Priam, you're thinking of Magician. I think that for that run, subtitles were awesome because the game showed you so little helpful information on the main screen. Thus, without the subtitles, you wouldn't appreciate how close the character was to running out of magic or health, etc.
For this game, it's true that the objectives are a little unclear. (Thanks to maTO for some explanation, but a little more explanation about the well might be good.) On the other hand, the health number is very noticeable in this game, and it's not hard to figure out what the player's options are. Magician is much more complicated in terms of spell choice.
For me, what kept this game marginally interesting was its music, its graphics layers, and the sheer difficulty of the game. In the meantime,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Beast.
EDIT: Oops, I guess the game wasn't Magician. Thanks for clearing that up, Priam. I guess we just find different stuff interesting after all.