The Faery Tale Adventure - In-depth Written Amiga Review With Pics
Faery Tale AdventureAmiga, 1987
Microillusions
$49.95
*Game played/shown in its designed NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio
Sometimes history bequeaths the short end of the stick to some of the best games of all time. This may not have necessary been due to a lack of knowledge about them when they had first been released. They might have been critical darlings, sold reasonably well, and even mentioned a decade later in their rightful place among the best and most influential. But you never know how time may obstruct, with many historical glances at older games coming from the countless millions of who were then kids gaming on consoles. Entire genres might be kicked to the side, the more in-depth games preferred by the then adults who were gaming on computers largely ignored. Even cultures may have an effect, an outspoken love for the Amiga from Europeans making them no less guilty of bypassing a historic baseball game, even if it had been created on the Amiga.
Perhaps something else had come out in a similar style, bringing just that little bit extra which could cause its fans to forget those which came before. Games became Arkanoid clones even though Arkanoid was a Breakout clone, maybe Breakout was just a Pong clone. Dungeon Master was a game so ahead of its time on the Atari ST and Amiga that it couldn't even be properly ported to the more popular PC until the 90's, but by then Eye of the Beholder had cemented its influence upon others. And on occasion a perfect storm of some or all of those factors may even mold together.
The combination of different genres into a single game was often frowned upon on a computer. "An arcade sequence in Space Quest?! How dare an adventure game do this! Stay in your lane!" The Amiga had a particular knack for doing multi genre games right in my opinion, owing to its strengths in many different areas. Still the achievements of a classic like Defender of the Crown would be chipped away at through the years, from those who refuse to see value in diversity. While the console market often stuck to more action oriented games, their love for that category was strong enough that it would also extend to games which combined action with others. The Legend of Zelda combined role playing and action elements in a large world which went on to spawn not only numerous sequels, but receive credit for inspiring countless others in both the console and computer worlds. How many games owe a dept to Diablo, to Times of Lore, which both hold debts to Zelda? Then there's the Amiga original Faery Tale Adventure; with gameplay similar to Zelda or Times of Lore, but with graphics that compare strikingly to games released years later like Ultima 7 or a Link to the Past, and yet it predated the original Zelda in America.
^Starting our quest, intro sequence
An action RPG prior to the term being coined, fans of the genre should mostly find themselves at home, provided they are able to push themselves beyond the games initial difficulty. I had been wanting to review The Faery Tale Adventure since 2015, but despite numerous attempts I continually put it aside. You start with an ineffective dagger, meager stats, and only enough money to buy food. Much death awaits you, to the point of being humorous at best and "I've had enough of this game!" at worst. In this respect is has much in common with your typical computer role playing game of the time, it's not easy getting started. But if I know anything about role playing games it's that if you put in that initial effort, you're often in for a glorious journey.
The combat system is simple enough, hold the fire button on your joystick while pointing yourself at an enemy. There can be a bit of a "feel" to the maneuvering of your character to maximize damage, but you're largely at the mercy of your stats. You've got none yet, and you'll be relying on luck to grant you encounters against other dagger holders. They often come in groups of three or more, so even the weak can prove fatal. You'll have to peel one away from the group, hope they'll split up or that some will flee, maybe utilize the terrain to your advantage. You could peek just outside your village and lure enemies back into town to even things up, ducking into a building if things are looking bad. A graveyard a couple minutes from town is another decent stop for grinding, as its fencing provides some protection.
Hopefully a bad guy will drop a mace at some point, which is a considerable upgrade from your dagger. Not only will this allow you to grind much easier, it will give you a chance against someone carrying a sword, which is your real goal to obtain. Anyone you kill adds one point to your bravery stat, which along with your weapon factors into the time it takes to kill someone. Vitality is your health, the maximum increases with experience, but your current health can only be restored slowly via eating, sleeping, and more quickly through the use of a magic vial, or fully by a specific NPC. You could be very brave, but the monsters can still wear you down over time, as can starvation.
^Exploring, death, grinding
I'd recommend a bit of discretion with the grinding. As hard as the combat might be when starting out, eventually it may become too easy. If you're wanting more of a continued challenge in that arena you should keep this in mind and set off across the land earlier rather than later. In some respects it may be difficult to avoid a bit of grinding, as you'll be wanting to confiscate some money, magical items, and especially keys. While I noticed the combat becoming easier, that's kind of what you're expecting from the beginning in many action RPGs. It's not the focus here, so if you can get through the initial bits you'll finally come to the real beauty of the game, the exploration.
Depending on the source there's over 14,000 smooth scrolling screens on the low end, and over 18,000 on the high end. All on a single three and a half inch floppy disk. It took me hours just to explore the coastal area around our starting location, Tambry. This is a game tailored for explorers. It's largely non-linear, an open world where you can go just about anywhere from the start, should you survive the trip. Know what's expected of you and you can challenge yourself to do it faster, have no idea and you'll wander as you piece things together. A nicely drawn map was included with the game, and features quite a few named or illustrated locations. This allows you to gain an idea about where you might go next, though there's plenty of locations which are not on the map, rewarding those who scour the land. I made a copy of the map so I could write my own notes about the locations I discovered.
From grasslands to planted fields, cities to deserts, forests to mountains covered with snow, there's much beauty to behold. It's impressive enough to see gameplay reminiscent of influential games which came after, but to have graphics in 1987 stand toe to toe against early 90's games, this was the power of the Amiga. Various perspectives combine into a kind of pseudo-isometric 3D view. Things like roofs and floors are shown top-down, with walls and furniture angled, characters to the side. It can come across as awkward at times, but usually works great overall. Houses may have a straw bed in a poorer location, or be lavishly furnished in a manor. There are detailed shadows which are not simply black, but a darker variation of a brighter color. Cabinets, rugs, tiled floors, even wall banners, Faery Tale was ahead of its time.
^Combat
As the night vanquishes the day you'll notice the cycling of hundreds of colors or more, the world growing darker and darker still. Just like the shadows, it all becomes a murkier version of what was there before. This process goes on for some time in-game before turning in the opposite direction when approaching dawn. At its darkest, things border on barely being playable. Impressive as it is to watch, the world becomes too dark, and you'll begin to greedily burn through your supply of magical jewels, which offers light to the night. It's possible to sleep through this, but only if you're tired and manage to find a bed. How long you sleep depends on how long you've been up, so you might find yourself waking up in the middle of the night. While I would have liked for things to have been a bit brighter, it can bring a nice sense of fear when in unknown territory, an urgency to find your way quickly.
Beyond what I would imagine would be 32 color static screens and the palette cycling which dives deeper into the 4,096 colors of the Amiga, The Faery Tale Adventure appears to be utilizing two separate resolutions on the main game screen at the same time. The gameplay area being 320x200, and the bottom menus being 640x200. I based this off a comparison with the DOS version of the game, which had more cramped menus. Not only does this allow for the menus to show more text on screen, but gives this area access to a separate 16 color palette, which means there are even more colors on one screen. The ability to have separate resolutions occupy a full screen at the same time is one of those Amiga features that the PC has never managed to replicate.
This menu area not only shows your current stats and the text of what is happening in the game, but is your main interface for interacting with it. The mouse controls allow for quick access to your inventory, keys, the talking and the magic systems, and more. I controlled the character separately with a joystick, so I appreciated the mouse being confined to the menu, searching for the cursor position in a desperate moment was never an issue. You could also control pretty much everything on the keyboard, but quality mouse controls was certainly a major feet in 1987, and I preferred the mouse system to the Commodore 64 and Sega Genesis versions of this game, which went with other methods.
^In-game map, dungeon crawling
Traveling the land we'll come across numerous NPCs. A few offer quests, items, or minor story elements, but most give us clues. "Meet me in the crypt at midnight." "Find the turtle." "The maiden that you seek lies imprisoned in an unreachable castle surrounded by unclimbable mountains." They were all excellent clues which can definitely help if you're unsure about what to do next. Thankfully you should also be able to stumble along through exploration without too much help.
Exploration becomes easier should you follow the clue about the turtle, and there are actually two different ways to find her. She's initially at a specific location, but in a separate area you can find a magical shell which when used calls the turtle to wherever you're at. The turtle acts as a boat, allowing fast travel over water. There's also a swan, which allows for complete freedom of flight along the game world, and it's simply incredible to watch yourself soar through the skies in this game from 1987. When you know where these creatures are and what to get in order to ride the swan, I'm sure you could head straight toward them to get some serious speed running going, but I enjoyed naturally bumping into them over the course of the game.
Numerous monoliths dot the landscape and will provide instant travel to another location when you use a magical stone on them. This is a rather complicated system where every monolith can take you to four different locations depending on what direction you're facing when you use the stone. You'll be needing to take notes on where they take you and have plenty of stones as well as totems so you can get a foothold of where they're taking you. I used them when I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go next. They'd deliver me across the map and I'd then make my way toward the direction of home. This felt like a decent way to explore.
^Finding a quest item
The previously mentioned totems, stones, vials, and jewels are part of the magical system of Faery Tale. These are one time use items, but an inventory of over twenty of any single item can be collected and used when wished. Jewels provide light in the night, vials restore health, stones allow travel through the monoliths, and totems give an in-game overhead map of your surrounding location. Even with the separate map included with the game, this allows for a more detailed view that you'll often be wanting to use. Beyond those there are also orbs which can show secret doors in dungeons, rings freeze enemies for a few seconds, and a jade skull will instantly destroy all weaker enemies on the screen. I could go through an entire inventory of jewels in a couple of nights, and totems were in high demand as well.
You collect magic items through searching houses and chests, and killing enemies. Jewels, vials, and totems can also be bought at a tavern. The economy of the game focuses primarily on those three magic items, as well as food. Enemies can drop gold and you can also find small caches hidden about, by the time your exploration of a given area is completed and you've made your way to a tavern, much of your gold will be used to buy more of those items along with food. You'll be wanting food to avoid starvation, which depletes health in a timed fashion. When full your character will slowly gain health in the same timed manor. If starved your character walks around as if they're drunk, spazily going off in directions you're not pointing toward. It's really unavoidable, you're going to starve and you're going to hate it, but prolonging a full stomach provides sanity. You can also buy weapons and arrows for a bow, but you'll get them all through combat faster. The economy is not robust and has negatives, but it still works decently because there's stuff you'll want to buy and you'll never have more money than you'll know what to do with.
Keys are the other important items in your inventory, and can only be procured on the bodies of enemies. There are six colored keys, some being easier to find than others, and most doors will not open without one. If you'd like to be in a better position than I was, it would be wise to delay tackling any dungeons before collecting as many keys as possible. Dungeons could have over twenty locked doors, and your progress halting as you grind for more keys can be a pain, especially when you see an innocent chest on the other side just begging to be exposed!
^Exploring, taking a ride with the turtle
The story told inside of the game is a rather simple one, but works well with the faery tale motif. There are three brothers with certain individual strengths, and they must retrieve a talisman for their village. The manual expands upon this basic story greatly, with nine descriptive pages. Julian is the strong brother who dreamed of engaging pirates, and is learning swordsmanship as an apprentice of his father, the master at arms. Phillip is intelligent and cunning, good for a game of dice but not trusted by others. Kevin is the resident hippie, full of delight and imagination, animals are trusting enough to eat out of his hands. A harsh winter caused food shortages, with goblins and ogres scouring the land looking for food. A hooded figure appeared in the town, summoning an undead army and stealing a talisman which kept the village safe. The father of the three brothers left town to seek help, but returned mortally wounded, with only enough time to pass some advice to his sons.
Only the smallest amount of story gets told as we play through the game. We learn that the king feels parallelized because his daughter has been kidnapped, fearing anything he might do could lead to her demise. It's suggested that if she were to be found the king might finally shift into action. Upon finding princess Katra an instant love forms between the princess and your character, and the king offers his thanks by gifting you one of the quest items. Various items must be collected in order to get through the defenses of the necromancer and his diverse accomplices. The necromancer has taken refuge in the astral world, and upon destroying him and collecting the talisman, you and the princess "live happily ever after" in a beautiful sendoff screen. It's a tale as old as time, but it works wonderfully in this setting, and we get further than Link ever got with Zelda, which is nice.
Besides the already discussed bravery and vitality, your other stats show your current wealth, your luck, and your kindness. I never personally saw any obvious uses for kindness, but have read that it deals with your interactions with others. I imagine as long as you don't go around slaughtering the innocent, you shouldn't have any problems there. I never saw any obvious reasons to want this stat higher, but I believe it can be increased by giving money to others. Your luck is basically your extra lives. Upon dying you'll lose five points of luck and get resurrected by a fairy, when your luck runs out that character is dead and the continue system becomes your other brothers.
^Grimwood forest, the witch
You start as Julian who has the highest initial bravery. When his luck runs out, Phillip takes over and offers the highest luck. Due to this he'll actually live longer than anyone else barring an increase to that stat. If his luck is depleted than it all falls on Kevin, the kindest of them all. Again I never understood quite what that advantage brings him, but after Kevin is gone the game is over. The system is actually a clever way to handle lives, but the problem is that you'd be starting from scratch with every new brother. If you find your dead brother's remains you'll get to salvage their items, but you'll be in for a long session of grinding while you beef up the next in line. Like most RPGs you're more likely to save and then reload upon any deaths. So while the story of the different brothers is a big part of the fairly small narrative, you're unlikely to actually deal with anyone besides Julian.
The music is damn good overall, a full game soundtrack for any 1987 computer game is impressive, but games with role playing were among the last types of games to get musical treatments. There's intro music, a track for standard gameplay, buildings, dungeons, combat, night, and finally the end location. They're catchy and they sound good, though a few could stand to be little bit longer. There's only a few sound effects, but those are decent as well. On a technical note the game was designed on an Amiga 1000, and steps need to be taken to limit the available memory on other Amiga's or else the intro music will be corrupted. Overall the music is another highlight for the game.
Grimwood Forest was really the only area of the game I wasn't really enjoying while I was there. It took quite awhile of walking around the outskirts of the forest to finally find one of the entrances. After an hour in the maze it was dark, I was running out of magical light, and I hit a dead end. So I had to make my way back out of the forest and find another entrance where it took several in-game days and nights to explore everything. The light jewels to see at night ran out, plus I was starving and kept running into the edges of the paths. Still, it turned out to be one of the most memorable areas of the game for me, and I suppose sometimes you have pain to thank for delightful gaming memories. There was an area with a lot of awesome loot, so at least my suffering was rewarded.
^Rescuing the princess on our swan
There were a few boss fights, most I couldn't describe as challenging as I was already rather beefed up, but they felt fun nevertheless. The witch had me a little scared with the light that went back and forth, and it ended up draining quite a bit of energy before I defeated her. The dragon was fun because his fire breath came out quickly and had to be timed in order to avoid it. Once I got in close it also drained a lot of health from me. The only one that was rather perplexing was the knight, who seemed to take my blows in stride, not even attempting to fight back. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure I was strong enough. The necromancer was a true delight, with our wands blasting off back and forth as if it were a gunfight in a western. They weren't difficult, but proved enjoyable.
The Faery Tale Adventure would appear to have been released sometime in the spring of 1987 for the Amiga. It was developed mostly by a single person, Talin, though he did mention others as special thanks. It was published by MicroIllusions in America and Mediagenic in the U.K. about a year after the American release. The earliest reviews showed up in July of '87 and the magazines tended to take a few months from being written to being delivered, hence an estimated spring release. There was also an advertisement for the game in May of 1987, further supporting springtime.
Mentions of the game had actually gone back to the previous year, and the title screen even features a 1986 copyright. I don't believe it had actually been released that early, as the copyright on the floppy disk contradicts the title screen showing 1987. Multiple sources cite the release of Zelda in America to be in July or August of 1987, hence Faery Tale would seem to predate Zelda over here. While Zelda had been out since early 1986 in Japan, the two games would seem to have been developed independently from each other, and I would say this is noteworthy. 
^Getting closer to the end, we fight the dragon
A few ports from the Amiga original would trickle down for release over several years. In 1988 a Commodore 64 version came out, and I fooled around with it for a bit to get a feel. I thought it had a charming graphical style that could only be described as different, and as such feels worth playing despite some terrible load times. In 1989 a release for EGA DOS PCs was released. It's objectively worse than the Amiga in every possible way, though kind of impressive to see the smooth scrolling in DOS at that time. If it were the only version you could get a hold of, it would seem to be playable.
The final port was released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis through New World Computing and EA. This was an incredibly faithful port of the original. I could imagine some believing this was the best overall version of the game, but I still think the Amiga beats it. The graphics are slightly stretched on the Genesis, and the transitions to night aren't as impressive. While the music is quite good for the FM variety, it can't compare with the Amiga's sound. Inventory controls via the gamepad take a lot of getting used to, and the worst of all is its use of a very long password system instead of saving the game to flash memory. Still I couldn't help but play through a nice chunk of the early game on the Genesis, and am confident in saying you couldn't go wrong playing either the Amiga or Genesis versions of Faery Tale.
Speculation over sequels started in some of the first reviews for the game, with some simply wishing for it and others claiming the next installment would be coming out in 1988. In 1993 Lords of Time from Hollyware was claimed to at least be a spiritual successor to Faery Tale, as Hollyware was an offshoot from Microillusions. This angle may have just been for hype as the creator Talin was not involved in this project. It was said to be decent but not quite as good as the original. In 1996 Computer Gaming World said there was a rumored update to Faery Tale and that we should cross our fingers. Talin says that a sequel was thought about and worked on at various points, but things did not come to fruition until 1997 when Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of Dead was released among some development hell and poor reviews.
^The final battle
Magazines covering the original release of Faery Tale were primarily divided into two camps. Those who felt this was an all time classic, and those who wished to point out the games faults while still admitting it was a classic. Dragon gave it four and a half out of five stars, calling the play exciting and the graphics absolutely stunning. Info said it was the finest dungeon adventure game ever rendered in microcomputer media, giving it five out of five stars, and would later rank it as the third best Amiga adventure game. Amazing Computing called the game ground breaking, huge, and beautiful. They tore down several other classic games in favor of Faery Tale, and said any complaints were paled in light of what a beautiful and fun game this is, a step ahead for the gaming industry. Over ten years later AC called the music (along with Sinbad) some of the best ever to grace a computer game.
Quest Busters called the title gimpy and the reason why they procrastinated in reviewing it, only to have been surprised by the best animated RPG yet for the Amiga. Family Computing declared it had just about everything you could ask for in a game. Computer Gaming World called it very impressive and a worthy addition to any game library. Readers placed it as the eighth best adventure/action game at one point, and in 1996 the magazine named it as the sixty-third best game of all time. Byte named it as the game of the month in September of 1987. Commodore Magazine said it did not have the best graphics, sound, or animation of all Amiga games, but that combined no other game could match it. Later they named it among the best adventure/fantasy games. Amiga World called the game good, but not earth shattering, mentally proactive, or fast paced. They admitted it was well constructed with above average sound and graphics and that it should keep you interested. Lukewarm review aside they would later name it as the twenty-first best Amiga game of all time.
Overseas Your Amiga said that while not perfect it offered a lot of bang for the buck. Amiga Computing said it was not easy to get into but was addictive once you did. They gave it an 81% and called it a classic. The Games Machine called it graphically pleasing but not astounding, but that it remained intriguing and had hardly dated. CU Amiga called it a totally awesome product.
^Our happily ever after
It should be difficult to ignore The Faery Tale Adventure as not only a ground breaking game in terms of its gameplay as an early action rpg, but also through its graphics that in 1987 would take years for similar games on other systems to reproduce. It has a full musical soundtrack. There's hours of exploration in a huge and non-linear open world environment, all of it smooth scrolling. It was not only unprecedented for its time, it ages even finer when the competition is put side by side with its release dates. It is an Amiga original, it was an early Amiga game which took advantage of the system while outshining all others, it is clearly one of the best Amiga games of all time.
It is not without faults or annoyances, but historically it steps beyond those cares. It is an imperfect masterpiece, but that's still a masterpiece. A journey you won't regret taking if you can just push past its initial difficulty. Get in there and take a ride on that swan! I hope you'll check out my video review, where any magazines mentioned here will be read from and commented on. Comparisons will also be shown of all the other versions of this game; DOS, Genesis, and Commodore 64. I even read some of the story from the manual. If you enjoyed this article you might possibly be interested in King's Bounty (Amiga), A-Train (Amiga), Sword of Sodan (Amiga), or Heroes of Might and Magic (DOS).
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