Legacy of the Wizard

Legacy of the Wizard is an 1989 action adventure RPG for the NES and Famicom, developed by Nihon Falcom. Originally started life as Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family on the MSX (unlike most of Nihon Falcom's 1980s games, it was not released on the PC-88). It is the fourth game in the Dragon Slayer series, and was the first to make it Stateside, courtesy of Broderbund Software.

It features the exploits of the Worzen family, a family of woodcutters. The grandfather is rather legendary for defeating and sealing away a dragon named Keela. However, one day, there are signs of the dragon awakening, and the family of humble lumberjacks resolve to strap on their adventuring outfits and venture into the vast dungeon, which lies directly below their log cabin in the woods.

That's the short version of the story of Legacy of the Wizard. The long version is spending many untold hours navigating the labyrinthine maze, collecting four crowns, a magic sword and other items, all the while trying to avoid running out of magic, keys and life. The dungeon is crawling with monsters at every turn and getting trapped is easier than you think should you stray into the wrong part of the dungeon with the wrong character.

Each of the family members has different abilities, each of which is suited for specific areas of the dungeon. Xemn, the father, can push blocks; Meyna, the mother, can fly; Lyll, the daughter, can break blocks and jump high; Pochi, the family's pet dragon dog... thing, is immune to damage from enemy monsters; and Roas, the son, can teleport at specific locations and use the Dragon Slayer.

A freeware remix for Legacy of the Wizard is currently in the works by Kiragames. The first beta version is available for download.


 * Action Girl: Lyll.
 * Action Mom: Meyna.
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Adam Smith keeps giving you magic when all you really need is keys or gold.
 * Ambidextrous Sprite
 * An Axe to Grind: Xemn's weapon of choice.
 * Back Tracking: And a lot of it.
 * Badass Family
 * Badass Grandpa: Grandpa Douel who defeated and sealed away Keela. Whether he did it with or without the Dragon Slayer, we'll never know.
 * Beneath the Earth: The 68 room dungeon in it's entirety.
 * Big Bad: Keela, the King Dragon.
 * Big Boo's Haunt: Certain rooms have ghosts or Wizzrobe-like enemies which will mercilessly follow you around and can pass through walls.
 * Black Magician Girl: Meyna.
 * Block Puzzle: Xemn and Meyna have to deal with these in their areas. Lyll can just break blocks.
 * Bonus Level of Hell: It's not necessary to venture into the spike pit in Pochi's area. but heaven help you if you go down there with a human character.
 * Boss Arena Idiocy: Archwinger's area contains a small foxhole to the far right of the screen where you can shoot him but he can't get to you.
 * Captain Ersatz: Does Pochi remind you of Bubble Bobble?
 * Catgirl: Some enemies look like tiny hooded creatures with cat ears and tail.
 * Chest Monster: Some of which are very lethal.
 * The Chosen One: Roas is completely useless until the very end of the game, when he suddenly becomes the only one able to wield the Dragon Slayer sword and kill Keela.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Normally when venturing into a dungeon, coming across a room with nothing but cute cat girls would be a good thing. Not in this game as they want to kill you just like any other monster.
 * Dem Bones: A fairly common enemy type is skeletal knights.
 * Disconnected Side Area: Legacy of the Wizard has turned this into an art form.
 * The Dog Is an Alien: Pochi.
 * Dungeon Shop: The dungeon is littered with these, with some containing useful and rare items.
 * Eenie Meenie Miny Moai: Some enemies look like Moai heads with arms and legs.
 * Eldritch Location: The underground ruins are very reminiscent of a cyclopean city, especially when there are one eyed, squid creatures flying everywhere.
 * Empty Room Psych: Happens frequently with how many dead ends there are in the game. Some of these area actually contained and were designed for collecting items in the MSX 2 counterpart, but were moved in the NES version, rendering some of them vestigial.
 * Escape Rope: Crystals.
 * Everything Is Trying to Kill You
 * Fake Platform: The most notable being just before Lyll's crown.
 * Final Boss, New Dimension
 * Flip Screen Scrolling: The MSX versions more so than the Famicom/NES version.
 * The Dragon: The four bosses who guard the crown, Tarantunes, Erebone, Archwinger and Rockgaea. Keela, an actual dragon, is the Big Bad.
 * Goomba Stomp: With the spiked shoes.
 * Graphics Induced Super Deformed
 * Guide Dang It: There are absolutely no in-game hints for this mind-bendingly large and complex dungeon, you don't even know which part of the dungeon you need to use a particular character and his abilities for, provided that you've found the items that ONLY that character can use...
 * Hit Points
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: Bread heals.
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests
 * Instant 180-Degree Turn
 * Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Keys can unlock any door or treasure chest, but will disappear once they've been used.
 * Invisible Block
 * Invisible Monsters: In Meyna's zone of the dungeon. As if the game wasn't already hard on its own.
 * Jump Physics: Characters take falling damage if they fall from a height greater than their jump height. This includes Pochi, who can't be harmed from Collision Damage with monsters.
 * Kid Hero: Lyll and Roas.
 * Ladder Physics
 * Locked Door: Meyna's zone has an obscene amount of these. Don't venture forth without the Keystick.
 * Magical Mystery Doors: The pictures of Princess Celena can be used as teleporters using the four crowns. Usually not advised unless you know exactly where they go.
 * Malevolent Architecture/Bizarrchitecture
 * Mercy Invincibility: You're given a two-second window of invincibility after taking a hit, even after landing on spikes.
 * Metroidvania
 * The Mole: Pochi, seriously. Those poor monsters, thinking he's one of their own, then *BAM!*.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Of course, he can choose not to blast the monsters at all.
 * Monster Allies: Pochi.
 * Monsters Everywhere
 * Monster Town: The vast dungeon isn't really a town, but there are numerous inns and shops as well as evidence of what appears to be ancient cities and castles. They just happen to be populated by numerous monsters.
 * Multi Mook Melee
 * Multi Platform: The game was on four different consoles, each with a distinct color palette.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: Pochi, who only took damage from falling and area hazards (presumably, monsters don't hurt their own, Pochi notwithstanding, that treacherous swine).
 * Palette Swap: Many of the games colorful dungeons use a specific color scheme for similar background sprites.
 * Platform Game
 * Plot Coupon: The four crowns and the Dragon Slayer, as well as many must-have, rare items such as the High Jump Boots and the Mattock.
 * Plot Tailored to the Party: Each section of the dungeon is designed to take advantage of a particular family member's talents. Sending the wrong character into the wrong area of the dungeon is likely to get you stuck.
 * Poison Mushroom: The poison drop item which appears with alarming frequency. It doesn't take off very much life, but it often appears in tight corridors where you can't get around them, forcing the player to pick them up anyways.
 * Respawning Enemies
 * Scenery Porn: For an 8-bit game, some of the backdrops are quite picturesque. The castle to the left of the dungeon entrance. Many of the vistas in the dungeon with silhouettes of castles and towers and the volcano in Lyll's area. The boss rooms tend to lean towards Scenery Gorn.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The painting which contains the dragon Keela.
 * Side View
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Meyna/Maia, Roas/Royas, Jiela/Geera, Douel/Dawel.
 * Spikes of Doom: Subverted since spikes will only drain 1HP of life at a time. You can even hold up to avoid taking any damage while walking on them.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: The Dragon Slayer.
 * Trauma Inn: For a small fee of 10 gold pieces, you can restore all of your lost health and restock your items. You also automatically regain all your health when you return home.
 * Underground Monkey
 * A Winner Is You