I remember getting this game for christmas and I was 11 years old. My first impressions from the box art weren't very good, but once I put that grey cartridge in my NES it was awesome. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I had played this game, even after finishng it I played it over and over again.
At first glance of this game I figured it would be like a zelda-ish type game, but it was much bigger than that, I think the only game that I could possibly compare it to would be Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), but this was much earlier than that sucker. The idea was to travel across the vast world to collect all of the elemental swords to piece together the Crystalis, a magical sword that was supposed to bring peace to the world. You must also gather magic, powerful armour, orbs and bracelets (increases the power of your swords) and solve fairly easy puzzles.