Game 29: Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger (NES) - The Manual Lies! (Finished)

Credits have the best music

Faria was a game full of promise, but ultimately didn't deliver. It felt a bit out of place comparing it to Crystalis or The Legend of Zelda since those are actually fun. It lacks the same charm, and more closely resembles Little Ninja Boy, although I'm not sure many people would understand that comparison. It's generic through and through. Faria is probably the better game only because it's shorter, and the enemies are less annoying.

Which hole would you choose?

I was lost in the clouds last time, and this time tackled it methodically. The only point of interest was a castle in the sky. An old man told me the rope was found through a narrow hole in the clouds. Of course, that meant I would pick the wrong hole first. There was nothing below it except a waste of time getting back to the correct one.

What other game allows the character to climb directly on top of previously impassable mountains?

With the rope in hand I went back to the mountain area outside Riria as I previously spied a town to the east. Climbing the mountains was a fun. Inside the town were some wise men who told me the princess was an impostor. The real one was locked in the Phantom Tower, which can only be entered while holding the Crystal of Truth. They provided it, and I was off to the tower.

Using the crystal causes all but the real tower to disappear

The Phantom Tower is a genuine maze. It wraps around on itself east-to-west and north-to-south, except for specific rooms; rooms that aren't marked in any special way. I could have easily been lost in this mess for a lot longer, but I just happened to stumble across the correct path to the boss room. It's not impossible to map, but not every loop is not of equal length and exits will jump rooms at times (e.g. the north exit of a room on the 4th row might exit to the 1st row instead of the 3rd). In any case, I got lucky here, and the boss was easily dispatched.

The king must be colorblind

The real princess was awaiting my arrival. We quickly made our way to the castle to confront the impostor. The wizard's guise fell away when the princess arrived. A battle ensued with the wizard, who had two different attacks and was invisible for the entire battle. He fell easily with the goggles equipped; he moves rather slowly. With the wizard defeated, his spells fell away. The king returned to flesh, and the warrior became a man.

Sprite changed to look more manly

However, the wizard had one more trick up his sleeve. He attached his soul to the dragon he constructed from the royal scrolls. Then he used his magic to block out the sun. The final caves and tower awaited in the middle of the map. Again I scaled a mountain, and entered the town of Baig. Prior to this point the guard at the front would not let me pass unless I was a man.

We are men! Manly men!

The town was the last stopping point to fill up on the latest gear (which included the final bow and shield) and elixirs (full heal medicine). One particular NPC told me the dragon's weak spot was on his neck, so I would need to leap to attack it. However, my biggest obstacle to defeating the dragon was the manual. In the manual, the Legendary Sword has a description that says it's needed to beat the dragon. This is completely untrue. However, I headed off to the final tower thinking I would need to locate this sword.

This game's version of Death Mountain

The cave system is fairly easy to get through, but I got lost in it once. I had to go through it multiple times because I continued to die in the final tower searching for the final sword. I mapped out the entire thing, and stared at it for a good hour trying to figure out a room I might have missed. At one point, I even tried to take on the dragon, but I only heard the clink of no damage.

It wasn't until hours later that I found I could actually damage the dragon just fine without the Legendary Sword

So where was the Legendary Sword? It was recovered after defeating the dragon. Someone messed up the translation in the booklet, or something changed in localization. I spent well over 2 hours looking for that sword after finding the dragon the first time. The most annoying enemy in the dungeon poisoned me with a white poison (what I previously thought was blue... I still don't know what blue poison does), and prevented me from regenerating.

Quite easily might I add

The dragon was pretty easy to defeat. With a good amount of elixirs I went straight to the dragon after exhausting all possible locations for the sword. After the dragon, I fell down into a room that held the sword. It's rather superfluous. No more enemies exist after obtaining the sword, and my path back to the castle was swift with the use of a wing. The king was pleased that peace had returned, and finally offered his daughter's hand in marriage. The warrior could not stay though; instead he was determined to return home. The princess declared she would follow him wherever he went.

The best music and artwork appear at the end of the game, it's a nice reward for putting up with this game

Elapsed Time: 4h40m (Final Time: 11h10m)

Another game done. This one I have trouble endorsing. It's rather average with a couple of cool ideas, but the encounter rate and rather bland story isn't interesting enough to put time into it. Next up is Dragon Warrior III, which I've already started playing. I'll try to get a post out before the week is over. Now for a quick rating.

Some of the credits, if you'd like to see the whole thing then click on the link in the first caption

Combatant - Combat feels very chaotic. Sword attacks are the main form of damage. It would have been nice to have a few other viable options in an action game. Magic is prohibitively expensive, and arrows are inferior. Saba magic is the best. Enemies are a weird lot with flies, blobs, elephants, and other slightly mutated wildlife paired with demons and wizards. The AI is varied for the first half, but doesn't expand much beyond that. Bosses are mostly a joke. While combat is action based, there are stats that increase by level and improve damage considerably. Unfortunately, experience and gold are slow to accumulate. This makes combat fairly static and uninteresting.
Rating: 4

Concept art > pixel art

Admirer - It's hard to give a lot of compliments here. There's some customization to the sub-weapons as you can forgo all except the jumping shoes. The sprite of the hero is hard to see, and was not obviously female from the start. There's a visible difference once the spell is broken at least. Controls are pretty spot on, which is good for an action game. My biggest complaint is the sword will only hit a single enemy even if there are multiple on the same tile.
Rating: 3

A close-up in the beginning like this would have cemented the gender... maybe

Puzzler - Honestly, I don't expect many games to score high in this area until much later. The main quest is there, and it's hard to get lost. One side quest is available to pick up the ultimate armor (at least I believe it's a side quest). It's pretty much a straight shot to the end. The towers have stone statues to push, but there's nothing puzzling about them, just push them all.
Rating: 2

I'm not really sure what's on that tree

Instigator - The story does have a couple interesting points, but the game is so excited about them it spoils them half-way through. The manual does well to hide the fact the main character is currently female. Yet one NPC goes into detail about a town in a faraway land where the men have been turned into women. There are new sights in every town, but nearly every one had an issue to solve by destroying a nearby tower. The one that didn't had an enemy in the middle of a forest. The plot does progress and while basic, does provide motivation to keep going.
Rating: 4

What's the story behind this little guy?

Collector - I thought about giving this a lower value for the extremely limited inventory, but most key items don't take up a permanent slot. There's no sense of collecting. The economy remains relevant. Relative strength is obvious either from the manual, testing equipment, or judging based on price.
Rating: 3

Princess doesn't look very happy about her new home

Explorer - Visuals are acceptable, but the game music is rather grating. For the third time, the best track comes at the end. There's not much to see in the game world, and nothing to discover for the sake of discovery. Everything was consistent, but bland. The world was tightly controlled by impassable monsters, ships that refused to sail until after plot points were met, and mountain towns that remained inaccessible until items were found.
Rating: 3

Final Rating: 19 [32%]

Overall, I'll say it again, it's a bland, generic, mediocre experience. Faria seems to have remained obscure for a reason. I don't see anyone championing this game. Let's move on now to Dragon Warrior III.

Who is this Colon Co.?