countless creatures, and progress to the next boss or town. The labyrinth area is divided into eight different sections, each with a unique appearance and containing unique monsters, and each having a different boss monster, guarding one of the Tears of Esmesanti jewels. Some labyrinth even contain invisible walls, which need to be crossed using the monsters (like in level 8 dogs) that one also needs to fight. Regular monsters inhabit each labyrinth, respawning each time Garland enters. When a monster is killed, it may drop an alma. Almas can be exchanged at banks for gold or with some NPCs for a quest item. Garland can die by taking excessive damage from close contact with monsters, their projectiles, or the natural environment such as hidden spikes or excessive temperatures. When dying, Garland will lose all his carried gold and half his carried almas, and be teleported back to the very first town in the game, having to go back to where he was before dying (which is usually easier than going there the first time, since the boss monsters are already dead, all the closed doors remain open, and special items acquired later in the game may be of use for quicker progression). Reception The game was well received by critics in both Europe and in America. Planetstation Magazine in their retrospective on Game Arts called the game a classic imbued with personality and recommended the game if they can accept the game's harsh difficulty, but described the gameplay as repetitive. However, in 2017 PC Gamer magazine listed the European release as having one of the worst box covers of all time, saying that it is inferior to the original box art's anime art style. References External links ZeliardGame 1987 video games DOS games NEC PC-8801 games Platform games Game Arts games Sharp X1 games Sierra Entertainment games Side-scrolling role-playing video games Video games developed in Japan