Dungeon Images - Motavia
Dungeon images from Motavia. Just like the title says. Plus my pointless commentary. This is just a sampling. There's a bit more than what I've put up. But all of the optional dungeons on Motavia were cut. Probably to conserve space.
I was surprised to see that there's actually some decent variety in terms of tiles and design here. There were some shameless repeats in places and some dungeons were shabbier than others. Palette are also hit or miss. But for a pirate game they could be a lot worse.
The Academy basement. It looks more like a generic cave. But it's also pretty basementy. That set of stairs to the right leads directly to the room with the first Igglanova. So it's comparatively shorter than the basement in the original. By a whole floor in fact.
Here's the second basement room. Not much different from the original. As you can see, the boss' sprite is surrounded by a black background. While this is sloppy work in general, I think that given the color selection here Igglanova would have looked terrible against that wall.
This is the Valley Maze. The cave which leads to Tonoe. It's looking a bit... poisonous. The green rocks just make getting through and grabbing all the chests annoying. You end up running into even more enemies as you waste your time pointlessly navigating around pointless rocks. At least it's only one room.
Now when you exit the cave you will appear directly in front of Tonoe. There is no cave entrance on that side either. So you must buy a telepipe in order to get leave the area. Mr. Bad Game Design strikes again. At least they remembered to add the telepipe to the Tonoe tool shop. Otherwise there'd be no way to proceed with the game after getting the Alshline.
The first room of the Bioplant. This room, in various palettes, is also used for the Spaceports, Zelan and (with some variation) the Machine Center. So get used to seeing it.
The character in the back of the party is Gryz. I told you he looked terrible. He's in total chameleon mode due to his palette matching the floor. It makes him look transparent.
The second room of the Bioplant. Also used as the second room of Zelan. Because the Bioplant and Zelan are palette swaps of each other. How cheap. But I guess it saves space.
You can see Igglanova 2.0 here. It's actually in the dungeon as opposed to appearing outside of the entrance to Birth Valley after a cutscene. They were going for simple instead of fancy I guess. The boss looks a lot better here. No black background. Of course the boss' color works better against the walls here anyway.
The third room. That's Professor Holt in front of Seed. Rika does not appear in this room. Although she is in the cutscene and will join you as normal.
Zio's Fort is an interesting combination of colors. I think. This is before getting the Psycho Wand, since Alys is still in the party and the barrier blocking access to Nurvus is still up.
The second floor has exits on both sides that dump you outside next to the fort. Which is weird because you're on the second floor. That's Juza blocking the path to the captured Demi. You can barely tell that it's a person. I think they just copied the shape of his Genesis sprite and then colored it in. The battle sprite has a similar thing going on.
The final part of Zio's Fort. This is the area you gain access to after defeating Juza.
Something weird is going on here. Can you see it? Behind that bizarre sprite of Demi (that doesn't look a thing like her overworld sprite) is what appears to be a rough outline of Demi hanging from the wall. It's very reminiscent of what you see in the cutscene at the top of Zio's Fort. It's just so weird. It's very jarring. I don't like it. Why on Motavia did they do that? I guess the purple Demi sprite is supposed to show that she is wrapped in those monster vines. I see what they were going for. And I think they deserve some credit for trying. But it just doesn't look right.
The first floor of the Ladea Tower. This is the best looking dungeon on Motavia. It's a lot smaller than the original version. But that's to be expected. The layout is a bit boring. But at least it's pretty and the colors don't clash. Rune looks a bit odd. But at least he looks like Rune.
The outside of the tower is unremarkable. It's the same as Zio's Fort and the Machine Center.
The second floor. Nothing else to say about it.
Top 'o the tower. Here you can see the boss, Gy-Laguiah. The sprite is pretty nice. But in battle it looks like they just ripped the Genesis sprite and let the limited 8 bit palette do its work. Not pretty.
Nurvus. It's just a single room with Zio waiting for you. He looks alright. Better than Juza.
Notice that most of Nurvus has the same tileset as Zio's Fort. Why didn't they use the machine dungeon design down here? It would have fit much better. The wall in the back is actually the same console from the Bioplant and Kuran. But it's missing the top portion and the screens. So it just looks messy by comparison.
The Island Cave. It's much shorter than the original. At least they toned down the purple here. But those stupid rocks! I guess they serve to make the caves seem longer and more challenging. But I just found it annoying. I like the sand color by the entrance. After all, you are in an island cave.
Soldiers' Temple. It's just a slightly reworked version of Gumbious Temple, neither of which look anything like their Genesis counterparts. You could give them points for doing their own thing here. I guess. It's not too clashy and it does look like a temple.
Dark Force 3.0 isn't looking too hot though. He looks like a melting mud lump. His shape is close enough. It could have been a lot worse.
The Edge. The game's final dungeon. It's not too bad actually. The Genesis background was always little much for me. This looks nice and clean even if it's a bit lazy. It's pretty large for a dungeon in this game too. That portal on the upper left leads to the final boss. To get there you need to head into the correct corresponding portal. Many of the portals in The Edge lead to a death trap abyss that gives you an instant game over. It's rather frustrating.
I can see what they were going for. it makes the game a little harder plus it's realistic to imagine The Edge as a place you aren't likely to come back alive from. But God help you if you forgot to save.