This is an RPG with a mix of ARPG and turn-based (round-based, to be more accurate) RPG battles. While having the different battle styles in the same game is a change of pace, the turn-based battles really detract from the game -- and I much prefer turn-based RPGs. There's a third style of battle for the bosses where it's real-time but you can only move horizontally and about a quarter of the screen vertically (think Centipede), or only vertically and about a tenth of the screen horizontally against a few mini-bosses (it depends on whether you enter the mini-boss's room from the bottom or side). I really disliked that third style.
The game is broken up into 5 chapters, with the first 4 chapters having you defeat a demon to advance to the next chapter. Within each chapter, each taking place on its own "world", you have to travel between the present and the past or future to pick up important items or allies. Your hero has the option of 3 classes to be (Fighter, Magician, and Saint), each having special abilities, e.g. Saint being able to walk over damage tiles when he gets some boots, the Fighter being able to have the sword fire projectiles when he's powerful enough, or the Magician firing multiple projectiles from the rod (normally, only one shot can be on screen at a time). You are able to change the hero's class at mosques. There are a couple necessary tasks that require the hero being a specific class. Other than the very beginning where I used the Fighter, I pretty much exclusively used the Magician, especially since it's easily the best against the bosses. Other than to try it out, the only time I used the Saint was for the task that required being a Saint. Exploration is very reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda (released about 1.5 years before this in Japan), including the map display for dungeons. The sound effects for the spells during the turn-based battles sound extremely similar to those in Dragon Quest/Warrior.
There are about a dozen allies that you pick up along the way. IIRC, they are all required to accomplish necessary tasks or be able to fight the demons. In addition, up to two of them can fight alongside the hero in the turn-based battles. There are also a half-dozen formations of two allies which allow the party to cast some very powerful spells, with certain enemy combinations being extremely vulnerable to these spells -- unfortunately, that's all the party does for that turn if you cast one. In addition to the allies, there are places in each world where you can recruit Troopers to fight with the party in the turn-based battles. While this sounds great for the turn-based battles, because of how tedious the entire battles are, how little experience is gained, as well as each world having a level cap, very quickly I was trying to run from all of these battles -- you do get two chances to run before the battle begins. It seems to me that there are only certain map sectors that have the chance to have a turn-based battle when you enter the sector. As for the real-time battles, entering a map sector gives a chance for roaming enemies to appear -- you can keep exiting and entering until no enemies appear if you want. The only real issue I had with this aspect is that sometimes you will enter a map sector on top of an enemy, automatically taking damage until you can get away from the enemy.
The game doesn't have battery backup, so it utilizes a password system. And, boy, is it a doozy. It's up to 48 characters long, using all 26 letters and the numbers 1-9 (thankfully, it doesn't include 0, so there's no worries about confusing 0 and O). While I didn't have a problem with it using such a long password (it takes around 2 minutes to enter it), it really should be able to start you out at the mosque you get the password from, instead of always being in front of the starting town of the world in the present time. If you get the password as a result of getting a game over, then I can see starting back at the beginning of the world. The most egregious aspect, to me, is that not all towns have a mosque and, other than Chapter 1, the starting towns for each chapter do not have mosques. So, after defeating the demon of the previous chapter, you have to explore the new world in order to find a town with a mosque (or lose your remaining lives -- you start with 3 lives) if you want to take a break from the game.
To me, the game tries to do too much, which drags the experience down. It's definitely not worth what I paid for it.
