I've been wanting to play this game since it was released but only just now finally tackled it. I was more than a little pleased to see that it supported native keyboard and joystick controls rather than forcing the awful mouse-centric interface that negatively impacted my ability to enjoy Ultima VII. The two-button interface (attack / special) never felt like a limitation in the way that similar Amiga games suffered during the era and the charge-to-attack system reminiscent of Secret of Mana worked well. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve is reversed so it's quite easy to get extremely frustrated early on in the game. Hit detection isn't great and enemies outclass you by a fair margin, resulting in being forced to either poke at them from just off screen with the sling or hoping your luck holds out with a brief jab of the sword before running away. Rinse, repeat. It doesn't take long to amass a couple of levels, discover areas where you can heal and grind, and accumulate enough extra supplies to give you critical mass through the rest of the game. I wish the experience point system had been removed and the game had been rebalanced for a more consistent level of difficulty, but that wouldn't have been keeping in line with the license of the time or the evolution of the genre on PCs during the era. Despite those complaints, I loved the story and the game's pace. It's not a terribly long adventure and its portrayal of genies is extremely interesting. The humor intertwined with the adventure was a welcome surprise and while none of it is on par with Minsc and Boo from Baldur's Gate II, there's more than a few pieces of unexpected comedy gold.
