The Magic of Scheherazade (NES) Playthrough
219A playthrough of Culture Brain's 1990 action-RPG for the NES, The Magic of Scheherazade.
Chapter 1: Water World Mooroon 1:14
Chapter 2: Desert World Alalart 53:58
Chapter 3: Forest World Samalkand 1:56:21
Chapter 4: Flower World Celestern 2:57:29
Chapter 5: Evil Magician Sabaron 3:52:15
The Magic of Scheherazade is one of the NES's biggest unsung classics. From the beginning it seemed to have a small but dedicated following. Remember how often it showed up in Nintendo Power's tip sections? It never quite managed to rise out of obscurity, though. While Culture Brain's other NES-era franchises (Flying Warriors, Super Chinese, and Baseball Simulator 1.000) received multiple titles, The Magic of Scheherazade still stands alone to this day.
As an ambitious blend of the action-adventure (like Zelda or Crystalis) and turn-based RPG (like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior) genres, The Magic of Scheherazade works out quite well. The combat handles smoothly and the maps are huge and fun to explore, but what really sells it is its setting.
It taps into One Thousand and One Nights for its story and princess, and the exotic Arabian setting is a real breath of fresh air among the countless adventures cast from the medieval European mold. It feels quite different from anything else in the NES's library, and it's thoroughly memorable because of it. It doesn't hurt that it has a sense of humor, either.
(Anyone else notice how one of the townspeople looks suspiciously like Mario with a turban?)
The graphics are sharp, bright, and are a huge upgrade over what was seen in the original 1987 Japanese release, and the soundtrack is packed with memorable themes.
Like most Culture Brain titles, The Magic of Scheherazade's gameplay is hard to pigeonhole and much of the game's appeal rides on its personality, but it's hard to imagine anyone not enjoying the time spent with it.
And for anyone that wants to know, the name Scheherazade isn't as difficult to pronounce in English as it looks. It sounds like this:
shuh (like 'shut' without the t) - hair - uh - zad (like zap but with a d).
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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