Valkyrie no Bouken was released by Namcot in 1986 and is like a poor man's version of Zelda, but is fun nonetheless. I will post a couple ending pics below, so if you don't want the ending spoiled, stop reading.
Anyway, there are great Zelda clones, like the 2 Neutopia games on the Turbografx and Golden Axe Warrior for the Sega Master System and a really cool one for the Genesis called Crusader of Centy, that I really enjoyed for some reason.
There are also shitty Zelda clones. Not sure if Hydlide is considered Zelda-like, but if it is, it's definitely shitty.
Valkyrie no Bouken falls somewhere in the middle. Because of it's age you can't really expect too much for it, but Namcot grinded out some early Famicom games with a ton of hidden stuff in them (Tower of Druaga menacingly pops to mind).
There is a fan translation patch for the game available, which I happened to play through, but it garbled the ending message. I finished the real version of the game and got the ending message, which was actually in English. Hmmmm.
Anyway, I do recommend this game to anyone who likes Zelda, but I'll warn you that there are several areas in the game that, unless you are using a guide like the one I used (found here: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Valkyrie_no_Bouken ), you might have no clue as to what the hell you need to do, kind of like kneeling down with a crystal selected in your inventory in Simon's Quest. One of these areas in Valkyrie involves you chopping down a tree to stand on a weird looking patch of grass and staying there until it changes to night and then back to morning (which is pretty cool for a 1986 game to have night and day). If you do this while fending off enemies and also happen to have the Magic Ship in your inventory, a rainbow bridge will magically appear and carry you over to the final continent in the game. Not sure I would have discovered that in a million years.
Anyway, this game had a couple things in common with Ultima: Warriors of Destiny. The whole night and day thing was present in both games, but played more of a role in Ultima, as you needed to reach the Shrine of Spirituality by taking a moongate anytime between 11pm and 2am and also people you talked to in that game where in different places at night than they were during the day.
The other thing the 2 games had in common was being able to hold a limited amount of items, hence having to juggle items and try to figure out what you really needed to advance. Ultima let you carry 36 items and I never really ran into a problem with item management until the end of the game, but was saved when fighting the Shadowlords took away 3 gem shards and 3 horns out of my pack, freeing up 6 spaces. In Valkyrie you only have 8 spaces to play with and you absolutely need items like the Blue Mantle, Blue Helmet, a Sword and Marco the Whale to beat the game, but also need Keys, Axes, a Ship and several other items along the way. At one point I read ahead in the walkthrough and thought I was finished with the axe, only to find out I needed the fucking thing in the last castle...needed it to get to another item I thought I was done with, the Sandra's Soul item. Juggling definitely came into play in Valkyrie no Bouken more than it did in Ultima: WoD. Improper juggling meant having to leave the last castle, going back to a merchant and selling off what you no longer needed, like your old sword when you got a new one.
Anyway, I'm glad to get the opportunity to play these rare Japanese 8-bit Famicom games that never got released in the States. It was cool when I got my first one, Konami World, in rec.games.video.classics about 15 years ago (those of you born before 1980 might know what that is) and it is still cool now, finding great games like this, Super Star Force, Aigiina no Yogen, Don Doko Don, Getsufuu Maden and the countless others that have happily kept me from my real quest of beating the US NES library.
Well Hydlide actually predated Zelda. Not that it makes a huge difference, but just thought I'd mention that.
ReplyDeleteValkyrie is a fairly neat game for the time it debuted. Its only problem like you mentioned was the usual Famicom obtuse puzzle element. I guess in early Famicom games, if you ever get stuck, just try standing around. If I was richer, I'd love to start up a collection of Famicom strategy guides from back in the day, and scan them all so that one day future generations will actually be able to complete these things.
I'm also glad that Don Doko Don did have a hidden "happy ending" after all.