Recs.
Updated
Nightshade is an action-adventure game for the NEs that really is a mish mash of genres seeing as it combines aspects of fighting games, point and click adventure games as well as other action sequences.
Specs
Pros
Pro Morality system
For being such an old game to see the framework of a morality system used is quite interesting and actually a really nice mechanic. Depending on how you behave in the game (helping people or choosing to not help people) means that your likeness meter will go up. The more this meter goes up the more certain things get unlocked in the game, which gives more access and allows the player to move forward in the story.
Pro Open world gameplay
For a NES game to feature something like an open world game is quite an accomplishment. The city in the game can take up to half an hour to explore and allows the character to pick and choose what they do. Want to save people from getting mugged, feel free, you can also just let the mugging continue. Want to explore a library, you can do that too. While of course the open world aspects will seem limiting by today's standards, just the fact that an 8 bit game accomplished this is something to behold.
Cons
Con Menu system and item management is clunky
The menu system can be tough to navigate as it is many boxes inside of boxes, on top of this the item management can also be a pain due to the clunky menus and how many items one needs to manage. While much can be forgiven due to the age of this game and how little was possible in 8bit, it still can be frustrating.
Con Can be difficult to figure out what to do
There is zero hand holding in this game meaning it will take a tone of trial and error in order to figure out where to go and what to do. This can also cause some frustration though is any single element to the game is being missed and may take a strategy guide online in order to get unstuck.