Have you always uploaded on days that arent Friday? Because I was really confused for a second lol

I know Rob Kraus! He taught an art class at the University of Akron I took back in 1999. He’s the nicest guy in the world. We talk on Facebook all the time. He still gets a laugh at how I’m still trying to beat his game. He always gives my nieces and my special needs residents free art.

That is 100% Eddie on the cover.

The makers of Blasphemous need to make a sequel to Chakan, it would be amazing.

I had this growing up. The industry really needs to revisit these older, underrated/oclverlooked titles.

The Chakan Sequel did not directly become Legacy of Kain, *it became specifically the basis for most of the art assets for Blood Omen 2.* The symbol for the forces of evil Chakan was to fight became the symbol for the Sarafan Order under the Hylden Lord. A lot of the Chakan 2 enemies, assets, locations, and animations were carried over from the early Chakan 2 proof of concept renders to be finalized into Blood Omen 2. Originally Chakan 2 began development and art asset work in 1999 and early 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast when Sega's system was found to be flagging, Crystal Dynamics' work was then brought over to the Blood Omen 2 project to help speed up & smooth development. It is a real shame we never got a Chakan 2, but on the upside? We did get a more fleshed-out Legacy of Kain series.

I always thought he was a copy of iron maidens mascot eddie

The lack of saving ability is really what made this game hard.

This was my third Genesis game, it took me ages to get to Not The End.

My dad owned a junkyard growing up. I found this once under the back seat of a car that was totaled up there. One of my greatest finds.

I also want to add, that you can save your spot anywhere in the level by using the door icon. Once you use it, Chakan will disappear, and you will warp back to the hub. Then if you come back to that level, it will return you to the spot you warped from.

Gotta love how making games brutally difficult was our substitute for replay value back then.

Such a great story and premise. I tried to suffer through but I couldn't handle the stiffness of the controls.

One of my favorite Genesis games. The music is amazing and in perfect tune with the game.

Been rewatching a few FNA videos! Hope the family is well. Thanks for staying dedicated to this!! I haven't watched the video yet. Just wanted to leave a good ol' hello and hope everything is well in your neck of the woods!!

I really enjoyed Chakan the Forever man. This was the first video game I ever got stuck on and couldn't beat. I would like to take another crack at it through adult eyes. This game was really freaking hard to figure out. I would get stuck at this area that seemed impossible to get pass. Its nice to know that someone made it to the end.

I do remember renting this game as an adolescent. I remember really liking the visual style and the way you could swing his swords in all directions, but yeah, those platforms and the stiff movement brought it down. This game had a lot of potential. Great video!

Also, the music for the 'Dragonfly King's level is still burned in my mind to this day.

Personally I think Chakan would be a great pick for a modern remake or reboot, I like the concept and the atmosphere. It wasn't so usual to see this amount of resources (potions and character moves) in Genesis games at that time. I played it for a bit back then and there was a sorta walkthrough in a magazine but a weekend wasn't enough time to beat it. Moreover, it is really tough. With a few tweaks on tutorials and difficulty it would become a much better game though. Great video!

I remember this game when I was a kid. A friend of mine bought it. As kids we usually hang out after school and on weekends. But my friend was in his room for days playing this game. We would knock on his door, window for him to come out and play. But this dude was hooked on this game. A week later he told us he was playing this game. And we remember "the forever man" means that he literally was playing that game forever. I'm not sure if he beat the game, but let me tell you. We've never seen him so into a game like this. Watching this video tells me why he wouldn't or couldn't come out to play with us as a kid. Didn't know it was that difficult. That game has a special place in my childhood, yet I never even played it. I mean we would literally watch him play this game through his window calling him to come out and play, he just ignored us. 😂

Sees new release from FNA, immediately checks calendar to see if was in coma or time traveled.

game sprites from horror games in the early 90s were so eerie but beautifully done at the same time. I find them much creepier than horror games of today.

I remember getting this and Greendog for Christmas, that year ended in tears. lol

This game is a miracle, technically speaking. The basis of its existence is that it's essentially an advertisement for the comic series upon which it's based. The game isn't that hard in theory, it's just that the game's credits indicate that besides the artists (and comic creators), there were only a small handful of people working on this. The game was essentially made by someone who was just there to make it look cool, and they certainly succeeded, but at the cost of the game itself being... not so great. The character's creator just had a passion for Chakan that he expressed in whatever way he could.

This is a hidden gem i think, i loved it back in the day!

AAAAH! I've been trying to remember the name of this game for like a decade! I can never find it in any of the local retro game stores. THANK YOU! I loved this game growing up.

Cool! You seem to be one of the few KZfaqrs that point out enough positives about this game. I'm a die-hard Genesis fan, but actually never played this one longer than a few minutes on an emulator. I guess I should give it a go for real then! 😉

I remembered my father bringing home this copy for him to try, but he only played it once and it was the end of that. I figured why not and give it a try. I don't regret playing this "pre-dark souls" shenanigans of a game. Its design, sound track, and difficulty will always be charished in my heart.

You know when you see an old image from a game, you don't recognize it totally, but there is a something in you telling that it's 100% sure that you played that game when you were young.

This game was glorious. We beat it after many tries and collaboration with older gamers. This was one of several my friends and i played.

I'm a lifelong Chakan fan. So much so, I made an action figure of him with Chakan's creator RAK. If you follow RAK on social media, he sells them hand-signed editions.

He looks like Cad Bane from Star Wars.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! Played this game as a kid, sucked at it, forgot about it. Tried to remember what it was decades later, couldn't. Thank you so much! I know I'm not crazy now.

i found out about this game because of a tatoo of chakan my dad has 😂 he played it when he was a teen. Have been fascinated by the character since. I actually checked out the creator of chakan's website and sent him an email casually asking if he would be on board if someone offered to make a next gen dark souls esque chakan reboot. he said he totally would enjoy that. i think it would be fantastic. its a character with potential and with the twist at the end, the story could go anywhere. think about it, dark fantasy mixed with sci fi and cosmic horror. Chakan is literally waiting for technology to evolve and interstellar travel to become viable so he can hop on a space ship and kill every evil entity in the universe. the comics didnt do all that well but as a game series chakan would rock imo

Love it. Yeah it can be tough as hell but also a lot of fun when you get the hang of it. I even beaten it on hard mode, is all about to memorize where some of the potions are (Specially on the first plane, there are more potions).

This game was always waay too hard for me as a kid. And the levels and soud effects always creepe me out. The spider lair was the worst for me. I remember those damn dragon things who's tails dropped down whenever you got close to them.

Cad Bane would tell Chakan he has a nice hat if they ever met.

I played this game a lot when I was a child. I was able to beat it like 3 times back in the 90s, when I just have one game for the entire summer holidays... Great ambientation and very good graphics for the time.

Would love to see a remake with all the issues fixed and a actual ending,or a straight up Metroidvania chakan game

Ahh, the good ol days. When EVERY game was a rogue-like. Usually 3 lifes, 2 continues and after that "Game over"

Every video I see of this game seems to fail to mention the lighting fast invincible roll dash that recovers instantly. Down + Forward + Jump at the same time is how you navigate through the whole game. Knowing how to move your character often makes games a lot easier to play. Go figure

I really liked this game back in the day, but I was terrible at it. I still have it though, and you've inspired me to give it another try. I'm sure that my 50+ year old fingers will probably be waaaaay better at it! ;-)

This is one of those games I'd rather watch someone else play. I can enjoy the graphics and music while they suffer the frustrations of insane difficulty and unforgiving controls. I am also with the prior comments that say this would be a good candidate for a remake. Great video as always FNA!!

I heard the game wasn't finished, that's why the ending was blank, they didn't' put in the final text

I got into that one on the Atgames Genesis console from family dollar. I never would have discovered this masterpiece otherwise. I loop the stage select song on my phone all the time too.

I rented this game once back in the day and just remember how insanely difficult it was.

I've always passed the game on practice when I was a kid because I knew it was hard to beat without the potions...now you have given me a purpose to play as an adult...now let's see if I can beat death at his game with the experience I've gathered throughout the years. Thanks!

On a Tuesday? Love it!!

I actually played this game back in the day, courtesy of my cartridge copier (dubbed the MGH). This was probably the game I was able to point to at the time of being most conspicuously infected with "that Genesis sound." I later watched a video on KZfaq that revealed that the reason why so many Genesis games, specifically Western Genesis games, sounded tinny and squeaky like this was because they were all using a sort of preconfigured package of sound effects and simple composition tool, _drastically_ limiting how flexible the console's sound could be.

Everyone remembers this from the back of the sega Genesis box

I remember seeing ads for this game everywhere but never had an opportunity to play it.

My brother and i grew up playing MegaDrive games. My older brother used to play this game a lot. It was one of the scariest games we played on the MD as back then wed play this with lights off and the graphics, music and the sound effects were pretty scary! I never played this game a lot as it was insanely difficult and even my brother did not go too far into the game but he played it a lot.

The sequel to Chakan became the very first Soul Reaver. Good thing Amy Hennin saved it with the coolest storyline ever.

i remember this game well... many painful nights were spent trying to beat it as a kid...

many places here really chewed me for saying how much i love this game, i didn't own a genesis but my cousins did and this was the only game i ever wanted to play, so i bought it and used to play it when i used to visit , they hated it so much but they let me play it when we stopped playing multiplayer games, loved the story, the music , the graphics and the obvious gigger/alien influence on it, and it was challenging and i loved playing a game i couldn't finish in 1 afternoon , i have no idea why the hate for this game even exists , it is stylish and back in those days, it was a welcome change from bright games like sonic and this looked like something creepy and edgy and mature to play, because it sure wasn't meant for kids to play it since it was brutal and complex, just my kind of game....i was 12 when i played it and for my age, it was just challenging enough and cool enough for me, and i still love it, awesome game.

This is the most sense this game has ever made. Thank you.

Upon first glance I swore this is the "Vampire Hunter D: The Video Game" we all wished we had as kids. growing up in the 1990s. If only.

I played this as a young child and I never beat it but I loved it and never forgot the music and imagery. Especially that death wail. I didn’t even know there were two planes 😰 Watching this made me miss gaming in the early 90’s.

Oddly enough, the creator of the comics, Robert Krause, lives near me and was kind enough to send me the entire collection, signed by him from the 80s for a small donation. I'm using that material to work on a proof of concept that I hope will one day morph into either a remake or sequel to the original game on the Genesis.

This game had great music back in the day. Had so much fun beating it

Loved this game, but man its hard. The only way I've ever beaten it was on practice mode lol surprisingly I did not buy this game, it was my dad! My dad saw the cover and was like whoa badass he looks like Eddy from Iron Maiden, so he bought it and he played it before I could play it. Fast forward 15 years later, I bought a retron3 and ordered Chakan and Castlevania Bloodlines on Amazon, both were sealed brand spanking new came with the manuels and everything was clean! I was happy to have them both back in my collection, since someone stole my entire box of Sega stuff when we were moving.

this is one of those games I wanted because of the game title and artwork, just never got my great-grand parent's to buy it for me, I needed Strider and Streets of Rage...

Waaay back in the mid 80's, I grew up one block away from Chakan creator Rob Kraus. He ran a small RPG and comic shop called The Dragon's Roost out of his house in south central Akron, Ohio. He was a cool dude for sure. Very humble man who didn't mind us younger kids bothering him, even when he was penciling his comics.

The reason why it's so difficult is because Ed Annunziata, creator of the notoriously difficult Ecco the Dolphin, produced Chakan.

I have only passed through the first four planes. At that point I was a quarter of the way in on the next set of planes and I was so tired lol. The game is awesome I just wish they implemented a save or password system like you said. I can’t believe you only have one shot at defeating the final boss that’s mean and gives the game a ton of replay value.

this game isnt lost, me and the boys used to stay up late drinking taking turns trying not to die getting through this back in the 2012's definitely the dark souls of the sega era

I recall a buddy of mine was a huge fan of Chakan because it was a local comic in Cleveland since Rob Kraus is out of Akron, Ohio. I had never heard of it until he got the game and we obsessively played it and I don’t think we ever got further than the first couple boards. We’d usually tap out and play Herzog Zwei.

I played the hell out of that when it came out. Wish I kept it.

Never played the game but remember it because it looked like an Iron Maiden album

My buddy and I took turns playing this game for hours on end. I remember the boards being really challenging. And, yes, the music!!!👍

To me, this game is something of a spiritual forerunner to Demon's Souls/ Dark Souls. The guy sure looks hollow, doomed to die and get back up over and over, bound by a curse with undeath. There's also the gruelling difficulty as you mentioned, offset by the lack of a true death. Then you have the 'Nexus' and the second go-around not dissimilar to the second parts of each world in Demon's Souls. There's also the variety of weapons in there, so you can pick and choose though the dual swords are kinda the best. The absolute middle finger when Death tells you to go into space to take care of all the evil in the universe is an excellent moment to go hollow. Plus the absolute gall of this guy challenging death only to be cursed with deathlessness just makes him kind of a badass and death a petty antagonist. As to the alchemy system I think it bears comparison to Eternal Darkness' rune system with its emphasis on experimentation, some intuitive, some not. In all I have great memories of this game. Too bad that Dreamcast follow-up never came to fruition. Great video!

I rented this once growing up cuz Chakan looked cool, but the hyper-specific control, terrible combat & sadistic jumps were so frustrating I didn't get much farther than the beginning.

Loved this game back in the day. I died a billion times learning to beat this game.

I saw this game a lot as a kid. I love the creepy aesthetic. But I never played it until emulator years later. Thank God for save-states. Still never beat it though.

I used to have this! WOW- hadn't thought about this in years. Amazing vid :)!!!

I rented this from the neighborhood rental place a few times. Never beat it, but loved it nonetheless. Great graphics with even cooler mood. I was enamored with the directions which Chakkan could swing his swords, and the animations while doing it. Good stuff.

I used to rent this from blockbuster every sunday. It fruatrated the hell out of me, but I played it anyway.

Friday Night Arcade? On Tuesday? 😯 PS. Good review as always!

The game was based on some comics/graphic novels. I was really into them in the 90's. I met the creator at a comic con. He said the characters name was pronounced like "cha Khan, like Genghis Khan"

This game was so underrated back in my day a side scrolling god of war. A remaster needs to be done.

This was an awesome game when I was growing up, sometimes I forget the name of the title and it takes a while for me to re-remember the name, but it’s right up there with Rygar, Bionic Commando, first Zelda, first Metal Geat, Contra, Double Dragon !

I remember borrowing this game from my cousin. Tried it,liked it,never finished it though. Most of the time we played Mortal Kombat 2 and Eternal Champions.

I have been trying to re discover this game since I played it at a friends house in the 90's.

This is a lot more in depth than I'd expect for a Genesis game.

wow i just got done listening to the OST for this and this popped up, nice!

If it wasn't for sega channel I would have missed this gem.

Thank you. this is the game I've always wanted to find again . all i could remember was it had a similarity castlevania for sega.

I wish I knew about the practice mode as a kid. I had the game as a kid. I thought it was cool, but never got that far in it.

Found just the cartridge at a ACE buyers which was like a pawn shop. Yeah, confusing and hard as hell.

It reminds me a cartoon series in 80s where the good guy was an indian sheriff with a horse tha become a human-horse .you know,the guy that had the abilities :strenth of a bear,eyes of eagle,ears of wolf etc .star something.the leader enemy was something like chakan. P.S still remember the first ever "Halloween" party i went .i remember a kid wearing this hero outfit.,we dont have Halloween in greece its exactly the same thing but in early march

One of the coolest concepts/stories on the genesis. I played it a ton as a child. Never could beat it; some of the levels on the air plane were way too tough.

I remember this game because the concept was cool, but it was too hard so got left behind for other games. Good video.

I've been trying to remember the name of this game for 14 years

i still vividly remember the *wRRAAerm* ov tthe hits and teh *wrVVERuBvBa* ov the jump attack ov this game. and i vividly remember making this hat and very happy noone knew where it was from

I bought it as a kid because the box art was cool, but it quickly earned its place on the shelf. After investing a tense couple hours, I would just have to shut of my Genesis to to bed or school or something. No save game, no internet for help, shit I didn't even know far I was in the game. Kids these days don't know how easy they have it.

That is definitely, absolutely Eddie. Maybe this is what he was up to between Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and No Prayer for the Dying.

Much love for reviewing this.

I had this game in 1992 when it came out. It was such a unique game at the time because there was nothing else like it really. There were very few horror games at that time, which was one reason that made the Sega Megadrive (Genesis) the console of choice in the UK and Europe, where it basically dominated. Nintendo's effort, the well loved SNES was 2nd fiddle in the UK, although an equally wonderful machine (and of a higher spec, yes), it's a console's games that really make it! The Megadrive (I'm from the UK, so thats what we're calling it here.. : ) had better versions of EA's sports titles, more and better horror/dark themed games and generally took more risks on their titles when catering for more niche markets, than Nintendo did. This made the Megadrive the adult gamers console of choice and as an adult gamer of the time, I gravitated towards titles like Chakan. I was blessed enough to have the time to dedicate to playing this game and eventually, I was able to complete it. It is one of those really tough games that will put alot of people off but if you can allocate time to tackling it's steep learning curve, then I think less well accomplished gamers could do alright at this game. It is one of my very favourite Megadrive games, along with Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, Micro Machines and any EA Hockey/NHL game. There are a tonne of others but these are my favourites.

Looks like a zombie version of Solomon Kane

I had this game. I wanted to like it so much but it was way too hard. Glad to see this video so I can see how it ends.