Preliminary: Ooooo Hydlide-esque, grinding/leveling involved, based on a movie, good music. Too bad it's not joystick controls but I think it's straightforward enough for controls. Oh and there's an fan-translated version. Let's do this! Loving it so far, the movement is a bit slow and clunky but it works. The UI reminds me of Hydlide for sure, as does the gameplay tho a bit more Zelda-esque (as does some of the music).

Look: 8/10 I only got to see the later parts through videos online but some beautiful later settings.

Sound: 8/10 This music really is so hypey. Honestly it's not the Zelda-esque melody that I love, nothing against it, but it's that C64 style hypey part that occasionally happens ha. When it speeds up. I thought it was going to be the same song the whole game and worried it might get old despite being good, but then I got the nice jingle in the first "town" type of screen where you get the Letter to deliver. And guess what--it's a great jingle! The Sound helped push me through some of the frustrating combat elements of the game!

Play: 6/10 I love how actually straightforward the tips from the huts are (not just because the fan translation--the hints really were that straightforward telling you how to kill enemies etc). Not the usual absurd convolutions (if that's a word...). And tho the movement feels a bit odd, moving the rock to kill the Grassogres was surprisingly smooth. The collision masks weren't perfect, reminded me a lot of always being square sprites when I'd try to program games ha. Time for the first boss, the spider one. The battle mechanics are a bit weak compared to Zelda, but passable. Weird that you move forward after you attack with the Knife. Ironically, the freeze mechanic of the Spider attack actually helped me out by getting frozen in a position I can attack the Spider when it was low enough in health to finish it off :-p

Feel: 8/10 It's crazy that I'm going to the 2nd boss and still at lvl 00 (exp 91)... I get the feeling the grinds will be very long haha. Considering I read about a cheat that lets you start at Level 50 so it goes up that high... and that that is almost necessary to get the best ending. With that mentioned, gotta give it props for having different endings, having grinds in an ARPG, and handling the spawning of enemies quite well. If only the combat and movement were a bit smoother. Nice! And with the 2nd boss finished, indeed, I leveled up. It was a much more manageable fight, still not loving the combat mechanic (tho first Zelda's certainly wasn't perfect either)

Attachment: 7/10 Welp, I was about to wrap up my first play session but decided to try killing a few Bowlers so I can eventually get the Axe... I am Level 2... but sheesh. You should be able to hit away the rock projectiles, or use a shield or something. As it is how could someone beat this... I will try again tomorrow maybe I'm just getting tired. But I hope the difficulty doesn't burn me out and make me either turn to a cheat (which was built into the game, mind you), or quit and leave this wonderful Sound :( I suppose this is what the Herbs I grinded for were for tho... Here goes nothing

Argh yea, unfortunately, I just couldn't enjoy the combat. It's odd though because it's not that far off from the first Zelda. But I guess I never loved the combat in that. This has a wonderful array of settings, great graphics for its time, great music, but too difficult of gameplay for me to fully engage. The only full playthroughs I see online used heck of a lot of cheats ha, but I didn't want to have to play that way. Argh. Moving on for now.

Completion: I was grinding the Bowlers for a weapon, defeated 2 bosses Playtime: 40 mins