The Infamous Heroes of the Lance on NES. Yes, this game is notoriously known to be BAD. The controls are stiff, the menu interface is cumbersome and unintuitive, and combat is slow and luck based. There are traps throughout the game that can damage you, if you’re not using any spells to reveal them, or if you’re not always running. There are pitfalls you need to jump with the stiff controls. You’ll need to save prior, just so you can continue on without losing a party member. All the short enemies are the worst to defeat, because they require you to attack in a lower diagonal motion with the bad controls. And for some strange reason, all party members take damage, despite only one being represented on the screen. To quote a famous Angry Video Game Nerd, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!?”. This whole experience was just awful. I'm so glad I'm a Warhammer kind of girl. The only reason I was able to get so far in this play through, is because I am very experienced with RPGs. I’m Japanese. RPGs are entwine with our gaming culture. We have countless of titles launching every year. This kind of menu interface is not new to me. However, for any other player, they'll will likely feel so lost and confused.
I think I understand what’s happening here. The developers were trying to replicate an actual D&D tabletop play through experience. The menu is complicated and the combat is luck based, because that’s how if feels playing Dungeons & Dragons in real life. As we all can see, an actual D&D experience does not translate well into a video game. D&D fans and curious kids must have been so disappointed, when they’ve bought or rented this game back in the 80’s. Probably thinking they were going to get a fun action title, and they actually got this overly complicated mess. I do not recommend this game. If you’re a hardcore RPG gamer like I am looking for a challenge, or some kind of gaming masochist, I guess you can give it a try. Otherwise, stay far away from this title.