Magic Sword (Arcade)

A man with magic sword on his hand, onward to defeat great evil. That sound inspired by He-man, right? That's the setting of Capcom's Magic Sword (1990).  

I have seen enough cat's quarrel to recognize that those dragons are about to fight anytime soon, judging by their expression. There's sub title "Heroic Fantasy" to emphasize the game is about a tale of heroism instead off -say- mystery murder story.  Before we jump into the wonder of evilry slashing, here's the backstory (again).  

 

To be more precise, it's briefing by a wiseman who looks like Musa/Moses. He tells typical fantasy problem: world is engulfed by darkness that's brought by an evil lord and his dark orb. Destroy the orb and bring light back to our world, oh noble heroes! As you can see his audience are many. The blonde swordguy and the black haired axeguy are player 1 and player 2 respectively. While the other (including bad mannered sods who refuse to kneel before the wiseman) are their companion. Who are they? Here's the list.

 

First is the big man who looks like shaven gorilla with animal leather cloth and red hair dye than just burly man. He throws his axe in manner of boomerang and has great physical fortitude. But his axe and his speed are both slow. Thus his traits is very similar to the executioner.

 

Next is the ninja the legendary assassin from Eastern culture. He throws fast shurikens in spread pattern that can be reflected when hit ceiling or wall. But they inflict fairly small damage. He's swift yet fragile character. He choose to accompany me instead kill the evil force stealthily or in subtle manner. The caring git. No wonder he's my second most favorite companion.

 

Amazon is adept with her crossbow which is quite off to me. I mean isn't Amazon tribe supposed to be savages with primitive weapons and crossbow is way too modern for them to wield. Nonetheless, she shoots crossbow in semi-auto manner that potentially can deal quite hefty damage. 

 

Next we have Thief. Where he was at the last time? Why, he was plundering for King's fortune inside that palace, of course. Anyway, thief's not as fast as ninja but he's not lame. First, he can detect hidden chest. Second, he can detect trap in chests so you can avoid to not open them. Third, his attack by throwing straight a knife and lobbing bomb(s) in short distance at the same time. So he can deal moderate damage at vicinity.

 

Up next is Knight, who's possibly descendant of Arthur from Ghost n Goblin/Makaimura series. Because he can throws javelins/spears and very good at it too. He throws them in quite loose pattern and he's quite durable. You can't go wrong with him.

It's certainly helpful to have healer at your side in game with relentless pace like Magic Sword. Sadly, priest here can't do any healing magic. Excuse me but what kind of freaking priest are you, huh? Totally failure ones, that's what you're. At least he has another signature of legit priest: master at exorcism. He can deal massive damage to undead creatures that the evil force has. That's approximately 60% of it. He's fragile but he can sometime wrap himself with invincibility bubble. That's quite convenience.   

Vivi here is both slow and has constitution as weak as igloo in desert at daytime. But he can shoot magic orbs that have devastating power. According to in-game hint, his attack has no effect on undead creatures. Bummer.

 

The game also kindly tell you the effect of this one-slot items. King's crown probably makes you take half damage than usual. Gauntlet increase your melee power. Golden pot will auto-heal your companion. Crystal ball allow you to detect hidden treasure chest without having thief on your side. Pendant doubles score you can get from item and quite valuable to sell it to nearby pawn shop. Okay, the last part is a joke. But seriously pendant is worthless unless you have strong urgency of raking score as many as possible. Magic potion is to increase filling rate of your magic bar. Diamond ring is to bribe lizardman. And scroll brings you good luck. My guess: improve item drop from deceased enemies. What's lizardman, you say? I'm glad you asked that.

 

He's enemy, but  once you beat him and you have Diamond Ring in your pocket, he will gladly joins you. That way he avoid to be gone in oblivion plus he get shiny jewel. He's wise bastard is what i try to convey. Previously, the game tells that the knight is the strongest ally. But to me, the winged lizardman is the best companion. He throws his swords like the knight albeit in tighter pattern.

 

The tower consist of 50 floors/levels/stages. You can choose where you start at the beginning. I choose at the beginning not because i'm carving for score but because every glorious heroic story has to start from humble beginning, right?    

By the beginning, the game means travel from nearby village where the dreaded tower stands. Good thing the villager evacuated immediately, i don't want to bother with villager rescuing right now. My first enemy: a wraith that eager to stab me. Nice silk robe there, pal. Magic sword it's quite typical 2D platform action so the control is simple: joystick to move left and right, one button to swing your sword/axe, and one button to jump. You can open chest by poke it with your sword. It's all simple.  

Apparently local wildlife are corrupted and swear loyalty to demon lord that i supposed to fight. So this bear try to hinder me. Few slashes will make it thinks twice. No, he can't think anymore. It's dead. You see there's a golden key in front of me and a cell. Moving your joystick up in front of it, will unlock it. Doing so will allow you to recruit one of the companion and get his/her reward at cost of a key that depends on lock type. There's 3 key type: silver, gold, and platinum.

 

Before we enter said castle, we have to defeat the gatekeeper (definitely not Hong Meiling) who serves as first boss. Chimera here eager to pounce at my party and occasionally breathes fire. For first boss, it's so tough to defeat that i lose my first credit. And the Amazon is replaced by the priest.  

 

After defeating the boss, you got score assessment based on your remaining life, and keys. You can also get health top-up even beyond max life bar. But i'm not sure whether this is related to score assessment or not.

 

That's protective bubble that i mentioned before. I think he casts it everytime he launches his homing orbs. Speaking of magic, i do have magic too. You see that bar filled with red spectrum. That's my magic gauge. It gradually filled whenever i don't swing my sword. Once its filling turns red (min. 70% filled), the sword will shoot projectile from its tip when i swing it. The more its filling the more powerful projectile that i can shoot. Right now i get magic staff power-up that allow me to shoot fireball for limited time.    

 

Ignore the orc on right, because orcs are staple to medieval fantasy! Not many videogame that makes you fight sentient Moai statue. Plus accompanied by a ninja. Remarkable. 

 

There's pearl jewel that will summons health-restoring items once you picked it. Thanks for that, Daiyousei.

 

This bloke who is second boss, brags his bloodline of The Great Dragon. You will turn into a dragon, then?

Of course, you do. He's really diligent to swoop at me and fast too. Thus i have fallen but luckily my sword doesn't fall to my head. I don't want to be deader than i'm right now. With virtue of continues, i can defeat him, though. I just have to remember to jump to that platform and later jump above the swooping dragon.

 

"Hai. Hai. You did, Player#1-san." said ninja with weary expression.   

This is one of quite moment of respite in this game where there's no hostiles (who aren't respawned yet). And i want to show you that tree with skulls on its branches. The evil lord certainly care to preserve nature, i see.  

 

Every floor ends with a door and it requires the key. So if you only have one of each keys, you can't save the captive in cell. Also unlocking these door proves fatal to enemies as they immediately die once i open it. I suspect the lock has full-screen bomb inside it.

 

Most small enemies can and will respawn infinitely. While the big ones tend to show up once. Like this sentient giant statue that can only harmed in the face. By the way, the ninja has different attire compare to previous screenshot. That's because i recruit the higher level ones along the way. Everyone know that ninja's ranks are distinctive by the color of the clothes.

Many platform including Castlevania, includes bats to harm the player and hoping to knock him/her into hazard. They flies from leftside or rightside of the screen, right? Well in Magic Sword, they flies from background and instantly knocks me into that grape juice water that's harmful! Thankfully, the water only deals damage per tick, not insta-death. Still this is unfair design.   

 

Not all enemies are proved lethal. For instance: this Satyr seems attempt to throw us with iron ball. Sadly for him, it's easy to break and in my experience never reaches one of us. Also he's not so tough to kill. I'm getting vibe of Babylonian's glyph in that background.

 

"Remove me?" you mean "Rescue me", right? . Let's see! I have 6 platinum keys. Yeah, i reckon i can set you free.

Turns out the inside of that cells was Daiyousei's friends. One of them gives me several health-replenishing item. There's also cell where if you unlock it, two skeleton warriors jump and attack you. Very ungrateful sods.

"Hearing water feels you want to take a leak ASAP, you know?"

 

This floor is home to (another) platforming section and water creatures, including those jellyfishes...

...and this mother grizzly too.

Oh, yeah? What you can do, fatty?

 

Turning into Chimera, heh. But i have beaten one. Oh! This time there's unlimitedly respawning enemies and it has orbiting skulls around it. Occasionally, it can teleport above my party. You okay there, Vivi?

 

Through several credits, i can defeat it. In this battlement section i found invincibility item...for myself. Later i trigger trap on a chest that makes boulder fall from sky. I'm okay thanks to that invincibility. While Vivi...he left. No wonder. I:   

 

Oh, great! The dragon is non-boss enemy, now. And there's no platform to dodge its swooping action. I can jump higher by holding up and pressing jump button. But that doesn't help much. On my way i rescued Lex Luthor to replace Vivi. The wizards can shoots their magic orbs to the direction you want by pressing attack button while holding joystick in direction that you desire. Did i forget to mention that the companions attack at the same time you attack, because they do. On the other hand, wizards attack behave like your charging magic sword/axe, the longer they idle the stronger their attack. Which is not idle to compensate your flaw.

 

At long last, my bud is with me. Though he's recruited by freeing him in a cell. Does he saw error of the evil way and get prisoned for that insight? Godspeed him. I truly like our synchronization on our stance when we about to swing our sword. 

 

I accidentally bump into freed thief and take his paralyzing mushroom that he gave me. You can see why i immediately untrust him. In paralyze state, our hero can't attack and can only "order" his companion to attack. Darn.

I may be too harsh on the thieving chap. With him on his side i can spot this hidden treasure though you can still try to hack thin air on every dead end you suspect. But i met couple trap-wired chests along the way that i won't ever try to open it. By the way, trap-wired chests contain nothing but lethal hazard and huge disappointment

Still i don't think twice to replace him with the knight. At good moment too. It's boss battle time. This oldman feels glad that we come because we're intended to be his children's dinner. Over my dead body, first! Literally.

Euuh. What a bad looking child! Even though, the monsters can only be hurt by hitting blue orb that probably its "neck" and there's many spikes. The boss battle here is much easier than previous ones and feels fair too. Thanks to monster's move that is in predictable pattern and relatively slow. As long as you doesn't stray too long from this platform, you're doing good.

 

Next floor there's rat hole. No, it's scorpion hole. Rats are too petty in this evil army. Upon contact, it inflicts paralyze state. I forget to tell you that our hero is quite delicate as touching any of the evil creatures will harm him. That's quite reasonable. You don't think their skin covered by Lux soap cream, do you?

 

At the end of that corridor, there's several chest but enemies immediately respawn infinitely here. I'm so sorry, Sir Knight! 3X     

 

Here's proper action scenery of a knight and his worthless ally (which is me) fight sea shallow-water dragon. You probably notice (or not) that my sword change couple times. That's because, everytime i we killed boss, i got new sword that's better than previous one. To be precise, deal more damage and have better projectile attack. But said weapon can be dropped if you take too much damage. So be careful!

 

You may think that a ninja in this kind of setting is off. Then this screenshot change your thinking. In this floor there's flying samurai pretty easy to beat unless there's no decent platform to reach him or accompanied by someone who can't attack high. By the way, my shield isn't for decoration. When i don't attack, it blocks projectiles which facilitate bit more tactical method to play. Also there's stronger shield for picking. I think it allows you to take less damage. The shield also can be dropped when you take many damage.

In this floor there's fire dragons, i mean they're made by fire. Maybe not the top-left ones, it probably have skin tone of fire. The one above us is definitely made by several fireballs. It's most likely relative of flame dragon in Ghostbuster or Tumblepop. Strange thing is: it hoops from and to that waters without extinguish itself. It can be extinguished by some magic metal (my sword & Ninja's shurikens), for sure. 

 

Here where the ninja proves his lethality the most. He can destroy any enemy in this corridor very fast that i can't capture any screenshot that has any enemy on it. Remarkable, right?

 

Note: Drokmar is the name of the evil lord. So this chap begs to the evil lord to unleash The Hydra to kill me. Not the kraken? Okay, whatever. As long as not dragon that relentlessly sweep me, again.

 

Freak you! I'm really fed up with the dragons and the chimeras. Hydra supposed to be sea snake with eight head not (another) flying dragon but with two heads, you contemptible jerk. In addition to diligently sweep the ground like really enthusiastic cleaning crew, it can emit lightning from its mouth. Remind me of Chimera in Warcraft 3 or Jakiro from DoTA 1.

 

There's nice touch on scoring screen: the sky gradually changes from bright morning in the beginning to night in this section. So my adventure takes an entire day. You don't want the evil influence spreads longer than a day, huh? What a tight heroic schedule.

 

Oh, great. The hero got PTSD from those grueling battles against swooping dragon. Not the Lizardman can comfort him enough.

 

I lost him on the way. But not to worry, i recruit another ones via normal means of bribing him. He kindly gives me this scissor that somehow make fairies drop provisions on me. Strange but convenience.

 

When you unlocking a cell there's possibility of not only hostile skeletons, but also falling boulders. The thief may become more useful here but i'm still stick with this battle buddy.

 

The Satyr-kin are back and one of them riding an oversized iguana which -i'll be honest- not makes him more dangerous than the footman ones. Only have slightly bigger health. At this time i have sword that can shoot lightning bolt that pierce anything/anyone on its path which is very useful. Especially if i get it earlier.

 

My buddy doesn't hesitate to help me eradicate his-kin. It's their fault, though. Still loyal to Dark Lord, only get yourself killed.

 

Besides guillotines, i want to show you thief's cousin who keen on taking any item if you let it untouched. All in the bloodline, huh?

 

This oldman thinks that i'm fit to be sacrifice for the demon lord. No way i let you do that, old geezer!

 

Oh for God's sake! He turns into another chimera again. Perhaps someone in Capcom is really like chimera and dragon. But this chimera is no more interesting than the last ones. Not even many spiked gaps here can makes me think otherwise. Luckily, i have picked item holy stone or a meteor piece in my inventory slot. It makes my sword emits red lightning bolt that's very powerful. Thus the battle feels less agitating.

 

The beast drops a majestic key upon death. The fairies kindly pick it and unlock that door for me. This is not case of harmful fairies, here.

 

Beyond the door is the realm where the demon lord and the black orb reside. This wraith comes to greet/mock at me. Yeah. Yeah. I know you're special ones, because of that purple robe.

 

After bit gauntlet of hazards and enemies, we encounter the demon lord Drokmar, himslef. Nice ankle bangle you got there. Also the red curtain looks really gorgeous. You're renaissance at heart, aren't you?

 

Here's the final battle and it's one of well-designed & fair boss battle in this game. Drokmar will either sends 4 homing orbs that can be blocked or destroyed; or emits electric rays to blast near him, while levitating at random direction. It's very relieving that the final boss has certain pattern rather than tirelessly seeking the player, like those chimeras and dragons. Quite soon, he realized that evil won't prevail for long time and underpaying your minion will backfire him badly.

 

After Drokmar defeated, he drops blackorb. Then he whisper to you that if you take the orb instead of destroying it, it will grant you immortality and power to conquer the world. Of course, if you take "yes". The game end with bad ending where you become "next" Drokmar. Not much Arcade game features bad ending, you see.

 

Certainly, the most righteous act to do: destroy the orb. Drokmar calling you fool and narrate that evil will gone for good. I bet the lizardman feels really relieved that he cut his own evil employment. Otherwise, he won't live another day.

 

Now everyone here, we can have big party. Afterward, the wiseman can rest nice and easy on his rocking char. The swordman & the axeman are now have bright reputation that ladies are in queue, want to be their wife. The amazon and the big man can return to wilderness where they belong. Vivi return to village of black mages. Lex Luthor busy himself with magic experiment so he can forget about superman. The priest must catch up in "Healing Magic" course this year or he will be kicked out from his cathedral. Thief undoubtly continue to steal any valuable anywhere with his cousin. But he stay away from the palace now that the knight and the lizardman guard the place well. Ninja can go back serves his lord and killing samurai like old days. Daiyousei and her friends can return to Gensokyo. Overall happy ending!

Capcom's Magic Sword is very fine game if not for the brutal difficulty, especially from unlimitedly-respawning enemies, huge amount of spikes (that probably makes Rockman/Megaman gives up immediately) and other harmful hazards, and those chimeras & dragons. Though you can credit feed your way to finish the game and there's floor selection. The graphic is wonderful, from the background, decorations, and the enemies. There's 2 stage where the background is "The Creation of Adam" fresco. It takes approximately 1 hour to finish the game. The music are quite good though unmemorable to me. The combat mechanic is fine but quite unfit to game's breakneck pace. Though it can be slightly negated with the companions. The companions are well distinctive and each one of them is interesting in lots of way. IMO the priest is the best magic-caster class because his magic charging is fast and his ability to cast protective bubble. And those battle against chimeras and dragons are bad-designed boss battle also feels monotonous. But later, flying worms and Demon Lord Drakmor are decent and fair for boss battle. The amount of floors/stages are too many that could be wearying its welcome. There's map on top-center that helps you locate exit gate, cells, and treasure chests.

Summary: i can recommend you to play but you have to tolerate/ignore its brutal difficulty in order to enjoy the game in term of unique gameplay (for 2D platform) and aesthetic. There's also SNES version of the game. Due to console's restriction, the game become easier but you have limited credit. So i prefer the arcade version.