(Welp, had to cut this review short. Sadly, my version is too glitchy and it's in Japanese lol. I love the original version's music and vibe so far, it's the best of the Hydlide-derivative games so far imo. But sadly I can't get it to work right. Luckily some of the re-releases and remakes of this game do show up on my backlog later, so I suppose I will feel it's okay to play those versions, since playing one of the later ports now would go against the chronology project's purpose. Boo. Here's my started review:)

Preliminary: Wow even the original PC88 version has great music. But this seems like a Hydlide where you do damage by hitting off-center... let's hope this original version will be worth pushing through. Most the Hydlide derivatives are rough. At least this music seems more inspired by C64 and Zelda.

This music is great, I love the Look, I love the gameplay so far, I love that there's a strategywiki, but there's no English translation of the original PC88 version. Ahhhh. The NES and Master System versions are so different! Hmmm. I've got 1500 Gold by using the Sapphire Ring trick in the first town but like, can I go the whole game without knowing Japanese lol. Luckily some of the items like Short Sword and Wing are in English. Odd lol (Welp now I already have the shield sword and chain mail needed to talk to the Fortune Teller maybe I can make this work lol)

At first I thought the combat was terrible, till I realized I had to go in the Inventory (i) and equip a Sword lol. But still, grinding for the 700 Gold for the Shield revealed how odd the combat is.

Sound: I love love love the shop music on the PC88.

Play:

Feel: i'm falling in love with the way this game was re-released enough so that there are so many forum posts and FAQs that remind me of what I loved as a kid. Sometimes I would just write down FAQs for made up games with things like "How do I defeat the Vampire Lord?" and an answer "Well you need to get a Roda Seed from the 2 Roda Trees in the Plains" etc. Brings out my imagination and love of videogames. And I actually explored on my own. In some ways maybe it was good I didn't have a direct map of the original PC88 version and Japanese only (thoooo I can't really find a way to justify not having a translated version lol), because it forced me to explore more.

Here's where I got to, just into the Shrine (tho I wasn't sure if I talked to the Mayor of Zebik or not lol cuz it's in Japanese...)