You become the young Samurai who is the champion of the Shogun. Your mission is to recover the great sword Dai-Katana from Ikiru, the Master of Shadows, who holds it hidden deep in the Pit of Demons. Until you can gain back the sword the Shogun’s control of the land of Hachiman is in grave danger. Bandits roam the land and barbarian invaders are beginning to raid across the borders.
The Fighting Fantasy series began in the 80s and soon found a world-wide audience, effortlessly moving into computer games later. This book is a high fantasy story while others in the series can be more horror stories. The monsters to be faced are trolls, dark elves, orcs, a dragon, griffon, roc, wolf, ninja, chaos god and various undead.
It’s fantasy and not really believable but grabs the imagination. You are not entering a fantasy world but more just taken away from your own world. In gaming terms it is easy with the good choices being fairly obvious and the paths to be taken are short. A lot of space is taken describing wrong tracks the reader is unlikely ever to take. It only really takes a couple of reads to actually reach the end. It splits a bit too easily into three mini-adventures (before, during and after Greyfriars) and so is a bit linear in overall plot. The rules are standard Fighting Fantasy ones with the addition of a resurrection option after non-combat deaths. All good fun.
C.C. (United Kingdom, 2016)