Sword of Kalin (or Kalin no Tsurugi if you’re Japanese, (or Karin no Ken if your fucking Gamefaqs)) was Square’s first foray into the world of RPGs on the NES. For a game released in 1987, it isn’t too bad. It has elements of many “staple” RPGs in it’s gameplay (read: derivitive), but that doesn’t make it boring, even by today’s standards.

The game plays kind of like a cross between Ultima, Ys, and Dragon Warrior. Enemy encounters and exploration occur much as they do in Ultima: you explore the world one screen at a time, and running into an enemy takes you to a battlefield. On the battle field, you run into things kamikaze style, a la Ys. The menu interface is very much like Dragon Warrior.

It makes for an interesting blend and will certainly give you something to do when you’re feeling bored very “1987″ on a given evening, and don’t feel like beating Dragon Warrior for the 27th time.