Elidon Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
67Developed and published by Orpheus in 1985
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For today's video, I decided to check out a game that, despite owning it back in the day, I was never able to get working (any gamer who has had the joy of faffing around with trying to load programs from cassette tapes will know what I mean).
With the departure of winter and arrival of spring, a ball is to be held at dusk where the faerie queen will take up her place upon the throne once again. To look her regal best, the queen is to wear a garland made from the seven flowers of Finvarra upon her head, but the flowers have not yet bloomed. The flowers are hidden deep within the forest of Elidon and can be awoken only by watering them with magic potions. The potions themselves are also hidden within Elidon and it's up to you, as one of the queen's subjects, to find the potions and bring the flowers back to the centre of the forest where they will be assembled to make the garland.
Having read the previous paragraph, you might have gathered by now that, if you're looking for action where you blow the crap out of stuff, this is probably not the game for you.
As to the nature of the actual game, Elidon is a flick-screen puzzle game where the player must hunt through numerous screens for the seven potion bottles used to make the flowers bloom, as well as the flowers themselves. Once a flower has bloomed, it must be taken back to the starting screen and added to the garland; only when all seven flowers have been assembled will the game be complete.
In terms of controls, pushing on the joystick moves the faerie in the corresponding direction. Pushing up will result in the faerie taking flight, allowing you to reach platforms higher up, as well as the various exits on each screen. By default, faerie will begin to lose altitude as soon as you stop pushing upwards, although she can be made to hover by pressing the fire-button; this results in locking her position on the horizontal axis, making it easier to navigate around the screens.
The faerie has a limited amount of energy, represented by the 'dust' gauge to the right of the screen. Energy ticks away at a constant rate whilst playing and must be topped up by collecting sparkling faerie dust that has a chance to appear on each of the game's screens. Run out of dust and a life is lost.
Further complicating matters are the evil forest spirits, fires and other denizens of the forest that try to hinder your efforts. Coming into contact with enemies will both drain your faerie dust, as well as preventing you from flying, sending you plummeting to the ground.
Some areas of the forest are pitch black and can be illuminated by finding the torch. Enter a dark screen without them and all you will see are pairs of evil eyes looking back at you from the gloom; the various obstacles and enemies still exist and will rob you of health as you blindly stumble around in the inky blackness.
Once a potion or other item of interest of found, it can be collected and added to the faerie's inventory. Be warned, you can carry a maximum of three items at any one time, so expect to do a fair amount of back-tracking and inventory management.
Whilst it might not look particularly spectacular when compared to later C64 titles, the graphics are actually quite attractive when considering that the game was released in 1985. The main faerie sprite is nicely animated, as are some of the other creatures (notably the butterfly).
Audio is fairly basic, but a pleasant rendition of Grieg's 'Peere Gynt' plays throughout the game, accompanied by some basic sound effects.
Although I like the game's concept, the biggest problem is just how hopelessly lost you can get. With over 300 screens in the game, you have virtually no chance of charting each of the locations without the aid of a map and will be doomed to wander the forest for all eternity (or until you get bored and switch the game off). Even if you do manage to collect all the flowers, the game actually scores your progressed based on the number of screens you visited - you cannot get 100% unless you visit all of the screens in the game.
Also, as pretty as some of the graphics are, it's not always easy to workout whether something is just a piece of the scenery, or in fact an item of importance. The flowers you're looking for are a case in point - at first glance, they look like a pile of leaves with a bulb on top and are very easy to disregard as just another plant.
Elidon is not a bad game (in fact, it would have been very good back in 1985). The fact remains, however, that, without a huge amount of patience and a stack of graph paper, beating the game turns into an insurmountable challenge.
Should you enjoy maze-games, Elidon might provide some entertainment. For those looking for more action-oriented gameplay (i.e. blowing stuff up), you'll want to look elsewhere.
#retrogaming