Legacy of the Wizard
System: NES
Release Date: April 1989
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: Brøderbund
Genre: Metroidvania
Legacy of the Wizard is one of those games that I had as a kid, but didn’t have an instruction manual, so I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing. Thankfully the internet is a repository of everything to have ever existed, so coming across manuals is incredibly easy in this day and age. You play as the Draslefamily on a quest to collect four crowns and battle against an evil dragon that is on the brink of reviving. Each member of the family has their own strengths and abilities that are unlocked by specific items. These are necessary to navigate their specific areas of the dungeon below the house. Each family member is rated on strength, jumping height, and attack distance. Each character has a magic attack that is used with the B Button. This is the main way to defeat enemies throughout the dungeon and can be aimed in all eight directions. They also can jump and use selected items with the A Button. Be careful while jumping. If you fall a distance further than you can jump, you’ll take damage.
Items are found throughout the dungeon in treasure chests and in shops. Some items can only be used by specific family members, while others are generic and can be used by everyone. Elixirs and magic bottles will refill your health and magic if they run out while equipped. The crystal will teleport you back to the surface. Enemies also drop health replenishing bread, magic potions to restore your mana, keys to unlock doors, gold to buy items in stores or stays at inns, health depleting poison, rings of invincibility, scrolls of power that increase your speed and magic distance, and the cross that kills all monsters on the screen.
The Father, Xemn, is powerful, but unable to jump very high. His main item is a pair of gloves that allow him to move specific blocks. His section of the dungeon revolves around block puzzles that have to be moved precisely to pass through rooms. This can be rather frustrating, if you’re not good at controlling the glove, but luckily you can find spots to leave the room and reset the puzzle if you screw up. He can also equip the suit of armor, which kills enemies as you run into them, but magic is continuously drained. He also can wear the powered boots, which I found to be entertaining. These allow you to jump on enemies to defeat them.
The Mother, Meyna, is the average character. She’s not as strong as her husband, but also not as weak as the children. She can jump an average height, as well, and her attack goes a decent distance. Her best magic item are the wings, which allow her to walk anywhere that isn’t blocked by a solid wall. She can get into all sorts of places with this power at the expense of the magic meter. She also has a Rod that flings the special blocks in the direction they are aimed. Her last special item is the Key Stick. Because keys are difficult to come by and because her portion of the dungeon is lousy with locked doors, this is a necessity.
The Daughter, Lyll, is weak in attack, but has the unique ability to jump very high. This is how I realized that an area of the dungeon was meant for her. I couldn’t jump to reach the ladder with anyone else! She can equip the Mattock, which destroys the special blocks. Jump shoes, which makes her able to jump even higher than normal. And the powered shoes, which allows her to jump on the heads of her enemies. I was stupid and finished her dungeon last, leaving me with a very difficult boss fight at the end.
The Pet, Pochi, is very strong, but has weak jumping ability and attacking distance. What’s neat about Pochi is that he’s immune to taking damage from enemies. This makes him a good choice to start exploring the dungeon with. He doesn’t have any special items that he can equip, but he does have a corner of the dungeon that he is best suited for.
The Son, Roas, is the Chosen One. He’s got no special attributes, but he is the only one that can collect and use the DragonSlayer. Once all four crowns are collected, Roas can equip them and becomes able to teleport through the dungeon at portraits of Princess Celina. The instruction manual gives a good hint on which of the many portraits should be used, because the wrong portraits can get you stuck in areas of the dungeon that you can’t get out of.
There are four boss battles at the end of each level when you collect the crown. These boss battles follow the same order no matter which family member finds the crown. The first crown will always send you to fight Tarantunes and the last will always send you to fight Rockgaea. As said earlier, I was stuck fighting Rockgaea with Lyll, when I would have been much better off fighting him with Xemn. The final battle with the Dragon changes the rules on you a little bit. You can’t equip an elixir to refill your health if you die, so you need to be ready to kill. I realized that the Dragon’s vulnerable point changed after every red bar of life, but on my winning attempt, I just jumped and spammed attack and avoided his flame until he died.
Graphics: 2.0
The sprites are all of average detail. The backgrounds vary in impressiveness.
Sound: 2.5
I like the music in most of the different areas of the dungeon, but I think the sound effects are pretty amateurish.
Gameplay: 2.5
The game does well in varying the different dungeon areas for the strengths of each family member. I do think manipulating the blocks with the gloves and rod is more difficult to pull off than it should be.
Difficulty: 3.5
I muddled through the dungeon for about eight hours, but was able to win. The manual gave enough vague hints to be able to get to the end. You have to go back to the house and talk to grandma to save your progress if you die and grab passwords if you want to take a break.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I was frustrated in my first stretch of playing, but finally figured out how to play. Then I started having fun, but there were other stretches of being frustrated when I couldn’t figure out where to go until I stumbled into the solution.
Overall Grade: 2.7
Legacy of the Wizard earns a B-. I’ll say this is a solid game. Read the manual before you play and you’ll have a much better shot at making it to the end.