Cadash (TG-16) Review

Took me about 10 hrs to beat it with all four classes.

Either this or Parasol Stars (Bubble Bobble III) is the first game Working Designs localized, which is evident in that only 3 names appear in the US Credits.

I had beaten this when I bought it several years ago, but only with the Fighter. After playing through with the other three classes, I bumped my rating up from a 6/10.

It's a very short game, with it taking a little under 2 hrs to beat, probably around 3-4 hrs on your first attempt -- you can do it in a little over an hour if you know exactly where you're going and only talk to who you need to. Since this was originally an arcade game, this is understandable. There are no saves or passwords, so if you're playing single player and die, it's game over and back to the beginning -- you can resurrect one character at an Inn if you're playing 2-Player.

The hardest part of the game is the first area since you don't gain the added HP and MP upon Leveling Up and there is no Inn to rest at until after you defeat the first boss. So you need to get by the first area with only your starting HP and MP. With the better gear you can buy, as well as being able to head back to an Inn any time you are getting close to death, the rest of the game pretty much becomes a breeze (except for one area if you are a Mage (at least the only place I had any difficulty)). Except for the first boss, all of the bosses are pathetically easy, taking virtually zero strategy to defeat.

What will be a negative for many people is that you can only ever see your current HP and MP. You can't view your stats (the only place any are shown are during the game demo if you wait for it at the Title Screen), equipment, or inventory. Also, there are no menus, so you cannot voluntarily use items, and all items are automatically used (which can be annoying since it will always use an Elixir (I only found 3 in the game), which restores all HP, first when you might only want to use a Medicinal Herb (which you can buy at Item Shops)).

To me, the order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest, are:
Ninja -- just keep the Turbo switch on and brute force your way through the entire game with your long range shurikans, daggers, and eventually fireballs.
Fighter -- the same as the Ninja except using a sword makes the first boss difficult due to needing to be at close range. Also, the Fighter gets the most armor upgrades, so he doesn't really get damaged if you always have the best available equipped, after the first boss, of course.
Priest -- mid range attack is better than the Fighter, but the slow attack does leave her open to damage. Once you get the spell Super Shield, the game becomes a joke, especially since the spell stays active after resting at an Inn.
Mage -- since pulling off magic attacks is a pain, once past the first boss, this is the only class that presents anything of a challenge due to how far he gets knocked back when hit, especially against the dragons. This was the only class that took me a few tries after defeating the first boss.

If you like side scrolling action games, I'd recommend trying this out if it's relatively cheap (although the asking price seems to have taken quite a jump in the last few years).