[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Magic_of_Scheherazade.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Kinda like that, except with flying monkeys and time-traveling cat girls.]]

->'''Mustafa''': Hey, I should have gotten 100 more rupias.
->'''Kebabu''': Mustafa! I said stop it!
->'''Supica''': Whoopee!
->'''Epin''': Hey! Don't fool around!
->'''Gun Meca''': That's right. This will be the decisive battle.
->'''Pukin''': I'm trembling with excitement, sir.
->'''Rainy''': I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid...
-->-- '''The hero's [[TrueCompanions companions]]''', on their way to the final battle

A 1989 UsefulNotes/{{NES}} game by Culture Brain, ''The Magic of Scheherazade'' is the North American release of the 1987 Famicon ActionRPG game ''Arabian Dream Scheherazade''. Drawing its themes from the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' tales, it wasn't a major release at the time, but has grown into a popular cult classic, with innovative features that have since become standard console [=RPG=]s elements.

The story revolves around a [[HelloInsertNameHere nameless hero]], the [[HeroicLineage descendant of the legendary hero Isfa]] who [[SealedEvilInACan sealed the world of demons]] away centuries ago, who wakes up with amnesia after a fierce battle, only to find a feline "time spirit" named Coronya who's been waiting for him. She explains that he tried to confront an EvilSorcerer named Sabaron and lost, and so Sabaron cursed the hero with amnesia, threw him into another era, and has imprisoned the royal family, including [[SaveThePrincess the hero's girlfriend, Princess Scheherazade]]. The hero, with the help of Coronya and a variety of other party members he meets along the way, must navigate a [[PortalNetwork network of time portals]], defeat the five elemental demons Saberon has awakened throughout the land, and find his way back to the present for a rematch with the evil wizard.

In the meantime, though, there are rupia trees to plant and harvest, casino games to play, mercenaries to hire, bank loans to take out, classes to attend, magic carpets to fly and a large variety of side-quests revolving around one of the most cheerfully eccentric casts to ever grace an 8-bit RPG.

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!!This Game Provides Examples Of:

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Many examples are compared to the Japanese version, such as the Hero's sprite which was anime-like with big eyes and a generally simplistic design.
* AncestralWeapon: The last, most powerful weapons in the game are your ancestor Isfa's weapons.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: Each of the heroes turns down the offer of reward and luxury to instead continue their time traveling adventures. Alas, see also VaporWare.
* AntiGrinding: You can only level up so much in each chapter before having to move onto the next.
* ArabianNightsDays: Despite the time travel premise, the setting always stays firmly in Arabian fantasy world territory (though sometimes an Arabian fantasy world with robots!).
* BadFuture: In the third chapter, the ice demon Troll is threatening to bring about eternal winter. When the heroes travel 30 years into the future to recruit an ally, they find that it's already happened.
* BeastMan: Many of your party members, who include a talking, flying squirrel/monkey, a tiara-wearing catgirl with a magic wand, and a surprisingly {{Moe}} harpy. Even the hired mercenaries look like anthropomorphic bulldogs with spears.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Pretty much all your otherwise-capable allies have their own crazy quirks, with Coronya and Faruk as the straight men trying to keep the rest of them focused.
* ButThouMust: Most of the dialogue options asking if you will or won't save the world.
* CatGirl: Coronya
* {{Chickification}}: Sadly, [[spoiler: once she's returned to her human form, Scheherazade proves far less interesting than Coronya, and she ends up becoming MyGirlBackHome at the end of the game]].
* ClockworkCreature: Gun Meca the translator robot, and possibly Gubibi.
* CombinationAttack: They're named after the constellations and involve three party members casting various spells to create combination attacks, against which certain formations of enemies are vulnerable.
* CowardlyLion: Rainy, who's initially found cowering in his home and refuses to leave unless you're a fighter. Once he's recruited, though, he loyally follows the hero into battle despite being scared.
* CursedWithAwesome: Coronya, who, as a spunky magical catgirl who controls the gates of time, would seem to have gotten a major trade up from [[spoiler: her true identity as Scheherazade]].
* DifficultyByRegion: The Japanese version's overland was much more complex containing passageways that were not present in the US version.
* DiscOneNuke: The Monecom spell in the first world fills up your gold and healing items to the max, which can easily last you almost all the way through the game.
* EasterEgg: Overlapping with the GoodBadBugs, the password screen also allows you to select and listen to the ingame music via "SOUN D", and to see the game's ending by entering "END".
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: Goragora]] and, to a lesser extent, the five demons fought throughout the game (particularly Salamander, a demon so powerful that your only hope of defeating him is to [[spoiler: travel back in time two thousand years and fight him the moment he's born]]).
* EldritchLocation: The Dark World.
* ExpositionFairy: Coronya, an exposition catgirl who guides you to the time portals, explains where each one goes, and lets you know when there's a hidden door somewhere onscreen.
* EvilIsNotAToy: [[spoiler: Sabaron finds this out the hard way while trying to control Goragora.]]
* FantasyCharacterClasses: You can choose between Fighter (who fights with a sword), Magician (who fights with a magic rod) and the Saint (who has certain miscellaneous advantages and is required by the story at times), both at the beginning of the game and, by paying a fee, during the game.
* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler: Coronya, who's actually a magically transformed Scheherazade.]] Also several combat spells which can change the target into hamburgers, milkshakes, dolls, exploding rockets, and more.
* GenieInABottle: Your second ally, Faruk, as well as his brother Hassan.
* GrandeDame: Kebabu, who tests your moral fiber by asking if you'd pick up a girl in a hamburger shop.
* GuideDangIt: There is a puzzle in the Light Palace that involves passing through a jar that blocks your way to the second half of the palace. There are forty of them.
* FacelessEye: The first demon, Gilga.
* HelloInsertNameHere
* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: Near the beginning of the game, NPC's will outright tell you how to navigate the menu and which buttons to use to talk to people, cast spells and use your weapon.
* HeroicLineage: Your ancestor was Isfa, famous for sealing the Dark World and stopping Goragora.
* HeroicMime: Your character, for the most part, though his allies more than make up for it.
* InMediasRes: The game starts after the hero's already tried to stop the villain's plot. It went badly.
* InescapableAmbush: The wizard fights and the demon boss fights are normally inescapable, though once you've recruited Kebabu, she can be summoned to fly you to safety.
* InUniverseGameClock: The Alalart Solar Eclipse happens at regular intervals, allowing you to plant rupia seeds, cast the Great Magic spells, and boost your odds of winning at the casino.
* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: [[spoiler: Scheherazade, who's been accompanying the hero as Coronya since the game began. Near the end, you have to correctly guess her true identity.]]
* MagicCarpet: The gang's means of traveling between chapters, as well as a WarpWhistle between towns.
* MiniGame: The casino roulette wheel.
* MiserAdvisor: Mustafa, who demands money before he'll join the party, and then keeps trying to raise his price during the adventure. The other characters start threatening to hit him if he doesn't cut it out.
* MookMaker: Some of the mini-bosses are wizards that, while harmless by themselves, constantly summon minions. There are also some structures that spawn segmented, centipede-like mooks.
* NonstandardGameOver: If you don't correctly guess that [[spoiler: Coronya is Scheherazade]] near the game's end. Also if you say "yes" when Rainy asks if you're afraid of the monsters.
* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler: Goragora, whose only purpose is to bring about destruction.]]
* PermanentlyMissableContent: The Great Magic spells can only be learned in their respective chapters, and you can't go back to a chapter once you've completed it.
* PlayerMooks: The mercenaries, who are fairly expendable in battle, but make up for it with sheer numbers, the ability to always hire more and by gaining levels if they survive each chapter.
* PortalToThePast: The central premise of the game, as each chapter takes place in two different eras and recruiting your allies and defeating the bosses will require traveling back and forth between them.
* QuestForIdentity: Part of the story, though since your character's a HeroicMime, it doesn't come up often.
* QuirkyBard: The Saint class, whose main use is just completing a few Saint-specific sidequests.
* RegionalBonus- An odd, and very early, case of North American gamers getting the bonus, as the graphics and music of ''The Magic of Scheherazade'' were extensively updated from the original.
* SaveThePrincess: Naturally, since it's an 8-bit adventure-RPG, [[spoiler: though subverted when it's revealed that the princess has been fighting alongside the hero since the game started]].
* SealedEvilInACan: The demons your ancestor sealed away in the Dark World.
* SequenceBreaking: Most of the game's guarded against it, but there is one place where, armed with the right spoilers, you can do things out of order and throw the rest of the game off its rails.
* StalkedByTheBell: If you linger too long on a particular screen, the music changes and a fairly tough Grim Reaper mini-boss appears. On the bright side, he does drop a large bag of money when he dies.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Don't try to walk into any body of water, unless you're at one very specific part of the game with the one specific ally needed to breathe underwater (but only in that location).
* TalkingYourWayOut: If you can't defeat or escape from an enemy squadron, you can always try bribery.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Sabaron's villainous motivation.
* TeamMom: Coronya, whose role in the intermission cutscenes between chapters usually involves trying to manage the rest of the team's bickering and keep them all focused on saving the world.
* TongueTied: [[spoiler: Coronya, who'll lose her soul if she reveals her true identity.]]
* TooAwesomeToUse: The five Great Magic spells, in theory. Although they're immensely powerful spells that disappear after one use, most of them are really only useful in the game chapter they're found in (and there's always the GoodBadBug workaround for completionists).
* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: The Alalart Solar Eclipses occur periodically, tinting the screen dark, enabling the Great Magic spells, and causing a variety of other effects (by virtue of allowing the blue star Airosche to shine during the daytime). The eclipse also figures into the backstory, as a trigger for the time gates and [[spoiler: as the only time that Goragora can be defeated and the Dark World sealed]].
* TrueCompanions: Your cheerfully bickering allies, as they get closer to the final battle.
* VaporWare: A sequel was in the works for the SNES, but development eventually fizzled out.
* WarpWhistle: The magic carpet.
* WideOpenSandbox: An early attempt, as the solar eclipses, the tree-planting sidequests, the universities, the mercenaries, the haggling merchants and the ability to take out loans and accrue interest from them, the casinos and the ability to alter the setting with some of the Great Magic spells (such as turning deserts into forests) can keep the player busy for hours without worrying about moving the plot forward.
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: In world two when you are looking for Supica you are told that 'He used to be in this world five hundred years ago, but a boy named *Player Name* has taken him far away.'
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-->''No, it's'' '''''Sha-hair-uh-zod'''''