Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Willow is a platform action game developed by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1989. The intro says: “A magnificent fantasy filled with love, friendship and adventure!“, but in reality the game is a violent hack-and-slash ’em up, and is some distance from “love, friendship and adventure”…
Tag Archives: magic
Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard, PC
Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard (aka Wizard) was released by Psygnosis in 1994 and is a first-person, free-roaming dungeon-crawler. Unfortunately, though, it’s not a very good one.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, PC
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a “reboot” of the Castlevania series, developed by Spanish studio MercurySteam and first published by Konami in 2010. Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, helped produce the title.
In Lords of Shadow you play as Gabriel Belmont, a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of holy knights who protect and defend the innocent against the supernatural. His quest is to defeat a malevolent order known as The Lords of Shadow, and to resurrect his dead wife, Marie.
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, PC
Developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a rich and complex RPG with isometric 2D graphics, set in a fantasy world undergoing an industrial revolution. The game mixes magic and technology in a Victorian-styled “Steampunk” setting; is completely open-ended, and features lots of different races (humans, orcs, gnomes, elves, dwarves), with complicated – even racist – societal themes developing as you discover the world and interact with its many characters.
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The Sword of Hope II, Game Boy
The sequel to the first Sword of Hope, The Sword of Hope II was developed and published by KEMCO in Japan in 1992, but wasn’t localized and released into North America until 1996. Europe (and the rest of the world) didn’t receive a release of the game at all.
The Sword of Hope, Game Boy
This first-person adventure/RPG was developed by KEMCO (a subsidiary of Kotobuki Engineering & Manufacturing Co.), and published by Seika Corporation in Japan, North America and Europe in 1989. In it, you play as Prince Theo, who is on a quest to challenge his insane, power-mad father for rule of the kingdom.
Dungeon Master Nexus, Sega Saturn
Released exclusively in Japan for the Sega Saturn in 1998, Dungeon Master Nexus is a 3D dungeon-crawler based on the classic 16-bit RPG, Dungeon Master. And although FTL Games – the American developer of the original Dungeon Master – have been credited with creating this game, they actually had no involvement in the production of it. Dungeon Master Nexus was developed entirely in Japan, by Victor Interactive Software, and a fan translation into English was released in Sept 2023.
Xanadu Next, PC
Xanadu Next was developed by Falcom and published for Windows PCs in Japan in 2005. It is a continuation of the Dragon Slayer series and a spin-off from Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II. The game remained untranslated into English until a worldwide release by XSEED Games in 2016. And I have to say: it’s a wonderful game, and is arguably the pinnacle of the long-running franchise.
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, PC Engine
The Legend of Heroes is the sixth game in the Dragon Slayer series, and the first in The Legend of Heroes franchise. It was developed by Falcom and released initially for the PC-88 – in Japan – in 1989. The PC Engine CD version was localised into English by Hudson Soft and released for the TurboGrafx-CD in North America by Turbo Technologies in 1991. That’s the version I’m showing here.
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Sorcerian: Dragon Slayer V, MSX
The fifth episode in the Dragon Slayer series – Sorcerian – was originally released in 1987 for the PC-88. The MSX2 version was ported by Tierheit and published – in Japan only – by Brother Industries (on their Takeru label) in 1991. A fan translation into English is available, but I did notice that there are still a few untranslated passages in the game.
The King of Grabs 