Published by Firebird in 1987, The Willow Pattern Adventure is an Asian-themed maze game that is actually an unashamed, almost carbon copy remake of the 1984 game, Treasure Island. Both games were created by Greg Duddle.

The graphics have been changed, but the player character, swords, and enemies remain pretty much the same as in Treasure Island. The maze layout is very similar (if not mostly identical) to the one in Treasure Island, and the gameplay is also the same.

The idea is that you must negotiate the maze, selectively skewering enemies with either found swords, or by getting them to throw their own sword at you; dodging it, and then using it to kill them. The problem is that there are a very limited number of swords available, so it’s relatively easy to become stuck and unable to progress.

Enemies will only throw their swords at you horizontally, and some won’t throw a sword at all, so getting a weapon from them is not always possible. And if you take out an enemy unnecessarily, then you can end up with an enemy to kill, but no sword with which to do it. Which is very frustrating. And trying to remember which enemy is unnecessary is very difficult without a map.

The aim of the game is to find and rescue a princess, who is hidden within the sprawling maze. When you find her, however, you are constantly chased by a man with a stick who will rid you of a life if he touches you. This makes your escape (back to the ship in the harbour), much more difficult and fraught – especially if you run into any dead ends in the maze, which pretty much guarantees that you lose a life.

Reading about the original version of this game, it appears that there is a glitch somewhere that prevents you from getting 100%. I’m not sure if this stops you from completing the game or not. There is a fixed/updated version of Willow Pattern, that was released in 2021, that is available online. This also has built-in trainers, which is probably the best way to play this otherwise very annoying game.

More: The Willow Pattern Adventure on CSDb