Al-Qadim: Master of None

The family genie screws us all. I couldn't solve the crashing problem that I reported last time, even with a new version of the game that I bought from GOG. I thus started over, and it only took me about 20 minutes to get back to where I was. It's a good reminder that the second attempt at a game is often incredibly faster than the first, which is why it seems crazy to me that HowLongToBeat doesn't make any distinction. This time, I didn't sacrifice a bunch of health to the sword master and I bought a couple of potions before heading out to the desert. The potions are a scam, by the way—each expensive one of them only heals about 25% of the character's health bar. The bigger help was commenter TheOrz's intelligence that the ALT key toggles backing up and turning around when you reverse directions. This kept me alive longer in battle, though I still found it difficult. I fought in the oasis for a while before determining that it's not possible to clear it; enemies just keep respawning.…