Backlog Game Reviews 6: Valkyrie's Adventure / Valkyrie No Bouken (Famicom)

Hey there and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews. The next game getting knocked off of the backlog is Valkery's Adventure for the Famicom. This game was developed and published by Namco and it was released only in Japan on August 1st, 1986. Last time I reviewed the sequel to this game, The Legend of Valkyrie. How does this game compare? Let's find out!

Fighting off some monsters

    This game takes place in the world of Marvel Land. Here everyone lives together in harmony with nature, and the world has enjoyed a long era of peace. In Marvel Land there's a giant grandfather clock, this clock is said to have a powerful evil being sealed inside of it. One day the hands on the clock stopped moving, so a villager tried to fix it. While trying to fix the clock the villager takes what is known as the Time Key out from the middle of the face of the clock, and while working on the clock he ends up dropping the Time Key. 

The world of Marvel Land. A map that came with the game.

  

   The Time Key is what was powering the seal on the clock, and because the villager took too long to put the Time Key back in the clock the seal broke. With the seal gone a dark wizard that is able to manipulate time named Zouna was freed. Zouna took the Time Key and then took over Marvel Land with ease. The people of Marvel Land now at Zouna's mercy can only pray that a warrior will come and save them. Their prayers were answered when a shield maiden named Valkyrie was sent from the heavens. Her mission, to defeat Zouna and bring peace back to Marvel Land.

Story explanation from the manual.

        

   All of this is told to you from the instruction book. Except for the ending, there's no in-game story. The story is nothing special by today's standards. But considering the time the game was made in, I'd say it's pretty good. I don't have any complaints about it, I just wish they could have put some kind of text scroll or prologue at the start of the game so people without the instruction book can know what's going on.

    Let's take a look at how this game plays. When you start a new game the game will ask for your star sign and blood type. You can also select the color of your clothes.

Selecting your star sign, blood type, and color of your clothes.

    

 This may seem strange but this is how the game decides how fast you level up and what stats increase when do you level up. For example, if you choose Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius as your star sign you'll have high strength but low magic power during your playthrough. But if you choose Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius, you'll have high magic power but low strength.

Stats at level 1 as an Aries with blood type A. I need 200 experience points to get to level 2. I got lucky and started out with balanced strength and magic power. And I can use the healing spell. The healing spell is symbolized by that rod shaped thing.

Stats at level 1 as an Leo with blood type O. I need 500 experience points to get to level 2. I have an attack stat of 64, and 32 magic points, and I can't use any spells yet. The long string of numbers and letters at the bottom is the password.

  

    Your blood type will determine how much experience points you'll need to level up. If you choose B as your blood type you'll need very little experience points to level up at early levels. But you'll need more points to level up then other blood types would at later levels. Blood type O is the opposite. You'll need more experience points then the other blood types would at early levels, but level up quickly at late levels. Blood type A is the most balanced and AB is random. Only choose it if you're feeling lucky.

The manual explaining the effects that the star signs and blood types have.

  

    You might have figured it out by now but this game is an action RPG. You gain experience points as you defeat enemies. You'll level up if you sleep at a hotel with the required amount of experience points for the next level. You won't level up from just having enough experience points. You have to go and sleep at the hotel. You should make going back to the hotel a priority when you get enough experience points because you'll lose your points if you die, which is very frustrating.

Sleeping at a hotel

    Your sword is your main means of attacking. You also have seven spells at your disposal. Depending on your star sign and blood type you might be able to use the healing spell at the start of the game. Your MP needs to increase to learn a spell. For example, to learn the healing spell you'll need 40 MP points.

Fighting low level enemies

  
 

    How much use you get out of the spells will depend on your play style. Personally I didn't use the spells very often. I preferred to save my MP for the healing spell. This is a hard game, and the healing spell always proved to be a lifesaver. If the spells didn't cost so much MP to use I might have used some of them more often. But with how hard this game is using MP on anything other then the healing spell feels like a waste of MP.

    In addition to being an action RPG, Valkyrie's Adventure is also an adventure game similar to the first Legend of Zelda. Your goal is to explore the world, solve puzzles and find items before fighting the final boss.

A dungeon map that came with the game. I don't know how the developers wanted you to use this. I'm guessing they wanted you to write in it yourself and make your own map. But the dungeons aren't connected with one another so I don't know why it's just one big map. Maybe it's meant to be used for the final dungeon. The final dungeon is pretty big, but not as big as this map would suggest.

   

  

   This game is open-world so you'll spend most of your time exploring and trying to figure out what to do next. The first half of the game is pretty easy to figure out because there's a guide in the manual. The game doesn't tell you what you need to do and there are no NPCs to give you hints. So you will get stuck at the start if you don't have the manual.

The guide in the manual telling you how to get the boat at the start of the game.

The guide in the manual telling you what you need to do after reaching the second continent with the boat.

    

   But even if you do have the manual you'll still get stuck at the second half of the game. Because the puzzles are impossible to figure out by yourself. For example, at one point in the game, you need to create a rainbow bridge to travel from one continent to the next. How do you do that? You need to stand in a very specific patch of grass and wait for one in-game day to pass. After waiting long enough the bridge will appear.

Waiting for the rainbow bridge to appear. You have to stand in this one spot. It wont show up if you stand anywhere else.

Crossing the rainbow bridge.

 

   Without any in-game hints, I don't know how the developers expected you to figure this out. And there are more puzzles in the game like this. I guess they wanted you to go out and buy a guide book.

    Overall Valkyrie's Adventure doesn't have much going for it. It tires to be like Legend of Zelda but fails. The battle system is fine, but the leveling system is overly complicated and the puzzles are too hard. This game would have been a lot better with NPCs to talk to. Not just to give you hints but to help bring the world to life. With no NPCs or places of interest, Marvel Land is a pretty boring place.

The shopkeeper is the only NPC in the game. He never says anything though.

   That's all for the gameplay, let's move on to the presentation. This is an early Famicom game and it shows in its graphics. That's not to say it looks bad, just old, it looks fine for the time it was made in. Though it is hard to tell what some enemies are supposed to look like, but that's a problem alot of Famicom games have.

I have no idea what this blue enemy is supposed to look like. There are no pictures in the instruction book either, so it's up to your imagination.

     

   I do like how at the start of the game you look weak and way different from how Valkyrie appears on the box art. But at the end of the game you find better armor your sprite changes to reflect that.

Valkyrie at the start of the game with no armor.

 

Valkyrie with all of her armor.

   This game also sports a day and night system. It only affects gameplay when trying to create the rainbow bridge. But it's a nice touch and helps bring some life to the barren world of Marvel Land.

Fighting enemies during the day.

Fighting enemies at night.

   As for the music, there's not much to say. There are only four songs in the game. The overworld theme, the dungeon theme, a short song that plays when you level up or find an important item, and the ending theme. It's pretty normal for an early Famicom game like this to not have very many songs. The quality of the music isn't bad either. The only problem I have is that the overworld theme gets old after a while. It's not a bad song, but it's not a song you would want to listen to over and over again.

 

   All in all, this is not a game I can recommend. The graphics are passable. The music isn't bad, but it's repetitive and forgettable. The game takes heavy inspiration from The Legend of Zelda but comes nowhere close to being as good as Zelda. If this game had a more fleshed out world and easier to figure out puzzles it would have been a lot better. If you have nothing else to play and are curious about this game then give it a try I guess, just don't say I didn't warn you.

  And that's all I have to say about this game. Thank you for reading! Next time we'll be looking at an RPG on the Sega Saturn. I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.