Hydlide was developed and published by T&E Soft and released for the PC-88 in 1984. It was converted to the FM-7, PC-6001, Sharp X1 and MSX in 1985. An NES port would finally follow in 1989.
The Legend of Zelda had been released in 1986 and thus when the Nintendo version of Hydlide was finally released in 1989 many players thought it a very poor comparison, primitive, and a “rip off”. However, I would argue that Hydlide, in part, helped to influence the Zelda games. Many were not aware that the NES version was a conversion of a game that was released in 1984, BEFORE Zelda. However Hydlide has it’s own major influence and that was Namco’s The Tower of Druaga.
The Tower of Druaga was a 1984 action role-playing game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling a golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player was tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the maiden Ki from Druaga, a demon with eight arms and four legs, who planned to use the artifact known as the Blue Crystal to enslave all of mankind. The game was a huge success. It attracted millions of fans and is known for its use of secrets and hidden items. It has been cited as an important game for the genre and laying down the foundation for future games. It inspired the use of guidebooks (selling strategy guides became a very common practice in Japan) and was hugely influential for many games to follow: Ys, Hydlide, Dragon Slayer, and The Legend of Zelda. Hydlide closely followed The Tower of Druaga and it’s look and influence (and use of hidden items) cannot be ignored. So while Hydlide is not THE influence upon which The Legend of Zelda was built it is a part of the tree. I suspect the developers, years later, were trying to capitalize on the success of the NES in North America hence the late port. The act of calling Hydlide a “rip off” or a primitive of The Legend of Zelda seems to stem then from ignorance as well as being unfair.
The Tower of Druaga was the first to take “Pac-Man like” maze exploration and add RPG elements (besides the hidden items). You can see this lite RPG “skinning” in things like experience levels and hit points in many games to follow. When I write about hidden items, I am referring to the fact that some essential items only appear when you kill certain enemies. This was a staple in The Tower of Druaga and you see its influence quite heavily in Hydlide in several places.
I chose to play the NES version of Hydlide simply because not only am I a NES fan, but I felt that if I was going to take my time with the game I might as well enjoy any graphical or mechanical improvements. As it turns out, graphically there is not much of a difference between the different versions but the NES port did add a magic system and a couple of the combat situations play out a bit differently between the PC-88 version and the NES version. I do actually own the Hydlide cartridge (though I never played it) but I chose to use an emulator so that I could take screenshots of my journey.
The premise of the game is as follows:
It took me roughly 13 hours to beat Hydlide which, embarrassingly enough, seems well above the average that it takes modern gamers to win out. More on this later, but one of the mechanics that took me almost 45 minutes to figure out was the infamous “bumping mechanic”. In Hydlide, the combat mechanics include distinct attack and defend modes. You attack enemies by “bumping” into them. You do damage to your enemies when you’re in defense mode and the damage that you receive is reduced. When you hold down the button on your gamepad or joystick, you go into attack mode. You deal a great amount of damage in attack mode and suffer much greater damage yourself as a result of going on the offensive. What took me quite a while to figure out, is that I could not fathom why my attacks were not consistent. Sometimes they were wildly successful and other times I was quickly killed. I soon came to realize that there is a “flanking” technique which you need to employ. If you “bump” into your enemies head on, it is likely you will take a great amount of damage yourself and possibly even perish when in attack mode. However, if you try to “flank” your enemies, meaning attack them from the side or from behind, your attacks are always successful, well executed, and less likely to be lethal. When I start a new game, I like to go into that game completely ignorant, trying to immerse myself as a player of that time period so I try to avoid reading any literature about the game. Thus, it took me almost an hour to realize the difference between the attack and defense modes and the importance of the “flanking” technique.
I found myself enamored with the graphics of Hydlide. Role-playing enthusiasts seem clearly divided into two different camps: you either love the crisp, vibrant colors and look of these JRPGs or you hate them with a passion. I liked the graphical representations of the creatures, castles, and landscapes and found them to be striking in depiction compared to many of the action RPGs we’ve played thus far.
The screen up above displays four different important meters. Your life meter represents the character’s power and displays the damage received. Each “hash line” is considered to be a level and thus you can max out at the 9th level of experience. The strength meter indicates “Jim’s” strength (more on the name later). The more powerful he becomes, the more damage the enemies receive. The experience meter represents levels and increases each time Jim destroys a monster. When Experience increases by 100, each level of life, strength, and magic increase by 10 points and then the experience meter resets to 0 again. Finally, the magic meter represents Jim’s magic power. Each type of magic requires different levels of magic power. When using high powered magic such as Wave or Flash, the magic meter decreases rapidly but it builds back up over time.
There are 10 different special items to find or acquire from enemies and you have to rescue three different fairies as well so there is quite a bit to do in order to rescue the captive princess Ann.
One of the things you’ll discover is that many of the dungeons that you find are bathed in darkness making them virtually impossible to explore. So, your first order of business seems to be to find a light source. The only dungeon that is lit and suitable for you to explore is unfortunately guarded by a vampire.
The vampire seemed impossible to beat. It was only after obtaining the cross that made it possible to face the vampire. The cross was in a chest I discovered by exploring the surrounding wilderness. The cross, in combination with the Turn spell, allowed me to finally beat the vampire. Once you defeat the vampire you are awarded with a lamp which now allows you to explore the other dungeons.
Once I had the lamp I found that my advancement occurred rather quickly. I explored the dungeon to the north of the vampire’s castle and there I uncovered a key. The key allowed me to open a chest found in the cemetery guarded by zombies. Inside the chest was one of the three jewels that I needed.
Later I rescued the 1st fairy which is accomplished by “bumping” into the trees in the forest north of the cemetery. The trees may also hide swarms of wasps that you have to battle so you’ll need to be wary.
In yet another dungeon I uncovered a shield and a ring which happens to be the second of the three jewels.
The second fairy was found by crossing a vast desert populated with giant desert worms and entering a forest of living trees. The trees can attack and the 2nd fairy was found by “bumping” into one of those vicious treants.
The 3rd fairy was very difficult to rescue. You had to travel the waterways and avoid the eels and make your way to an area of land populated by two wizards. These two wizards hurl fireballs at you and were extremely difficult for me to beat. Defeating one of them never works, you must defeat both at the same time. The only way to do this is to have enough magic to cast the WAVE spell. You need to be at least 6th level to do so which should be no problem at this point in the game. The trick with the Wave spell however, is waiting to unleash it when the wizards are lined up with one another, so that you can catch them both in the “wave” blast. This was another portion of the game that took me some time to master. Once they are defeated the three fairies lift you and transport you to the island where the Castle of Varalys is located. The problem is that the Castle is guarded by a dragon!
This posed another difficult challenge in the game. I discovered that by throwing a fireball at a tree in front of the castle that it hid an entrance into the castle’s dungeon (this was actually an accidental discovery made by hurling fire at the dragon not based on intellectual ingenuity). If you make your way into the dungeon, and avoid the dragon, you’ll find a tombstone on the 2nd dungeon level. If you break the tombstone, it drains the water from the waterway above. I found the dragon to be virtually impossible to beat, but the water in the waterway was the source of the dragon’s power. With the water drained, you can now return and face the dragon. When you finally beat the dragon, you win a Medicine which completely heals you to full strength when you die. This is an absolutely necessary item to have on hand before you face Varalys – especially for me with my feeble arcade/platform skills.
I had mentioned previously that Hydlide took me roughly 13 hours to finish. Well, 5 of those 13 hours were spent getting me to this point: the final showdown with the big bad Varalys. He is depicted as the giant blue demon above. He is accompanied by his minions: 2 skeletons and 2 black armors. It took me almost 8 hours of relentlessly trying again and again and again to finally defeat him. You’re allowed to save your game using a password system, so luckily I saved just before entering this room. I was literally almost pulling my hair out at the end and it was a test of my patience as I just didn’t have the arcade skills or reflexes to seemingly beat this opponent. When I went back and read to see if there were any tricks to beat this big bad, there were none. One thing I did discover however, is that all of those who did beat the game, claimed to beat Valarys you must use a hit and run technique. That, your hit points regenerate while his do not. Well, I’m here to tell you, in the NES version I played, his hit points kept seemingly kept regenerating as mine were. The hit and run technique was not working for me. And that’s when I made my discovery. I had kept saving my game with every successful hit upon him, but, I learned, that when I saved my game progress, possibly as a penalty for doing so, it reset Varalys back to full power. I learned that if you did not save your progress, you could indeed employ a hit and run technique, and that you would very slowly wear him down. It was not as easy as it sounds. Just slightly “bumping” and running reduced you to almost zero hit points – and then you’d have to run around and avoid his four minions while your hit points slowly regenerated. I constantly used the Flash spell, which eradicates the minions for a very short while and deals a little damage to Valarys, but you then have to wait for your magic points to regenerate along with your hit points. And then it finally happened, I was able to beat Valarys. The feeling of accomplishment at this point was indeed mighty.
Once you defeat Valarys, there is an animation sequence in which the fairies transform into Princess Ann and you are awarded with a “congratulations” screen.
There is no character creation in Hydlide. We all start with the same character and his name is Jim. I find this an odd name to give a character. It may be that it is a common name representing the common man able to achieve “hero-like” status and that the West views the name Jim as a very “common” name.
The creator Tokihiro Naito explained that the word Hydlide is a fantasy word made by combining the names of two constellations, though he doesn’t remember which two constellations they were.
I found this game to be very enjoyable and I like the style of play but got aggravated at my own ineptitude at dealing with the more rigorous reflex sections of the game. I guess I fall into the camp that doesn’t mind this style of game. I appreciate its historical context and its influence on other games that would come later.
Next up on the docket is Zyll.
Until next time…