Beat. I had no idea what to expect from this game and it turned out to be a real time 1st person rpg, similar to Might and Magic 3. Impressive for the NES. Unfortunately the game also had some of the bullshit found in old western RPGs. I had no idea what to do starting off so I read a guide to understand how to play. 1 face button did the selected action, the other was used to cancel or interact in menus, start opened the menu for different actions, and select went inside those menus for specific things like equipping, assigning potions and mixing spells. My biggest issue with the game was that the map magic did not work in towns, making them a huge chore. The towns were somewhat simple but it was a huge pain in the ass to find the correct service in all towns except the starter, so I often trekked all the way back there instead. The overworld and dungeon maps could be accessed by casting the faerie spell ==÷ (the 3rd symbol only increased duration). These maps were extremely useful, showing treasure and monsters, and were free to cast. There were also a couple free stat info spells that I did not bother with. The issue with spells was only 1 could be equipped at a time, so each time I wanted to change the spell I had to input the rune combination. The starting town had a temple for each of the 5 elements, which was where you leveled up. Only 1 element could be chosen at the beginning, and of course I chose faerie for the map. The map really should have been a thing in the menu instead of a spell, with the spell adding the monsters and treasure. I read water magic was the most powerful to start off with due to defense spells but no way was I playing without a map. So I grinded by killing snakes in the starting area. The combat was weird and I needed slow motion mode to manage. Moving back and forth trying to avoid attacks did not work. Instead it was best to stand still and attack. I had different results between holding the turbo button and timing attacks based on the swing sound effect, so not sure which was better. I save state scummed many battles until they went my way. Magic enemies were the easiest as I could back step to avoid their attacks. I rested in the inn as needed until I was level 2, then I went around the entire world map looting every chest. By the time I was done I had a full set of basic armor, except pants and shield, a 6/10 sword (which I much later realized was the noob sword), lots of gold, and level 3. I considered grinding the 15 more gold I needed for the best pants but instead decided to spend it all on food and start the dungeons.

I followed the walkthrough to know what to expect and where to go. 1st dungeon took 3 trips to fully loot. The slimes and mages were not too difficult but I could not defeat the red orcs in melee at all. I could kill them with 2 nukes. The best nuke I could use was ÷0÷, which killed them in 2 blasts. Magic was only melee range and I had to fall back after each cast to use food to restore hp. Afterwards I could use earth magic. The new strongest nuke was ÷.o

Earth spells:

Poison :. Paralysis :: Hurt :o Dark o. Curse o: Water walk oo

In the next dungeon I finally got the hang of combat. Timing swings was better than turbo, and attacking then moving into melee range and waiting a second or 2 before backing away was even more effective. The skeletons were too hard to kill in melee and I was understanding the enemy pattern: an easy to kill but status inflicting magic caster, a light melee that is tougher but still killable with melee, and a heavy that requires nukes. My big nuke could kill them in 1 hit but that most often got me killed too. So I went with ÷.. which killed in 3 hits and allowed me to survive comfortably between each casting. Then I used the ring to fly up where there were a ton of high hp spiders. I cornered myself where only 1 could hit me and alternated between attacking and camping to keep hp up until I killed 1, then I used the ring to get out and level to 5. All for that free heal upon level up. Then I went back up to kill the other spiders. I soon found a mace and realized I had been using the basic 1/10 sword all this time. Why was that even available to loot when it was given for free? Combat was significantly easier now and I am sure I could have defeated those orcs and skeletons without magic since I could melee ths later heavies. Fire magic was the easiest magic to get. In retrospect, I think you could get fire very early by starting off with faerie since all you need is a basic faerie nuke and getting past the overworld monsters.

New best nuke ⚠️÷÷

Underwater enemies were tough because I had to stand still and fight, or turn around to flee back to shore, and there were a lot of then at once. The fish people seemed to be the heavies rather than the kraken, which seemed opposite. I killed a few before bypassing them for the next dungeon, which had an actual melee immune enemy. It took a few of those nukes to kill, but it was a caster too so it was easy to dodge. Expensive on the food though. The next dungeon was even more difficult with me only being level 9. The weaker ghouls hit too hard to fight while the heavy golems had to be killed with magic. I discovered a trick that was not in the guides while I was nuking a golem in a corner. I could move, turn, nuke and be gone before taking a hit. When I did take a hit from the flank it was minimal damage, so I let enemies attack my side, waited for the attack sound, then did my attack, then turned to face the enemy for a split second. I still had to heal up after each fight but it was way better than dying every 2 hits. I could even kill golems like that after I found the axe. New spells:

Nuke W⚠️⚠️

Shield WI

The next dungeon was very easy with my flank strategy. The heavies were the easiest enemies now and I could defeat all enemies while taking 0 damage. The light enemies did single digit flank damage, which added up to nearly my full hp by the time I killed them, but attacking from the front with water shield was 0 damage. The heavies in the tower dungeon had to be nuked as even with the best sword I was not doing enough damage to kill them in any reasonable time, plus they did flank damage. I bypassed them whenever I could and managed to get the last wind magic at level 10.

Best nuke W ))) )))

Warp ))) ^ Exit ))) (( Home ))) ))) Go sky ÷= Go ground ÷÷

Then I had to go to the sky island and find the special sword of tores, which was a quest item and not an equipable weapon. I could not do any significant melee damage to any of the enemies in this dungeon so all had to be killed with magic. I ignored the dragons outside, looted all the potions outside, and ignored most of the treasure in that dungeon. I leveled up to 12 then proceeded to the final dungeon. Floor 1 had the same enemies as the previous dungeon yet now I could fairly easily kill them in melee. The heavies did 0 flank damage and the beholders could kill me in 1 hit if I got careless with dodging. The full shield spell might have made that survivable but I didn't bother because of save states. The final floor had unique cultist enemies that combined all 3 enemy types; they could nuke, melee and flank for high damage, but their defense was not too high. I killed them in 4 or 5 hits using the attack then move forward then backwards tactic. There were a lot of them in a big open space so I fought in the narrow corridor and was lucky I did not get trapped. I was not worried though due to air escape spells. Once I had several killed I was able to kite the others away long enough to get in the door to the final boss. He was in a tiny room so the only option was to go inside with him, or use the door as cover. Going inside would definitely lead to death from magic. I drank my last str potion and meleed him to about half hp, then he died to 1 nuke. I brought a little over 100 food and water to the end and was down to about half when I won. Not that it mattered because I could have left at any time to buy more with the several 1000 gold I had. The walkthroughs recommended being significantly higher level from grinding.

This was a fun game. I might be a bit biased though because it falls within my favorite genre; I grew up with legends like Daggerfall, Lands of Lore, and Might and Magic 6/7. This was one of the earliest games in this genre and impressive for the time. The beginning was very rough though, being lost in the starter town without a map. The game was more than playable when you knew to get faerie magic for the map, but a functional map should have been a base part of the UI, including for towns. The combat had some depth and skill to it, and the magic could be either a fun puzzle to solve or a tedious mess depending on preference. It was a simpler version of that from Rudra. The other weird thing about the game was spending food and water to restore hp using the camp button, which did not pause time or anything so you could eat mid combat. Or even turn your back to the enemy to heal up because only magic could hit from behind. I did not like the hidden mechanic that lowered attack and defense as enemies were killed, which simulated fatigue and was only fixed by rested at the inn. The mechanic itself was fine, it was the hidden part that was an issue. Though I have no idea what was in the manual. The world was not very large or complicated, and there were no traps or funky stuff in the dungeons. The people in town were annoying because you had to talk to them before they would stop blocking the way, and they showed up constantly. I could see most hating this game due to being constantly lost, not knowing about the map, and not understanding the combat but it was a good experience for me.

7.0/10