For Game Club this month, Gibbon picked this Konami classic. Well, it seems to enjoy classic status, with ties to Yugioh, Castlevania, Wai Wai World, and Otomedius. It is well made, for a Zelda 2 clone, but with an unbalanced pace.

I had to play this Japan-exclusive release with an older fan translation, seen in the screenshot above. The more recent one by Nebulous is a much better effort, although it can’t fix the fact that NPC “helpers” are obtuse and not that helpful. This is an old-school game, with old-school difficulty, and without a guide it can be overwhelming.

It’s a shorter game than Zelda 2, and certainly controls better. The powerup system is frustrating, as many are single-use, start expensive and become trivially cheap, and replacing them requires copious backtracking through the labyrinthine overworld. Even the permanent ones require re-equipping during the constant shifts in and out of sidescroller sections. The ambition of including three distinct gameplay styles has to be applauded: top-down overworld wandering, sidescrolling action, and over-the-shoulder dungeons. This split  causes all three to feel underdeveloped however, especially the dungeons.

I shouldn’t be too hard I suppose. For a game of this vintage it’s an impressive effort. Enemy designs are varied and creepy, and are based heavily on Japanese mythology, a theme that informs the visual design of the whole game in a cohesive way. There’s an experience system that improves your sword power and while it tops out well before the end point, it does feel good to get more powerful as you progress.

The plot is a little unclear; it’s sometimes said to be set in hell in extra-game-ular sources, while the in-game text seems to suggest an apocalyptic future overrun by demons, despite the medieval trappings. What I do know for sure is that Fūma is a legendary hero, or perhaps his descendant, who must find the magic swords of his fallen brothers to stop the evil Ryukotsuki, a skeleton… demon… thing. In the style of the time, he’s mentioned a few times then shows up at the very end to get whacked.

I mentioned an uneven pace and yes, there’s a steep difficulty cliff at the outset, but after getting a handle on the world layout and the mechanics of the combat and items, building up some money and experience, it levels out and progress becomes swift (although grinding for health is occasionally required). Now this might seem a criticism but it lent an interesting flavour to the overall play experience that I savoured. I heartily endorse Strategy Wiki’s maps and tips though, or I would have choked on the game after half an hour and spat it out.