Quick write up on a really cool game nobody knows about, Kalin no Tsurugi for the Famicom Disk System. The title means 'Sword of Kalin' I believe, which is the weapon you must find to battle the final boss.
I really enjoyed Valkyrie no Bouken for the Famicom, but Kalin was actually more enjoyable for me because it felt like an old school 8-bit NES game, like a mix between Zelda and Hydlide...well, if Hydlide didn't suck.
There is a decent sized world to explore with several towns and castles and people to talk to, who will give you items and clues on where to find them. You go from place to place looking for things, trying to collect the 5 idols along the way. Eventually you will collect an amulet, that lets you visit the World of Len, where there are several caves you have to go through to find stuff, including the Sword of Kalin. Get the sword, get the crystal which freezes the lava flow so you can walk across it to the final cave and defeat your foe to get what was a really, really surprisingly good ending for an FDS game that was released in 1986.
The game has leveling up through experience points, as monsters defeated give you gold and EXP points. You actually have to do this, as you cannot get the Book of Spells unless you are at least up to Level 30. There are several sword, armor and shield upgrades, as well as items and potions that help your HP and MP. The game had pretty much everything you could expect from an adventure RPG and I'm actually very surprised I've heard so little of this game over the years.
There is a translation patch done by KingMike, so you don't have to worry about any language barrier here (unless you don't speak English or Japanese...but then you wouldn't be reading this shitty blog then, would you?). I highly recommend this game to any 8-bit enthusiast looking for a good roll in the hay with a poor man's version of Zelda.
Glad I could keep my head out of the slums long enough to get this one under my belt.
"I'm coming for you asshole, these guy's ain't gonna stop me"
"Did I not tell you I was coming for ya, beyotch?!?"
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this game Adam, cause I actually enjoyed it as well. Its true that hardly anyone seems to have played it. I guess being an FDS game, plus bearing a strong resemblance to Hydlide didn't help.
ReplyDeleteAnother FDS game I ended up liking quite a bit was Athena's Lutter. You probably played that one since it was also translated. It looked like a demented cross between Lode Runner and Hydlide, which should not have worked at all. Yet the game was addictive as hell. If you didn't play it yet, give it a try.
I am going to try out Lutter tonight. It's one of those games that I have overlooked, but from your comments it definitely deserves a try. Thanks for the recommendation Arn.
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