Hydlide

1984 · Action RPG · PC-8801 / MSX

About Hydlide

Hydlide (1984) is T&E Soft's early open-world action RPG for Japanese computers, a two-million seller that introduced regenerating health, though its belated NES release was overshadowed by The Legend of Zelda.

Hydlide in Depth

In the kingdom of Fairyland, three magic jewels enshrined in the palace keep the peace. When an evil man steals one, the other two lose their sparkle, breaking the spell that sealed away Varalys, the most vicious demon in the kingdom, and in the turmoil the last two are stolen as well. Varalys turns Princess Ann into three fairies, hides her somewhere in the kingdom, releases a horde of monsters and makes himself ruler. The young knight Jim sets out in full armour into the wilderness to fight the monsters and restore peace.

It was one of the first action role-playing games, alongside Courageous Perseus and Dragon Slayer, and an early open-world game that rewarded exploration. Players can switch between attack and defence modes, save and load at any moment, and recover health by standing still, a regenerating health mechanic that decades later became common in games such as Halo. Ys used a similar regenerating health system.

Making Hydlide

Naito wanted to mix action and RPG elements into a new genre, inspired chiefly by The Tower of Druaga, so Hydlide leans more towards action than role-playing. Partway through development he read about Dragon Slayer and Courageous Perseus and was shocked to find he was not alone; he underestimated Dragon Slayer, which became Hydlide's biggest rival through its sequels. T&E Soft released it for the PC-6001 and PC-8801 in 1984, followed by MSX, MSX2, FM-7 and PC-9801 versions, and on the Famicom as Hydlide Special in 1986. It was well received and seen as an innovator in Japan, selling two million copies there, one million on computers and one million on the Famicom.

Fujisankei Communications International released Hydlide Special on the NES in 1989, essentially unaltered, where it compared poorly with Zelda, which had improved on it. EGM's reviewers gave it fives and sixes, and Western retrospectives have been generally negative. Sequels followed in Hydlide II, Hydlide 3 and the Saturn remake Virtual Hydlide, and Hideki Kamiya cited the series as an influence on Scalebound.

Hydlide Trivia

Creator Tokihiro Naito was unaware of Ultima and Wizardry, never having used an Apple II.
It took The Tower of Druaga's formula into a colourful open world and borrowed The Black Onyx's health meter.
It was the first computer game to receive a Platinum award from Toshiba EMI for a million sales.
The NES version's music became notorious in the West for resembling the Indiana Jones theme and "It's a Small World".
Hideo Kojima designed Metal Gear Solid V to capture the open-world feel he had first felt playing Hydlide.