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I really wanted to like Arabian Nights. Hidden gem status? Check. Untranslated until just recently? Check. Original setting with a middle-east feel? Triple check. And it starts off great too; the battles will keep you interested, the story starts off strong, and the characters are all likable.

Then, you get the best equipment from the first town and, from that point on (assuming you stay current with best weapons and armor), the enemies barely scrape you. Oh sure, they'll try every 8 steps, but what's 15 damage when you have 2000? They might get lucky with card effects that are tied to your current HP levels, but you'll regain it all as soon as you level up, which is pretty frequent due to their aforementioned diligence.

Did you like the music tracks from the first hour? Great! Because those are pretty much the only tracks in the whole game. Same mountain music in two or three mountain areas, same horrible battle transition screech-squeel every 5 seconds, same dungeon music for each and every one of the game's 10+ dungeons.

Speaking of the dungeons, I've rarely had less fun in a game. Bland, poorly designed corridors with the occasional "hit this switch" or "free us, please!" The mountainous areas fared a little better, but when over half of the towns look nearly indistinguishable, you know you have a problem.

It's a shame too, because it's clear that team LostTemplar put a lot of care and effort into translating this game, and it shows. There's nothing more painful than a typo, and I'm happy to report I saw not a single one. That, plus a very good understanding of the source material, made for a pleasant story... up until the time you get the magic carpet, when any semblance of a structured plot flies out the window and you're sent on one pointless fetch quest after another.

So no, I can't really recommend Arabian Nights, even if it is a little on the short side. There are just too many better games, old and new, to spend your precious time playing.

You can tell a lot of work went into the English translation for Arabian Nights, so everyone involved should be very pleased with themselves.

Arabian Nights was a game that was made for the Super Famicon in 1996 and never had a North American release. Most likely due to when the game was released, being at the end of the Super Nintendo era and the beginning of more sophisticated systems. The game is only Arabian Nights in name as it is an original story with loose tie-ins to One Thousand and One Nights.

I've got to say, the translation is very good. Everything is clear as day and I didn't see any kind of typo. As for the slight glitches that are mentioned in the "readme" file that comes with the patch, neither of those happened to me. I did get one that wasn't mentioned, but it maybe because I am using ZSNES. It was a slight glitch when going to the weapon/armor store. When I would ask to see the sellers wears, sometimes the game would freeze when entering the wears menu. What I did to prevent that was use a save state before asking to see his wears. It only would happen on rare occasions and I don't know if ZSNES is the best emulator to use the patched game with as I haven't tested it with any other emulator as of yet.

Another important note, you should use beat to patch the rom because the patch is a bps not a ips. Make sure to check the "readme" file for more info.

And for those that are interested, the game is a very traditional JRPG with the only difference being that "cards" can be used to control the shift in battle. As well, the graphics are pretty good and reminded me of Chrono Trigger. I think most people that grew up in the SNES era, or most people that just like old school RPGs, will find this a fun game, although not a very long game. Kudos to everyone involved in getting this done, good work.