Play Arabian Dream Scheherazade (Japan) Online

Arabian Dream Scheherazade is this weird little NES gem that mashes up turn-based battles with real-time sword swinging—kinda like if Zelda and Dragon Quest had a baby dressed in silk robes. You start as this down-on-his-luck hero whose girlfriend gets snatched by a sorcerer (classic), and suddenly you're hopping between past and present timelines to fix your mistakes. The overworld's all deserts and palaces, and the music has that unmistakably janky-but-charming NES synth vibe.

What’s cool is how it switches gameplay styles on the fly—one minute you're in grid-based combat choosing spells, the next you're slashing scorpions in real time. The time travel mechanic actually matters too, letting you recruit different party members depending on the era. I got stuck for ages trying to figure out how to progress until I realized I had to go back and help some random merchant in the past. That’s NES RPG logic for you.

It’s definitely rough around the edges (good luck with the cryptic moon phase puzzles), but there’s something charming about its ambition. The Japanese version’s got slightly better graphics than the Magic of Scheherazade release overseas, if you care about that sort of thing.