Believe it or not, this was one of a few video game adaptations. Despite being made by Lucasfilm, the NES game was developed by Capcom, even though Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts) was around at the time. I guess they were too busy making adventure games for IBM-compatibles at the time.
The Story So Far...
Tales of dreams and imagination.
There are two spirits watching over the world. One, the spirits of the skies, gives light and power to all beings. The other is the spirits of the Earth who give courage and hope. The two spirits each sent a messenger in order to bring peace to the world. And the beautiful messengers were given special power to protect the people's future.
That special power was.........magic. The people were living peacefully, protected by a great magic.
Bavmorda, the messenger of the skies, became greedy for power. In arrogance, she decided to conquer the world with her magic.
Fin Raziel, the messenger of the earth, realized her plot, and tried to persuade Bavmorda to return to the skies. But her magic was sealed and she was turned into an opossum by Bavmorda's wicked magic.
Bavmorda declared herself queen of the world, and started to build up her strength to rule the world.
Nelwyn
You'll play as a dwarf farmer, Willow Ufgood. Your mission is to take the infant Elora back to the human (or Daikini) homeland, and protect her from the evil Bavmorda. Elora is prophecized to be the one who will destroy Bavmorda and save the world for good.
The house you start at is your family's home. If you rest here, you'll be able to fully recharge your HP.
Your family will tell you to see the High Aldwin next door. Enter the house to the right to talk to him, and you'll learn the Acorn spell. For just 5 MP, this allows you to temporarily stun enemies by turning them to stone. You'll also get 17 MP to start the game with Returning to his house will fully recharge your MP.
The box in the upper-left corner is your basic stats. The number at the top is your level. The highest is 16. E is your experience points, and then you have your HP and MP (which are self-explanatory).
By talking to people, you'll learn about Vonkhar, the best swordsman in the village. You'll also learn that the village of Dew is north of Nelwyn.
The house in the upper-left corner of the town is Vonkhar's house. He will give you the Long Sword, which is your first weapon. He'll tell you that after a few fights, you'll eventually get used to the heavy weight of the weapon.
Since you have both a magic spell and a weapon, be sure to open up the menu screen with the Start button and equip them both. You can also use this screen to see much more experience you need to level up as well as see your strength, defense and agility. Just remember: B swings the sword and A casts magic, which is the reverse of The Legend of Zelda.
The Road to Dew
Well, you're as ready as you're going to be. Head north and you'll hit the road.
You have two ways to attack with the sword. Stand still to swing the sword, or swing while moving around to stab forward. The swing attack is slow at first, but as you level up, it gets faster and more reliable. As much as you'll want to stick to the stab, the swing will be useful at certain times even at the weakest experience level.
The music changes and the screen shows some wild action when monsters are on screen. Seriously, take a look at that grass. It just starts moving like heavy winds are blowing it around. Take out the slimes as they move around. They're pretty easy, for the most part, and you'll need the experience. Sometimes the slimes will split into smaller slimes, but if you swing your sword, you should be able to get them even at Level 1.
When you see the floating skull heads, stay in a corner and repeatedly swing the sword. You'll be able to dish out damage to more than one skull if you're lucky enough (which will happen somewhat often), and hopefully defeat more than one at a time. Again, you're gonna need the experience.
Dew
The house just south of the entrance will let you recharge your HP.
Go to the house in the bottom-left corner to receive the Wood Shield. Remember to equip it, because you'll need the defense it provides. As you get this shield, you'll learn that Bogarda is the father of the village chief, and that he was changed into a demon by Bavmorda's magic. He'll tell you to hear the story from the village chief.
I also strangely like what the guy says when he gives you the Wood Shield. "Yeah, the village chief's father was changed into a demon by Bavmorda. Oh, uh, hey, have a shield!" The only thing funnier than the fact that the game takes great liberties with the movie's plot is that everyone you meet just runs with said liberties.
Talking around will net you some info. To the west is a road that goes through the rock mountain. You'll find a cave with a weird voice inside if you go further along. I know what you're probably (not) thinking: "I hear voices in my head, they counsel me, they understand..."
You'll also find out that Bogarda is in the forest north of Dew.
The village elder is near the road to the north. After finding out it's true his father was a courageous and just man before being corrupted by Bavmorda's magic, you'll get the Magic Healmace, which lets you regain HP in return for 20 MP. You won't be able to use it yet, but you will after powering up for a while. By the time you reach your first boss, you should have the Healmace equipped when you need it.
When you reach Level 2, you'll be able to swing the sword a lot faster when you're standing still.
If you die, you'll start at the last visited village with your stuff unequipped, and you'll also drop down to the amount of experience points needed for the last level you reached. Equip all of your stuff and try again.
Leave Nelwyn through the west. Going west and up the stairs leads to another area where you won't be able to do much, so take the lower path near it leading to the path that goes further west. Watch out for the brown enemies - the trolls and stay away from them; you won't be able to fight them yet. You'll soon see a cave. Enter it.
This is a fairly short cave, and opening the chest at the end will award you the Small Shield. Equip it, because you're going to need the defense.
Once you're done here as well as with everything in Nelwyn, exit from the north side of the village. You'll have a choice between north and west. From here, you'll be in a bit of a maze.
The dogs will block your path and run into you as they leave the battlefield, but they can be easily cornered, and they can also get trapped in the grass-like walls. The snakemen, however, are the worst. When the snakemen advance towards you, stab them twice and avoid the fireballs that it spits out each time you land a hit. If you have the Small Shield, however, you can block these fireballs. Keep doing this until it dies. They're powerful now, but just you wait...
The skeletons give you 50 experience points, but they'll take a long time to kill. You have to stab the skeletons when they move their shields to the side as they attack. If you're at the proper distance when you plug away at them, you'll be able to hit them without taking damage.
Some of the floating skull heads here will have a blue outline to them instead of a grey one, and they'll be more powerful. Even with what you have equipped, these monsters can still rip you to shreds in just a few hits.
Turns out, you're not even supposed to be here even though the game lets you. You're supposed to go north, like the villagers say. Let's go ahead and do that.
You could go to the cave in this area, but you'll be turned away by the guard blocking the cave until you find a Gold Statue. You'll have to go west in this forest area, and then north to find a chest. This chest contains the Gold Statue.
Sometimes, when you pick up an item, you'll get a message saying "You have the Light of Life." When this happens, you'll be healed. You can only get this from a chest you haven't opened yet, and you can only get it from that chest once.
When you hit Level 3, you'll be able to swing even faster when standing still. At this point, you're at the fastest sword swing speed that the game will give you with your current sword.
The grey flying creatures are pretty fast, and they'll take quite a few hits before they go down. You won't see these guys unless you're near the cave, and fighting them isn't really worth it at this point.
Bring the Gold Statue back to the cave. Now you'll be able to go in.
The Forest Cave
At least we have maps, folks. This game is pretty easy to get lost in...but then again, what games have I covered that aren't easy to get lost in?
As you go deeper into the cave, you'll take on bats and cave zombies. The small bats can be destroyed just like the floating skulls. Some of them will sometimes turn into big bats if given enough time, but the big ones can be stabbed a few times before they die. The cave zombies, however, are not as easy. If they lift their arms and their hands turn pink, Willow will be transformed into a defenseless pig, which lasts until the game lets you leave the screen (which is usually after these guys throw four bubbles). When you're a pig, these guys will throw bubbles at you which do some damage despite turning you back into your normal form. To make matters worse, the sword will have no effect on them, and they have the tendency to turn you back into a pig if you don't escape fast enough after turning back into your dwarven self. If that happens, you'll have to dodge their attacks while still in pig form before you can get out of the area in human form.
You'll eventually find a chest in the center of the cave that contains the Battle Sword. It's much more powerful than the Long Sword, but when you equip and swing it while standing still, you'll have the slowest sword swing in the world once again. This will happen every single time you pick up a sword, and you'll have to level up a bit to be able to swing it at the fastest speed again.
Also, the wasps will tear you apart at this point much like the skulls and skeletons west of Dew. They just fly around wherever they want to go.
The ring increases your strength when you wear it. Since Willow wears it as soon as you get, you'll want to grab it before entering the big square room where the boss battle is.
The boss here is some green guy with a horn on his head. This is the village chief's father, Bogarda, and he wants the gold statue. Willow refuses to give him the gold statue, which triggers the first boss battle in the game.
Boss battles are a little different. The playfield is on the right, while the two energy gauges - P for the player and E for the enemy - are on the left along with your experience and MP.
You'll want to avoid this guy's boomerang and strike him once with the stab before running away. If you can get a standing swing on him, great. When you beat the boss, you'll gain about 700 experience points and your life will be restored.
You'll restore the village chief's father back to his human form, and he asks you to fight for peace. He teaches you the magic of Flowing Fire, which creates a circle of fire around you when you casts it. While enemies can still walk past the flames, the flames can still damage them on contact. He then tell you to see Cherlindrea, a fairy who lives in Lake Cheef to the west of Dew.
Of course, before you can do that, you'll have to leave the cave, because the game's not gonna do it for you!
Once you're in Dew, head back to the house that lets you restore your HP. The old man there will tell you about the Dragon Scales, proof of a battle between an adventurer and a vicious dragon named Matanda. The old man used to be a blacksmith, but would love to make a weapon out of those scales, and asks you to bring them to him if you find them.
With healing in town out of the way, we can now exit the village from the west side.
To The Lake!
The trolls will leap at you and also try to surround you. If you've levelled up a little bit since completing the first cave, you should be able to take them out in no time with the Battle Sword.
One of the best ways to level up is with the floating skulls with the blue outlines in the path just to the south of the western entrance to Dew. They give you 20 experience apiece, and 100 in all. You should be able to go up a few more levels and get to maximum swinging speed with the Battle Sword.
There is a fork in the road where you have four paths to choose from. There are two paths to the west. Take the lower one, as the rest just lead to nothing except more battles. You'll reach a bridge and meet Kchil of the Nail Clan. A spell has been cast by Bogarda on his village, making it impossible for them to get out. I'm guessing he's some sort of white dragon, even though he looks like a silver hedgehog in-game. Since you've made some progress here, Kchil's clan can now return home and you can now cross the bridge and head further west. You'll still have to fight some bees, but at least the spell that Bogarda cast on the bridge no longer works.
You'll meet Franjean and Rool of the Brownies. The Brownies stole baby Elora in the movie, but here they're just a slight nuisance. They'll tell you to go north into the Death Forest. There will be a cave where the dragon Matanda lives. You'll have to beat Matanda and give Franjean and Rool the Crystal Ball of Life.
Some of the bare trees will come alive and shoot projectiles at you. If you're just going through the maze normally and not taking time to double back, they won't be a problem. You can also block the projectiles with the Small Shield, so make sure you equipped it before you entered this area!
You'll soon come across a cave that acts as a home for an old man. You'll regain your HP and MP here, and find out that the old man's pet, Po, has gone missing. He asks you to bring him back. He'll give you Medicinal Herbs in case Po is hurt.
