Silver

The Good
The 2D renderings in the background were simply superb. Very beautifully done! From winter worlds and caverns to lush countrysides and urban settings, the graphics enthrall you to keep playing.

The different worlds you travel to are all very distinct and interesting; my favorite was the 'other dimension' type world with the beholder creatures; very 'Planescape and HR Giger'-like.

The controls were a little tricky at first, but were easily absorbed as time went on. You could've used special types of melee attacks, but for the most part I just hacked and slashed with the A button.

The music was chillingly good; fit the mood of the game perfectly. Sound effects were OK.

With the exception of a few screens, once enemies are dead, they stay dead. I always hate random encounters that keep reappearing!

The NPCs were interesting, although underdeveloped. The audio for the characters' speech was top notch.

The Bad
The major issue I had with this game was that the size of your characters were so small on certain screens that it was hard to tell what you were doing.

Although this game looks like an RPG, it really isn't. You only gain levels when you kill major bosses (no such thing as experience) and you do not have control of your attributes. The only RPG aspect is that you can select different weapons, armor and magic items, as well as eating food and drinking potions for health. Essentially it's a pretty, story-based linear fighting game. And this linearity totally destroys the concept of an RPG.

There's a part of the game that mentions a crashed ship which contained a 'knight' from the sky. Obviously UFO references, but I don't believe they went any farther with it, unless I missed something.

I can't stand games with set save points; you do not have the freedom to save whenever you want.

The Bottom Line
You are a young knight named David who is trying to rescue his wife, as well as a lot of other women, from the clutches of an old wizard named Silver. He has captured them to be used as sacrifices (I think) to the ultimate secret boss, Apocalypse, who's a big ol' demon.

You must collect 8 magical orbs from across the world and use them to defeat Silver. You obtain these by either killing bosses or finding them in a labyrinth of enemies and traps. Once knocking Silver off, you travel to a hell dimension for a showdown with Apocalypse (with the help of Silver's old nemesis).

Bottom line, this is a fun game that is only moderately difficult. But, if you want a true RPG experience, look elsewhere. Although the game may look like a mouthful, it is not as in-depth as one would hope.