Single Elves (Put Arkista’s Ring On It)

A top down action game with high fantasy leanings featuring tile based layouts and cut graphics. It’s not out of the ordinary for the NES, but they’re the superficial charms that immediately piqued my interest with Arkista’s Ring. But there are a lot of charming games from the time that fall flat when held up to scrutiny. Where does Arkista’s Ring fall?

Arkista’s Ring’s aesthetic as mentioned is very cute, Christine and the monsters all have personality and it’s hard not to like it on a presentation front. It’s similar to games like The Legend of Zelda but more strongly titles like Legacy of the Wizard. And while it’s not as sweeping as either of those games, as metioned it has its lures. Taking control of the brave elf Christine to travel the land of Arkista and wrest back Arkista’s Ring from the evil Shogun, we travel across 31 stages doing battle with monsters.

These levels take the form of villages and forests and crypts as Christine moves across Arkista towards the Shogun’s castle. While the game is completely linear in that respect, and each level is a contained and predetermined map you get the feeling of traversing the world through changing scenery and enemy types and pallets. While most enemies are reskins of one another, having similar movement and firing patterns but largely serving similar purposes the specific theming keeps them fresh and towards the end of the game where the real dangers lie the differences are more notable. But some creatures, like the living fire beings, Flamers, show up in only one level making them feel more special and giving the area something to remember it by – even though the Flamers walk up and down and fire shots just like several other enemies.

So while there are a lot of repeated elements in terms of the enemies, there’s enough variety in terms of flavour to keep things interesting over 31 levels. However, it should be mentioned that Arkista’s Ring has four loops meaning these 31 levels repeat for a total of 124 total screens to overcome. I felt that the game starts to drag a little in the middle of that, when Christine has become so powerful as to hardly break a sweat before getting its teeth back on the fourth loop – where things become dangerous enough again to be interesting. Enemies seem to speed up and take more hits every loop – the coral snakes or “Cheeto worms” enemies in the port caught me off guard on a later loop with how quick they swarmed and killed me for instance – and the enemies on the fourth loop take a pounding.

 

Christine is far from helpless with her bow, however, and she will gradually increase in potency through the acquisition of items. ALWAYS pick up bags that enemies drop as there are many upgrades she can obtain to help in her quest. These can be consumables, to the five pieces of armour that function as additional health points (yes, your helmet and cloak can be “healed” with potions), and bow upgrades. These bow upgrades aren’t announced by the game as far as I could tell, but pressing Select between stages lets you see Christine’s loadout. New bows and arrows will increase your power and firing distance, and if you’re picking up as many bags as you can you should have the Ultimate Bow and Ultimate Arrow through Loop 2, which is why I posit it took until Loop 4 for enemies to catch up to Christine. Rarer still are the treasures of Arkista – the Wealth Amulet that accrues points as you walk and the Elf Mirror which makes Christine immune to enemy projectiles and renders bosses an absolute joke. I picked that up on Level 70 though, so I gather its drop rate is pretty low!

Of course, you also get Arkista’s Ring for subsequent loops. And while it’s helpful I probably should leave some mystery here!

Consumable items are very important in this game as well, I’d argue almost a must for certain screens such as 29 and 30. Christine starts with a few slots but can expand to seven total spaces as she loots enemies. Some of these items such as the Thunder Wand are very powerful early in the game, doing full screen damage though they become less and less useful with further loops as enemies become hardier. Still, some enemies can only be harmed with items – particularly certain undead vulnerable only to the Holy Stick item. The most useful items in the game are the cure potion to fully heal Christine, the Fire Wand to increase your attack power, range, and granting the ability to fire through walls and a particular late game item that is used solely to stun the most dangerous enemy type in the game. Part of the ease of later loops is that you know what the enemy types of upcoming levels are going to be so you can conserve and plan your items around them.

That’s where the game seems to stand – it’s very manageable with a handful of difficult levels. I’d go so far as to say the game is very chill. The standard overworld music is very calm and the enemies are usually very manageable. It’s not quite lulling a player into a trance, but overall it’s a very calm and fun endeavour. Maybe I just fell into the trap of familiarity after the first 62 levels.

I think for the game to be more difficult during the first loop and the final loop is the way to go when there are four loops of a small pool of levels. However, I would prefer less loops with double the amount of unique levels and in general a more difficult curve. I love that you pass these forests and mountains and buildings. But I’d love to see more of them with more bosses and enemy types and song tracks. I guess it’s a good title when I just want more, but that’s my biggest complaint – not enough changes until Loop 4 that I feel it’s a bit much for too gradual of a ramping up.

That is not to say the game can’t be tricky when it’s on par with Christine. Certain late game enemies are relentless and deadly and there’s some particular behaviours that dictate enemy approach in general. Free roaming enemies will often run right for Christine, but refuse to move in front of her – meaning it can be difficult to just bottleneck enemies on the terrain and shoot them down. Now, when Christine turns she will also move forward so enemies that are dancing just out of range can often get a free hit in because she has to move into empty space when she turns if available. For the record, I don’t think this is a good control choice but it seems like they built enemy behaviour around it at times so I’m not sure if it’s intentional. Other enemies will immediately turn and fire when you line up with them, others are turrets that periodically fire meaning you should wait until they’ve shot before you approach them. While enemies often fall into one of the few types of behaviour, there are enough sprites in this game that you should assess and approach each new threat with scrutiny.

From the onset, 124 levels with somewhat random loots seems like a daunting task, but Arkista’s Ring is such a charming and approachable game I highly recommend you play through at least a loop or two of it. The only reason to roll all of the game is if you enjoy it and what to find all of the items, but I can see myself returning to complete the first adventure and maybe the second from time to time. It’s a pretty engaging game for that duration and it’s packed with flavour. If you want a cute top down high fantasy action game on the NES to pick up and play… well, Arkista’s Ring is worth a spin!