Preliminary: Holy crap. The music for this... the graphics... everyone says the controls are awful so I'm nervous getting too excited but I found an amazing site full of Commodore 64 guides and the one for this makes it sound like my kind of action-adventure. Praying it turns out good! And on first brief playtest before Michael's home, it seems so darn good! I usually don't like isometric, but it's almost like the early 3-D games I so love for PS1 and N64--clunky but doable. And I couldn't figure out how to switch what command the joystick button does, and though I probly could have figured it out, I'm grateful this site had the manual (usually it's easier to find online, maybe I'm just getting tired cuz I've almost overcome this cold/flu thing)

Once I found the manual linked above and thus the controls down (pro-tip: Alt is open door... heh), I got so damn excited! The guide is written in a way I enjoy following, and comes with maps! I really shouldn't, but here I go preemptively printing the guide and manual because I'm so excited :-p Unfortunately it seems you can only do one command at a time, which makes going through doors clunky and battles not just clunky but also unfair (as many reviewers had noted). Mostly you want to use your Sword because that allows repeat uses, and to use that you wiggle the joystick back and forth real quick. Real awkward overall. Helps to look at the Hits and Wounds below. As the manual says, and as is obvious, it's often best to just flee when possible.

Welp, as almost every reviewer has noted, the music and Look and concept are phenomenal--the controls not so much. They are just so clunky. The ideas behind the mechanics and controls are spot-on, but in practice, it's just far too messy--combat in particular. Too bad because this really could have been amazing. After fighting a couple enemies and/or having to backtrack and deal with the silly isometric navigation + enemies, you'll see what I mean heh. Thank goodness for the abundance of spells (at least in the early parts of the game I played), but not enough good about it to be worth pushing through the frustrations.