Status Chovus Jun 16, 2026
Beat using slow mode for most battles. I started off by going outside town and getting into a random battle only to not be able to attack. The game did not start with any weapons and there was no unarmed attack. It played like a Jrpg only the battles were action, like Zelda or Ys. I bought a bow, arrows, …
Beat using slow mode for most battles. I started off by going outside town and getting into a random battle only to not be able to attack. The game did not start with any weapons and there was no unarmed attack. It played like a Jrpg only the battles were action, like Zelda or Ys. I bought a bow, arrows, healing and the basic knife. It was weird how arrows were a consumable item that added to the quiver upon use, rather than going directly there on purchase. Mana, bombs and batteries for the light functioned the same way. I went into a cave but had no light source and it took some time to figure out how to get out. You started on the exit so you had to move off then turn around. Probably would have been useful to at least be able to see the exit without needing the light item. Then was the 1st dungeon, which was played entirely in the battle mode. I wandered around for a while before resorting to a map online since the game had no map. Upon looking at the map I groaned and stopped playing for the day. Why why why did they think it was good to make such large complicated dungeons with samey looking screens, and no in game map? I did beat it and easily killed the boss with arrows. Next I skipped battles by escaping to see what was for sale in the next towns since I did not want to waste money on mediocre gear. Escaping had a chance to cost gold or xp, so it was bad to do. I then loaded and fought my way to the next towns, only I was completely unable to kill elephant enemies so I had to flee a few times. I spent all my money on a steel sword, which boosted str by 10 and significantly improved combat. I could kill the elephants now and other enemies took less hits. I also began using slow mode for combat since it was a little too fast. I pretty much followed the walkthrough for the rest of the game though neglected to buy any temporary speed up items like it said. All enemies were faster than the player and each attack could only hit 1 enemy at a time, so getting bum rushed by groups was extremely difficult. Especially in tight corridors. 2 bosses were even faster with no hope to avoid their insane contact damage without a speed buff, so I had to save state scum the hell out of them to barely scrape by. 1 took chugging every healing item I had. The other boss did confusion, which literally made the character automatically press buttons randomly. I somehow managed to kill the boss with a bomb while confused after failing so many times. It was a total fluke sloppy win but I will take it. I had not tried bombs before them so probably could have won easily. I did use bombs to beat the next boss but the throw arc and time delay made it very difficult to hit the fast boss, though by that time I had the perma speed buff and could avoid him. After this was the final dungeon where I went in specifically to loot gems to buy the last 2 best gear, then went back in to beat the final boss. The dungeon was an absolute slog of one way doors that took pain staking study of 2 different online maps to figure out. The boss was going no where until I read you had to jump to hit the head, which I then remembered an npc mentioning. Was not difficult at lvl 17 and I didn't need to use any healing items.
That steel sword lasted until I left the final dungeon then bought the best sword. There were 2 upgrades in between that I skipped. It definitely made those bosses a little harder but it was ok for most regular battles. A couple enemy types could not be hurt by it so I killed them with magic. The metal mouth things could only be meleed from the front while their mouth was open, which I considered not worth the trouble and fled instead. After some levels up though I was able to hit them easily so the damage calculation must reduce your str by enemy defense, potentially leading to 0 damage. Late game skeletal knights were seemingly immune to physical damage. I kept the basic bow until the final town where I purchased the crossbow just before trip 1 into the final dungeon. Archery was really good because it helped negate your terrible movement speed and likelihood of taking massive contact damage when trying to melee. I used it against ranged and invisible enemies mostly, and to knock back tightly groups enemies so I could not be bum rushed. Fairly early on you got the infinite arrow generating item so I tried to ration my shots to keep up with that rather than having to buy more arrows. Of course I bought 250 early on, arrows were cheap, and you could just leave the game running for free arrows. This also worked with the regen ring, which pretty much made healing items obsolete outside boss fights. I went no armor or shield for the early game, then settled on buying pelt armor since it was cheap. But soon after that I got the best armor from a little secret side quest. I never did buy any shield until getting the best one after the final dungeon. In battle 1 button thrust the sword forward, and this thrust was unnecessarily unforgiving. If the enemy was slightly off to the side you would miss and take damage. On top of that the directional controls were limited to the 4 directions. This lack of diagonal movement and very precise hitbox on sword attacks made the combat clunky, even worse given how the enemies were faster. Often times it felt like taking damage was unavoidable, especially when the enemies spawned right on top of you upon entering a room. Select switched what the other button did but this could not be switched while paused or outside battle mode. There was archery, jump boots, see invis glasses, bombs, the ranged magic nuke and a rotating out from you nuke, which I never used outside of being confused. These abilities were cool but not used to solve puzzles or deal with the environment, other than jumping over pits, ice and damage tiles. There was also a consumable shadow item that allowed you to move without taking damage for a limited time, which was good for skipping those ambush rooms. But the very limited inventory made it difficult to take advantage of because you needed space for loot, teleport, free escape, speed buff, buying new gear and supplies, a few different types of healing items, and a few different poison curing items. I only cured poison once, preferring to load state instead.
Overall I liked the game for its mix of Jrpg and action combat with some amount of depth, but the game had some critical flaws that would make it too obnoxious to play without a guide. The worst was the lack of in game map combined with the complex and samey looking dungeons. You either make an easy to use functional map or make the areas simple enough for a child to navigate. There is no acceptable in between. Hell at least some hardcore dungeon crawlers had spells and consumable items for basic navigation. There also could have been better puzzle and dungeon design. Other than that the limited inventory was at odds with the variety of useful items, and the combat did not need to be so clunky.
5.5/10