“Save Fairyland in this Special port!”

I don’t think anyone has wanted to see another person review Hydlide. I even reviewed it already this year on the PC-88 thanks to the release on Switch. Despite the “age” and infamy of Hydlide over here, I enjoyed it for what it was even if it was far from perfect. What’s different about the version I’m reviewing is that it tried to be more than just a port of the computer game. While US players would know this game as just Hydlide, in Japan it was given the name Hydlide Special. (NOTE: there is no Disk System version, I just couldn't label this as just Famicom as of writing this.) This is because it adds some elements from Hydlide II making this in a way a unique game. I’m not going to go into the same depth as I did for the PC-88 release so I’d recommend reading the review I left for the Eggconsole release if you want my full thoughts on the actual game as a whole.

Well first thing to note right off the bat is the story is a lot more vague then the text screen of the computer versions. You’ll see the main bad guy Varalys shoot fire at Ann and she becomes three fairies and that’s about it. You can also put in your password here which brings up a new thing about this version, the saving. Okay it’s really weird but made sense for the time. So if you press Select, you can open up this menu. You’ll see Save as an option which does Save where you’re at and if you hit Load, you’ll go at that spot with everything Saved. What will trip people up though is this Save dies when the game is powered off, Famicom games still didn’t have batteries in the cart to allow saving so that’s why you’re supposed to pick Password to write it down and use when powering the system back on. While some reviews do mention this, the famous AVGN episode actually didn’t and assumes you have to use the Password every single time you die.

When you actually begin the game, it starts just like the original where you’ll be grinding on the first screen two times from Slimes. A lot of the adventure will feel familiar to you if you have played the computer versions. The biggest change you’ll notice right off the bat is the Magic system. Jim can use five different spells and he’ll unlock one for the first five levels. The sad part is all of it is basically worthless as magic can’t be used to gain EXP. The only one worth using is Turn which can turn the enemy around which helps as enemies are best hit from behind. Though even this isn’t good enough because sometimes the enemy can turn around immediately and possibly kill you. There are three special ways you can get infinite magic for a short amount of time but again magic just isn’t helpful so don’t go for it. It also causes the music to go really fast for some reason. I also was only able to get the one where you kill thirty Worms in the same area which makes a big purple sandworm appear to activate the infinite magic.

Going inside dungeons feels less punishing then they did originally. You still do lose HP in areas like this one but I swear it’s a lot slower in this version of the game making the strategy of it a lot less interesting. The only other thing I noticed different about them is I think getting the ring is different? I know it was always RNG if it showed up but I think they changed it by having to kill enemies first? You’ll begin to notice one of the bigger problems with this port in these areas as well which is the stupidity of the enemies. It’s actually a lot harder to grind in these areas if you wanted to as the enemies love to just not find you most of the time and constantly like to spawn in only to leave the area. It’s weird because when you’re grinding off the Worms it feels like the opposite problem where you’ll constantly get unlucky and get one shot as turned to you right as you started attacking. At least getting the last two levels with the Hyper enemy isn’t too annoying.

The third fairy got a very interesting change as there are now two Wizards and you must use the magic spell Wave. This is the only time you need it in the game. The problem with using it though is the space you’re in is very tight horizontally and you can only shoot the spell left or right. The best tip I can give you is just distract one and hope the other one gets behind it and then immediately use Wave and they should be both dead. You’ll then be taken to the dragon but with a new change once again. The Dragon can’t die and you’ll have to use the Fire spell to burn a tree that reveals the way in. You then must go in there and destroy the grave and then fight the Dragon like you would in the computer version. Once you finish that and get the Luby, you’re off to fight Varalys. Good god this fight sucks in this one. It’s still the same strategy of hitting him a few times and then retreating to heal but I now have to do it in the room before it as the place near the grave is way harder to heal in as it was in the PC-88 version. I also just kept getting bad luck but eventually I did it and you’re given the same ending as it normally is though at least you won’t get a potential seizure this time.

While Hydlide Special is an inferior version of the game, it’s not the worst thing ever. I think 1986 was probably the last year it could have been released and been seen as acceptable. This is why the US version is so hated. It came out in 1989 with a pretty generic looking cover especially compared to the nice looking cover Japan got. Stuff like The Legend of Zelda had already come out and even stuff like cartridge batteries existed in games. This release is so baffling, I guess FCI was just desperate to get anything out for the US market? It kind of reminds me of how Dragon Quest and Bomber Man both had late releases on the NES as well and yet Hydlide suffers the most from it. It’s not that US players had context for any of this back then, especially children. It’s hard to really blame anyone for being hateful towards the game, it might be one of the worst ideas a company had made for a localization. It’s barely even different from the Japanese version too with only the name being changed to just being Hydlide and the Luby item being renamed to Ruby. Look, I’m not trying to weave a new narrative like everyone would have appreciated this old game had it not came out here in 1989 because Super Hydlide exists and a lot of people hate that one too. I just think it’s sad it never stood a chance.

The graphics are nothing too special and I’d argue they look worse than the other version I played. The one graphic I noticed the biggest downgrade for was just the poison as it just looks like soiled ground in this version. Then you have the audio, my god the audio. If you know anything about Hydlide, it’s this stupid short loop that sounds like a rip off of the Indiana Jones theme. It actually comes from Hydlide II because the “Music” that played in the original was…certainly noise. Even with this music being added, it gets old fast. Having to hear it too while writing this review doesn’t help. Also they made that amazing sound when you get an item in this version way worse! I always loved hearing those beeps when getting an item, how could you do this to me T&E Soft?!

Some might say this was a waste of time. I felt compelled to review this but probably didn’t add much to the conversation. That’s fine, I still enjoyed writing this and just seeing what this version was like after all of these years. It’s at least very short once you know what to do in it. I still wouldn’t advise you play Hydlide Special, just play it on the computer if possible. Hydlide won’t appeal to most nowadays but it’s a game I think should be worth playing just for how innovative it was for the genre. It’s just a shame the NES version gave it the legacy it has nowadays. Am I overreacting to all of this? Probably, but I don’t have much more to say and I kind of want this music to stop playing so I think I’ll end here. Thanks for reading if you somehow read this whole thing.

20th Feb, 2024 EST
I'm currently playing Hydlide Special on Famicom and am in the middle of defeating the final boss. I wanted to write this down before I forget.

Here are my complaints thus far:

One of the major problems of this game is the screen real estate that you have. There are many situations where I had to do some super difficult maneuver just to defeat an enemy. The absolute worst offender of this is when the player has to use the wave command to take out two sorcerers at the same time. The playfield which the sorcerers spawn on is largely a vertical one. You have to essentially wait for RNG to place the two sorcerers beside each other, while you stand to the left or right of them both, and then hit them with the wave in order to kill them AND hope they don't fire something at you while you're in attack mode. If you are in attack mode and get hit, it's game over. The space the player has to stand in order to line up this shot is so small, that if the sorcerers attack you, the attack will be dodgable and will likely kill the player. This maneuver is doable, but it didn't really feel earned to me. I was just waiting for the shot to line up while HOPING i don't get hit in the face with a fireball.

Health refuels too slowly! A good deal of this game is spent standing around waiting for both health and MP to come back. Not awesome!

I wish there was a dedicated magic button. Hold B and push a direction on the D pad or something to select a spell to activate.. IDK! Doing spells with the A+B combo always feels bizzare and clunky.

The music is not enjoyable at all. Why? So glad they rectified this in Super Hydlide, that game's over world and town theme are world class. I guess we learn from our mistakes sometimes.

The combat is like really not as engaging as it should be. I know I know, it's a hot take for 1984 action RPGs that the combat is not that fun, but wow this is rough. I really enjoy the combat in both Ys, Xanadu, and even Romancia more than this (not Dragon Slayer tho.. fuck Dragon Slayer).

The grind is too intense for the amount of combat woes I've talked about before. IF the combat was more satisfying, had more player feedback other than a silly red square. I understand that player feedback as a concept was not all that strong, but damn does this game need it. It's kinda crazy since this irked me way more than the moon logic did overall. Honestly, the game's world is really really small. There were a few things I could never have figured out without a guide, but about half the game I was able to on my own.

I feel like if the combat was a bit more forgiving and health was a bit quicker to fuel up this game would be much more fondly remembered. The need for constant save scumming drained me as I was trying to churn thru the game. The really small world makes up for the nonsensical moon logic.

I'm not sure If I'm going to finish this game, the grind and the combat really isn't satisfying enough to be fun. But beating it's many little challenges is somewhat satisfying.

Update 21 Feb 2024
I also wanted to add a few things..

One small thing that was a little annoying is that you can't gain experience from attacking enemies with magic. Why not?! It's not easy to get the timing right on these spells, at least reward me for landing a hit!

The sections in the maze are the most fun In this game I think. Especially in the moments when you're fighting Blackams in the maze screen before the battle with Varalys, grinding in that area is very fun, using the turn spell and other spells to keep them at bay when you're cornered is pretty neat too. In the closed mazes, you get a much clearer idea of where the enemies spawn, and can prepare much better for it. It put me in a Pac-Man state of mind. Sneaking up behind the enemies and then hitting them in this maze setting makes me feel like a spy or something. I suppose I should play Tower of Druaga next then right?

My other critiques still stand though. You probably won't have any fun here, especially if you're not prepared.

The single biggest problem with this game is the stupid "bump" combat that would also go on to ruin the first couple of Ys games. Having to maneuver your character against randomly moving enemies doesn't create any sense of fun or accomplishment, rather just an exercise in frustration. Couple that with extremely powerful enemies and I can't imagine what a pain this must have been to play at time of release.

Beyond that, the visuals are actually really good, with a better looking overworld than anything else to have come out by this time as far as I can recall. The map and dungeon designs also have a clear prototypical Zelda feel to them, but the dungeons specifically are less interesting with mostly similar maze layout and some monsters to defeat.

While there are other games of this time period that were flawed but visionary, I think Hydlide is more an accidental preview of what good games in this genre would look like. Nothing here is that innovative, it just happened to come out a bit sooner than the heavy hitters.