Melfand Stories is a fantasy-themed Action game developed by Sting Entertainment (creators of Treasure Hunter G) and published by ASCII Entertainment on March 25, 1994 for the Super Famicom, and as such, it's Japan-exclusive.
In the RPG fantasy-inspired kingdom of Melfand, the King's advisor, Nomolwa, had taken over the land with his army of minions, and it's up to four heroes that the player can select to defeat the forces of evil. Consisting of El the sword-wielding rogue, Corse the soldier, Lemin the wizard and Nora the whip-wielding thief and assassin, each which the player can control to kick ass.
It received a Fan Translation on February 6, 2024.
Melfand Stories contain examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: An in-universe example, with a portrait
◊ of the former king of Melfand seen in the castle halls depicting him as a grinning, overly muscular macho man. - Aerith and Bob: Nomolwa's two henchmen, Labyuless the warlock and Brad the black knight.
- Agent Peacock: If his idle animation is anything to go by, Corse the Knight is rather vain.
- Animated Armor: Sentient suits of armor are an enemy in the castle interiors, who falls apart in just a handful of hits.
- Antlion Monster: One appears in the plains, as a giant antlion-centipede hybrid monster who opens a sand pit trying to suck you in. It periodically sticks its head out of the pit to chew you up, but you can attack it while it's exposed.
- Art Initiates Life: The castle contains a life-sized portrait of a Hellhound who, if you stay idle in the area for too long, will suddenly pounce out and attack.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: At least two of them, one where you're on the back of a horse-carriage moving forward and another where you're flying on a giant parrot's back. Both instances have plenty of mooks dropping all around you to attack.
- Big Bad: Lord Nomolwa, the King's Treacherous Advisor who made a pact with the forces of chaos to take over the kingdom, though all his misdeeds are available only in promotional materials.
- Big Damn Heroes: Depending on your path, you'll be aided against the True Final Boss by a fairy, a dwarf or a nun. The last two were helped by you in previous stages.
- Black Knight: The Castle's exit has a fearsome knight clad in black armor as a boss, which is even named "Black Knight" in-game!
- Blob Monster: Unlike the majority of Japanese RPG-styled games, slimes are fairly tough enemies that can be found in the caves near the end of the game.
- Bonus Stage: In-between level, there's a short stage where you try destroying a massive statue within 30 seconds for points.
- Chest Monster: Some of the treasure chests are monsters in disguise, who grows teeth to attack as you open them. However they're ridiculously weak opponents who die in one slash.
- Cute Witch: Lemin certianly qualifies. Being an elf also helps.
- Creepy Centipedes: Jemia, the boss of the grasslands stage, looks human at first until she drops the disguise and turns into a giant centipede.
- Dirty Coward: Nomolwa is a pretty easy boss who only shoots fire with his wand in a predictable manner. When you beat him, he'll flee to the castle balcony where he'll be striken down by True Final Boss Beril.
- Giant Flyer: Your character employ the assistance of a giant parrot as a transport in one stage, one large enough for you to run circles on her back. During the level you'll be attacked by airborne enemies dropping from the skies and need to fend them off until reaching the level's end.
- Golem: The stone Golem is a boss in the church stage, and is even named "Golem" in-game. It's also a surprisingly resilient Determinator - you fight it on top of a bridge, and halfway through the bridge collapses. Both you and the golem fell to the bottom of the stage. A fairy helps your character to fall slowly and land unharmed, while the golem is reduced to half a body somewhere above his torso... and continues attacking you by hurling pieces of rocks around him on you.
- Gratuitous Ninja: It's a game in a mostly westernized medieval setting, until you're reminded it's made in Japan when the game throws a ninja as one of the bosses halfway through. One named "Kage" (wind) who can run circles around you and proves rather difficult to hit.
- Harping on About Harpies: There's those chibi-looking harpies serving as Airborne Mooks in the game, who attacks by dropping from above. The stage where you travel on the back of a giant parrot have them serving as transports for other mook enemies.
- Kraken and Leviathan: The first boss you fight at the docks, who's even named Krakken in-game. It debuts as gigantic tentacles grabbing your ship, forcing you to jump overboard, and you fight the monster later on.
- Kid Hero: El the rogue is 13, the youngest out of the playable characters
- Lizard Folk: Lizard-men pirates appears at the dock stage to challenge you, with their leader having a Hook Hand to rough you up.
- Mirror Monster: In the castle's hallways filled with rows and rows of mirrors as tall as you. As you walk along, you suddenly realize - wait a minute, one of those reflections isn't following your movements... cue a doppelganger of your character jumping out said mirror and attacking.
- Multiple Endings: The ending changes depending on the characters used, (though it's perfectly possible that they all happen at the same time).
- El becomes the new king of Melfand.
- Corse becomes captain of the royal knights.
- Lemin becomes a magic teacher.
- Nora becomes a bounty hunter.
- Narrator All Along: At the end of the game we see that the story is being written by Lemin.
- Nun Too Holy: Sister Lilia is a capable fighter, as seen when she assists you to kill Beril.
- Older Than They Look: Lemin is 51 in human years, but 17 by elf standards.
- Our Dark Elves Are Different: The miniboss of the woods stage is a trio of female dark elves who try to rob your character.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Galar is the stereotypical long-bearded dwarf wielding an axe.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: One of the bosses is a group of four ghosts, serving as a Wolfpack Boss which flies circles around you. They can somehow be damaged by your weapon and shares a portion of the health meter each, becoming really hard to hit when there's one single ghost left.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: A gryphon shows up as a boss in the plains stage, of the "classical" variety.
- Our Manticores Are Spinier: A winged manticore pursues you in a battle as you're riding on the back of a giant parrot.
- Our Wyverns Are Different: A wyvern serves as the boss in the mountain stage.
- Pig Man: Pig-humanoids armed with tridents are among the enemies the game throws at you.
- Poison Mushroom: Appropiately, there's a mushroom that will do some damage if you pick it up, with your character portrait even becoming sick.
- Sand Worm: The boss of the desert area is a sandworm who repeatedly leaps in and out from beneath the ground to ambush you until you kill it.
- Taken for Granite: Two knights found in the mountain stage are victim of this, courtesy of Labyluless. Your character arrives just in time before he petrifies Charlot, to which he threatens do the same to them before his boss fight. After defeating him, the knights get better.
- Throne Room Throwdown: The Final Boss and main villain, King Nomolwa, is fought near his throne for the first half of his boss fight. But he flees to an adjacent balcony for the second half.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nora is the tomboy while Lemin is the girly girl.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Labyluless does this after being defeated for the first time.
- Whip of Dominance: The preferred weapon of Nora is her trusty whip, fitting with her being a brooding Femme Fatale rogue in tight leather clothing and thigh-high boots, and whose idle animation has her toying with her whip in a coy manner. Her ending even shows her using her whip on her men to keep them in line, and doing a haughty laugh right after.
