Breaking Monotony — How Soul Blazer effectively uses GAR-Cycles

Soul Blazer box art, by Quintet (1992) [source]

Soul Blazer is a SNES action-RPG developed by Quintet in 1992, in which you play as The Hero, a divine entity sent by The Master, to release captured souls and defeat the main antagonist, Deathtoll. As cliche as it might sound, Soul Blazer was quite innovative by its time, improving on the mechanics first introduced by its predecessor, ActRaiser. To this day, it is still considered…