One of the first games I ever played. Stunted my growth in ways that ripple out to this very day.
Extremely influential game, unfortunately very short. Creates the game-mechanics that go onto inspire YS as well as The Legend of Zelda, probably the first "true" ARPG, recommended if you have patience.
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.
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.
in 1984 this was probably the most earth-shattering shit on planet earth, but now it just kinda sucks
It was interesting playing this game, it feels like a beta concept of "the RPG table game turned into an eletronic game", that is why it was interesting.
And I managed to finish it without save states or a guide, so I don't hate this game.
And I managed to finish it without save states or a guide, so I don't hate this game.
What? A 4 to Hydlide? Surely a mistake...
YES, it's impossible without a guide, YES it's janky as hell (god help you if you aren't using save states), but for 1984 it's an interesting game, and arguably there's a lot still interesting about it today that sticks with me.
There's so many weird little decisions that this game has. When it comes to action RPGs, I always think that if I have trouble or an interesting time killing the first slime... then it could be a good game. and that's the case here with hydlide, where I walked into a Slime while in "DEFEND" mode and promptly died. It felt like a weird puzzle trying to figure out how to get my first few levels.
Standing on forest tiles prevents you from regenerating health, and damages you. There's something moving in this simplicity of logic. Forests ARE dangerous, filled with unknown things, so of course you would get hurt while standing in one...right?
Attacking enemies based on where they're moving will hurt you more, back attacks are safer. But there's this absolute chaos to the chunky movement that makes it hard to consistently do.
As a result even the simple dungeons where you need to go two screens, pick up a chest, and leave... are remarkably tense. Sure it feels like a dice roll whether you'll just die, but there is an interesting layer of strategy that will increase your odds. So much personality and memorability in tiny, simple mazes. Each time you try to find the next place to grind it feels like a little microcosm of a 'new area' in a modern game - the zombie graveyard, the desert worms, etc... it feels like a big adventure shrunk down to this tiny size.
I'm a fan of the quiet narrative 'beats' - slimes being silently replaced by "HYPERS" on the overworld, upon reaching level 5 or 6.
I like some of the bizarre humor - the unexplained screens full of moving rocks and trees that will kill you even at max level. The screen of wasp-infested trees you need to investigate one by one to find a key item. Having to stand outside a cave of worms and slowly swat at them to grind out levels. Is it good? Not really, but the way Hydlide has these boiled-down, janky scenarios that we are familiar with today in action RPGs is sort of heartwarming. For example, the "standing outside a cave of worms" is very similar to cheese strategies for grinding hard enemies... The Elden Ring Moving Ball is similar to the Killer Rock in Hydlide.
The way this game gates stuff with obscure knowledge reminds me of Tower of Druaga, or arcade games in general. It's funny to know that you need to keep killing golden knights to get a key, but if you kill one more, the key vanishes. It's funny to learn that you have to drain the water around a moat to make a dragon vulnerable.
Ultimately, through the lens of 'is this playable and fun right away?' it's not a good game. But all the strange decisions and scenarios feel like they could be spun out and developed into interesting games of their own. So in that sense Hydlide feels like this box of possibilities.
I owned this game for some reason as a kid and I hated it.
I give this game more respect than most people do, especially for the time and place it was released in, but it's still not amazing.
Settled on this one both on impulse and for shits and giggles. Did not want to listen to a 15 second loop the whole time so threw on fucking Whole Lotta Red bc it would be amusingly unfitting. This has created new problems though bc the game sucks ass shit and now wlr will remind me of it and i will die instantly
On a serious note it's interesting as like, one of the first RPGs. Not much else, though. All the entertainment it seems to offer is really from poking fun at it, and even then Virtual Hydlide is a lot funnier just from how rancid it looks alone.
On a serious note it's interesting as like, one of the first RPGs. Not much else, though. All the entertainment it seems to offer is really from poking fun at it, and even then Virtual Hydlide is a lot funnier just from how rancid it looks alone.
you kiddies wouldn't get your zelders and ys without this
“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.
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.
I cant believe i actually sat down and beat it. The game is cryptic but with some grinding with the eels and the sky blue squids u can beat the game. Its like a 40 minute game although you will keep hearing the music over and over
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.
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.
Juego legendario que tuvo la desgracia de haber llegado a occidente muy tarde, siendo injustamente infravalorado.
Aunque, más allá de tener el estatus de pionero y ser una pieza clave en el nacimiento del Action RPG, no hay mucho que destaque y en ciertos aspectos, bastante mediocre, no deja de ser un juego bastante entretenido e innovador.
Aunque, más allá de tener el estatus de pionero y ser una pieza clave en el nacimiento del Action RPG, no hay mucho que destaque y en ciertos aspectos, bastante mediocre, no deja de ser un juego bastante entretenido e innovador.
This game is interesting, but it has not aged well.
A dificuldade excessiva e o grind limitado foram os detalhes que mais me incomodaram, e um está ligado ao outro, se tivesse um grind aberto como é na maioria dos jogos a dificuldade excessiva seria equilibrada. Mas é compreensível haver falhas, considerando que é um dos percursores do que seriam os JRPG como Dragon Quest 1 que lançou 2 anos depois.
Hydlide's reputation is peculiar: the title sits at the nexus of two different schools of game design and represents an important milestone in the history of the JRPG and action-RPG, yet it is generally ignored by the public. On the one hand, there is The Tower of Druaga (1984), credited with seminal qualities for the genre; on the other hand, The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Ys (1987), which were inspired by Hydlide's attempts, gave rise to much better known game franchises – not to mention Dragon Quest (1986) and Final Fantasy (1987). One explanation for this oversight, in the West, is certainly its very late release date, as the title was only ported across the Pacific in 1989. By that time, the American public had already experienced games that greatly developed the formula behind the success of Ultima III: Exodus (1983) and Hydlide seemed very obsolete, when compared with The Legend of Zelda or with the thematic duology of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985) and Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988). However, the game is accessible to newcomers, even though it feels rough by today's standards.
The player plays as Jim, in a realm where humans and fairies co-exist. When the demon Varalys awakens, he turns Princess Ann into three fairies, dispersing them across the land. It is the hero's duty to find these three fairies to free Ann from her enchantment, whilst also killing Varalys. The story is not further developed, as the game has no lines of dialogue. The player is immediately placed in this world, without any real indications. Unlike Ultima III or The Black Onyx (1984), which inherited the gameplay of the Wizardry series, Hydlide opts for an action-oriented gameplay, similar to The Tower of Druaga. To attack, the player must make Jim's sprite collide with an enemy: if they hold down the A button, Jim goes into attack mode, which increases his strength at the expense of his defence. The idea is thus to attack monsters from the side or from behind, to avoid being killed themselves. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, it is necessary to level up to increase Jim's various characteristics (life, strength, magic), making grinding a necessary part of the adventure. It's also worth mentioning that magic is an addition for the Famicom/NES port, to match the standards set by Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness (1985), but it is of relative use – only the sequence with the wizard compels its use.
In addition to this prerequisite, the player must also look for the fairies and the jewels to open the way to Varalys. This is where the adventure begins to get complex. Admittedly, the map of Hydlide is of a reasonable size, as it is 5x5 grid, but the progression is more or less linear, as certain items seem essential to progress, forcing a rather exhaustive exploration. Thus, to kill the vampire, the players needs the cross; they need to find the key to open the chest of one of the jewels; etc. This wouldn't be a problem, if the game had better gameplay. Hydlide suffers from its combat system, which very often and unfairly punishes the player. Progression through the game is a constant fight of attrition, as it is necessary to spend a lot of time regenerating one's life on the grass tiles. The pace suffers greatly, as it is already undermined by the grinding required to progress. On the other hand, items such as the shield or the sword only offer marginal improvements, contributing to the frustrating nature of the title.
The archaic nature of the combat system, with no attack button, is largely felt in the much more cramped sections. Indeed, Hydlide's battles require special awareness regarding positioning: this is unfortunately not possible in labyrinths or basements. There, the fights are particularly lethal and the lack of regeneration only aggravates the feeling of powerlessness. The duel with Varalys is a prime example of this issue, as he is flanked by four enemies – who constantly respawn. Getting close to him is hard enough and attacking him is even harder. As such, the game is forced to use its Medicine as a very artificial means to allow the player to triumph – or at least have a fighting chance.
Yet Hydlide remains an important game. It is still a cornerstone title for JRPGs, preceded by only a handful of other games. It also has the virtue of being more accessible than the majority of titles in the genre, with its smaller world and modest dungeons – a far cry from the oh-so-large maps that Japanese dungeon crawlers borrowed liberally from Wizardry. It manages to emulate a certain sense of adventure with its different environments and the mysterious side of the basements, whose OST strangely reminds me of the Jade Mask theme in Taiyō no ko Esuteban (1982) – a much deserved respite after the quickly intolerable overworld theme. Similarly, if the narrative depth of Ultima IV and Ultima V is missing, there is a charm to these games that leave the player free to populate the adventure with their own imagination. So, is Hydlide a good game? Certainly not, but it is easy to see why it became, for the Japanese public of the 1980s, an essential title, so crucial to the history of video games.
The player plays as Jim, in a realm where humans and fairies co-exist. When the demon Varalys awakens, he turns Princess Ann into three fairies, dispersing them across the land. It is the hero's duty to find these three fairies to free Ann from her enchantment, whilst also killing Varalys. The story is not further developed, as the game has no lines of dialogue. The player is immediately placed in this world, without any real indications. Unlike Ultima III or The Black Onyx (1984), which inherited the gameplay of the Wizardry series, Hydlide opts for an action-oriented gameplay, similar to The Tower of Druaga. To attack, the player must make Jim's sprite collide with an enemy: if they hold down the A button, Jim goes into attack mode, which increases his strength at the expense of his defence. The idea is thus to attack monsters from the side or from behind, to avoid being killed themselves. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, it is necessary to level up to increase Jim's various characteristics (life, strength, magic), making grinding a necessary part of the adventure. It's also worth mentioning that magic is an addition for the Famicom/NES port, to match the standards set by Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness (1985), but it is of relative use – only the sequence with the wizard compels its use.
In addition to this prerequisite, the player must also look for the fairies and the jewels to open the way to Varalys. This is where the adventure begins to get complex. Admittedly, the map of Hydlide is of a reasonable size, as it is 5x5 grid, but the progression is more or less linear, as certain items seem essential to progress, forcing a rather exhaustive exploration. Thus, to kill the vampire, the players needs the cross; they need to find the key to open the chest of one of the jewels; etc. This wouldn't be a problem, if the game had better gameplay. Hydlide suffers from its combat system, which very often and unfairly punishes the player. Progression through the game is a constant fight of attrition, as it is necessary to spend a lot of time regenerating one's life on the grass tiles. The pace suffers greatly, as it is already undermined by the grinding required to progress. On the other hand, items such as the shield or the sword only offer marginal improvements, contributing to the frustrating nature of the title.
The archaic nature of the combat system, with no attack button, is largely felt in the much more cramped sections. Indeed, Hydlide's battles require special awareness regarding positioning: this is unfortunately not possible in labyrinths or basements. There, the fights are particularly lethal and the lack of regeneration only aggravates the feeling of powerlessness. The duel with Varalys is a prime example of this issue, as he is flanked by four enemies – who constantly respawn. Getting close to him is hard enough and attacking him is even harder. As such, the game is forced to use its Medicine as a very artificial means to allow the player to triumph – or at least have a fighting chance.
Yet Hydlide remains an important game. It is still a cornerstone title for JRPGs, preceded by only a handful of other games. It also has the virtue of being more accessible than the majority of titles in the genre, with its smaller world and modest dungeons – a far cry from the oh-so-large maps that Japanese dungeon crawlers borrowed liberally from Wizardry. It manages to emulate a certain sense of adventure with its different environments and the mysterious side of the basements, whose OST strangely reminds me of the Jade Mask theme in Taiyō no ko Esuteban (1982) – a much deserved respite after the quickly intolerable overworld theme. Similarly, if the narrative depth of Ultima IV and Ultima V is missing, there is a charm to these games that leave the player free to populate the adventure with their own imagination. So, is Hydlide a good game? Certainly not, but it is easy to see why it became, for the Japanese public of the 1980s, an essential title, so crucial to the history of video games.
This game controls like a large box filled with a printer
Very interesting as a point of origin for JRPGs and specifically as a proto-ZELDA, but not very much fun to play. It's amusing that, even as a fresh and novel-for-the-time hour-long distillation of the pre-existing tabletop/early computer RPG experience, it nevertheless featured a TON of grinding, lol.
I don't know how I had the diligence to play through the Nintendo version of this game, but I did it. Never again. The game gets half a star for the cool looking dragon on the box cover and game label.