Forgotten Games: Alcahest - SNESdrunk

Thanks to KM and Victor who wanted more info on SNES/SFC action RPGs. If you like games like Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, or even Magic Sword and King of Dragons, you'd really like Alcahest...
English patch: www.romhacking.net/translation...
Addendum for passwords: www.romhacking.net/translation...
New SNES-related video every Tuesday, and a SNES LP/Game Boy/NES/Genesis video every Thursday. Follow me on Twitter to keep up. / snesdrunk
SNESdrunk's Patreon page, if you're into that sort of thing: / snesdrunk
Binge watch SNESdrunk: • All Reviews (Newest to...

[@LiFancier]

The name comes from alkahest, a universal solvent described in medieval alchemy texts, related to the philosopher's stone according to some. I had started this game some time ago, but now knowing that it's short actually revives my interest in playing it.

[@davemarx7856]

Dude, you're where I go to find games.

[@trufreedom]

Heck yeah, found out about quite a few awesome games from this channel 🤠

[@gabemewell3643]

Fun Fact: The late and great Satoru Iwata designed this game. Also, does anyone else think that Alen from this game looks a little bit like Richter Belmont from Castlevania?

[@leonardpersin9694]

Gabe Mewell fun fact: who gives a shit

[@gabemewell3643]

Obviously you, seeing that you took time out of your day to reply to my comment. Thank you for validating it.

[@somebadbatter]

Leonard Persin you aparently

[@N7Prime]

thanks Lord Gaben 👍

[@jamesv.4662]

Fun fact: Michael b Jordan is playing Joseph Stalin in all black version of the ussr

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

And that sweet Kirby-style music! (same composer)

[@epichitmark811]

How did this not get an official English release? It looks fantastic.

[@starlightwitch12]

The old English translation patch for Alcahest was actually beta, since the translators want to replace passwords with a save/load feature. The passwords however were also stage titles too. Jun Ishikawa did the music for this game (I liked the title screen music btw). Great game though.

[@fungus_am0nguz644]

This is why i love your channel, to discover awesome games. You have no idea have many games i have played and beaten based on your recommendation (I'm playing right now Front Mission Gun Hazard and holy shit…what a game) This one also looks great. Thanks drunk and keep em coming!!

[@SNESdrunk]

Thanks for taking the time to watch

[@emfs9522]

Juan Gil Do you Emulate the games? Most of the games he recommends are super expensive

[@TheVileOne]

Graphics and design for this look really impressive

[@SlyBeast]

I played this recently for the very first time and was really into it. I would've loved this back in the day. Why the powers that be thought this wasn't worth localizing is beyond me.

[@akxmedia0]

This game is also similar to Arcus Odyssey for the MD/Genesis with it's ally feature. Oddly enough Arcus Odyssey was also ported to the Super Famicom a few years later.

[@maxyliano]

THIS right here is why I love your channel :D I had no idea this game existed and it looks like something I would like. Thanks for your hard work!

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

This is why I come here and automatically give the videos a thumbs up before even watching anything: A great review for a game I never even heard about before :D

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

Isn't that what Geralt of Rivia drinks in The Witcher?

[@tallikx]

I remember playing and finishing Alcahest years ago. It's punishing in some spots but when you take the time to practice and explore, it's quite enjoyable.

[@lobonegro1567]

I really enjoyed playing Alcahest.

[@dionysus122]

Simple answer: Alcahest is when you get out of work on Friday night, you walk into your apartment and your roommates order you to take 3 shots immediately. Alca (alcohol) - Hest (an archaic form of behest, or to order or command).

[@shifterx]

Major Tom That's what we call trying way to hard...

[@MerkhVision]

perfect!

[@mastermaniac1911]

The armor changes your character's sprite - very nice.

[@leonreinhart5176]

Nice, I love the Gaia stuff. You always pick the best SNESdrunk!

[@ManillaHeep]

Been playing this again lately, I'm on the last level. The music is in the unmistakable vein of Kirby Super Star which makes this game all the more nostalgic for me.

[@TheGunmanChannel]

Another great video man thanks for the time and effort you put into your channel.

[@barny15]

Great review. I missed this one over the years, but over the last couple of months I've been watching someone route the speedrun for it. I definitely need to add it to the backlog.

[@SinisterSally]

It really reminds me of Brainlord.

[@CarlosAlberto-hb1fh]

Thank you dude! I played this game when was a kid and never knew the name.. I had an american SNES and bought that game original in a Famicom cartridge, with carved dents on the sides to fit on the SNES. Never knew what I was doing, because everything was in Japanese, but managed to get the mage companion still. Great review!

[@MaidenHell1977]

Super cool find, this game looks stunning... Drives me nuts how developers don't eventually release these old games translated and all in this day and age.

[@wh5027]

People just don't appreciate this type of game anymore sadly. Oh well, their loss.

[@Shinobi006]

I love this game. It's about time you featured it.

[@Spynmaster]

Saw this on a longplay - looks like a classic banger.

[@acerodons6036]

Never heard of this game til your vid! Really want to try it now. I LOVE Soul Blazer

[@TheVileOne]

Had never heard of this game before. This is why this is such a great channel

[@nosoyyo6961]

CooL game, I'd never had enough time to finish this one... but if it's that short, I'll give it a shot this week! As always, great review.

[@riggel8804]

Cool! I remember snes drunk talking about this game a while ago. I wanted to play it but didn't bother because the password system didn't work back then. Glad to hear its fixed. Romhacking.net here i come.... Hope ladystalker gets a translation some day

[@texastoast7514]

Man....this looks great. Never even heard of it. Gotta find a way to play it. Thanks for the great content btw. Love your videos

[@ElBribri]

Great review!! I started palying this game a couple years back, I never followed, but I certainly want to

[@PolykillPodcast]

Watching this also reminded me of beyond oasis

[@freygarr3943]

It reminded me of Terranigma. Feels like the chests are the same model.

[@ZrogiX]

Nice review. Time to give this game a try as I really loved Soul Blazer.

[@jamesw7609]

Love your vids man, keep it up.

[@Wuss2ns]

Can definitely hear some Kirby in the music. Cool stuff.

[@RapidCancel]

What an odd coincidence. I text my friend about this game only a few hours before you posted this video.

[@MichaelWilson-gq8ud]

I would have been very into this as a kid. Great review!

[@marvinmobley6294]

oh man I thought this was on Super Nintendo for a second it looks great you got my hopes up great videos always

[@BlutigerFuchs]

I always liked this game, nice review.

[@TransKingFormers]

Nice another game to add to my snes mini great review btw looks like a true snes hidden gem!

[@gingerrevenger]

This game always reminded me of Brainlord, one of my all time favorites, but maybe with a bit more fluidity. I never could stick with Alcahest though. I'll have to give it another try if it really is so short.

[@rokusho831]

i remember playing an early translated patch and wasn't able to finish it until a fully translated version came out to download! i really like this game!!

[@Dongled]

This game looks phenomenal!

[@Player2_gaming]

How come you don’t say have a great rest of your day anymore. That was always a nice finish to your awesome videos. Anyway I hope you have a great rest of your day.

[@Kainlarsen]

God-damn, I love that style of slightly atonal/microtonal 16-bit music in Boss fights!

[@WalrusFPGA]

neat. first time hearing of this one. almost like a top-down version of Capcom's arcade game Magic Sword, with more RPG elements. Thanks for the heads-up on another awesome game. I've discovered a lot from your channel.

[@kingdeath3998]

This game is great.

[@SonofTiamat]

Looks like a lot of fun. I may just try it one day.

[@AnthonyRiddle]

Now this is a true hidden gem

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

probably my favorite jun ishikawa soundtrack

[@inceptional]

Cool, just downloaded this now. :)

[@nimaiiikun]

great music too!

[@Immryr]

alcahest is an awesome game. you don't even really need the translation patch to enjoy it, it's definitely more arcadey than rpg-y.

[@shanecopher5781]

Love it .. bought the super famicon original.. and somehow beat it.. ha! Thanks for clueing me in.. cheers!

[@sirreal9691]

This game is so sweet. I can't do turn based RPGs. This combination of all the stuff I like from RPGs with full real time action is perfect.

[@geovani60624]

I played this game a while ago, I liked it

[@elimgarak4667]

I love this game.

[@CarlosAlberto-hb1fh]

Maybe someone here know the name of another Japanese Famicom RPG? You play as a guy with blue hair, you start in a castle, with simple clothes, then you search in a chest and find armor to put on. It reminds me of breath of fire for the stile and cameraview. The battles are isometric, I remember you attack by throwing your sword into the enemies. They fight goes like this: you and the enemy start standing in the corner of the screen and then go walking forward to each other and attacking throwing stuff or magic. You have lots of companions.

[@AnimusInvidious]

looks awesome

[@Akinohotarubi]

I remember going pretty far the first time I played this but I can't remember if I finished it. I didn't know a fix for the password system had been released since then, time to play this again I guess.

[@backinthedaygamer]

Nice review! I like the way this looks. I'm going to have to pick it up. $40 English repro on ebay

[@BookooZenny]

Back in the Day Gamer Damn, that's WAY cheaper than I thought it'd be

[@Reckoner89]

Ah, back when you didn't thank me for watching and so on and so forth. Good times.

[@Protoman85]

I don't have the same standards of game lengths as you so this game seems just fine to me.

[@jc_malone8217]

This looks like fun! It has a Diablo look to it.

[@EdsRetroGeekOut]

Sweet another hidden rpg to explore :-D

[@mb5030]

Great game

[@HesarealNoWhereMan]

Now i gotta doqnload this and put it on every device i own tbat has a snes emulator.

[@pauljensen519]

Best typo ever. I'm going to say doqnload instead of download from this day forth. I mean no disrespect at all.

[@HesarealNoWhereMan]

Stoopid touchscreen pgones.lol

[@glair]

Reminds me a lot of "Beyond Oasis " for the geny/mega drive.

[@whatsreallygoingon253]

looks fun

[@natela6787]

Suuuuh..nesdrunk!

[@74Vidgamer]

It should’ve released in the West back then, there’s not a ton of text. I think it could have found a decent audience, it’s very well made.

[@mateobonavento3939]

I remember emulating this one a looooong time ago. I liked it, but somehow I forgot about it and never beat it. I should give it another try.

[@pauljensen519]

I never knew that HAL developed this game. I really like the opening track. The sense of urgency in the chords, and the 7/8 (?) time signature really make it unique. Good stuff. Here's another example of game music composers use odd time signatures -- the 5/4 in kzbin.info/www/bejne/foSbmoJprbV6hqM.

[@tye9713]

This game looks great! How did I miss this it's not evn a garbage rpg

[@trevk8233]

It is pretty cool to fight with a dragon.

[@strangelyaroused]

This one looks like it would have been a lot of fun in my youth. Maybe not deep enough now.

[@ChescoYT]

Game looks fucking good!

[@Zeithri]

Watching this video makes me wonder about the possibility of gameshark'ing it so that one could play as the alternate follower instead..

[@The7ifra]

Dude everytime I got here I get to know even more cool games than I expected to find, and all of these goes directly to my Snes mini, by any chance do you know how to make Clock Tower to run on that? I'd really appreciate the assistance.

[@lgbarrera246]

It works on the Mini. You need to change the Preset ID of the ROM from hakchi and should work fine.

[@lgbarrera246]

Clock Tower I mean

[@brandonschnirch]

it ran fine for me it should say it'll run it through retroarch

[@lgbarrera246]

It also runs perfectly well on Canoe (built-in emulator). Just need to change the Preset ID of ROM

[@7thangelad586]

This looks like 7th Saga reimagined as an adventure game!

[@d.l.rittenberry6394]

Still use ZSNES on my Linux laptop and its still the best.

[@BookooZenny]

Oooh I wanna play thiiis

[@shanecopher5781]

Thx

[@riggel8804]

Anybody able to get this working on their everdrive? I spent some time on it but can't get it to work yet

[@j.clayaraujo9282]

Good morning

[@EatingCtrlV]

TurboGraphx Drunk!

[@BurnRoddy]

I always saw this game as a prequel to Diablo

[@retrosoul8770]

This seems like a nice little gem, why did the Snes seem to get all the good top down adventure games. As far as I know Gen only has Beyond Oasis lol? Landstalker sorta kind of counts I guess, maybe Light Crusader too? But in this genre overall I'd say the Snes wins.

[@His_Name_Was_King]

Ur thoughts on chrono trigger coming to the PC with 2 new features ?

[@SNESdrunk]

They repurposed the iOS version. Lazy and pointless. You're 9999x better off playing the DS version.

[@His_Name_Was_King]

SNES drunk i see thanks

[@guyeddy4633]

SNES drunk rocks

[@billcook4768]

Thumb for referring to HAL as the Kirby-guys, as opposed to that other series they are famous for.

[@kevskateboarder8943]

Hey drunk, where's the part 8 of the chrono trigger playtrough bro? Nice video thou

[@BloodBathCVB]

“So yeah” x 2 “But yeah” x 1

[@roberthornibrook6344]

Its a shame we haven't seen more PC Engine RPGs.

[@DenniselAzul]

The music is very similar to Kirby's.

[@jhuanbrown3455]

This looks like "Brain Lord" on SNES.

[@PersianImm0rtal]

Short games are the best! I hate long games.

[@retrosoul8770]

Yeah, quality over quantity is the way to go

[@sdlock83]

Not when you have to actually pay $69.99 for the cartridge... short games have very little value.

[@retrosoul8770]

You're mistaken. Game length is subjective, one person can play a 10hr game once and be done with it, while another can replay it numerous times also trying to master higher difficulties. Shinobi 3, SOR2, Contra 3 etc are short games on paper, 30 minutes to an hour if you're skilled, but I've spent 50+ hrs enjoying them over the yrs because they are timelessly fun games, classics.

[@sdlock83]

Retro Soul Summer 1996. 12 years old me bought Mario RPG, which I was excited about all year long, for $69.99. Beat the game in three days (20 hours), disappointed by the fact that there's no "Dark World" (a la Zelda - Link to the Past) of sort after making the complete round around the map. Two months later I purchased an open-box "Final Fantasy III" (FF6) for $30 with my garage sale money. Took me 3 weeks (55 hours) to beat. Needless to say, even if "FF III" cost $69.99, I still deem it a BETTER game than Mario RPG simply due to the longer playability and value I was getting.

[@retrosoul8770]

I understand your perspective but it's always better to focus on the quality of the overall package versus "how many hrs it took", this is why alot of games lately have been filled with sometimes meaningless/filler content and largely empty open worlds. And here's the thing, what if even though you finished Mario Rpg quicker, you loved it to the extent that you replayed it 1or 2 more times, now you put 60+hrs into the game whereas maybe you could have only liked FFVI enough to play it once and be done with it. As for me, I think FFVI has a stronger story, combat system, music, characters, just making it more fun to play, and that's what makes it better than Mrpg for me. Game length has nothing to do with that judgment because if I thought Mrpg was more fun with a stronger story, gameplay etc, then that would inarguably be the better game for me. Just my 2 cents though, I understand that games are not cheap and when you put your hard earned money into something, you wanna make sure you get value out of it, but the truth is, you never know for sure how much you're actually gonna like a game that you buy regardless of how long its "on paper" length is. You could have played FFVI back then and hated it and the 55hr length would have meant nothing to you.

[@leonardpersin9694]

Do a review of skitchin for sega

[@inceptional]

A few hours sounds ideal to me. I can't be bothered with 60 hours games anymore, or even 40 or 20 hours games. I just want to get in, have some fun and be done in a few hours. Sometimes maybe I'd like to play a certain deep RPG for say 10-20 hours, but anything over that feels like a slog imo. So, yeah, this game sounds about ideal to me. :D The only thing I don't like is the little interaction blocks that let you dash and jump to different areas of the level. I think the designers could have been a little more creative with how they implemented those rather than making them look like clear "gamey" interaction blocks stuck in the middle of otherwise a convincing fantasy RPG world.