The music in this game is beautiful. This is the first hexagonal game I've played, and i have to say it was great. i feel like i need to read a guide (I tried the manual, it was not much help), to get a feel for all the transformations you can unlock, as well as all the spells you can do (and how to do them??), as that's not explained in game. But the actual game loop is very compelling! Gem of a game.

Things I learned from my one 8 hour battle on a small island:
- try not to let your mobs die, as once they get enough exp, they level up and transform into way stronger versions of themselves.
- the amount of bases you take defines how many mobs you can get, tho if you lose a base, you won't lose a monster if it's already summoned
- maybe take some notes as to the terrain you're on, only certain monsters can cross the plains, mountains, jungle, and ocean. usually related to their types. winged monsters can fly over the whole mountains, water beasts can't travel on land but can go all over the ocean etc
- some of the beasts have weaknesses to certain types, and i think it attacks might change based on what angle you're hitting the enemy from. somebody needs to make a type advantage chart

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.

Played at my local arcade with a friend. It was around 10pm, we were burnt out on Marvel vs Capcom and Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. Looking for a place of refuge, we happened upon a darker corner of the already dimly lit Barcade, and between two space age leather chairs sat the cocktail-style pong cabinet. It was the only machine in the house priced at a single token, and you could tell it was old because it was also the only machine in the house that had an old label for ten cents instead of the customary 25 or 50.

I mean we all know that pong is already a pretty good game right? But something about that vibe of finding it in it's own little void after the busy intensities of more modern games, retreating to the old and worn down knobs and the ominous white glow of the CRT. You could feel the game's age when the screen had to align itself once you put in the quarter.

I hope I'm not coming off as too pretentious right now, but that was a fun and memorable moment. Even though everyone's played pong, it still felt like we found something special that day.

Oh, and I totally kicked his ass too.

This is a really good game. After LONG break periods, I finally came back and beat this game. I think the reason why I was having trouble before, was that I was just barreling through areas in search of the next save point without grinding. In my last 3 hours, I took care and grinded a few levels before every boss encounter. Once I did this, boss battles became a cake walk (on normal difficulty that is a ha ha). As a long time fan of the Ys series, I'm happy to finally say that I cleared one of the games. Casual players may find this game repetitive, but I personally love this game play loop. The responsive nature of the combat is very addicting, and it makes grinding feel less like a chore and more like playing a game and having fun. Very very good game. If there's anything I'd critique, tho, it was that the flying enemies and bosses in the later levels were somewhat difficult to hit due to the angle of the camera, but I made do, and so will you. I also like Oath In Felghana better, it uses the same engine but has more varied locales with a cooler story.

Falcom please step your game up and make more games with this engine. Legend of Xanadu remake when??

If you like arcade the original arcade game, and you enjoy intense, repetitive arcade games in general, this is a great game. If not, you probably won't like it much. I wish it had battery save instead of password save for the story mode, and I also wish the story mode had slightly more meat to it, but it's still very fun. Many have spoken highly about how good this music is, but the music just hits different when actually playing the game too. It's almost intoxicating, and gets you craving for that pixel blood-lust this game totally delivers on. Would recommend for arcade fanatics!