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The Magic of Scheherazade NES game is a 1990 action RPG by Culture Brain. Travel through time with Time Gates, mix real-time and turn-based battles, hire troopers and combine spells. You get the loose cartridge only, with no box or manual. Orders ship within 2 business days.
| Platform | NES |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Culture Brain |
| Condition | Loose Cartridge |
| Availability | In stock |
The Magic of Scheherazade NES game is an action role-playing game set in an Arabian-themed world where you travel through time. Culture Brain developed and published it, and it was released in North America in January 1990. This listing is the loose cartridge only, with no box or manual.
In Japan the game is called Arabian Dream Scheherazade. Its big idea is time travel. Time Gates move you to the same location in a different time period, with a changed environment. A spirit named Coronya opens the passages that make this travel possible.
The game blends two battle systems. On the overworld you fight enemies in real time. Some screen transitions trigger turn-based battles instead. In those, you can fight, try to escape or even bribe your enemies.
You can fight alone or with up to two allies in turn-based battles. Towns also let you hire mercenary troopers to help with attacks. Magic plays a large role as well. You learn spells and can set up formations at Magic Universities for a fee. Formations can raise defense or unlock powerful group spells, and two party members can combine for extra-strong magic.
Use the Time Gates often, since the same spot can look very different in another era. Money matters too. Formations at Magic Universities cost a fee, towns offer mercenary troopers for hire, and turn-based battles give you the option to bribe enemies.
See all of our NES games. Other Culture Brain carts in the store include Little Ninja Brother and Flying Warriors. Read more about The Magic of Scheherazade on Wikipedia.
Who made The Magic of Scheherazade?
The Magic of Scheherazade Culture Brain release was both developed and published by Culture Brain, in January 1990 for North America.
Is it an RPG or an action game?
Both. You fight in real time on the overworld and in turn-based battles that start at some screen transitions.
How many players?
It is a single-player game.
Does it come with a box?
No. You get the Scheherazade NES cartridge only, with no box or manual.
Orders are dispatched within 2 business days. Standard US shipping is $4.99, and orders over $50 ship free. See our 30-day return policy.
Standard shipping is $4.99. Orders over $50 ship free.
Loose is the game cartridge only. Complete (CIB) includes the cartridge, the original box and the manual. Brand New is factory sealed. Choose one above; options shown in grey are not in stock right now.
Bryan –
Originally posted on Amazon.com · not a MarioShroomed purchase
all those townspeople
The Magic of Scheherazade is one of those forgotten NES titles. However I clearly remember it from the old Nintendo Power days. It was quite popular for a little while considering the many pictures I’d constantly see for the game. Or maybe I was just skimming through the same issue over and over, haha. I used to do that! While the game’s probably underrated nowadays to an extent due mostly for one incredibly noteworthy and original feature, I think the game has a few too many flaws to make it worthy of classic.
Let’s get the best part about the game out of the way first. The fact that it blends action (real time) with turn-based RPG elements. I’m really curious if this is the first game to combine these two VERY different types of gameplay. If so, the Magic of Scheherazade HAS to be recognized for being a major influence. Either way, it’s amazing considering 99% of the time you either have action or you have turn based. No combination of the two even to this very day. Does it work? Yes! It does work. It comes with several tiny flaws that drag the overall score down a couple stars however, but for the most part it’s a satisfying combination of two very different styles.
While the action side of the gameplay that involves our Arabian character rescuing a princess from the evil wizard (yeah, pretty clichéd plot but we have to consider it wasn’t really clichéd in 1987 when video games were still being established so I’m willing to cut the game some slack) is probably a perfect amount of enemies to hack and slash, the problem is that you’re always battling the same foes for several hours on end. Yes several *hours*. If you think you can just pop this game in and blow through it on a sunny afternoon with nothing to do, guess again. This game is long, but not because it’s big. It’s long because you’re constantly communicating with the towns folks, playing the casino games, backtracking to the same areas and battling foes to gain experience/levels.
Anyway yes, it’s unfortunately true that the gameplay on the action side is repetitive because it’s the same enemies over and over again. How many times do we have to battle those crab enemies in the sand? Or the orange roaming monsters? Or pretty much every other enemy. If you see an enemy once, you’re guaranteed to see it thousands of times before it’s all set and done. The game seriously needs more enemy variety. Now onto the turn based side, there’s a flaw there too- this aspect is clearly underutilized and infrequent compared to the action parts. These turn based battles interestingly occur during unpredictable moments while walking to the next screen over. You’re caught off guard when they occur which is something I admire. It keeps things fresh. The battles themselves are plain which is what I’d expect with the NES- the monsters simply appear on screen, you cast a magic spell, you watch their numbered health bar slowly go down with each spell you cast, you watch your health bar slowly go down, you keep an eye on your party’s health and rinse and repeat until the battle is over. It’s very basic. It needs more variety too. Graphically it’s boring to just see the monster on screen but again, this is the NES so this flaw is forgivable.
And the amount of townspeople that you see is staggering. Unfortunately they always keep the conversation incredibly short with one or two lines, and that’s it. It’s honestly not enough to tell an interesting story. It’s only one notch better than the bland dialogue that takes up Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Oh and the palaces which are basically the dungeons. There’s only a few of them, and they’re all really short. More focus should have been placed on making the palaces more threatening, bigger in size and depth and less repetitive with the same enemies which is basically the same issues I have with the overworld. They feel really lousy compared to the dungeons in say, the Legend of Zelda. And speaking of Zelda, why does the desert area look exactly like the sandy sections of the original Legend of Zelda? Come on now!
Anyway, I like how the lead character is Arabian. That’s a unique way to separate the main character from other video games. I like how you frequently find and build new characters to join your party (too many honestly, and it’s unfortunate none of them are given enough time to establish themselves but they certainly look like they have all kinds of potential). Perhaps a remake of this game would fix this particular issue. I think going back and time to the same location with a different scenery is a nice touch too that opens up your imagination and creates new possibilities. The short sword as your primary weapon is actually okay this time around. You’ll still take damage from cheap shots that only occurs more often as the game rolls along and the challenge goes up, but it’s not *nearly* as much of an issue in this game compared to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link where the short sword is more trouble than it’s worth. At least fighting feels perfectly fair in the Magic of Scheherazade. And by the way, I’m not ABOUT to learn how to pronounce “Scheherazade”, haha. Anyway you also have a rod that can shoot magic which is convenient for enemies on the other side of the screen.
I think some of the boss fights that require going back and forth between action and turn based gameplay are innovative and awesome. I do wish you wouldn’t constantly have to go over the same exact square areas over and over because it strikes me as a limp attempt to make the game feel longer than it really is. Without all the backtracking, this game would be three times shorter. The boss fights themselves are decent too. Overall it’s a decent game with noticeable flaws that slightly hamper the gameplay, but the game is still worth checking out.
Update- August 31, 2016
The Magic of Scheherazade begins with a story about Arabians being attacked by demons summoned by the evil magician Sabaron. A hero magician attempts to fight him but fails, and as a result his sweetheart (Scheherazade) was taken and his memories erased. He’s also thrown in a different time period. A time spirit named Coronya speaks to you. A cutscene shows you being sucked through a window.
Chapter 1 is called Water World Mooroon. You start by entering a castle and being encouraged to defeat Sabaron by an old man who also informs you that the great Arabian king Feisal and his four princesses have been taken away (including your sweetheart (Scheherazade). Ah so that’s how the game got its name!
Once outside talk to the townspeople (which is a VERY common theme throughout the game- always talk to the townspeople!) explore the green lands and pretty soon you’ll stumble upon red soldier enemies. You can attack using a rod or a sword depending on the class of your character. For example a Fighter uses a sword but a weak rod, the Magician uses a rod but a dagger instead of a sword, and the Saint who can only attack with the weakest rod and dagger.
The play control is pretty good. A little slow, but decent and responsive enough. You’ll quickly notice there’s bugs, red jumping fish and fireball spitting octopus on the lake. I LOVE this one theme that plays while finding certain hidden stairways in the ground, such as the theme you’ll hear when advised to plant a rupia tree. So sweeping, melodic and cool. Spend several minutes talking to townspeople, explore the grassy lands and enter buildings for additional storyline information and item/weapon upgrades (there’s even a casino that blurts an obnoxious sound whenever you win!) Find the time door so you can travel back 50 years to find Faruk in Mooroon. He joins your party after you find him.
You soon arrive to a cave with very unique relaxing music. Enter it and face unusual tan animals that sort of look like a blend between a horse and a camel. In the north part of the screen fall in the lake and swim underwater. The enemies combined with the unusual ambient music gives me the creeps. Strange enemies that jerk up and down like seahorses, along with wide-mouthed piranhas.
Enter the Aqua Palace where the water demon Gilga live. Battle fast moving soldier enemies, red creatures coming out of a doghouse, silver demons that roll around like boulders, and Gilga himself which consists of green slime balls in outer space. Very odd. The slime’s actually eyeballs, and when they open that’s your cue to shoot them. After shooting them enough times you have to battle 3 huge slime balls with eyes. You rescue Princess Ashelato. She wants you to save her father and sisters too. Just then you get a message fro Sabaron. He threatens that princess Scheherade will fall to the demon if you don’t help in time.
Chapter 2- Desert World Alalart. The desert area and even certain sound effects look very much like the drylands in the original Legend of Zelda. Face red pinchers coming out of the soil, blue slimes, bouncing boulders and humongous jumping sand crabs (where the pinchers come from). You know what I like about the music in town? It goes from sounding like an adventurous day to… ominous in a Middle Eastern kind of way. It’s a unique sudden switch. The music is brilliant. Go back 500 years, listen to that *extremely* good music before going, arrive in a green forest area, step on magic seal and continue battling forest enemies.
Gun Meca the monkey joins your party when you visit him in town. When it rains the land turns green. Ah that’s better! The music changes too, and it’s a very tender and pretty theme suitable for the new lands. Go back 500 years through a time door to step on another seal. Watch out for fireball spitting gargoyles. Enter blue cave and battle more horse/camel things. Find Supica so she can join your party. Head back to forest to step on the seal again. Enter the door of time to head back to the present time. Uh oh we’re back in the desert! Strange cavemen people and more sand crabs are jumping around like old times.
Enter the dark dungeon, battle fireball shooting guards and fire monsters flowing from a doghouse like ants. Find the secret where Epin is hiding so he can join your party to face Curly (the boss). Deal with more rolling silver statue monsters. The boss fight with Curly… he’s no Three Stooges Curly that’s for sure! This is a huge glowing red statue monster. When he gets mad he sticks his 6 arms out and shakes fireballs at you. Defeat each arm to rescue Princess Ishutal. She too requests you save her father and little sisters.
Chapter 3- Forest World Samalkand. Face transparent funnels in the forest, avoid fireball spitting monsters coming out of the water, battle more moving flowers, contend with fireball spitting guards and watch out for red logs scrolling down the screen. Enter the time door to find Cimaron’s fruit in Samalkand 30 years into the future. Well we find out what winter’s like- it’s horrible just like in real life! The forest is pretty at least. Battle grim reapers, bouncing green trees, flowers, bugs and eyeball bats.
Find the time door to return to your time. Ah green forests. So much better! Oh a new enemy- a demon floating on a cloud shooting a line of fireballs that spread apart. Not nice. Enter dark cave and battle horse/camel enemies (this time blue). This place is designed so you can only see a few feet around you. Afterwards enter a nearby house and let Mustafa join your party. Enter the ice palace, battle guards and… oh boy! Suddenly the screen turns dark and you have to face a wizard with his bouncing jellyfish friends. Then you battle a blue snake bouncing left to right across the screen when the lights turn on. Face a witch that flickers from visible to invisible, then changes into a flower while her brooms bounce around her.
The boss is 5 winter trolls in semi-turn based RPG style. Not *true* turn based but interesting the way it’s done. Once you slow down the trolls movements, just keep shooting at them with your rod. Rescue Roxanne. This time the princess says “Rescue my father and… Scheherazade”.
Chapter 4- Flower World Celestern. Purple water and dark trees- really nice! Battle guards that sneak out from behind trees, fireball shooters in the water and red jumping fish. In the desert a dancing blue monkey thing with fireballs dancing around him appears. More sand crabs, pinchers and bouncing transparent trees stumble in your way. You soon enter a mountain town with more dancing monkeys, boulders falling from above and cloud monsters blasting waves of fireballs. In the nearby dungeon battle soldiers, dancing monkeys and silver ball statues. Let Gubibi join your party after finding him in the ground.
Time to go back 3,000 years upon finding the hidden cave in the mountain/lava area. Enter dark forest, battle eyeball bats, grim reapers, green birds, falling logs and shooting water monsters. Check out the purple water. White dogs, jumpy sand crabs and blue monkeys are in this purple water section of the game. Arrive to the lava area at the top of the screen. Fall in… I bet that hurts! Swim in the lava water battling big-mouth piranhas, seahorse-like statue things and blue crabs (and I like how you return to walking on ground while underwater in the next screen- really gives off an adventurous feel).
While exploring the lava area, you’ll see the same enemies return from the purple area. Step on seal. Monkeys, lava shooters, green birds and more are here. Enter Yufla palace. Battle more blue monkeys, blue camel/horse foes, orange camel/horse foes, curled up silver statue balls, doghouse monsters and bouncy blue snakes that move left to right across the screen. A boss fight with a wizard surrounded by fireballs happens soon, then you fight Salamander the boss everyone in town fears. Whoa! I can see why! He’s not an actual salamander you’d find under a rock- he’s a flaming monster that fills up half the screen! His miniature fireball shots pale in comparison to his sheer size.
Rescue princess… king Feisal? Go back to present time and retrieve your princess while riding around on a log floating in the sky. Chapter 5- Evil Magician Sabaron. Hassan joins your party while you go around visiting town. Battle eyeball bats, grim reapers and guards waiting in trees in the nearby forest areas. Enter a dungeon that leads to an underground green/dark area with orange horse/camel enemies and blue horse/camel enemies. Enter the time door to go to Light Palace 3,000 years ago. In here find orange bouncy snakes, big-nosed white elves and blue bouncy snakes. Find the time door on the floor and enter.
You’re back in the green/dark cave section. Take the carpet to town, walk between two trees, form a flashing white bridge and walk across it. Head to mountain bridge. Head south then west to enter castle with bouncy blue snakes in the first few rooms. Then enter the green cave with flashing orange camel/horses and blue camel/horses. In purple room bouncy snakes and white elves are lurking. After a battle with a wizard surrounded by fireballs (big fireballs shooting small fireballs!) and another battle with hammer-chucking wizards, now it’s time for a witch battle (the same one as before with the floating brooms).
Time to speak to Sabaron. He acknowledges at least one mistake he made- he set loose the great demon Goragora and would like you defeat it for him. In exchange you can have Scheherazade back. Sabaron also made another horrible mistake- he changed princess Scheherazade’s figure. Sabaron reveals a troubling bit of information- once Sheherazade says her name, her soul would be shattered by the magic power. After typing in a password the four princess sisters are together. The princesses reveal they are the rebirth of the blue stars spirit, and that you should take Isfa’s rod and defeat Goragora in the dark world with the magic of Bolttor.
Step on the switch. Soon you arrive to the final area. A place covered in bubbles. Do a puzzle where you shoot at a gate involving the moon and stars. The boss fight reminds me of those big-mouthed piranhas we saw earlier (yeah I know, of all the things to compare the final boss to I choose the piranhas!) but in this case, the boss has three huge skeleton mouths hanging open and it’s rather disturbing. He slowly rotates around the room like a circus ride. Sometimes he turns invisible and all you see is a rotating bubble and fireball. After defeat Arabia is saved and at peace again, but like a brave hero you have to continue on your journey.
Turn based enemies include samrima knights, amaries with sharp flashing teeth, basido squad, curgot the sharp shelled beast, medusa queens, corsai the blue rat, pandarm the forest creature, fire squad, cytron lizards, kakkaras, megarls, gilas regiment, gazeil, gorgon, basido division, zodor division and gilas clan.
I think the Magic of Scheherazade is a pretty good game, but what bothers me are the repetitive locations and the lackluster conversations with the townspeople. Seriously people are too direct the way they simply give you information but… that’s it They could be livelier. The locations and dungeons throughout the game are designed either exactly the same or close enough to being identical that it’s hard to differentiate one area from the other, other than a few different colors (such as the ice palace is white and the forest is green). Without those color or environmental changes, it really feels like you’re playing the same exact areas over and over. Otherwise pretty good game.
The Grinch –
Originally posted on Amazon.com · not a MarioShroomed purchase
Very underrated and little known.
This game is very fun to play and it just did`nt get popular. If you are a fan of Zelda, this game is right up your alley. It is one of the better games for the NES. I would recommend that anyone that has a NES should get this game. You can usually find it at an affordable price.
Larry Lefavour –
Originally posted on Amazon.com · not a MarioShroomed purchase
Favorite game If only it worked better
One of my favorites. I just wish it would continue where bI left off.