Status Chovus May 29, 2025
Beat Europe version since the US rom did not work on my PSP. I vaguely recall playing this back in the 90s but for sure never beat it. Overworld and town play was like classic jrpgs while the dungeons and combat were like Zelda 1. The 1st 2 bosses were far more difficult than they should have been because I …
Beat Europe version since the US rom did not work on my PSP. I vaguely recall playing this back in the 90s but for sure never beat it. Overworld and town play was like classic jrpgs while the dungeons and combat were like Zelda 1. The 1st 2 bosses were far more difficult than they should have been because I didn't bother to swap weapons for the 1st, and missed a freeze item for the 2nd. That damn octopus boss was brutal without the freeze and was where I started using slow motion mode. The story, dialogue, puzzles and "hidden" heart powerups were very simple but the game had a certain charm. I 1st checked a walkthrough in the ghost town dungeon because I was taking a ton of damage from something invisible. I thought surely there was a better way and learned about the item sub menu. I again had to check the walkthrough for the music puzzle, which would have been easy if every note was named. It was either look up the solution or look up basic musical notation. And again for the code that was hidden in the manual. Finally I got stuck once or twice later on with hidden passages. Most of the later bosses were easier than the early ones because I was better at combat and making use of the special weapons. Creative boss design and combat encounters were the game's strong point, though the stiff movement was awkward when precise quick movements were necessary. By the end on the Alien ship the puzzles became almost nonexistent while the combat seriously ramped up with more shooting enemies and some spots with infinite fast melee enemies. The ray gun was better than the shooting star yoyo due to slightly longer range which outranged the basic alien troopers. The ultimate yoyo was even better with range the full length of the screen, and I made sure to save state scum so that I never lost enough hp to lose the long range. The final chapter was quite difficult, starting with a boss fight while low on hp. I don't see why current hp reset to the starting 3 upon starting each new chapter. Then there were catwalks with enemies shooting from windows, and it took many attempts to get past that without taking any damage. The timings were extremely tight, and there was a lot of luck involved in combat in general because enemy behavior was somewhat random. The final boss was difficult because his shots were so fast that there was not enough time to move out of the way upon seeing them. Instead I had to move preemptively doing quick hit and run attacks.
This was among the best games on the NES though not as good as Zelda 1. The combat and special weapons were fun despite the clunky movement. The puzzles overused the simple jumping on tile to reveal switch while not becoming more complicated, and the maze areas were predictable with the furthest path often being correct. But these flaws were minor compared to the overall charm, quality and fun of the game.
8.2/10
