Willow (1989)

Preliminary: I'm liking the town music, tho the flowers/setting are a bit ugly. I like the main sprite and the UIs for dialog and menus. I like the idea that training increases the speed of your slashing, neat way to make an ARPG.

Day 2

I was really excited to continue this. It's very Zelda 1-esque in the controls but feels more updated and I surprisingly have been enjoying the combat more (so far). Hopefully it doesn't get as hard as Zelda 1 :-p

Honestly my only complaints so far are a) the colors are a bit meh and b) the dialog text moves a bit slowly for my taste. But otherwise, loving the music and the concept and the UI in the upper left corner and that it is somewhat grindy without being too grindy. Ah!

Welp, already seeing the common issue of repeated songs, but still loving it. And nice, a new jam in the first boss's cave. Digging it, love the dramatic snare smack.

While a lot of this does remind me of Zelda 1, I also have to acknowledge how much of the UI and item/equipment switching reminds me of the later Zeldas, so perhaps the inspiration goes both ways. The like blinking box to select what item you want currently equipped reminds me of, I believe, Link's Awakening

I think it helps that I'm just using ASCII maps and a barebones overview of the game's steps, so it has that feeling of exploration without frustration. And I love ASCII maps :-p I like that the game is pretty clear in what and where to go next, like instead of just saying go talk to the Fairy, they told me to go west of Dew to talk with the Fairy etc. Some trickery (e.g., Dew being described as simply north led me to a dead end, which is when I checked the ASCII map, etc.) but overall quite legit for its time. And unlike so many of its contemporary RPGs, it has so many free healing spots I love thattttt. Encourages grindsssss <3

Welp, as I'm getting toward Death Forest, more and more the repeated songs, slow dialog, occasional awful enemy spawns, and now confusing navigating (ASCII maps a bit confusing I suppose lol) are bogging it down.But it's still top-of-the-line action adventure RPG for its time.

I love the little screens when you're talking with an NPC. And nice, whenever I feel it starts to be bogged down it gives me a new song or a neat new vibe. I really need to see this movie since the arcade game and this are very good. Wow and Ocarina that looks so much like the later Zelda one. Ahhh and I love that it's a convenient teleport functionnn

I'm just so proud of myself for coming up with my own strategies for these Zelda-style enemiessss. Some of the combat was just annoying but often that annoyance went away when I realized a technique. More often than not, the technique involved approaching till they attack, stepping away then then attacking, or attacking right after they attack. I hate the Shell enemies tho.

Ugh I knew things were too good to be true. They did one of those "need a certain item to finish off the boss" things, ok fine, but then let me leave??? Nope, even tho there's an obvious exit back out, it's arbitrarily blocked by an invisible wall lol. Hate features like that and it's tacky and not good design, tho it sure was popular back then. But luckily, the Continue system was forgiving enough (and I suppose cuz I like the game enough) that I played back through from the Tavern to the boss. Luckily you keep all your items when you Continue.

Wow that Ocarina feature really helped out in endgame. Very nice touch there. Can even tele to the final castle that was hard to get to! Some modern niceties there. I was definitely in my RPG/action-adventure hook where I can't put down a game. I have 10 mins left before movie time and soooo close to the end of the game ahhh.

I thought this was the final boss and now I see why they said I needed to be Level 16 cuz you need a lot of MP for her. Will have to finish tomorrow

Day 3

After grinding up, which really wasn't too bad, I have the ending at last! I'm loving the Atari-esque gradient color of the sky and tho the credits music wasn't as good as I had hoped compared to the rest of the games select jams, it did have a nice very ending jingle to wrap things up. Great game, tho with its flaws they are almost all quite excusable for its time.

Look: 8.5/10 Tho some of the colors were ugly, it grew on me and later areas were prettier. Plus, the dialog screens and UIs were great.

Sound: 8.5/10 Excellent tunes, could have used more variety, but top-notch tunes.

Play: 8.5/10 Not a huge fan of the combat, but absolutely enthralled by both the RPG and adventure elements. I'm convinced this influenced the later Zeldas, tho everyone focuses on how Zelda 1 influenced this. I was hooked from start to finish and even pushed through some frustrating deaths.

Feel: 9/10 I always love when a game based on a movie is well-done, I know that once I see Willow it will even add more Feel to this. As for now, it was just a very hooking ARPG action-adventure with good tunes and precedent-setting features I love. Bringing items to different NPCs is my kind of game :-p

Attachment: 9/10 The fact I pushed through deaths says a lot. It'll probly be a long while till I replay it but I def could see me replaying it. This is, imo, the best of the Zelda 1 style action-adventures since Hydlide.

Overall: 8.7/10

Completion: Main Story + Extras