Released in 1990, late in the console's life, Crystalis by SNK is often called the best Zelda-style adventure on the NES that isn't actually Zelda. You wake from cryogenic sleep a century after a global catastrophe, with no memory, into a world that has gone back to villages and swords, and set out to stop it happening again.

The combat is where it earns the reputation. It's real-time and top-down like Zelda, but your sword has a charge: hold the button and the blade builds up, then release for a ranged blast that crosses the screen. There are four elemental swords, Wind, Fire, Water and Thunder, and each one has its own charge levels with its own shape, so a fully wound Thunder sword clears a room while Wind is a precise line. Enemies have elemental weaknesses you feel rather than read, and switching swords mid-fight becomes second nature.

On top of that sits a real progression system. You gain experience and levels, your charge tiers unlock as you level, and you slot Orbs and Bracelets into each sword to strengthen it. There are magic spells with their own MP pool, including a teleport that makes the back half of the game bearable, and armor and shields with meaningful tradeoffs.

The story is unusually grim for 1990. The catastrophe was a war, the Tower that caused it is still standing, and the ending asks you to do something about the technology rather than just the villain. The Japanese version, God Slayer, carries a heavier religious frame that the localization sanded down.

It was overshadowed at launch by the SNES arriving, and it has since become a cult favorite with an active hacking and translation scene. If you missed it, it's the great lost NES adventure.