Light Fantasy for SFC

Image: MobyGames

Light Fantasy

Light indeed

Genre: rpg - japanese

Publisher: Tonkin House

Year: 1992

System: SFC

Gameplay Score: 0

Gameplay Notes:

Hoo boy, where do I begin? Actually, that's perfect, because beginning is the only thing you can do in this horrible game. After a lengthy prologue you start with no gear equipped or money, so if you leave the king's room, like any rational person would, you'll exit into a town filled with shops that you can't visit since you're poor. Then when you leave the city you'll arrive at the overworld. One fight later and you'll be dead since you have no weapon and no gear equipped. You're supposed to visit a little room tucked away behind the prison way back in the castle, completely hidden. A few treasure chests give you a knife, a shirt, and enough money to buy a few potions, which is the only way to heal yourself since there is no inn to sleep at. Now that you're well equipped you can go fight some enemies, right? Nope, they still one-shot you. You might win one or even two battles, if you're really lucky, but come across an Evil Kid and he is 100% guaranteed to kill you. And you'll run into that guy every other fight. Die, and you'll have to start over the game and watch that entire stupid prologue! As if that weren't enough, the battle system is weird. You move around the playing area like Live a Live. I assume it's better once you obtain companions in your party, but as that wasn't possible, I award this dumb game no points for the possibility.

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

Ok, I barely saw anything that this game has to offer. What I did see scared me and I want no part of it, even if the gamepay were improved. The first castle and town are awful. The castle has the longest, most empty hallways of all time. Combine this with a painfully slow movement speed, which I just realized I forgot to mention in my Gameplay write-up, and you've got a game that will test the limits of your patience. Please take it away. Oh and there's no map. Of course. Hey devs, where do you want me to go? I don't care, but I'm mildly curious to know whether or not you do.

Theme Score: 1

Theme Notes:

Laughably bad translation. Few sentences in this hack are intelligible. The story isn't terrible, but it amounts to the tired "princess has been captured" trope. There's no personality here.

Art Style Score: 1

Art Style Notes:

Easily one of the least impressive looking 16-bit RPGs ever. It would sit comfortably amongst mid-gen NES titles like some of the Koei titles, or even the first Dragon Warrior, but this came out the same year as Final Fantasy V. Yeesh.

Audio Score: 1

Audio Notes:

If you were holding out hope that this game had a saving grace, I'm here to poor cold water on that notion. The music in this game can best be described as a bagpipe that can only play three notes. There are no layers to the songs - only a single pipe-ish sound moving between three positions on the scale. No. Thanks.

Overall Score: 10

Review ID: 1730