The hero begins in a cabin on a hill overlooking Rocky Hills Village. The neighborhood is not as good as one would like. Upon leaving the cabin and walking down the trail toward the village, several people immediately start fights with the hero. Find the merchant to learn why he cannot open his shop and what the hero can do about it. Then the hero embarks on a wonderful adventure encompassing many varied realms. From the medieval village, the hero takes a boat to an enchanted forest full of fantastic and dangerous enemies. From there, the hero can crawl through dungeons or survive in a viking village or both, followed by other medieval villages, a castle, the Elvin realm of Elysedor, and can choose to take a detour through hell or go straight to the Island of the Dead. There is far more to do, so we shall not spoil it. But along the way, you meet merchants who can sell you items (and sometimes give quests or tips), or you can pick up items, some of which are dropped by defeated enemies. You can collect valuable gems or gold bars from defeated enemies or in treasure chests or on counters of some commercial establishments. Throughout the game, watch your health and mana (magic fuel). If you run out of health, the game is over. If you run out of mana, your weapons revert to nonmagical mundane weapons. Health and mana potions can be found in chests, in various locations, or on defeated enemies, or can be purchased from merchants. An inventory interface lets you equip weapons, shields, helmets, and items both functional and for looks. These can be purchased, or picked up. If you need more money, you can sell items you no longer need, but you will not recover the original purchase price! The merchants have to make a profit. Throughout the game, you gain experience. You start at zero experience points and experience level 1. When you gain enough points, you go up an additional level. At higher levels, you can carry more health, mana, and money, and you are allowed through more portals that were previously locked, taking you to other realms. Also at higher levels, you get a speed boost, a weapon and shield effectiveness boost, and you are better able to defeat tougher and tougher enemies. Each defeated enemy adds experience, as does finding secret areas, completing some quests, and defeating all enemies in a game level (location). There are secret levels, and completing them gives you even more experience. Some levels can be skipped, but you don't gain experience for levels not completed. There are multiple weapon types. The simplest is a melee weapon (sword, staff, mace, axe, hammer, etc.) That is good for close combat with individual enemies. Some weapons work at a distance (bow and arrow, magic staff) and let you defeat enemies while not getting too close. If you can find it, there is one magical weapon that can take out more than one enemy at a time, but only up close. This can get you through crowded areas when many enemies are attacking you at the same time. There are lots of visuals (and distractions!) that don't directly affect game play. You may disturb a nest of rats or cockroaches or see blowing leaves or flying birds or bats or flies. There are also healing areas (magic wells and such) and pain areas (flames, acid, moving blades, etc.) The basic mechanic is "click to move". Click the ground, move there. Click an enemy, fight them. Click a pickup, go get it. Click a portal, and be teleported either to another realm or elsewhere in the same level. You can save and load. At all but the "hard" difficulty level (you can choose easy, normal, or hard) there are automatic checkpoints. Also every portal acts as a checkpoint. In addition, you can manually save any time, if you are not dead that is! At all but the "hard" difficulty level, you receive tip notifications to help you get started, on the first few levels. Other notifications happen at all difficulty levels, such as the name and a short description of the enemy you just defeated. The game comes to an end eventually and you can view the credits. You can also view the credits at any time from the main menu.
