Majō Densetsu II: Daimashikyou Galious

I've been playing The Great Demon Bishop Galious for the Famicom. Very tough but fair, and so innovative. I've tried playing the Maze of Galious for MSX before, and I found it to be a bit crude, but this is a nice conversion, taking the general gameplay and refining the controls, graphics, and sound. Some people say it's a port and refer to it as Maze of Galious, but it actually does have its own unique title, and the level design is completely different with larger mazes (although there are less of them). Most of the games that are referred to as Metroidvanias could be traced more closely to this than to Metroid, although I suppose Metroid was earlier and does have some similarities. Still, this has pretty much all the common elements, like the RPG elements, the item collection, the map, warping between areas, and so on. It's too bad that they never released it on the NES. I think the game would get a lot more recognition. It's a little more linear than it first appears as you're locked out of the later mazes until you beat the earlier ones, which grants a key, but you're basically free to explore the castle, which is the game's hub, and it's pretty large itself. I also like that the game allows you to switch between the two playable characters. The differences between them are fairly minor, but managing their separate health bars adds a bit of strategy to the game, and you do need to use both of them to complete certain parts. It's also kind of nice that you can resurrect a character if they die. The items are also very interesting, although I sometimes find it difficult to understand what they do, even though I'm playing it with a patch. I may write a more thorough review when I complete the game, which could take a while, since it is a good challenge.