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As in ActRaiser, the player frees a series of towns by fighting monsters in traditional dungeon-crawl battles (Act Raiser was side-scrolling; Soul Blazer is top-down). Soul Blazer eschews the Sim City-like aspect of ActRaiser. Unlike ActRaiser, the player frees the towns incrementally -- each time the player wipes out a group of monsters belonging to the same "monster lair", a "soul" belonging to a former occupant of the town is liberated, and the corresponding body is reincarnated. This is occasonally a human, but in the variety of towns it could be anything from a dolphin to a talking rose. The freed town occupants give the player advice and items. When the player defeats the monster imprisoning the "soul" of the head of each town (who is typically a " boss" -- a powerful monster, in game jargon), the town is cleared and the player can continue.
The game's backstory concerns a king (Magridd) who made a pact with an evil entity called "Deathtoll." The empire was called the Freil Empire. Deathtoll offered the king one gold piece for each soul from his kingdom; the king was more than happy to take him up on the offer. Deathtoll, who lies in the "World of Evil" is the final "boss" in the game -- when the player defeats Deathtoll, the game is over. To open the "World of Evil" the Hero must obtain six stones in this order: brown, green, blue, silver, purple, and black.
Soul Blazer spawned two sequels: Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma. It was scored by Yukihide Takekawa . It has also been recognized for its soundtrack, rivaling the Final Fantasy and Chrono video game franchises.