Willow (NES)/From Nelwyn to Dew Village

Nelwyn Village

Willow's home is in the south of the Nelwyn village.
Click to enlarge.

Willow starts outside his own home, at the south edge of the village.

Visit all the houses and talk to all the inhabitants of the village. You can obtain precious information, as well as your first spell from the High Aldwin (south-east) and your first sword from Vohnkar (north-west).

When you are done, leave the village to the north.

Rugged Forest (east)

Willow starts at the southern edge.
Click to enlarge.

Despite the fact that all the Nelwyn said to go north, you should go east at the fork in order to reach Dew village.

• Enemies:
  • Slimes (original NES enemy): the first and easiest enemy; a stronger version splits up into four mini-slimes when hit.
  • Death Hounds (from the movie): they appear when Willows try to leave a screen; press forward and tap B to stab them as they rush towards you.
  • Skulls (original NES enemy): they appear when Willow is in the middle of a screen, and try and surround them; rush to a side, then turn and tap B as they try and charge at you.

Dew Village

Willow arrives in Dew Village from the east.
Click to enlarge.

The Dew Village and Bogarda are characters original to the video game.

The villager in the eastmost house can fully restore Willow's health and magic points. Explore all the village and obtain the first shield (south-west house) and the magic Healmace (village chief house, north).

The characters direct you to the north to solve their problem. If you decide to skip it and go west instead, some magic prevents you from crossing a bridge and progress.

Notice the attention to details: every character has a home. The number of empty houses equals the number of villagers in the streets.

Bogarda's territory

The forest

Willow comes from the south-east.

In order to enter the cave, you should bring an item to the skeleton. Said item is found in a chest to the west. Even if you know that, you should still talk to the skeleton first, so that you can grind weaker enemies for experience on the way before you fight the strong snake men.

• New enemies:
  • Flying monkeys: they attack in swarms, and it is easier to dodge them than to fight them.
  • Snake men: strong enemies guarding a treasure chest. Press forward (towards them) and tap B, but also use the Healmace when your health gets low.

The cave

The four "lower floor" areas have been highlighted with a different shade of grey. The passages between the two floors have been highlighted with the bright sprite of Willow.

In this underground labyrinth there are four doors leading to a lower floor, but two of them are dead ends.

Instead, there are two chests to be found and opened.

• The first one of them can be reached simply pressing south-west, eventually going a little bit est and through a door. The ring increseas Willow's strength by 10 (reminiscent of the Power Bracelet in The Legend of Zelda).
• In order to reach the second chest, start from the first, and let Willow follow the wall to his right until he reaches a dome with four exits. There, he should go north. The battle sword is 14 units stronger than the previous weapon.

From the sword chest to the possessed Bogarda, just go straight south and follow the tunnel until you reach a door.

• New enemies:
  • Giant wasps: often they ambush you, sometimes they just fly around out of reach of Willow's sword.
  • Imps: they appear as small bats, then morph into bigger imps.
  • Zombies: they are invincible. Also, if Willow stays too long near them, they will turn him into a harmless piglet and shoot him to death.