Summary
In no way a terrible game; still, it's no Shining force
The Good
Unlike the usual strategy role-playing game, there aren't the large battles that take the place of dungeons. You enter dungeons where the monsters are visible, and if you can avoid them, you can actually get to the boss without fighting. Or, you can fight all of them and wipe out everybody, one screen at a time. If you're weak, you can edge along and get one monster on screen at a time and destroy them that way. Also, each character has a name and background, unlike the mostly nameless hordes in Dark Wizard.
The Bad
Very linear gameplay, and an almost silly (though actually useful) classing up system in which after each adventure you have to return to the king for him to bestow a higher rank upon you. The story is a little anemic.
The graphics of the characters (especially the stiff animation of the characters) is sub-par. But really, the real faults come with certain elements of the gameplay. Leveling up occurs too quickly (going from only being able to kill one monster before healing at the very beginning to whooping serious butt after the first couple dungeons), at least as far as offense goes. With defense, all you have to do is tack on a 20 helmet (or any other thing) instead of a 15 helmet, and you effectively cut the damage you take by half or two-thirds. Eventually, the battles themselves become very easy, and that's even before you're saddled with the companions, first a wizard, then suddenly two mages (after the first stage you use the wizard). I even took my knight and my wizard into a boss with less than half life and no heal potions, and I still was able to beat him. Perhaps it becomes harder after this, I haven't sallied forth beyond this point yet, as I'm still trying to buy armor for the three layabouts I've been suddenly saddled with.
The worst offender, though, is the battle system itself. I love games like Shining force, that are hybrid strategy and traditional rpg, or even Dark Wizard, where you explore during battles. In this game, if you touch a monster, you battle all that are on the screen at the same time (this can be one or three or more), and like Shining force, you have the ability to move your character toward or away, use items, magic or whatnot. This is fine at first, but once you get two or more characters, you realize that this isn't SF: you, as a player, get a turn, and on this turn, you get to use ONE character for each round of enemy attacks. This is offset somewhat by a high counter-attack rate (which means that for every 6 out of 10 hits a character takes, he'll strike back even if he didn't move that turn).
The Bottom Line
A traditional, overhead fantasy roleplaying game, complete with classing up by completing tasks assigned (at times) for you to do, with a battle system out of a strategy game. Explore, level-up, buy armor and weapons and items, learn spells and defeat monsters on your way to the dungeon bosses.
