(This review is for the 1986 MSX release, not the later NES release with many changes)

Preliminary: Almost had to play this in Japanese haha, but luckily found a fan translation of the original MSX version. Silly punishments like with talking to the King three times instead of just twice (I mean, he does say leave after getting the Swords but still...), and haaaaaaaaaattttte the inclusion of a time factor. But undeniably cute Look was drawing me in plus there was a guide available for the MSX so I hopefully wouldn't have too many frustrations (apparently no save feature tho?....) I mean cmon, how could I not give it an earnest try with a look like this tho

You can tell it was inspired by Zelda, but honestly I might be thinking of the second Zelda which came after this where there were repeated characters/insides-of-buildings but you'd some how have to realize that one gives you, say, the Medicine while another needs the Medicine :-p

Look: 8/10 For all intensive purposes, this game is not very good... the collision masks are not good, the Look gets chaotic when you're actually playing and moving, the jump mechanic is chaotic too tho I quickly got used to it, the adventure game aspects feel tacked on. But it has this oddly endearing quality... maybe I am just always a sucker for "jr"/kids-appealing games ha. what does that say about me... I really liked the Look tho. Glad to see more and more games having the Dragon Warrior style towns/villages, and I lovvvvve the minimap at the bottom (plus the whole UI/layout, gave me Hydlide feel)

Sound: 8/10 Catchy and cute. Another factor that got me to push through despite the chaotic and, frankly, laughable controls/mechanics.

Play: 7/10 Despite the chaotic controls, and the goofy mechanics like even just lining up with an NPC to talk to them was a chore sometimes lol, it was oddly fun to just run and jump all around town. Reallllly silly Shift is Use Item but also Shift+Left/Right is how you switch item lol.... I figured it out, but superrrr touchy and unnecessary when there were plenty other keys to choose from lol. Also it's weird how you get more momentum if you move horizontally while already in air. Hard to explain but it's like you have a jetpack that pushes you ha.

Feel: 8/10 The Hydlide vibe UI/framing, the GP as Gold (!!! OSRS?! haha), the cute Look and Sound--this has one of those Feels that gets me to push through some questionable gameplay ha. Tho the bugginess was often frustrating, it was funny sometimes like when you fall from Heaven and get stuck on a building. Interesting that Karma goes down when you kill enemies, not just the humans-cursed-as-enemies, from what I can tell. A bit irritating (I never like Karma in RPG games like Ultima etc), but overall one of the best-done Karma features (it really is just a grind excuse lol you need a certain amount of Karma to do certain things and that's about it :-p ). Darn! So because I killed one of the enemies one time I'm one Karma short and gotta get one more Karma somehow >.< :-p That's really gonna affect my time >.< (Turns out it's not that hard to dodge the enemies instead of kill them, they practically jump over you willingly ha, I just wish I had known the Karma factor. literally just one short for what I need :-p ) And dang this town seriously needs some help, I fixed their well once, go to use the bath house, and apparently it's back sullied again >.<

Attachment: 7/10 Argh I'm having fun playing this, following the guide, but the switches are superrrrr clunky. Why do they sometimes go down and sometimes not? Is it something I'm doing? I typically would blame myself but considering how buggy and messy this gameplay has been, I think it's safe to assume it might be the game itself this time. (Bahahaha speaking of buggy, right after typing that, I just went back to the Sage in the cave again on a whim, despite having done nothing additional, and suddenly it worked right. silly)

And yet. Here I am. Pushing through. Despite having one of the roughest days yet of my career, and a frustrating few weeks in general. Says a lot I suppose, tho I'm still wondering why I keep playing ha. Especially as I'm seeing this super messy combat too. I was going to remark that the dialogue is one of the saving graces of the gameplay, but then I realized that's from the fan translation :-p

Gosh I hope I got the right scroll... cuz that could really burn me out if I didn't... Annnnd instead of it being that that burned me out, after pushing through losing that one Karma and having to get the Magic Lamp thing and go back to the Evil Area and regain 30 karma, after dealing with the many bugs and clunky controls and goofy lake switches, I get all the way here, the end of the first quest

And then discover that I needed to get from the entrance of the dungeon to the princess while the Robe thingy was still active (seems to be 30 seconds according to my guide).... their love of time factors... in a game with bad controls.... this could have been such a beloved adventure game, if it stayed focused on the adventure and less on the timed platforming. This could have been a 4 star overall for sure, if it weren't for the use of time limits in a game with buggy controls (which I could have looked past if not for the love of time factor). Still, I was oddly hooked to it, and somewhere deep down I'm considering getting back out of the dungeon back out of the Evil Area back into Heaven back to regain Karma back to Heaven again and back through the Evil Area and Dungeon again to do this... but uh, now that I write that out, and with the overall time limit as well (apparently you can get more from the king though), um NO. Worth a playtest though and maybe a lot of fun with cheats or w/e

Completion: To end of first quest Playtime: 1 hour