Hydlide

In the kingdom of Fairyland, three magic jewels were enshrined in the palace to maintain peace in the kingdom. One day, an evil man broke into the palace and stole one of the three magic jewels. Without the third jewel, the two remaining jewels lost their magic sparkle. The magic spell that sealed the power of Varalys, the most vicious demon in the kingdom, was broken. During the turmoil which followed, the last two jewels were stolen. Varalys cast a special magic on Princess Ann, turning her into three fairies, and hid her somewhere in the kingdom. He then let loose a horde of monsters across the land and became the ruler of the kingdom. The young knight Jim stood up and took action to restore peace in the kingdom. He bravely made his way into the wilderness in full armor to fight the monsters.

The game was created by T&E Soft's Tokihiro Naito.[6] His idea behind Hydlide was to mix together action and RPG elements into a new "action RPG" genre. He was inspired by The Tower of Druaga and The Black Onyx, especially the former, as Hydlide's design leans more towards action than role-playing.[8] Hydlide essentially took The Tower of Druaga formula to a colorful open world,[4] and added RPG mechanics.[8] Hydlide also borrowed the health meter mechanic from The Black Onyx, and took it a step further with a regenerating health meter.[8]

Naito noted that he was completely unaware of Western role-playing games like Ultima and Wizardry when he was developing Hydlide, as he had never used the Apple II before. He said that he only became aware of two other Japanese action RPG projects, Dragon Slayer and Courageous Perseus, while reading a magazine during Hydlide's development, and was shocked to find that Hydlide was not the only attempt at the concept. He underestimated Dragon Slayer but felt threatened by Courageous Perseus, believing the latter to be more visually impressive; Courageous Perseus turned out to be not as successful, whereas Dragon Slayer went on to become Hydlide's biggest competitor, through subsequent sequels.[8]

Original PC-8801 version

Hydlide was well-received and considered an innovator when released in Japan in 1984. Hydlide was one of the first action role-playing games, along with Courageous Perseus[6][8] and Dragon Slayer.[8][10] Hydlide was also an early open world game,[11][4] rewarding exploration in an open world environment.[12] It also had the ability to switch between attack mode and defense mode, quick save and load options which can be used at any moment of the game, and the introduction of a health regeneration mechanic where health slowly regenerates when standing still.

It sold 2 million copies in Japan, including 1 million for home computers (including the PC-88, PC-98, PC-66, Sharp X1, FM7, MSX, MSX2, and MZ-2000) and 1 million for the Famicom console.[6] It was the first computer game to receive a Platinum award from Toshiba EMI for a million sales.[8] However, it failed to capture the same attention beyond Japan.

The game was influential on the action RPG genre, including titles such as Ys.[8] For example, Ys uses a similar health-regeneration mechanic.[13] The recharging health mechanic first introduced by Hydlide in 1984 would, decades later, become a common mechanic widely used in many video games,[13] including shooter games such as Halo.[6] Hydlide's open world game design inspired Hideo Kojima, who designed Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain so that it captures the open-world feel he felt when he first played Hydlide on PC.[11] PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya was inspired by the Hydlide series, which he cited as an influence on Scalebound, a cancelled open world action RPG.[14][15]

Hydlide was initially released outside of Japan through the European release of the MSX version. Beyond that, 1989 saw the release of a localization of Hydlide Special for the NES, simply titled Hydlide itself. Unlike Dragon Quest, which was improved upon for its US localization, Hydlide was left essentially unaltered beyond minor changes to the title screen and some prompts/messages.[5] In North America, it was compared unfavorably to The Legend of Zelda (1986), which had improved significantly upon Hydlide.[5] The NES version of Hydlide became notorious in the West for its repetitive background music that bears similarity to John Williams' Indiana Jones theme or Disney's It's a Small World After All.

In Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1989 review of the NES version, Ed and Donn each scored it 6/10 while Steve and Jim scored it 5/10. Ed called it a "good" game with "average" graphics and "not too terribly annoying" music, and said it is "a good alternative to Ultima, Zelda, and other quest-oriented" RPGs; Steve said he's "not the biggest fan of RPG type games" and it is "a little tricky to get started" but has "some redeeming features" and many surprises despite "rough" graphics and sound; and Jim said the graphics are "not too good" but considered the gameplay as solid.[9] Retrospective reception of the game has been generally negative in the West.[5]

• Hydlide at MobyGames