Corridor (コリドール) is a fantasy-themed computer game with limited commands. Mainly played as a text adventure, visual mazes and images occasionally appear throughout the game. This is the second title created by a developer calling himself "Rocky Hayase", the first being Dragon & Princess.
Plot
Once upon a time, there was a faraway kingdom called Thouras. It had a king with three sons who were princes of the realm. The three princes loved their father and were faithful towards him. The king could not choose one son over the other, so he was troubled upon being asked to pass on the throne to one of them. He thought about it for several days before giving them a challenge. Each prince would begin a three-year journey. Whoever finishes his quest with the most heroism would win the crown.
Siegfried, the player's character, is the youngest of these three princes. He recalls a tale his nanny told him about a mysterious castle and heads right for it.
Gameplay
While the player's character is named Siegfried in the manual, he can be named anything the player wants before beginning the game. Being a silent protagonist, his actions and personality are entirely reliant on the player's own choices. His face is not shown during the pictured cutaways since his big green hat always conceals it.
Graphical cutaways are limited to special areas or characters, each image taking time to "draw" onto the screen. Otherwise, the player is likely going to see Japanese text written on a black screen. Words are primarily written in katakana with a few sparse English words and phrases. Passages of white text describe the setting or character interactions. Yellow text lists the actions the player can choose for their situation. These commands can be performed by typing their respective highlighted number (1, 2, etc.). Through this method, the protagonist can move to different areas, talk to characters, or confront mystical opponents like Medusa, a titan, or a troll.
Explorable areas include town roads, a swamp, and the aforementioned castle's corridors. Some areas are riddled with traps and monsters that need to be dealt with before proceeding further. If players are not careful, they may wind up getting trapped or instantly defeated, forcing them to restart the game.
Combat is limited to pressing any key on the keyboard to hit whatever opponent the prince is facing. Words are used to describe the health of each opponent, Good being the best and Dead being the worst. Keeping the prince healthy is important to proceed through the story; his stats and item supply can be checked by typing the I key. Medicine (H) can be used to restore lost health. Alternatively, the prince can eat food (E) to revive his spirits and stay strong. However, if he is in an area with no food supply, he actually faces the danger of dying from starvation. Therefore, food should be used sparingly when and if the medicine runs out. The player can automatically obtain restorative items as they explore.
As the player picks their choices, a hidden scoring system calculates the amount of "hero points" their actions reward them. If the player desires to see the best ending in the game, they will need to choose the options that benefit the common folk, demonstrate kindness, or involve proceeding through dangerous dungeons to vanquish an evil beast. The amount of points the player has achieved determines which ending they will see, should they finish the entire journey.