The best Action RPG to hit the NES ever! If you haven't played it, you are missing out!
GAMEPLAY ~
It plays like silk!
Imagine a more fluid version of the original Legend of Zelda! The hero moves with grace and swings his blade with relative ease. You get 4 different swords with each it's own element attribute, and a power-up stone (later a bracelet) which assist with breaking walls and melting ice. A nice selection of different armors and accessories, and so much magic with a magnitude of uses (you need to acquire almost every magic to progress!) it isn’t even funny. There is a strange level cap of 25, but by than you can pretty much slice through anything. It is the quintessential RPG for any fan of the genera. Hands-down!
STORY ~
You are brought back to life after the world was destroyed October 1997... yeah I know, back than I guess they didn’t have much hope for humanity... anyway, you are brought back and now you must seal the ultimate evil lurking in the floating castle. It wasn't too lengthy, but so much happens and the story progresses so fast, it's worth hanging to every word!
GRAPHICS ~
There was several different world and as many different un-explored caverns. The most memorable areas were the poison marsh and the ocean! In which you traveled on the back of a dolphins!
It's was just awesome!
The world was "semi" free roaming with the only hindrance being that your next area was only accessible after a certain event was completed. Character design and magic emissions were some of the other high-lights. Absolutely fabulous.
MUSIC ~
Some of my favorite VG music was from this game! Thought many say it's very repetitive, I think it fits the style of the game. Best songs were the over-world map and the music of the caverns. The sound FX were cool as well, from charging to full power and the noise of the rabbit-boots hop! The biggest downfall of the FX was the noise of you getting hurt, where your guy made a "squeaking" noise. Very strange indeed.
REPLAYABILITY ~
The ability to search out numerous items and a vast world to explore, you will be playing this game alot, for a NES title, even thought the game shouldn't take more than 10 hours to beat. An it's one of those rare RPG titles that used the battery back-up. How I praise SNK for this! So many games were cut down in their prime do to that faulty password system...
OVERALL ~
If you got the time and patience to play this classic gem and find the reworked version of this game for the GBC a complete failure than download a ROM of this title, it could be the best 8+ hours of your time well spent!