Fantasy of Freedom v2.0

The only path remaining is the one that I actually should've sent Gus down in the first place. I did in fact cheat here rather than start the game over.

The path splits into two again as written on this sign.

"Kcalrevo" is quite the name for a professor. ZZT is no stranger to names spelled backwards so I immediately tried to see if the name would reveal anything read in reverse. "Overlack"? That's... just as unusual a name. I wasn't even sure if Kcalrevo was meant to be something else backwards after seeing the other name.

The professor has a small home along the river that has the same shape as the ones in Zarc. It differs only in color and the fact that Gus can enter it freely. The home is pretty sparse, and while Gus can go into any of the rooms, the only things to interact with other than the professor are a bookcase, the chairs, and the windows, all of which simply explain what they are and say no more.

Okay, so it is "Overlack" spelled backwards. Whatever.

Gus is tired of this shit and is sick of the polite formalities. At least Kcalrevo actually is pretty helpful. He makes it clear that the keys are mandatory to getting back home, plus he gives us the name "Tarmin" so I can actually describe the setting of the game with something specific.

Outside Kcalrevo's home is a sign warning about the river current. This is one of the rare spots the player can actually jump into the river, something that's a staple of the official Super ZZT releases.

Not so here! Falling into the river means smashing into the bridge and being killed instantly! Sorry Gus!!!!!!

Perhaps a better place to explore would be the village of the dwarves. This area is closed off to Gus until he rescues the dwarf that was trapped in the spider webs at the start of the game. All the more reason to not be a jerk and kill them. I went back to see if there was special dialog if you killed the dwarf and no such luck, however it turns out if you try to enter the village with the dwarf still in peril you get some amazing text:

The village is a little more peaceful at least. Two kids are playing catch in the corner, which off the top of my head seems to be a pretty early example of the trope. I really wouldn't want to put money on it though given how many early ZZT worlds have a cheerfulness to them. (I double checked Toxic Terminator to no avail.)

Since Zarc village already exists and the world map is fairly small overall, there's really not a whole lot to do in this second town. None of the homes can be entered, and there's no businesses either. In this town you're either playing with a ball or a shepherd watching over a flock of lambs. As peaceful as that may sound, this village is dealing with their own sorcerer problems. The evil Malvagio has been stealing lambs to use for his experiments, and the dwarves are powerless to stand up to his magic.

Gus volunteers to make things right, or alternatively he can blow them off and tell them to solve their own problems. By now it should be no surprise that doing this results in the game becoming unwinnable. In this case it's just the shepherd refusing to talk to you anymore, not a game over.

Now this, this is how you telegraph a secret path. At least it would be if only I wasn't so obtuse as to ignore it anyway, thinking that surely an object was going to open up the path later for the player and not that there was another fake wall here ready to be traversed at any time.

Beyond this point the road splits again. This time the two paths are leading away from each other enough that the player doesn't get any insights about the path they didn't take as it will never show up on screen unless you're actually walking that way. I opted to head left, which was not the way to Malvagio's abode.

Instead I got some classic Super ZZT action. For all this ammo Gus has been carrying, he hasn't had much opportunity to actually use it. Only the initial set of spiders and rotons at the very beginning have required shooting to get past. After a lot of wandering around, this was a welcome change of pace to finally encounter something Gus could handle.

This path still requires that the player realizes they can shoot down the otherwise locked door which rather satisfyingly breaks off the hinge and goes flying before it crumbles into a pile of junk on the ground. The puzzle of the locked door being solved with a bullet is an excellent segue into this portion of the game that relies entirely on the player's trigger finger.

As an immediate reward, another talking tree shows up to provide information on how to actually defeat Malvagio with a hint about where one might find such a device. Gus may have already checked out the ogre caves, but there's still that back entrance that needs to be found...

After shooting past a few rotons, ruffians, and lions (sparing the poor dragon pups that don't actually do anything other than animate), there's a river crossing that's just as dangerous to get caught up in as the one outside the professor's house. The sign explains that the current leads you to a orc camp which if the player winds up reaching, they'll be unceremoniously killed upon washing up on the shore.

I'm not a fan of how the previous river-based death is handled as it's just a voluntary leap into the river that gets the player killed for not listening to a sign in a Super ZZT game. This one though is handled in a way that I quite enjoy. If the player is in a rush and hasn't cleared out the creatures on the other side before they might hesitate in the middle of crossing to fire off a shot or to prevent from moving right onto a creature. Creatures can swim freely too so if any get into the river they're even more of a threat.

Just the slightest hesitation is enough to get swept away, and even if your have a well founded suspicion that your game is already over, you can't help but want to see exactly what happens. This makes the blandness of the instant death with no wild description of poison arrows or anything a bit of a let down, but the idea here is solid. Water safety is no joke.

The previous board is merely a warm up for the combat that follows. This board is absolutely loaded with creatures scattered across a few different paths. Hydra was kind enough to only have one of them lead to a dead end, so this isn't some miserable maze of monsters or anything. Instead the player will have to fight their way through a few paths to collect various useful items that will come into play elsewhere.

The rewards are some unusual items. Beyond this spider web is a portable telephone.

The shameless plugs continue at the end of another path which leads to an Interactive Fantasies product catalog. I was honestly surprised the player couldn't read it on the spot. Most Interactive Fantasies worlds of the 90s included catalogs from main menus. Seeing as how this game lacks one, this would certainly be the spot to put in the requisite list of releases. Perhaps it wasn't because of the limited number of actual releases at the time!

Lastly, blending into the scenery is this odd character.

I've never heard of a Bhango and it looks like the rest of the internet hasn't either. Searching for Bhango with alone or along terms like "folklore" or "Dutch" offer no leads. Looking through other early Interactive Fantasies worlds in case it's a reference also turns up nothing. Is this an original monster? A misspelling of something I'm not familiar with? Who knows? The only thing I can be sure of is that they do not like dogs.

The way this board is laid out, you'll possibly reach the Bhango before any of the items to be collected. Neither of which seem like the correct solution, which would be to find a dog somewhere.

Sure enough however, the portable telephone can be used here to call up Bryan Christians from Hercules's own The Search For The Lost Dog, which was another considered title for a Super ZZT Closer Look article.

Brian and his dog promptly appear with the dog who goes unnamed, scaring away the Bhango, leaving nothing more than a trail of slime behind. Add "slime" to your list of Bhango facts, and as long as I'm giving orders, don't think too hard about how this kid from New York has the phone number of a Super ZZT protagonist, how he was able to successfully call him from Tarmin, or how Bryan was able to get to this world at all, let alone this quickly.

With another puzzle solved, Gus acquires his next key, plus a good amount of gems that I picked up without screenshotting them. These gems are what are intended to be used on the eastern path to Zarc without finding the hidden cache on the starting board. It's taken this much time to get back on track.

The whole sorcerer problem remains unsolved, but I had a feeling the IF catalog might be of use to one of the members in the bar.

Hydra is the one to talk to about it. I like Gus using his possession of the catalog as a bargaining chip. IMO he should've done the same thing with the king's crown. Hydra doesn't go for easing up on the player, but is willing to trade Gus another one of the keys.

After a long walk back north, this time I opted to actually check out the oddly marked path leading outside the main play area. Here's our second entrance to the ogre caves, but it's not as simple as just heading in from the back and getting some cool new weapon that tree told Gus about.

It's not a matter of skill. It all amounts to luck.

You can guess how this goes if you haven't received the necklace from the king yet.

The reward is pretty nice. Not only is there a "more powerful" gun lying here, but one of the keys! Plus some supplies which are actually pretty important due to just how much shooting it takes to get through the northern path to reach that Interactive Fantasies catalog.

The new gun doesn't allow the player to kill the ogres. I would have hoped it would just because it would then connect Zarc to this area via the cave, though honestly I don't know if the walk would really be any shorter than the actual road Gus has to travel to reach those two points.

Armed with a new gun, it's time to finally face off against the sorcerer Malvagio. You can even see the captured lamb from outside! Alas the gate is sealed with a magical lock so Gus's usual tactic of shooting doors will be no help to him.

Malvagio doesn't take Gus to be a threat whatsoever. He simply summons an undead monster and lets it do the fighting for him, without even getting up from his chair.

His home has some fun-looking equipment on a table to liven up the place a little bit.

The fight meanwhile is pretty straightforward. The undead monster alternates between moving towards the player and idling in place, dealing five damage if Gus comes in contact with them. Five shots with the upgraded gun are enough to defeat them (Gus's standard weapon deals no damage), but there are two catches.

First, every time Gus lands a hit, the monster retaliates by throwing a star. Given the small area this fight takes in it can be difficult to land multiple shots as stars fill up the room. You can play conservatively and try and use the table and chairs for cover, though this is pretty slow, especially given the other catch.

Secondly, you have to fight off three of these creatures! It's only one at a time, with Malvagio immediately summoning in the next (and clearing any lingering stars) before the fight continues.

Despite the simple mechanics here, the fight is actually pretty fun. You may have to wait longer than you like to get a clear shot, but whenever things are moving, the tight spaces and limited ammo make for a nice experience that's clearly the most interesting combat sequence in the game. A game designed with more modern sensibilities would likely manually erase the stars after a certain point speeding things up a little, but while it is a complaint, it certainly doesn't ruin the sequence.

The player's ammo adds to the tension as the player won't know how many undead creatures need to be fought off. The bonus ammo in the ogre cave is basically a necessity, and players who haven't been particularly accurate in their shooting previously may have to use any remaining gems to get more ammo. Hydra is nice enough to not actually force the player to finish any of the fights before leaving allowing the player in a dangerous situation to just leave and come back later.

The one thing about the fight that is disappointing is that after defeating all the monsters Malvagio goes down without a fade, fading into nothingness. Time to rescue a lamb.

The letdown is short lived though. When Gus collects the lamb, Hydra didn't take the expected approach of having the object disappear and just letting the set flag do the work. No, you actually get to walk back to the dwarf town with the lamb following you. It's a cute detail that creates a memorable scene of Gus's triumphant walk back to town.

Though there is something to be said about how you can enter the pen as you return the lamb only to have the door lock behind you resulting in one of the funnier soft-locks I've seen in a (Super) ZZT world.

If Gus is smart enough to not try and pet the lambs (they can't be interacted with anyway), then he can grab the purple key and make his way to the waterfall to finally turn the rest of them in.

While there aren't any fancy effects, pulling the switch reverses the flow of water and Gus can now ride up the waterfall in hopes of finding this extra-dimensional portal to New York.

The climb is quick, and the perspective shifts to let the player see a starry night sky and colorful flashing portal in the air. I quite like the visuals on display here. The stars are a mixture of colors, and Super ZZT's ability to #BECOME <COLOR> OBJECT without losing code means that the color cycling on display can be a lot more chaotic to look at than in ZZT without a lot more effort.

The journey home is instantaneous with Gus landing right next to his bed. At this point the game is over, though a handful of basic things to be found in ZZT homes can be investigated before the credits roll. A rack of CDs, a television, a "disco lamp" that can be made to change colors like the dimensional portal, all the typical stuff.

And of course, the toilet. Checking out the tank components brings up an option to flush it, which overflows with blue slimes to spread water around the room. I guess you could theoretically soft-lock here if you had no ammo left and were pretty slow, but that's quite a stretch to actually have happen unintentionally.

All the while Gus's mother is calling for him to wake up already. It guides the player to her, though if you talk to her you can't explore the house, so be sure to take a look around while you're able.

Being back in his room so suddenly, Gus goes for the logical conclusion that it was just a strange dream.

Good save. I'm happy that the "just a dream" angle was shut down here. It means that anybody might have a run in with a sorcerer if they aren't careful.

With confirmation of what happened, Fantasy of Freedom draws to a close, and now we get the pivotal Interactive Fantasies catalog. I suspect this has either been updated for the graphical overhaul or is including a list of works in progress. I've never heard of Ruins of Calda before, and there's no such game over on DigitalMZX. The credits are the expected real names rather than aliases of various early IF members so I've omitted them.

Finally, for high score chasers the game converts your remaining ammo, gems, and health to points before hitting the final #ENDGAME.

Final Thoughts

When compared to the countless ZZT worlds out there, Fantasy of Freedom doesn't really stand out in any meaningful way. As far as Super ZZT worlds go, however, this isn't half bad. There are definitely a good number of sticking points that make the game much more of a chore than it needs to be. It's very easy to overspend your money and find yourself being forced to either track down fake walls or restart your game. This problem originates from the fact that the game appears to be non-linear based on the multiple paths available right at the start, though in practice there's not a lot of options in terms of how you get through the game. It's certainly not a bad thing for a (Super) ZZT game to be mostly linear of course, but the game is pretty full of offering the player choices where only one solution is valid.

You can go around and be a jerk to everybody if you like. Gus can keep the crown, kill the dwarf, be rude to the shepherd, hoard the Interactive Fantasies catalog, and so on, but in every instance it just stops the game in some way. You're either unable to actually collect the keys or killed outright. There's an illusion of choice to try and bolster up the amount of things to do in the game, yet they always lead to reloading a save and doing the right thing. Plenty of games will at least give the incorrect options some value in choosing them just to see what happens, yet Hydra is pretty content to just zap the touch label or end the game. I'm not exactly a ZZT gore enthusiast, but turning a dwarf into a red fake is pretty dull.

Staying on the game's intend path though, is a fun experience. This is a very old Interactive Fantasies titles, so my expectations were definitely lower than what I usually think of when I see that name. What Fantasy of Freedom manages to be is a basic Super ZZT adventure to explore a fantasy world, hopefully have a few laughs at the interactions between Hydra and Gus, with a hint of the iconography to come. The troll on the bridge, ogres in their cave, and the castle all would fit right in with Hydra's later releases. Following along with the walkthrough can streamline the experience, minimizing aimless wandering and reduce the time spent looking for fake walls (if you even think to do that).

There's not a whole lot action to be had, which is something I feel like Super ZZT has an advantage over ZZT with. The constrained viewport puts the player into tighter spaces where movement is important to dodge anything on screen, and prevents the player from shooting lions 50 tiles away. The game provides just the right amount of ammo to make the fights feel conquerable, yet not without some risk. The boss battle against Malvagio's undead creatures make for a good final encounter, although the player might deal with him sooner rather than later if they're quick about getting the upgraded gun. The fights are obviously going to be a bit more divisive as while I would have liked there to be a bit more shooting throughout the game, it's just as fair to prefer that Hydra focused more on the people of Tarmin and their problems.

So while I don't think Fantasy of Freedom is a great Super ZZT game, it's definitely a reasonable first try. Really all the issues are because of Hydra's lack of experience with game development in general. At the very least, the game does deviate from the official Super ZZT worlds enough to stand on their own and not have to be constantly compared to to Monster Zoo or the rest. It's a cute little journey to another world and a quest to return home, nothing too unique to recommend, but nothing too frustrating to suggest avoiding it. Given the limited number of Super ZZT games available, this is a decent enough attempt for the time, and gives those with a soft spot for rotons and water currents something to enjoy for a short while.