Reviewer: Agent K
Company: SNK
Rarity: Not rare but I don't see it much(C)
Expertise: Level 7
I've read and heard a lot of great things about this game, so I was pretty excited about firing it up. It's very similar to the first Zelda. You are wandering around killing guys with your sword and looking for towns and items. Like Zelda this portion of the game is very fun. One way that it's even better than Zelda is the experience point feature. Like in many other RPG's every time you kill something you get experience points which allow you to level up. So basically this is a cool RPG in a similar style to the Legend of Zelda. However there is one glaring problem with the game. It is extremely linear. What I mean by this is that you have to do everything in a very specific order. When you enter a new place, you may not be able to do anything there until you go back to an old place. This becomes very tedious as you're never sure if you just can't find the right items or if you need to revisit some place you had previously visited. Thank goodness they alleviated this problem a little by making your guy walk extremely fast. So fast in fact that I've read complaints by people who think it's too fast!
Graphics and Sound: Pretty Good
All the towns look pretty much the same and all the caves look pretty much the same. However the detail is pretty good and the bad guys all look different and interesting. The music is sort of funny. There are a couple of songs and one is a Christmas song with an altered note which is interesting.
Gameplay and Controls: Interesting
The control of your character is great. This is very important since he moves so quickly. The downside is that each button can control several things at the same time. For instance A can control a magic spell and jumping. This becomes a pain because you need to remember to disable the spell if you want to go jumping around.
Features: Lots
There's all kinds of items you can find. Also your sword changes as you find certain items.
Fun?: Quite a bit
It's very fun except for the linear problem. If you go into the game expecting it, you may not mind as much.
Challenge: Not too hard
Up to level 7 has been pretty easy except for the fact that I didn't realize the game was linear for quite a while. Also a major annoyance is the fact that certain bad guys can't be damaged until you reach a certain level.
Replay: Not sure
Once I beat the game I doubt I will play it much again, but some people certainly love it.
2 Player: No
This is a single person RPG.
Online Manual?: Yup
TSR's site has one. There are a whole bunch of faqs for the game at gamefaqs.com
Bottom Line: Probably
If you beat the Legend of Zelda and loved it, as most people do, then you may want to follow up with this game. I would say this is a second tier RPG game, along with games like Magic of Schzerade.