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The first thing that you're presented with in this game after
the title screen is this little menu here. You should have noticed by now that the little
white cross is your cursor for the game and it controlls just like a mouse pointer. (The NES
should have had a mouse for games like this!) Personally, I have to recommend the "One Player,
Two Characters" option if you decide to brave the game and play it like its supposed to be
played. It will keep the monsters from ganging up on you. One other thing of note here -
while the password option exists, and the game will generate passwords for you, they DO NOT
WORK. I'm guessing the system wasn't implimented at this time. If you plan on playing more
than the first dungeon or two, plan on using savestates - A LOT. Death can very suddenly
follow a bad roll.
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After picking your game, you move onto the character selection
screen. Meet the cast, left to right:
The Barbarian - Strength of the gods!
The Dwarf - Not quite as strong!
The Elf - Strong and gets magic to boot!
The Wizard - A physical wimp, but gets tons of magic!
Actually, other than
the magic and the bugs in the game, these characters are pretty much the same. For some
bizarre reason, a bug (I highly doubt this is intentional) only gives the Barbarian a single
health point, making him unusable without a fair bit of cheating.
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Ah, the game begins. And more choices! Choosing the icon on
the right will take you to the shop, however, you don't start the game with any gold, so choose
the icon on the left to start the game. Once you pick the left option, a list of quests will
come up on the screen. You can start on any quest you please, but the order of the quests is
from top to bottom. It'll become more obvious when you're in the later quests without the
Spirit Blade (which is necessary to kill some later bosses) and the enemies simply become
unbeatable. So start from the beginning - "The Trial."
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| Next, if you picked a magic user, you get to pick your spells
from the usual elemental choices. Honestly, the magic isn't all that impressive, and just
tends to make enemies vanish without any fanfare whatsoever.
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And (finally!), the game begins. This screen isn't as
complex as it may appear at first look, but here's the explination anyway. Starting at the
upper righthand corner, you have the characters mugshot, the number next to the flexing arm
is your health points. Going over to the lefthand corner, the number with the feet is your
"roll." This is how many spaces you can move on this turn. The coin up and to the right from
the feet is your gold, and the icon below that... well, I honestly haven't figured that one out
yet. Below the gameplay screen are your character commands. Left to right, they are as follows:
End your Turn, Attack, Unlock a Door, Search, Search for Gold or Items, Inventory, and Map.
Below the commands on the right are the arrows you can use to move your character.
Each turn, you can use one of the commands. (read: you can search or attack) Movement is seperate
from the other commands, but if your attack fails, you cannot move after that.
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| When you're in the square next to an enemy, you can choose
the "Attack" command. After choosing Attack, the map screen will pop up, asking you to choose
an opponant. Move your cursor over the enemy you want to attack, and the battle screen will come up.
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Here we go with a battle. Now, remember this was originally a
dice based board game, so the same rules apply as in the board game - both the attacker and
the defender get to "roll" an attack and defense. The way to win a battle is to have more
attack points than the defender has defense points. A tie goes to the defender, as he's blocked
all of the attacks made. This is the first chance for some serious cheating. The "roll" is
done at the time the battle screen comes up, so if you use savestates and freeze the game before
you attack the enemy, you can keep defrosting the game and repeating the attack until the
desired results are achieved. =] Now in the picture to the left, I have two "skulls," which
are attack points, and the enemy only has one "shield," or defense point. So in this case, I win.
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Here's the obvious opposite - I have one attack point and he has
three defense points, so the enemy wins and I lose my movement points.
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This is the last, and most useful cheat of the game. When you're
on the map screen, you can click on any square and instantly warp there - even if all of your
movement points are used up. Now, the map doesn't have to be visible at the point you wish to
warp to - just click and go. Now, if the screen goes crazy into a mess of flashing colors and
a garbled playfield, you've warped into a square that doesn't exist in this maze. Simply
click on a valid square and go back to the maze proper. How is this helpful? Well, you can
warp into a room behind an enemy, attack, warp out, end your turn, and not worry about getting
attacked by an enemy. In fact, as difficult as this game is, this is about the only way you can survive!
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Well, its a pretty decent game, but unfortunately due to the
bugs in the game and the balance factors, it just does not seem like this game can be
completed. TheRedEye has gotten the Spirit Blade, however, in the final dungeons, the balance
of the game is weighted highly towards the enemies. TheRedEye said that no matter how many
freeze and defrosts that he did against these enemies, he could not hit them. I personally had
the same experience later in the game... if you can get to the end, let us know on the
message board!
Head on back to the first page
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