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.