Willow (NES, 1989) WIP
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-7? Story-6
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6?
+
Great presentation (nice dialogue scenes with character portraits, torches lighting up as you move past them (pre-Castlevania IV)), great animation and on some large and detailed sprites
Password save feature
Decent dialogue overall
Two different attack types with the sword (swing or trust (press forward + B - thrusting is faster until you level up a bit but doesn‘t do more damage?)
Good enemy variation at first (the game starts re-using enemies (color swaps) a lot after a while)
You can avoid most encounters
Zelda/Golvellius-style gameplay (explore for treasure and items, get abilites through items that let you progress through the world)
Some cool spells (petrification acorns that can be thrown at the enemy)
Diagonal movement (but not attacks)
Health refills after bosses
Some good bosses and enemies, teleport via a bird creature (called on using an ocarina pre-Zelda 3), later on you can teleport out of dungeons, good art direction, can speed up dialogue (oddly enough you press Up to do it)
+/-
More linear structure than in Zelda 1
Enemies tend to appear when you’re in the middle of a screen
No hp/mp refills when leveling up
You can re-enter screens to avoid enemies spawning
-
Shallow gameplay compared to Zelda (lack of puzzles and traps)
Too much dead space (long segments with nothing happening, empty houses, dead ends, villages are too large; particularly tedious to seach for the second rabbit)
Backtracking
There are about 4 background themes that repeat with color swaps throughout the game
Boring dungeons (no puzzles, all are large mazes where everything looks the same)
Imprecise hit detection
Sword controls take some getting used to
Can't strafe nor run (a problem in tight areas with skeletons covering both exits, hedgehog boss)
Can’t get to some village houses
Somewhat uneven difficulty (pink snake boss is very easy with the right sword)
Can’t keep recovery items for later use, impossible to dodge some enemies when they spawn, some trial & error (some cheap enemy spawn placements, need to reach level 14 to have enough MP for the final boss), the shields don’t block projectiles nor reduce knockback (they only reduce damage), can’t skip repeated dialogue, some tedious enemies early on like the boars and skeletons, mostly simple bosses, need to grind several levels at one point (to transform an NPC), some obvious gating/roadblocking (the female soldier),
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6?
+
Great presentation (nice dialogue scenes with character portraits, torches lighting up as you move past them (pre-Castlevania IV)), great animation and on some large and detailed sprites
Password save feature
Decent dialogue overall
Two different attack types with the sword (swing or trust (press forward + B - thrusting is faster until you level up a bit but doesn‘t do more damage?)
Good enemy variation at first (the game starts re-using enemies (color swaps) a lot after a while)
You can avoid most encounters
Zelda/Golvellius-style gameplay (explore for treasure and items, get abilites through items that let you progress through the world)
Some cool spells (petrification acorns that can be thrown at the enemy)
Diagonal movement (but not attacks)
Health refills after bosses
Some good bosses and enemies, teleport via a bird creature (called on using an ocarina pre-Zelda 3), later on you can teleport out of dungeons, good art direction, can speed up dialogue (oddly enough you press Up to do it)
+/-
More linear structure than in Zelda 1
Enemies tend to appear when you’re in the middle of a screen
No hp/mp refills when leveling up
You can re-enter screens to avoid enemies spawning
-
Shallow gameplay compared to Zelda (lack of puzzles and traps)
Too much dead space (long segments with nothing happening, empty houses, dead ends, villages are too large; particularly tedious to seach for the second rabbit)
Backtracking
There are about 4 background themes that repeat with color swaps throughout the game
Boring dungeons (no puzzles, all are large mazes where everything looks the same)
Imprecise hit detection
Sword controls take some getting used to
Can't strafe nor run (a problem in tight areas with skeletons covering both exits, hedgehog boss)
Can’t get to some village houses
Somewhat uneven difficulty (pink snake boss is very easy with the right sword)
Can’t keep recovery items for later use, impossible to dodge some enemies when they spawn, some trial & error (some cheap enemy spawn placements, need to reach level 14 to have enough MP for the final boss), the shields don’t block projectiles nor reduce knockback (they only reduce damage), can’t skip repeated dialogue, some tedious enemies early on like the boars and skeletons, mostly simple bosses, need to grind several levels at one point (to transform an NPC), some obvious gating/roadblocking (the female soldier),