Game 4: Willow (NES) - Ufgood Times

"We began our journey in the quaint village of Nelwyn. Willow introduced me to his family, and I politely stood by as they bade their farewells. Stopping by his neighbors the High Aldwin, and Vohnkar, Willow further prepared to face off with Bavmorda. Heading north towards Dew we heard rumors of an evil man twisted by the witch queen's influence. It turns out the father of the current man in charge had succumbed to the dark forces abound in the outlands. He sunk to level of stealing food...which doesn't sounds all that bad except he's doing it with evil powers! So, we travel further north into the forest, and come across the entrance to his cave. Standing guard is a skeleton that requests tribute to enter. Instead of dispatching this abomination to nature, Willow believes it's best we listen because...well, I don't rightly know why."

*Plop*

Willow (the game) leads a long line of upcoming games that follow a certain formula to create a good action-adventure-RPG mix. It's obvious that Zelda and Ys are inspirations for much of the game, but many who played this game had probably only enjoyed the former. Many games come from a similar point of origin; though, depending on what we're first introduced to, we will compare (fairly or unfairly) new experiences (games) to those of our past adventures (games). While it's easy to say games like Lagoon and Crystalis borrow heavily from Willow, it's probably more true that all these games are born from the lineage of Ys (or some other obscure game). I've even heard someone call the Shin Megami Tensei series a rip off of Pokemon, most likely due to their experience with Pokemon first. Soon we'll see how things look once we get to Ys, and then I'll get to call it a ripoff of Willow.

Why do you need to tell me your name every day Vohnkar?

With that little aside out of the way, let's get to what happened the first night. There's an introductory narrative when first powering up the game that describes the setup for the story. Bavmorda is the big bad, and Fin Raziel has the power to stop her, but failed. Enter our intrepid hero to save the day. Willow starts very unceremoniously in front of his house. Like Zelda, Willow starts with no weapon, and only by exploring the starting village do we find our first sword and spell.

Fighting is a little awkward at first. Willow seems unfamiliar with all swords at first, which causes him to swing slowly. As more enemies are defeated the sword strikes become faster. Luckily the training time for new swords isn't all that long, but it still seems like an area where realism is creeping over enjoying the game. There are two attacks: a thrust that occurs when pressing a direction and attacking, and a stationary attack that swings the sword in a wide arc. This is definitely a nice feature, but would be better on a system with more than one button to attack.

Willow's magical floating sword (not real magic)

The second button is relegated to activating magic. These come in the form of spells or items that imbue magical powers. Acorns are the first magic item available, but I've yet to get these to work properly. They're supposed to stone (freeze) the enemy for a short time. Maybe the snakemen are immune to the effects, but other than those enemies, I don't have much use for a 'hold' spell. Healing magic is always a good fallback when deciding what to spend magic points on, and before getting to the first boss we are given a healing rod. This proves to be the best magic item yet.

The coolest spell so far, too bad MP is rather limited ('real' magic)

After retrieving a golden statue to give to the skeleton guard, we're allowed access to the first cave, which is a maze of twisting passages that all look the same. I've been able to get through without a map up 'til now, but I think mapping is the way to go for the later caves. So, I've gone back through the video, and mapped everything. It seems I've done well at not missing anything so far.

Once the boss here is defeated--after some game overs--I head back to the entire village thanking Willow. Well here now is a first, a game that acknowledges accomplishments by changing NPC dialogue. I must note this to compare against Ys when I get to that in a few games. Dragon Warrior may also do this, but I'm unsure to what effect as my memory is a bit fuzzy on that game's particulars. This technique is used many other games, and I'm more surprised when completed quests pass without a nod from those I've just saved.

Scene change for boss fights (First boss: Bogarda)

Wandering around is what I've enjoyed the most. While the game is fairly linear by locking areas until I've found a "key" or accomplished some task, it still feels open enough that it's not a concern. Also, the game is quick enough that once I do reach a barrier, it's overcome within minutes. Even if I had tried to venture ahead, a helpful NPC tells me that I would have been blocked at a bridge by an invisible wall, but it's been expelled with the defeat of Bogarda.

Not long after this we run across two of the supporting characters from the movie; up until now the only clue this was based on the movie were the Nelwyns, and back story with Bavmorda and Fin Raziel. The comedy relief brownies make an appearance here, and request that Willow steal the Crystal Ball of Life from an aging dragon. Not being into dragon slaying, and the dragon not into fighting (nor inclined to part with his treasure), Willow instead receives a bracelet dropped by previous thieves. There's no description for the bracelet, and unsure what to do next, I head back out of the cave.

Let's be friends!

Just as I'm about to exit the cave, a wall opens up. This new exit leads to the lake of the Fairy Cherlindrea whom I was searching for. My only guess is the bracelet belonged to the brownies, and magically allowed passage to the lake. From her, I gained a magic cane that would allow me to transform Fin Raziel back into her human form. Next step was to find her. First though, we get to run across a main character from the movie, given a supporting role here.

Well, it's the thought that counts

Madmartigan is one of the characters I remember most from the film. At first I really couldn't tell if he was a good guy or bad guy (the only distinction I had at the time). I was torn between the two because at first he's caged up for crimes, but then he takes care of the baby, yet loses her later on and doesn't care much (this is all from memory). He's a good guy in the end, but it really had an impact on me that someone could seemingly go back and forth between bad and good. It may have been the first shade of gray character I knew.

In the game we meet him on the side of the road sitting down handcuffed. I can only imagine that he's shackled to the ground as well because he's made no effort to move; stranger still, the key to unlock him is stashed in a chest nearby instead of on the person who bound him. After releasing him, he mentions his gratitude, hands over a cheap necklace, and leaves. We seem him make another appearance in a nearby inn where he tells Willow of the wakka seed that allows someone to breath underwater, helpful for the next area where the path is flooded.

Nearby, I found a strange sword that had double the attack strength of my current weapon, but it wouldn't hit anything. At first I thought my swings were just too slow, and I wasn't landing any blows. After some time I switched back and wondered if it was cursed; maybe I needed to unlock the ability to use it. Forgetting the sword for time being, I searched for Kchil of the Nail Clan whose supposed to have wakka seeds; however, he's moved on from his position at the bridge.

We would have met again sooner if you hadn't moved

A good 20 minutes pass wandering around before I run across him again in an area I previously explored. I hope this isn't a theme, as searching places I've already looked is something that I don't appreciate. Maybe I could forgive this if the area was obviously inhabited, but no one was around and this was on an otherwise normal looking side of the road off the beaten path. One thing this did force me to do though was explore a previous area where an old woman asked me to find her pet Po. I remember this bird creature allowed me to warp between different areas quickly, so I'm glad to have stumbled upon the quest to find him.

Maybe I should keep trying anyway to see what else you turn into

Fin Raziel was on the other side of the waterlogged path, but attempts at returning her to her previous form proved futile unless you consider a goat closer to a human than a opossum. Helpfully, Willow is informed he's just not 'experienced' enough, which I took to mean that I need more magic or levels. Continuing on, I ran into Sorsha; she's too busy searching for Madmartigan to bother with me, but she's also blocking the path. The only recourse is to explore a nearby cave.

The cave system here twists and turns once again, and I got fairly lost on where to go next. Some good came out of this though, as I thought about the enemies I couldn't hit, and the sword that couldn't hit any normal enemy. Trying the sword out on these previously invincible enemies proved the right thing to do, and I could finally take revenge on the wizards that continuously turn Willow into a pig.

Oink!

In one area, I found a ghost woman who's searching for her lost love. She gave me a flute, but shortly after that I succumbed to a game over once more; this means most of the progress I made is negated. I stopped for the night after retrieving my password.

That's right, unlike Zelda, many game companies didn't want to risk the expense of battery backup, so they relied on password systems to restore progress. This means I don't need to fear losing my save, but it does mean I need to write these down correctly. Back in the day, I know I'd look at a password and not know if something were an I, an l, an i, or a 1, not to mention O and 0. Today, I'm recording the game, so there's no fear in losing the password, but I still might find trouble entering it back in. Passwords were great for things like continuing an adventure on someone else's cartridge, or sharing a game while being able to pick up the game where you left off without change; however, I don't know anyone that prefers them over battery backed up saving.

Many of the batteries are still going strong today, over 20 years later. I've suffered my share of lost games, but sometimes keeping the game in the system will charge the battery enough to keep saves intact. Hopefully this method continues to work for me in the case of any games with a faulty battery. I know it's possible to replace them, but I don't have any desire to mess with the internal workings of these magical devices.

In case anyone wants to play along