Beyond Oasis

Beyond Oasis (also known as The Story of Thor: A Successor of the Light) is a Japanese adventure RPG. It was developed by Ancient and published for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive between 1994 and 1995.

The plot focuses on Prince Ali, who finds a mysterious golden amulet. He soon learns that the relic was used by a magician to invoke the spirits of the 4 elements. On the other hand, the protagonist discovers that he must face an evil being who found a silver amulet, with which he can create chaos and destruction.

Regarding the gameplay, it is impossible not to notice that the adventure is very similar to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past or Illusion of Gaia. As dictated by that style of game, the character finds weapons, power-ups, and various items along the way. There is also a system of magic and invocations, where one of the spirits is called to fight on the side of the protagonist. This gives a lot of personality to the game and ensures that it never gets boring.

The title also has several additions that make it a unique installment for Sega, such as several puzzles or additional content after finishing the story. For example, the player can make a challenge of 100 rooms full of rivals with very high difficulty to obtain rewards that in the main storyline would never appear.

Regarding the graphics, you can see the effort of the developers to make Beyond Oasis as appealing as possible. Without giving up an atmosphere slightly drenched in warm colors that refer to the general theme of the game, the drawings are made with a beautiful and colorful pixel-art. Also, the music has a bold and threatening tone at times, so the player always knows that he has a challenge ahead.

The critics received Beyond Oasis in a very positive way. Above all, they celebrated the combination of adventure with RPG elements and anticipated that this title was going to be one of the pioneers of this genre.

Huge for its era and very advanced in time, this installment is unknown by many and loved by others. If you are on the list of those who never played it, this is your chance to change sides.