Legacy of the Wizard (NES, 1987)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7.5 Control-6/4.5* Challenge-7/8** Story-5
Level Design-5.5/4.5* Frustration-7.5/8.5* Fun-6/4.5* Originality-7
Overall Score-6
*Parts of Xemn's area and block moving controls
**Some bosses unless using the right char & equipment
+
Platform Adventure/Metroid-like gameplay w/ Puzzle and RPG elements (shops and inns in the dungeon, some equipment-based stat upgrades and buffs (power knuckle - 4x AP, shield - projectile attack immunity, fire rod - 2x attack range, jump shoes - 2x jump height (very high with certain chars), temporary invincibility and speed power ups), breakable blocks - some are destroyed by moving into them while others require a mattock (it also destroys the movable blocks), platforming puzzles and some spatial awareness puzzles)
5 different playable chars (switch back at the family house; three different stats which differ for each char (jump height, attack power, attack range), different chars can use different tool items and some have a special inherent ability)
Some interesting abilities and tools (flight (wings item, Meyna only and drains MP) - actually works more like being able walk/climb in mid-air, one char (Pochi the pet monster) won't get attacked by monsters, block moving glove (Xemn/dad only) - lets you push certain blocks into enemies (killing them) as well as rearrange them to progress, hit rod - sends blocks flying and bouncing back and forth a couple of times before disappearing which is similar in purpose to the glove but more limited as you can't slide push them diagonally (Meyna/mom only), armor - partial invincibility+takes out enemies you move into (Xemn and Roas only), key stick - permanent key which drains 1 MP per use (Meyna only))
Warps/fast travel (can use the paintings/pictures to teleport between locations after getting the 4 crowns from bosses (Roas/son only), can also use the crystal balls to warp back to the family house on the surface - one of the first (one way) town portal items in the ARPG genre?, beating a boss also teleports you back to the surface)
Stash/vault at your house and at inns (limited inventory when moving around - only 3 items, have to pay to use it at an inn though)
Elixir can save you from death (Zelda?) and magic bottle refill your MP to full if it runs out - the former needs to be in the active item slot when dying to work
Can stand on enemies to use them as platforms
8-way aiming
Can jump onto and off of ladders (however the control issues make it hard to pull off - see below), Can also jump while climbing to climb faster
Smart bomb (cross) and temporary invincibility (ring)+temporary speed up (scroll) power up items (these trigger upon touch - can't be held onto for later use and they don't last particularly long so you generally won't get the best use out of them, the speed up scroll effect can stack three times and also lowers your AP a bit while in use)
Fairly large arsenal of inventory items and gear (16 different ones in total)
Fast resting at inns
Some sequence breaking possibilities (pochi can ride on some enemies (he doesn't take damage) to for example reach the power knuckle a bit sooner, can use an unintended double jump trick (involves pausing two times during a jump and then holding jump as you unpause the second time - pretty easy to use and is quite useful as it lets you skip or simplify some block puzzles; can also skip buying most items since you can find them instead - seems buying the key stick is faster than finding it though, can skip some of Xemn's block puzzles with Lyll (mattock))
Sometimes teases a later area way before you can reach it (Zelda 1, later done in Super Metroid)
Some shortcuts
Some decent-good block/platforming and spatial awareness puzzles (can slide blocks sideways as well as diagonally from below or above however the block moving controls are pretty bad, can jump onto a platform right above you by jumping one tile away from it and then steering yourself back onto the platform/ledge, spatial: sometimes teases a blocked off item which you find by going to another room and finding the hidden path to it)
Super fast movement if you pick up more than one scroll (shame you can't make full use of it due to fall damage)
Pretty good visual variety
Shows bosses' health bars (but not enemies')
Nice final boss intro
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (can do Xemn's area before Pochi's if you collect the glove first and can skip using Pochi, have to do part of Xemn's area before Meyna's, can partially explore some areas in advance with Pochi; the room with a large dragon painting is a hub connecting to four sub areas designed with one of the playable chars in mind, the sub area boss that you fight is determined by how many crowns you've collected meaning the order is always the same but you can generally choose who to use for each fight as long as you can find/get to a crown with that char, can switch to Meyna after getting the wings as Lyll (or Xemn if you double jumped into her area)? - only Meyna can fly so she has to finish her area, key stick is required in Meyna's area? (and only she can use it))
Password save (can only get a new one at the family home on the surface, no checkpoints or respawns unless you're carrying an elixir)
Ammo/MP-based default attack (the powered boots let you take out enemies like in SMB without spending MP though you don't bounce off of them here - the manual actually depicts that happening)
No exp point leveling system
Kinda weird how you don't get attacked even if you attack the enemies when playing as the monster (also odd how there are monsters near the inns in the dungeon)
Locked doors and chests (gain keys as loot from enemies - pretty common item but the doors respawning causes some issues)
One negative item drop (poison - drains HP once)
Auto-fire as Pochi (can't turn it off)
Super fast falling speed
Can avoid damage from spikes by holding up while moving (unless the space above them is only a single tile high in which case you take damage and also can't cross - have to use the wings here)
No gravity effect on pushable blocks - weird but also creates some interesting puzzles where you build staircases of sorts with blocks
Item drops disappear after about 8 seconds or when moving the screen away from them (oddly enough this timer isn't affected by moving in and out of shops or inns while on the same screen as an item drop)
Can skip finding various tool items if you find a shop that sells them instead
Small sprites/zoomed out view
Weird how you can't fill up your HP or MP to 100% by resting (only about 90)
Block positions reset when re-entering a room - generally good (sometimes a must) but can close some shortcuts again after having opened them (would've been better if you could use an item to destroy shortcut blocking blocks for good or if they were just replaced with breakable ones that stayed removed)
Can't pull blocks or slide them vertically straight up or down from the side (can do it horizontally from above or below as well as diagonally up or down from the side or above/below)
Going into an inn or shop doesn't reset the blocks in the current room
-
No map in-game nor in the manual (the world does have some decent landmarks at least, teleporter maze at one point)
Unlocked doors don't stay unlocked - leads to grinding for keys (also can't buy keys - no enemy is guaranteed to drop them and the drop rate while fairly high is still not high enough for certain parts, can find one or more chests containing 20 keys though)
Various control/interface issues (no jump height control and characters always jump at their max height, have to jump and hold the button to use the block moving glove or the mattock (should've either been mapped to attack and replaced attacking or you could've had manual jump height control, also weird how if you jump and land on one/bump into one from below or the side then the game interprets it as you wanting to move it and bases the direction on which way you were turned before jumping - can sometimes screw you over as it can happen even if you're not holding the jump button down for long (happens immediately if pushing against a block from the side or below when pressing jump which kinda sucks in tight spaces)), overly vertical-focused jumps for the high jumping chars - similar to Contra (makes it unusable for dodging some enemies/bosses and the poison drops unless you're also carrying one or more of the temporary scroll power ups), weird how gold is displayed like a health bar instead of with numbers, the game is overly picky about positioning when climbing ladders - very hard to grab a ladder while falling, as soon as you press l/r while on a ladder your char lets go and falls so you have to press jump right before pressing a direction, no friction when standing on an enemy so if it moves away you just stand where you are and fall off, have to wait for an enemy to fall off screen for its item drop to appear - this combined with poison drops means you have to wait a bit after each killed enemy which breaks flow, fall damage also triggers an annoying animation during which you lose control over your avatar, can't move while aiming downwards, can't move horizontally on top of ladders, if you're standing on a movable block and there's no space to jump then you can't move it, can't jump off of a ladder if there are walls both to the left and right of your avatar, can't stop a bouncing block once you make it start with the hit rod - it damages you as well meaning it's pretty useless for traversing block heavy rooms, too easy to get semi-stuck on walls/blocks while flying)
Some tedious parts (can't even damage the third boss with Lyll unless you use the power knuckle which means you basically trade blows with it and you can't bring a potion unless you either use the double jump pause trick to get to it or do the bosses in a different order so that it's not in Lyll's area, various places with kind of tedious platforming due to how you fall down immediately after touching a block from below, too easy to screw up some block puzzles and have to redo a fairly long segment from a single mistake - no rewind spell/ability, various rooms with narrow zig zag paths (the one with a shop that sells armor is particularly tedious), some red herring rooms (some of them also make you waste keys - for example there's a chest behind 29 locked doors (!) and another one behind 40+ (!!) locked doors meyna's area which aren't worth getting to as one contains a crystal and the other a pair of jump shoes which you should already have), redundant shops in some rooms in Xemn's area - there is a hidden shortcut next to one of them however, the horizontal room full of ladders in xemn's area, some of the taller vertical areas since there's no scrolling and blocks reset when moving vertically, the narrow path with locked doors and a movable block above Meyna's crown)
Trial & error (have to be holding left at one point in the teleporter maze leading to the dragon slayer sword or you'll have to start over, can't break a block with the mattock unless your avatar sprite is fully aligned with it, finding the shield - have to first find a hidden inn and then jump while standing in front of it to change it into a shop (no hints!), trying to push a block upwards while landing on it damages you, various breakable blocks with no visual clue (one allowing progress in Meyna's area, some of them are also floor traps - similar to CV2; some do have a clue in the sense that enemies pass through them though - if there's a solid block next to one then you can touch it and reveal it however this only works from the right side for some reason) - in various spots you're expected to push movable blocks into these to progress, some chest contents due to them being consumable items that don't respawn and can't be kept for later use, no character ability explanations in-game, no item explanations in-game, some leaps of faith into spikes, it's possible to get stuck and have to reset or use a crystal in a couple of rooms if you run out of keys - pretty unlikely though, some fast moving enemies in narrow paths, rings don't protect against poison, hard to spot certain enemies (floor mimics))
Some backtracking (back to bosses if you die which happens easily since they do a lot of damage and you probably won't be carrying a crystal during the fight, have to find/go back to an inn to equip an item that you just found or bought, have to go back if you don't go right to collect the block moving glove in the beginning, various minor dead ends within rooms - sometimes at the end of a hidden path)
Plenty of unavoidable fall damage unless you use a weird pausing trick - get hurt as soon as you fall further than how high the character can jump which happens a lot (can prevent the damage by pausing right before landing - useful but clunky, can also use a GG code to remove it completely), Some unavoidable damage from block and chest mimic enemies+some unavoidable chests+the blue santa's helper enemies before the fourth boss, Some bosses like the third one (archwinger/green wyvern) can hit you a few times after it dies
Enemies frequently respawn but chest contents do not (you can find HP or MP refill items in them and these are used immediately when touched so it's sometimes good to not open certain chests at certain points, can also be annoying when trying to solve a puzzle or get through a platforming segment, can choose not to grab a chest item after revealing it and it'll stay where you left it however they are sometimes placed so that you can't avoid them and progress)
Kind of annoying that only Roas can use the crowns (portrait teleportation) and only Meyna can use the key stick and wings (also weird how Pochi has to collect two tools which he can't use - perhaps a way to switch characters at one point within the dungeon (see Wonder Boy 3's transformation rooms for example) would've been better)
Very easy first boss as Pochi (dies too quickly), Tough second boss unless you have the shield and/or a potion and the power knuckle or and there's not much strategy to it - you'll have to take some hits while trying to kill it quickly
The fourth boss (rock golem/rockgaea) moves as fast as Meyna - becomes a short battle of attrition even with the shield (can also find a safe spot and shoot him from above until he dies though if you make a mistake he climbs the ledge and kills you quickly)
Pretty easy final boss
Some enemies look different but act the same
So-so ending
Notes:
-Some layout differences between the MSX and NES versions
-Can prevent fall damage by pausing right before landing
-GG codes (remove fall damage): https://gamehacking.org/game/30097
-Beat the first boss as Pochi, second as Xemn, third as Lyll, and fourth as
-Good idea to go back and rest after clearing the path to the fourth boss
Bugs:
-Can avoid damage from spikes by holding up while moving (unless the space above them is only a single tile high)
-Breakable blocks respawn if movable blocks are pushed into the location they were at - no gameplay effect but looks unfinished
-If you jump into an enemy from below then you get semi-stuck inside its sprite - sometimes taking extra damage
Level Design-5.5/4.5* Frustration-7.5/8.5* Fun-6/4.5* Originality-7
Overall Score-6
*Parts of Xemn's area and block moving controls
**Some bosses unless using the right char & equipment
+
Platform Adventure/Metroid-like gameplay w/ Puzzle and RPG elements (shops and inns in the dungeon, some equipment-based stat upgrades and buffs (power knuckle - 4x AP, shield - projectile attack immunity, fire rod - 2x attack range, jump shoes - 2x jump height (very high with certain chars), temporary invincibility and speed power ups), breakable blocks - some are destroyed by moving into them while others require a mattock (it also destroys the movable blocks), platforming puzzles and some spatial awareness puzzles)
5 different playable chars (switch back at the family house; three different stats which differ for each char (jump height, attack power, attack range), different chars can use different tool items and some have a special inherent ability)
Some interesting abilities and tools (flight (wings item, Meyna only and drains MP) - actually works more like being able walk/climb in mid-air, one char (Pochi the pet monster) won't get attacked by monsters, block moving glove (Xemn/dad only) - lets you push certain blocks into enemies (killing them) as well as rearrange them to progress, hit rod - sends blocks flying and bouncing back and forth a couple of times before disappearing which is similar in purpose to the glove but more limited as you can't slide push them diagonally (Meyna/mom only), armor - partial invincibility+takes out enemies you move into (Xemn and Roas only), key stick - permanent key which drains 1 MP per use (Meyna only))
Warps/fast travel (can use the paintings/pictures to teleport between locations after getting the 4 crowns from bosses (Roas/son only), can also use the crystal balls to warp back to the family house on the surface - one of the first (one way) town portal items in the ARPG genre?, beating a boss also teleports you back to the surface)
Stash/vault at your house and at inns (limited inventory when moving around - only 3 items, have to pay to use it at an inn though)
Elixir can save you from death (Zelda?) and magic bottle refill your MP to full if it runs out - the former needs to be in the active item slot when dying to work
Can stand on enemies to use them as platforms
8-way aiming
Can jump onto and off of ladders (however the control issues make it hard to pull off - see below), Can also jump while climbing to climb faster
Smart bomb (cross) and temporary invincibility (ring)+temporary speed up (scroll) power up items (these trigger upon touch - can't be held onto for later use and they don't last particularly long so you generally won't get the best use out of them, the speed up scroll effect can stack three times and also lowers your AP a bit while in use)
Fairly large arsenal of inventory items and gear (16 different ones in total)
Fast resting at inns
Some sequence breaking possibilities (pochi can ride on some enemies (he doesn't take damage) to for example reach the power knuckle a bit sooner, can use an unintended double jump trick (involves pausing two times during a jump and then holding jump as you unpause the second time - pretty easy to use and is quite useful as it lets you skip or simplify some block puzzles; can also skip buying most items since you can find them instead - seems buying the key stick is faster than finding it though, can skip some of Xemn's block puzzles with Lyll (mattock))
Sometimes teases a later area way before you can reach it (Zelda 1, later done in Super Metroid)
Some shortcuts
Some decent-good block/platforming and spatial awareness puzzles (can slide blocks sideways as well as diagonally from below or above however the block moving controls are pretty bad, can jump onto a platform right above you by jumping one tile away from it and then steering yourself back onto the platform/ledge, spatial: sometimes teases a blocked off item which you find by going to another room and finding the hidden path to it)
Super fast movement if you pick up more than one scroll (shame you can't make full use of it due to fall damage)
Pretty good visual variety
Shows bosses' health bars (but not enemies')
Nice final boss intro
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (can do Xemn's area before Pochi's if you collect the glove first and can skip using Pochi, have to do part of Xemn's area before Meyna's, can partially explore some areas in advance with Pochi; the room with a large dragon painting is a hub connecting to four sub areas designed with one of the playable chars in mind, the sub area boss that you fight is determined by how many crowns you've collected meaning the order is always the same but you can generally choose who to use for each fight as long as you can find/get to a crown with that char, can switch to Meyna after getting the wings as Lyll (or Xemn if you double jumped into her area)? - only Meyna can fly so she has to finish her area, key stick is required in Meyna's area? (and only she can use it))
Password save (can only get a new one at the family home on the surface, no checkpoints or respawns unless you're carrying an elixir)
Ammo/MP-based default attack (the powered boots let you take out enemies like in SMB without spending MP though you don't bounce off of them here - the manual actually depicts that happening)
No exp point leveling system
Kinda weird how you don't get attacked even if you attack the enemies when playing as the monster (also odd how there are monsters near the inns in the dungeon)
Locked doors and chests (gain keys as loot from enemies - pretty common item but the doors respawning causes some issues)
One negative item drop (poison - drains HP once)
Auto-fire as Pochi (can't turn it off)
Super fast falling speed
Can avoid damage from spikes by holding up while moving (unless the space above them is only a single tile high in which case you take damage and also can't cross - have to use the wings here)
No gravity effect on pushable blocks - weird but also creates some interesting puzzles where you build staircases of sorts with blocks
Item drops disappear after about 8 seconds or when moving the screen away from them (oddly enough this timer isn't affected by moving in and out of shops or inns while on the same screen as an item drop)
Can skip finding various tool items if you find a shop that sells them instead
Small sprites/zoomed out view
Weird how you can't fill up your HP or MP to 100% by resting (only about 90)
Block positions reset when re-entering a room - generally good (sometimes a must) but can close some shortcuts again after having opened them (would've been better if you could use an item to destroy shortcut blocking blocks for good or if they were just replaced with breakable ones that stayed removed)
Can't pull blocks or slide them vertically straight up or down from the side (can do it horizontally from above or below as well as diagonally up or down from the side or above/below)
Going into an inn or shop doesn't reset the blocks in the current room
-
No map in-game nor in the manual (the world does have some decent landmarks at least, teleporter maze at one point)
Unlocked doors don't stay unlocked - leads to grinding for keys (also can't buy keys - no enemy is guaranteed to drop them and the drop rate while fairly high is still not high enough for certain parts, can find one or more chests containing 20 keys though)
Various control/interface issues (no jump height control and characters always jump at their max height, have to jump and hold the button to use the block moving glove or the mattock (should've either been mapped to attack and replaced attacking or you could've had manual jump height control, also weird how if you jump and land on one/bump into one from below or the side then the game interprets it as you wanting to move it and bases the direction on which way you were turned before jumping - can sometimes screw you over as it can happen even if you're not holding the jump button down for long (happens immediately if pushing against a block from the side or below when pressing jump which kinda sucks in tight spaces)), overly vertical-focused jumps for the high jumping chars - similar to Contra (makes it unusable for dodging some enemies/bosses and the poison drops unless you're also carrying one or more of the temporary scroll power ups), weird how gold is displayed like a health bar instead of with numbers, the game is overly picky about positioning when climbing ladders - very hard to grab a ladder while falling, as soon as you press l/r while on a ladder your char lets go and falls so you have to press jump right before pressing a direction, no friction when standing on an enemy so if it moves away you just stand where you are and fall off, have to wait for an enemy to fall off screen for its item drop to appear - this combined with poison drops means you have to wait a bit after each killed enemy which breaks flow, fall damage also triggers an annoying animation during which you lose control over your avatar, can't move while aiming downwards, can't move horizontally on top of ladders, if you're standing on a movable block and there's no space to jump then you can't move it, can't jump off of a ladder if there are walls both to the left and right of your avatar, can't stop a bouncing block once you make it start with the hit rod - it damages you as well meaning it's pretty useless for traversing block heavy rooms, too easy to get semi-stuck on walls/blocks while flying)
Some tedious parts (can't even damage the third boss with Lyll unless you use the power knuckle which means you basically trade blows with it and you can't bring a potion unless you either use the double jump pause trick to get to it or do the bosses in a different order so that it's not in Lyll's area, various places with kind of tedious platforming due to how you fall down immediately after touching a block from below, too easy to screw up some block puzzles and have to redo a fairly long segment from a single mistake - no rewind spell/ability, various rooms with narrow zig zag paths (the one with a shop that sells armor is particularly tedious), some red herring rooms (some of them also make you waste keys - for example there's a chest behind 29 locked doors (!) and another one behind 40+ (!!) locked doors meyna's area which aren't worth getting to as one contains a crystal and the other a pair of jump shoes which you should already have), redundant shops in some rooms in Xemn's area - there is a hidden shortcut next to one of them however, the horizontal room full of ladders in xemn's area, some of the taller vertical areas since there's no scrolling and blocks reset when moving vertically, the narrow path with locked doors and a movable block above Meyna's crown)
Trial & error (have to be holding left at one point in the teleporter maze leading to the dragon slayer sword or you'll have to start over, can't break a block with the mattock unless your avatar sprite is fully aligned with it, finding the shield - have to first find a hidden inn and then jump while standing in front of it to change it into a shop (no hints!), trying to push a block upwards while landing on it damages you, various breakable blocks with no visual clue (one allowing progress in Meyna's area, some of them are also floor traps - similar to CV2; some do have a clue in the sense that enemies pass through them though - if there's a solid block next to one then you can touch it and reveal it however this only works from the right side for some reason) - in various spots you're expected to push movable blocks into these to progress, some chest contents due to them being consumable items that don't respawn and can't be kept for later use, no character ability explanations in-game, no item explanations in-game, some leaps of faith into spikes, it's possible to get stuck and have to reset or use a crystal in a couple of rooms if you run out of keys - pretty unlikely though, some fast moving enemies in narrow paths, rings don't protect against poison, hard to spot certain enemies (floor mimics))
Some backtracking (back to bosses if you die which happens easily since they do a lot of damage and you probably won't be carrying a crystal during the fight, have to find/go back to an inn to equip an item that you just found or bought, have to go back if you don't go right to collect the block moving glove in the beginning, various minor dead ends within rooms - sometimes at the end of a hidden path)
Plenty of unavoidable fall damage unless you use a weird pausing trick - get hurt as soon as you fall further than how high the character can jump which happens a lot (can prevent the damage by pausing right before landing - useful but clunky, can also use a GG code to remove it completely), Some unavoidable damage from block and chest mimic enemies+some unavoidable chests+the blue santa's helper enemies before the fourth boss, Some bosses like the third one (archwinger/green wyvern) can hit you a few times after it dies
Enemies frequently respawn but chest contents do not (you can find HP or MP refill items in them and these are used immediately when touched so it's sometimes good to not open certain chests at certain points, can also be annoying when trying to solve a puzzle or get through a platforming segment, can choose not to grab a chest item after revealing it and it'll stay where you left it however they are sometimes placed so that you can't avoid them and progress)
Kind of annoying that only Roas can use the crowns (portrait teleportation) and only Meyna can use the key stick and wings (also weird how Pochi has to collect two tools which he can't use - perhaps a way to switch characters at one point within the dungeon (see Wonder Boy 3's transformation rooms for example) would've been better)
Very easy first boss as Pochi (dies too quickly), Tough second boss unless you have the shield and/or a potion and the power knuckle or and there's not much strategy to it - you'll have to take some hits while trying to kill it quickly
The fourth boss (rock golem/rockgaea) moves as fast as Meyna - becomes a short battle of attrition even with the shield (can also find a safe spot and shoot him from above until he dies though if you make a mistake he climbs the ledge and kills you quickly)
Pretty easy final boss
Some enemies look different but act the same
So-so ending
Notes:
-Some layout differences between the MSX and NES versions
-Can prevent fall damage by pausing right before landing
-GG codes (remove fall damage): https://gamehacking.org/game/30097
-Beat the first boss as Pochi, second as Xemn, third as Lyll, and fourth as
-Good idea to go back and rest after clearing the path to the fourth boss
Bugs:
-Can avoid damage from spikes by holding up while moving (unless the space above them is only a single tile high)
-Breakable blocks respawn if movable blocks are pushed into the location they were at - no gameplay effect but looks unfinished
-If you jump into an enemy from below then you get semi-stuck inside its sprite - sometimes taking extra damage