Magician (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
234A complete playthrough of Taxan's 1991 NES game, Magician.
This is quite the quirky Action-RPG. On the surface it resembles Faxanadu and Zelda: The Adventure of Link as a platformer with RPG-elements, but it's a whole different beast. As the title would imply, it revolves around the use of magic. Each level is comprised of some obnoxious enemies, occasional NPC interaction, and some (typically difficult to figure out) puzzles that resemble those found in graphic adventures (think King's Quest, Monkey Island, etc.), except that typically instead of an item that solves the puzzle you have to use a magic spell.
It's a lot of fun, though having to balance hunger, thirst, and mana can feel a bit contrived and punitively enforced at certain points. It's better once you get into the rhythm of things, but it's always an irritating worry - if you don't pay attention, you'll find yourself quickly staring at your body in a crumpled heap on the ground.
On a side-note, this game looks and sounds better than most stuff on the NES - everything is super detailed, and is done in a way that doesn't draw attention to the lack of colors actually available. The music is also amazing, nailing both melodic and atmospheric on most tracks, in a way that isn't often seen on the NES. If you like the music, you really ought to check out Neil Baldwin's (the guy who did all of the music) website, there's a lot of cool bits of info in his reflections on composing for the NES. Find his site at http://www.dutycyclegenerator.com
There is one spot where I post-edited the video. In the forest stage (when Paul is standing on the edge of the water) I cut out some dead time - he was just standing in place so that I could allow some mana to regenerate for the upcoming segment. Besides that, everything is as it was originally played with no cheats. The game does loop after the first play, getting progressively more difficult with each loop, but I've never played farther than the first ending. Does anyone know if the ending ever changes to something a bit more conclusive?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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