Preliminary: Hmmm, I've read a lot of bad reviews of this. But uh, why am I enjoying it so far? Nothing is spectacular sure, the Look is typical the gameplay derivative of Zelda and the Sound unremarkable. But this was one of the first Zelda-style action-adventures released in NA (Zelda had yet to be released in NA at this point), and I dunno. The UI of the menu is so Dragon Quest/RPG vibey, I'm already having to grind for Ludder/money (which is a good thing to me ha, I prefer repetitive gameplay), and the gameplay has been doable so far. Based on the reviews mentioning difficulty, I assume there will be an annoying difficulty spike which will burn me out, but for now I'm relishing the game! Thank goodness for the Strategywiki providing a path for me and giving me tips on best ways to make money!
Pro-tip: take full advantage of hitting enemies freezing them!
Look: 8/10
Like I said, I love the menu UI. Even having to equip the upgrades (be sure to do that!) felt appropriate and fitting to this Dragon Quest/early JRPG era. 
As I got more and more frustrated with the difficulty of the Towers part, I did still enjoy some of the colors and the overall Look had a classic NES vibe 
Sound: 7/10
Not great but not terrible either.
Play: 7/10
The StrategyWiki's recommendation to start the game collecting Hearts to raise your maximum health (sound familiar) and money to upgrade equipment (also sound familiar) gave a pleasant reminder of Zelda guides and Dragon Quest/JRPG guides, respectively. That was a nice feeling. So far the controls have felt responsive and better than Zelda, largely thanks to the 8 directions, but we shall see if that sticks. It has been nice being able to dodge enemies in the early game so far.
On my 2nd play session, I am still loving this! It surely is tacky with some of its difficult elements, like enemies being right where you entered the room, but those are actually avoidable if you plan what angle you enter and move a certain way etc. And not to be too repetitive, but Zelda had a lot of the similar tacky antics (e.g., I've seen many reviewers complain about having to line up pretty precisely to hit a sprite, probly the most annoying part of this combat imo since I found the maneuvering surprisingly legit, but like you had to do that in Zelda and Hydlide too, and that was with the weird sword mechanic of Zelda). Indeed, at least in this game you can throw the swords no matter your health! Anyway, on my 2nd play session I reached the "bosses" part of the game (again, like in Zelda, it's recommended to start out collecting the basic power-ups before venturing to the Death Mounta... er, I mean, the "Cliffs" where it's super dangerous but leads to the better upgrades and bosses). I hope I enjoy this infamously hard part! Especially since I will have to incorporate the Parallel Worlds too! So far I'm loving it, so I hope it doesn't get ruined like what just happened with the NES Doraemon's third world.
Ooooo I love the Parallel Shot upgrade! (Oh, the negative is, now I have to wait for the second sword to go off screen to attack again... I wonder if there will be a power-up to remedy that... Double Shot is just all around better it turns out, at least for these darn Ghosts and whatnot) And omg nice the Magic Mace, I didn't realize that'd basically give me an attack ball around me, I should've gotten that earlier for those dreadful Parallel World segments. 
Oh RIP, I knew that was too good to be true. That's a temporary item like the Blue Necklace >.< Woopsie. Should've saved that for a Parallel World ha. I'm glad that, with most the boss projectiles at least (seemingly all?), you can attack away their projectiles. I always like that in games. Oh wow, these upgrades get better and better! Forget the Double Shot--that just makes it plausible (tho insanely difficult) to get the Gauntlet! Now that's the real clincher. And this Dragon Slayer sword, well, slays! I'm feeling much more powerful and less frustrated now. Lol the Death Bear boss was a joke now with the Dragon Slayer and Gauntlet. Just stand in a corner and fire diagonally, he was dead before he got a single hit... No Invincibility needed there :-p
Pro-tip: save burning any of the Bells you get from the Tower bosses till you need a heal. You could save them all till the end, but nothing better than struggling through a tower then boss, Orange Scroll'ing back to the Flame, burning the Bell, and having full health.
Feel: 7/10
Okayyyy, yeah, I see what people mean. The Towers and Parallel Worlds are obnoxiously hard. Definitely rely on corners and spamming attacks to freeze the enemies.
Okayyyy yea on third play session yea. The towers segment of this is really just too brutal and tedious. I know the Orange Scrolls I bought can bring me back to the flame, but I only have 2 of those (and your inventory is very limited anyway). After managing to beat the boss, we have to walk all the way back down? Through the overly crowded areas? Yeahhhh, sadly tonight I finally resort to abusing savestates and then even to using a Cheat where it can heal me to full whenever needed. ... which was extremely often. They definitely made the difficulty too high once you're at this part of the game, because the basic mechanics of maneuvering and attacking, and the idea of grinding a lot and upgrading equipment and health, all really made for a nice game. Seems a lot of these NES games in late 86 are plagued with the very exciting awesome beginning then getting bogged down with the presumed obligation to make it harder and harder and more tedious.
Attachment: 7/10
On my fourth play session I made a new rule where I could only use Invincibility during the Parallel World segments and if I die at one of the bosses. Because lets be honest, Invincibility basically ruins the action part of the action-adventure, and it just becomes an adventure game (which I'm all for, but... might as well just stop playing it at that point). The fact I did push through says something, butttt the fact I had to use Invincibility cheat at all also says something about whether I'd return to it beyond the first segment.. I was feeling stronger again when it came to the Tower segments so pushed through (well, thanks to savestates when I died haha, not doing the password system at this point). The main saving grace to this 2nd half of the game is that, still, hitting an enemy freezes them (except bosses). Huge when you use the vantage points of corners of platforms for the especially annoying enemies, or just get up close and personal and spam attack the more reasonable enemies.
Once I got my invincibility system down (lol), I started enjoying crossing off my list of Towers (very very dead towers they were tho). At least I still had plenty of parts, and even 2 of the bosses (lol), I didn't have to rely on invincibility. I'm nervous for this NES era cuz I've been so excited for it but I forgot about the pride in "Nintendo hard" :-/ But yea, once I got the Dragon Slayer and Gauntlet, I didn't have to use the Invincibility anymore. It does structure the game well where your upgrades allow you to get other upgrades. I wish the Magic Mace could be used more than once, though. And I wish there were less tacky spawns/unavoidable onslaughts of damage. Thank goodness burning the Bells heal you, take full advantage of that, and you can tell they balanced the game around that. And thank goodness for items like Blue Potions (and the fact Ludder/money can be readily grinded for at any stage of the game). Now if only there were an experience/level system, so I could be overpowered :-p
And at last I have the Splendor! It's so powerful! I wish it could be collected earlier in the game. Overall, I really enjoy this game: grind-heavy, upgrades-focused, classic action-adventure. I just wish it didn't feel inspired by the Ghosts 'N Goblins mentality. Like those Bats... those darn bats. Their movements reminded me so much of Ghosts N Goblins ha. You basically need a couple Blue Potions for the final boss fight segment, and better yet, save the Blue Necklace. I decided to attempt it without Invincibility and it only took 2 tries! (and really the death only occurred because I was being stingy about the Blue Potions). No point in being stingy at the final parts! And the Blue Necklace is best saved for the third boss fight/the final final boss fight ha.
The ending jingle was meh. But lol I love all the misspellings. Welp looks like I'm king now! Tada 
Completion: Main Story
Playtime: 2h 45m
