A look back at: Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!

Gee, with a title like that, you'd expect some game that is really all about adventure! Then again, it is an action RPG so yes you will find that. Then again, it's an action RPG for the NES, and since every NES game has been rather hard, yes, this will have that. It's almost a hybrid of other famous games in gameplay, in that your overall navigation is Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy whenever you're not in combat, and then it goes into Zelda mode when in combat, where you can't really do much else except swing you sword or use other items to defeat some monsters.

So I said it was tough, well, the level curve kinda sucks, enemies can do tons of damage, poison is surprisingly difficult to cure, and for a time you won't be able to see invisible monsters. Also the hospital charges significantly more the more you are hurt. That Phantom Tower dungeon is the worst, a Lost Woods style maze that seemed quite endless to players. One thing that is interesting are the jewels, which are really just faux money in case the player dies and loses half the money, but it's really got no other important applications to think of. One town in the game seems to have all the best items, but it's just past the midway point in the game and by then there's still the annoyances of several enemies, particularly the invisible ones. Also you know how I said I you can't really do much else except fight enemies when you get into a battle? There's a reason for that. Actually running from battles is detrimental in that the player can lose money, experience, health, or even items. What could Game Arts possibly be thinking doing this?

And this plot is a pretty weird gender-bender plot of sorts, which actually isn't that horrendous. So your character is a nameable female knight from some unknown origin, and then you have this unnamed wizard who is the standard bad guy. You also have a standard king and a standard princess to help and rescue, respectively. Not to mention dealing with a town that seems to be poisoned and then petrifying the king, and then the Wizard actually impersonates the kidnapped butterfly princess. The fact that the wizard does all of this and manipulates the hero into saving "him" is quite the feat. Well, yeah, you figure things out and actually kill the wizard not long after saving the real princess, and then your character turns into a man who apparently was one the entire time because the wizard did THAT too. Not really gonna go there, but I will say that the wizard's idea to completely merge into a dragon for immortality is not really original, and neither is getting a legendary sword to slay him. Ah, cliche plots, this time with genderbends. It's such a strange plot that I actually cannot hate it, even though the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired with some of its annoying mechanics.