasa, who teaches her how to fight using mystical bracelets which greatly enhance her strength. Kya is blessed with a power which allows her to exorcize unconscious Wolfen/Wolfun and transform them back into Nativs.
In return for freeing the exorcized Nativs, Atea agrees to help Kya find her half-brother.A nice turn around, instead of the man saving the woman, it is the woman saving the man. I have no problem with strong female protagonists.
My,what big teeth you have....let me break'em for you!
Akasa is the Nativ that teaches you Combat Techniques. Here is where the fun really begins! The battle system in this game as stated above, has a very good brawler like feel to it. You actually learn different combos though out your adventure. Not just punches and kicks either, Kya also has throws! Her throws changes depending on the size of the wolfen and which angle she grabs the enemy aswell. This is probably the most fun I have had in a game of this type. The attacks varied enough to make you wanna use more then just one static combo.
After beating a Wolfen, you had to exorcize them. The bigger and tougher the wolfen, the more mana spheres it took to exorcize. Another very brawler feeling aspect about this game is knocking enemies off edges. While this kinda makes a problem for exorcizing them(if you did knock an enemy into a pit, you can always come back later and fight them again), it was something I enjoyed doing!
Now say you knocked a wolfen off an edge and forgot what stage you did it in. This is not a problem, when you warp to a stage from your hub, there is a count of how many wolfen are left in the stage, making it easy to keep track. There are also some wolfen you can get only after you get certain abilites, so you have to back track some anyway.
Accompanying Kya's awesome battle skills was her trusty Boomy(boomerang)! Not only was it useful for knocking wolfen in the head, it could also be used to hit switches. It also could be powered up in the Nativ's town. Allowing for things like First person throwing.
Another very big thing about Kya was the ability to free fall. Wind was a very important aspect to free falling. Helping you control Kya so she would land safely and avoid hitting objects in her way. If free falling isn't enough to get you adreneline pumping, Kya could also use a magical board to slide down vines and mountains.
It's trailer time! This trailer is pretty good at showing off all of the different things the wonderful game has to offer.
I like to talk about music alot in these games, so I have to mention that I hum the battle theme(or danger theme) in this game a lot. Also you gotta love the way the game slows down when you land the final hit on a wolfen.
big bad wolf? Man you ain't bad, you ain't nothin!
I need more 2-d!
The last few games have been in 3-d, so lets go back to the awesomeness that is 2-d games! Tune in next time as we take a look at Guardian Heroes!





