Magic of Scheherazade - NES Game - Culture Brain and Nintendo

I'm a large fan of RPGs, both older ones and newer ones, so it really isn't surprising that I enjoy digging out ones I have
never played, such as The Magic of Scheherazade.

Released in 1987 (1989 stateside), The Magic of Scheherazade is an action-RPG where you play as the descendant of the great Wizard Isfa, who years before tried to defeat the evil Wizard Sabaron, and thus protect Arabia from him. Failing in this, it is now your turn to take him out, especially since he has gone and taken your lady love, the Princess Scheherazade.

Unfortunately, before you can even begin your quest, your memory is erased and you wake up a little bit confused.
Thankfully, Coronya, a cat-like spirit of time, is there to remind you who you are and what it is you're doing, suggesting that you stop to talk to the people at the village you were so nicely dropped in front of.

Like many old NES games, The Magic of Scheherazade doesn't have a large color pallette, but they do pretty well with what they do have, and the characters that you can get to join you look quite different from one another. There's also several portraits of various NPCs that appear throughout the game, though these will repeat, and sometimes be color swapped for
a named character (example, the old man portrait one sees during the game is also Sabaron, except his has a blue face). Still, the amount of portraits available for the time seems pretty impressive.

Your main character, which you name right before beginning the game (I called him Isfa... Yes, I'm lame), has three attack types at his disposal while on the overhead map (there is also a more normal RPG-like battle screen, which I will go into). One is a sword, which is great for close range or those who are good at action-RPGs, a rod which fires at a distance and is good for enemies you can't easily get near, and various magic spells. All three of these are upgraded as one levels, or goes to different Universities hidden around the world (some are also upgraded by NPCs or finding hidden locations).

Unfortunately, the way the game is set up with the NES controller, one often has to enter the item screen (by pressing Start) and assign what spell they want to use (A button for all spells) or if they wish to use the rod or sword (B button). It's a bit awkward sometimes if you don't know what enemies may be approaching you, or what one needs to use on the bosses, but it can be learned pretty quickly.

Aside from the overhead map battles, there is also, as mentioned, a more generic RPG battle screen. Fading into black, it will display several enemies, and three possible commands to choose from. Fight will take you to a screen where you can choose up to two allies to assist you in battle, and either allow the computer to randomly distribute items, or do it yourself by telling it you aren't happy with the distribution. Run is self-explanitory, of course, and Peace is basically
you bribing the group of enemies (or one group if there's more than one kind on screen) to leave you alone.

In these battles, one can choose just to attack, or to use magic. There's also Troops that can be bought which will do extra damage to the monsters (and quite a bit I might add) and act as another source of HP as they can take damage, and die, as well. Of course, when attacking or using magic, one may only choose one group of creatures if there is more than one type on screen, and each attack will move down the line from left to right, repeating only as it hits the last creature on the right. And as with the original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, if you defeat the group before all your attacks are used, it will not move onto the next group, forcing you to think ahead on which group to attack with which characters, and with which spells/attack.

Of course, as one might imagine, the game isn't just about fighting. In fact, one will be spending a lot of time talking to people, and trying to gather items and companions in order to be able to defeat Sabaron. Doing so will take you across around five different worlds, with their own towns and people, and across time as well... Yes, there was a game which did the time travel thing before Chrono Trigger, sorry.

Although almost all the sprites look the same in the towns (there's maybe five or six total), and some of the people repeat the same things as others, there are also pleasant little touches that just make one snicker (such as the old man who says he'll never leave his town which is about to go underwater, and fifty years later, what do you know, he's still there), to make up for the lack of a lot of NPC dialogue.

The story itself is told in small pieces via townsfolk, of course, but mostly by the NPCs you'll pick up throughout the game, each which has a surprisingly unique personality. The carpet rides to a new world at the end of each chapter further develop these characters, and were one of my favorite pieces of the game.

Now, I should also mention that, aside from the main quest, one can find a casino in some of the towns and attempt to gamble to raise their money. I never played in any of them, so I'm not entirely sure what the games in them entail, but they are there for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, for as charming and unique as the game was, I just wasn't as impressed by it as others have been. I mean, it's not a bad game; The graphics are nice, it has a pretty good story, there's not any slippery controls, but I just felt like the game wasn't sure it knew what it wanted to be. Switching between the action segments, and then going into the regular RPG segments just felt a little disjointed to me and really detracted from my fun with the game.

Oh, and before I forget, I should note that there are three classes one can choose to be in the game (each helping a different stat) but it's probably best to just stick with the magician since it's required so often due to the speed it gives when firing shots from the rod. The Magic of Scheherazade also unfortunately has no battery save, instead relying on very long, clunky, passwords to save your data and reload your game.

So, in the long run, although I appreciate the game for what it is and what it was trying to do (and some of the stuff it did do, like the time-travelling), I just left feeling the game didn't know its own identity, which is a very sad thing indeed. Still, give it a shot if you like old RPGs, as it may just be to your taste more than mine.