2025 Special - The Magic of Scheherazade

Culture Brain is one of many developers that I admire no matter what they do. Their approach is often a bit strange, low-budget, and sometimes hard to appreciate. Nevertheless, they're always coming up with clever ideas, intriguing concepts, or unique spins on common formulas. Baseball Simulator allowed outfielders to launch into space to catch fly balls. Flying Warriors is basically a Super Sentai mini-series for the NES. My soft spot for a time was Super Ninja Boy on the SNES. An RPG that featured side-scrolling platforming levels, beatemup random encounters, and turn-based boss battles?! That sounds exactly like the kind of game I'd be into. Well, playing it is another story. Over the past 30 odd years, all of my replay attempts have fallen apart almost instantly. 

Then there's The Magic of Scheherazade, an Action-Adventure + RPG. It features a male protagonist who swings a sword in a top-down world, a practically perfect specimen as far as the 2025 Special is concerned. Unfortunately, while I was able to finish a play-through - with ample help from a guide - the experience was mostly unpleasant. Let's break it down a little. The action was serviceable, though subject to unavoidable frustrations. The spirit of a grand adventure is there, yet it's aged considerably by trial & error obstacles. A bevy of design-decisions caused my tolerance for the RPG portions to fall into oblivion. By the end, I had somewhat of an idea of what Culture Brain was going for, but I'm just glad it's over.

The basic premise is that the evil wizard Sabaron has captured princess Scheherazade and her family. You're the unnamed descendant of Isfa, who fought Sabaron... and lost. Stripped of all memories and flung to another time period, you'll have to recruit friends, obtain powerful artifacts, and crush the demons trying to conquer Arabia. By the way, don't be like me and choose a dumb name for the protagonist. I've read at least a third of the 1,001 Arabian tales and don't recall seeing a single person named Larx, yet that's the name I chose for the protagonist. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? Anyway, what follows is an adventure that encompasses five chapters. Each chapter consists of an overworld with a handful of towns and dungeons to explore. Standard stuff.

Moving from screen to screen and besting whatever baddies appear onscreen is a simple affair. Well, mostly simple. You'll have to assign actions and spells through the pause menu. It'll become second nature before long. Depending on whether you chose to be a Fighter or a Magician, your skill with the sword and rod will change. 90% of the time, it's better to be a Magician, negating one of the reasons why I chose this game for the 2025 Special. Oops! Seriously though, the rod is just easier to use, especially on enemies that like to keep their distance. Outside of specific circumstances, of which there are a surprisingly large number, it's really difficult to die in battle. The healing spell 'pampoo' is cheap, the hero can carry 10 health-replenishing breads at a time, and demons are easily defeated in a few hits.

A large number of specific circumstances is just a roundabout way of saying instant death. In time, you'll face unique demons that cast bizarre spells, turning you into a menagerie of oddities. Get touched by an enemy while in this sorry state? Death. Falling into water or lava is also fatal, so watch where you're walking. Another more common problem is that bosses have unavoidable spells. They tend to fire them every few seconds. The loss of health certainly stings, but the fact that control is taken away for seconds at a time will drive you crazy. Salamander, the 4th boss, is an especially cruel example. He's always pausing the action to toss a fire spell or slink underground, restoring his health in the process. Adding to the nonsense is the fact that Salamander is fast. Just landing hits on the giant jerk becomes a soul-draining experience.

I won't spend too much time on the adventure portions. From what I've read online, Culture Brain USA made the game world more linear, which is a plus in my opinion. The overworld and dungeon layouts get repetitive, so the less time getting lost the better. There are some aspects they could've excised completely, such as hidden pitfalls. There are only 5 or 6, but any number greater than zero is still too many. Other than that, figuring out where to go and what to do isn't that tough.

However, you won't want to risk getting lost at all, because several screens place you in a turn-based battle when you try to leave. Yeah, a turn-based battle, with your own party and everything. All the friends you recruit have their own abilities, and there are different formations for everyone. Some formations are better for certain encounters than others, but it's never going to be a done deal. Fact of the matter is that there are a large number of specific circumstances that'll prevent you from enjoying the battle. The enemy party might start off with a special attack that instantly kills your allies, or even you. Battles are also slow, a resource drain, and often not rewarding enough to justify the trouble. Use the 'ramipas' spell to lessen encounters and try to run away from every fight. Your sanity will thank you.

The more time I spent in The Magic of Scheherazade's world, the less I wanted to engage with it. What probably could've been an endearing cross between The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest became an annoying slog. Regrettable.