Beat using slow motion mode in less than 1 hr by heavily abusing save states. I did start on normal speed but found it too fast. The guy could do a normal slash while standing, jumping or crouching. Crouching blocked some attacks (like vertical lightning beams), while pressing up raised the shield to block high up projectiles. Attacking while holding up did a sword chop. The game started with bats and wolves. For some reason the bats returned for later levels but the wolves did not. Bats were very easy to kill with proper jumps though I had trouble hitting the highest ones. It was not until later levels that I realized I was pressing the wrong jump button on my PSP; triangle did a much higher jump while X did a lousy jump, I assume because that was the turbo button. The wolves were tricky because some jumped. I found it better to jump over all of them to be safe. These enemies sometimes dropped health and filled up an xp bar, which increased max hp on level up. Xp was also spent on magic later but you could not de level.

After those critters were a series of 1 vs 1 duels that seemed more like a fighting game. These enemies were very defensive with blocks and backwards jumps, and did a variety of high and low attacks. I found them difficult to deal with and that each different opponent required different tactics. Button mashing was not effective, rather it was better to wait and see what the enemy did and exploit openings in their patterns. Unfortunately there was not enough time to react to all attacks so not getting hit often felt more like random luck. Most of these enemies repeated throughout the levels, though the ogre was surprisingly only in the 1st and not even the boss. The ogre was probably the easiest though because he did nothing defensive. The skeleton was tough to hit but jump attacks worked. 1st boss was a mage whose rain type spell was kicking my ass until I realized that pressing up blocked them. His basic shot was easily jumped over, and he also turned invisible and teleported around (or maybe just walked while invisible?). This game was pulling no punches with a 1st boss like that, but he was not hard once I knew to block high. The next boss was incredibly difficult for me as I could not figure out how to counter him. He was just a knight that did high or low sword attacks but there was no way to react properly to his attacks because they were too fast. It was not like there was a tell that he was going low so that I knew to block low. Rather it felt purely luck based whether I got hit or not, and it was tough to land any hits on him. Save scum with preemptive knowledge was how I beat him, and I nuked later ones with magic. The other knights were ironically not nearly as difficult. Morning star guy with the big shield loved jumping towards me and I punished his lack of defense. Knife throwing guy also lacked defense and threw knives in similar pattern to the mage; block high, jump low followed by 1 or 2 attacks. The fire knight also lacked defense and jumping over his fire balls was the key, as well as crouching to block his big wave. There were fire breathing lizards that were prone to jumping back but could not block; jumping in to hit then quickly jumping away from the flame was key. It was around here I noticed it was impossible to pin the opponent into the corner because an invisible wall was in the way. Lizard men were annoying because they randomly did a jump kick that could not be blocked. They were weak to jump attacks but it was safer to assume he would jump kick every time and hit when he landed. The 2 handed axe mage took a lot of punishment but I learned his pattern; jump over his normal shot for a jump attack followed by a chop, block high or jump back from his arcing attack, or simply move ahead and attack if close (only worked with save states though). The flying gargoyle was easy to kill with jump attacks; blocking high against his drops was somewhat optional. The barbarian enemy was easy as he either swung his axe or threw it like a boomerang; just wait for him to throw, jump over and punish him for being stupid enough to throw his only weapon. Then the final level had a brutal series of fights that took me several attempts. Ice mage was the same as axe mage except he did a 3rd lighting beam attack that had to be crouch blocked. Fire mage flew all over the screen shooting downward fire bolts, but it was not too difficult to jump over them and smack him. The final boss was a huge mess that took me many attempts to figure out. He had so many attacks that it was difficult to keep up with them, and his only weak point was a mirror that was only intermittently vulnerable. I would have preferred the ability to destroy parts of the boss to disable those attacks. Staying at long range sniping was magic was no good because of how many fireballs he shot from his mouth, and most of mine did not hit the mirror during its vulnerable timing. Instead the tactic was to get into mid range where he no longer used his mouth. I used up my magic on fire bolts to get in a little damage then did most of the job with the sword. It was difficult to avoid the fire from his hand, rocks flying from the floor, and lightning beams from the mirror.

There was also some platforming that was annoying. It got much better once I used the proper high jump, but before that I often fell through platforms even though it looked like I should have made the jump. A couple times he inexplicably did a double jump instead of falling through. By sheer accident I discovered that he could simply walk off a ledge and still jump with nothing solid below his feet, and this was necessary to get past some annoying jumps. I hated the moving ball things that could not be killed and only existed to make jumps harder. Select switched to a mage character to use magic, and start allowed switching the spell. The basic cane sucked ass with no better range than the sword, and it didn't even seem to bypass blocking. There was a mortar that fired in a short arc, which I never bothered to try on any enemy. The fire and lightning bolts traveled the full length of the screen for proper long range unblockable damage, with lighting being stronger and more expensive.

This game had some neat concepts but the execution was not good. Astounding graphics and sound for the NES though. The game would have been better with easier combat, better level design and more of an adventure like Zelda 2 or Castlevania. I feel I am being generous to give it

6.0/10