The year is 1999. The Earth is invaded by the Krion Empire, an alien force that send army of robots to conquer it. They quickly overwhelm the planet as conventional weapons from Earth have no effect on them. When all hope seems lost, a mercenary named Kagemaru succeeds in summoning the witch, Francesca, whose magic can beat those robots out. Francesca starts an adventure to track and defeat Empress Elysia, the overlord behind the Empire.
The American version is famous for missing most of the story that was presented through Ninja Gaiden style cutscenes; there's not even a proper ending.
Don't confuse this with Magical Drop.
Tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The game was released in 1990, the intro establishes the game takes place in the year 1999.
- Achilles' Heel: The Krion Empire are totally immune to all common Earth-based weaponry, but are vulnerable to magical powers. Empress Elysia realized this, and had all of the Witches sealed away to prevent them from rising up to stop her again. All but one, apparently.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite her hate for humanity and her torture and near killing of Kagemaru, Elysia gets a bit of a solemn sendoff as she sends Francesca to a nearby escape pod as she dies and her space base begins to crumble.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Famously to Capcom's Mega Man.
- Badass Adorable: Francesca herself. Witches hat, midriff, and long boots, and also has many deadly magical spells at her disposal.
- Big Bad: The leader of the Krion Empire, Empress Elysia. Apparently she and Francesca have a volatile past together.
- Boss-Only Level: The fifth and final round simply consists of three boss battles. First against a robot, followed by said robot morphing into a doppelganger of Francesca, and finally the final showdown with Elysia herself.
- Boss Room: Note the conspicuous "A" symbol.
- Boss Subtitles: "ALERT!! Big Enemy!! ... Message for you from your friends"
- Boss Warning Siren: Boss Only Levels are herald with a screen saying "ALERT!!" in big letters on a black screen flashing red. The player then appears in the level while the boss makes its entrance. When the boss's entrance is finished, a "Data File" on the boss appears, listing its name, health, strength, speed, damage and special ability. However, in the final stage, none of the final three bosses have any alert screens or data profiles, although the siren is still heard while the final boss is materializing.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of the credits, Francesca will wink at the player.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Phoenix Spell nukes everything on the screen and is extremely powerful, but saps Francesca's Health whenever she uses it.
- Charged Attack: Francesca can produce a charged burst of energy. Notably, Francesca had this feature before Mega Man did in Mega Man 4.
- Checkpoint Starvation: There are no checkpoints in the levels themselves. Clearing a stage will drop you at the start, but die three times and it's back to the beginning of the round... In the Japanese version. In the American Version, you might as well forget about continuing period.
- Classic Cheat Code: Though originally thought to be dummied out characters
, Kagemaru and the unnamed character (who is believed to just be Francesca in an alternate outfit) are playable via button-pressing codes, though the game's cutscenes still show regular Francesca. Similar codes exist for invulnerability and stage select. However, these codes, like many other things, were removed from the English version. - Continuing is Painful: In the American version, losing all of your lives kicks you all the way back to the beginning of the entire game. The Japanese version gives you continues.
- Covers Always Lie: Look at the American version's cover...
- Crosshair Aware: The Final Boss has a weakpoint that changes places occasionally. A crosshair points out where her weakpoint currently is.
- Cute Witch: Francesca herself. The American version's box art depicts her as some kind of a grown up nurse-witch, instead.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Normal enemies die exploding, while bosses undergo a Post-Defeat Explosion Chain.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: Played with. While Francesca can't shoot diagonally by herself, she gets some consolation; she can shoot upwards, and the Ball Weapon fires diagonally.
- Difficulty by Region: The American version is rendered much more unfair than the original, due to the fact that the Continue feature was taken out.
- Distressed Dude: Kagemaru is taken captive by Empress Elysia after Round 2.
- Drill Tank: The Mini-Boss at the end of Round 2-2 is one of these.
- Dub Name Change: From Doropie to Francesca. Also the Akidama Empire was changed to the Krion Empire.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: The text that flashes during the Boss Warning Siren flickers incredibly fast, to the degree that its only visible for a third of a second.
- Evil Laugh: Empress Elysia does this frequently in her cutscenes.
- Evil Overlooker: On both the front and back of the Japanese cover, Elysia can be seen overlooking Francesca.
- Excuse Plot: To an extent. The plot's very simple, but for an NES game there's a fair amount of text in cutscenes- but only if you're playing the Japanese version. All the English version gives is the opening cutscene.
- Flying Broomstick: Functions as a moving platform, like Mega Man's Rush Jet.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Francesca against Elysia. In the backstory, Elysia's original body was sealed within her current mechanical form by Francesca and the other witches in the past, which is why she is on a revenge plot against them and the Earth.
- Hostage For Macguffin: Elysia bargains for Kagemaru's life in exchange for the magical seal in Francesca's possession.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Shield Power creates a brief barrier in front of Francesca that blocks all shots and makes enemies move the other way.
- The Magic Goes Away: Francesca seems to be the last witch around, or at least the last that could be summoned to help fend off the invaders.
- Magic Versus Technology: The heroine is a Cute Witch that uses her magic powers against an invasion led by a technological empire.
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Nintendo Hard: Hard as balls largely because of the level layouts, lack of checkpoints, and enemy placement. The American version is even harder because you can't continue from your dying spot. - Oxygen Meter: Particularly in Round 3, an underwater base. Francesca can't stay underwater for very long, so she has to Corridor Cubbyhole Run her way through to get to air pockets. If she runs of air, she doesn't die, but her life starts draining rapidly.
- The Phoenix: Francesca can transform into a Firebird.
- Power-Up Letdown: The phoenix (Read: Fire) spell is a screen clearing nuke that is Cast from Hit Points. Which sounds very cool but unfortunately, health is extremely valuable and rare in this game, enemies are easily dealt with on their own using normal shots, and overall lacks the utility of the Freeze, Ball, and Shield spells. There is no real reason to use the Fire spell outside of demonstrating how impractical it actually is.
- Red Alert: The game introduces Boss Battles with a red flashing screen saying "ALERT!!"
- Science Destroys Magic: The very mechanical Empress Elysia previously sealed away all of the witches, or so she thought. Kagemaru happens to find one of the few magical wands left, where he summons Francesca to stop her.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Francesca is summoned from a wand when Kagemaru uses it. Once again free, Francesca takes it upon herself to save the world once again.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Round 2 takes place in the northern regions (though not necessarily the arctic). Francesca has to deal with the usual Ice Physics and lots of spikes.
- Spikes of Doom: They are everywhere in this game and Francesca unfortunately has the same weakness as her blue robot counterpart. Touch them and *boom*.
- A Winner Is You: The American version didn't even bother blanking the screen after the Final Boss battle. Francesca/Doropie just stands frozen on one of the platforms while "You win!! Congratulations!" scrolls on the background, along with the credits. This is especially sad considering the Japanese version got a full animated cutscene.
