The other day I was nosing through some stuff online and encountered a pretty cool looking game called Legacy of the Wizard which I then decided I wanted to play. Naturally, it turned out to be part of a long-running series and, being me, I had to play (and hopefully review) the first entry, and indeed all other previous games in the series before I could play the one that caught my eye to begin with. That first entry, as it turned out, was an important game that I didn't know too much about - Dragon Slayer - which was, according to many, the first ever action RPG, and that means it directly influenced The Legend of Zelda among many others! It was originally developed by Nihon Falcom and released in 1984 for NEC's PC-88 before being ported to several other Japanese home micros, but due to the difficulty in emulating those well (in my experience), I've been looking into the game via its MSX version, and like many firsts, it's fascinating.
It only saw release in Japan so I'm not certain of the backstory, but you play as some guy (who, for review purposes, we'll call Zach) in a typical fantasy setting who has to battle through a series of mazey dungeons, find the special Dragon Slayer sword, and use it to smack up some evil dragons. Presumably to bring peace to the land and earn the affections of a damsel or two in the process, no doubt. Zach has a health-meter as well as strength and experience points which can be increased during play. To this end, there are millions of collectibles - more so than in any other game I've ever played, I think. It takes a while to collect them all (if you so choose) as you have to actually press a button to pick them up, but there is tons of stuff. Collect swords/stones to increase your attack strength, potions for magic, and coins which are needed to boost Zach's defensive abilities, and there are special items to look out for too.
These include a cross to make you invulnerable to enemies, a ring that allows you to move blocks around, crowns which are needed to access the next 'phase' of the dungeon, and keys to unlock chests which might contain something good... or bad. Annoyingly, you can only carry one of these items at a time, but they can be dropped any time and picked up again later. Another thing you'll encounter a lot of are warps. These will transport you to another warp but I'm not sure if there's a way to determine which one you'll be sent to. They are helpful for emergency escapes in any case, for there are, you'll be startled to hear, many monsters around the maze. Once you've got a sword, you just walk into them to cause damage (as they can do to you), but it's easy to be surrounded, or even trapped down a narrow corridor with one monster either side (you can't walk through them). Even more helpful than the warps, therefore, are the little houses here and there which refill your health to maximum - sweet!
This might seem more like a full review than a 'First Look', I've now realised, and I did play it for quite a while, but I felt in the end that I hadn't gotten far enough into the game to really justify doing a full review. Part of the reason for that is the game's difficulty, which is high! Its real-time combat is what made it stand out at the time but it doesn't make it any easier than the turn-based examples of the time. That said, its sprawling, labyrinthy dungeon(s) (I think each 'phase' is a different floor of one massive multi-floored dungeon) challenges one's memory and spatial awareness as much as brute reflexes. Indeed, in its day, careful note-taking and map-making would have been essential to make any headway due to its rather unforgiving nature, which isn't helped by somewhat cryptic design and a lack of in-game guidance. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing when I started playing it, and always died quickly.
Once you know where to get your first sword, and then where to go to boost its power, though, you will start to make a bit of progress. There are quite a few monsters pootling about but, thankfully, they don't seem to respawn (that really would have put me off it). It's a game that emphasises exploration and inventory management as well as fighting monsters, though, and requires players to experiment with items and backtrack through some previously conquered areas. Suffice to say, it was an innovative game for its day in more ways than one. It looks and sounds very basic, of course. I guess everything about it is understandably very basic now, but it was still fascinating to experience it, trying to imagine how I might've felt in the mid-80s playing it. Its fusion of action and RPG mechanics laid the groundwork not just for Falcom's future hits like Ys, as well as for the genre as a whole, but they must've made for an absorbing game in its own right too. I suppose not too many players would enjoy it now unless they grew up with it, but it's worth looking into for fans of the genre.
RKS Score: 3/5
Gameplay Video: I don't normally do these for 'First Look' posts, but here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at Stovepipe (check out their great channel here). Oh, and don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!
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