Overall: An impressive-looking game, very playable and interesting, with colorful locals and characters, but ultimately a Zelda-wannabe. Eh, I'll give it a stab.
Graphics: You've got sunrises, sunsets, purple mountains misty-top't, a whole boatload of characters, and marble palaces to boot! Nit: Everything looks awfully sharp and pointy, and your player looks like an elf on steroids.
Sound System: Not as varied as Mario or Zelda, but still quite lovely. When those wolves start growling, man...
Plot: The usual-and an almost direct rip-off of Zelda. You're trying to save your magical homeland from an evil power, with minions plus, and along the way you must acquire skills, talk to civilians, and waste money on cheap supplies. Ah well, I suppose there's so many plot options an adventure game can take. Still...
Abilities: You can't jump. I discovered this when I played the game the first time, and it drove...me...NUTS! Every time I pressed the A button (which is how you jump in Mario) I merely targeted on stuff. That immediately deflated my enthusiasm for this game. You can't jump over, on or out of walls, enemies, or houses. On the other hand, this also means you can't fall off cliffs, which is a definate plus. You also can't swim, avoid enemies(not easily, anyway) or carry any other weapons than what is immediately available on the screen. You *can* gaze at stuff up close, run, use a sword (yeah!), and carry the powers of Wind, Fire, Earth, and Water. You pick these abilities up at different cities which are sponsered (?!) by these elements ("Brought to you in part by the letter Q and the Power of Fire").
Difficulty: Quest is hard. Very hard. So hard Sally hasn't beaten it yet. As she improves, I'll update, but it's up to her to choose to play. E-mail me and convince her! Tell her of her following! Please, I need the info! There are an infinite combonation of enemies, and a host of hidden surprises.
Final Review: Pottery Sally bought this game the summer before Zelda came out, as a kind of surrogate before the Real Thing. We thought it to be interesting, and kinda cool at first, but the glamour quickly wore off when we figured there warn't a damn thing we could do. It's a *really* difficult game, and you aren't given a whole lot of choices, ability-wise. Most of the game's power goes into the scenery, which is nice, but useless if you can't actually achieve anything.