Golvellius review, SMS with FM, MSX first game,Zelda compare
Mar 7, 2024 5:11:57 GMT
Batman666, wolfticket, and 1 more like this
Post by BobSega on Mar 7, 2024 5:11:57 GMT
I completed Golvellius on my SMS back in the mid '90s and wanted to play through it again, set to the very good music now in FM. With difficulty I was able to subscribe to Project EGG a couple years back and buy some downloads from their library to play on their impressive emulator that plays games of the '80s and '90s from a wide variety of Japanese games systems...consoles, computers and arcade. So far there are only two "Mark III" games in their library, Golvellius and Miracle Warriors(Haja no Fuuin), actually there are no games by Sega or Nintendo in the EGG library, it's dominated by Compile, followed by Telenet (Valis), Falcom, T & E Soft (Hydlide), SystemSoft (Daisenryaku), Kogado/KGD, Micro Cabin (Xak), Bothtec (Relics) etc.
I bought Golvellius, I think all the games only have Japanese language option, so I was going to download an English ROM to play instead, but decided to instead use a means of translation that has worked for me, combining screenshotting, OCR and Google Translate and was able learn the necessary controls, how to access my library and start my games, how to set the controls and how to save and load states. Translating the story and dialog of Golvellius was funny, it often came out wrong on the first try, but breaking up the text, translating it bit by bit, would sometimes make sense of it. I made it through, that I'd played through it in English as a kid certainly made things easier. The FM music was great (funny, EGG gives you the choice of playing with FM or PSG). A couple of standout things about the Golvellius music that I like, the eight bosses get their own battle theme, though there's no dialog with them, the music along with the hints given by Rio the fairy give them a bit of personality, also that they have their own land, unique terrain etc. The other musical thing is changing to new overworld/background music when you upgrade sword or shield, the overworld theme is like Kelesis the hero's own theme, so as you get stronger your theme changes.
EGG has some free games in their library, one of them is Golvellius for MSX, the first game which came out in early-mid '87. The MSX2 was soon to appear and Golvellius MSX is a bit crude compared to the SMS game, but it's good and worth playing, partly because the overworld map is different, so it's like a different challenge. The terrain is mostly just earth and sea, there are some paved area e.g. graveyards. The seven bosses before Golvellius are interesting, if anyone was confused at how four of the bosses' names in the SMS manual differ from in the SMS game, the MSX game explains why, the bosses' names match the SMS manual, almost anyhow (the bosses renamed in the SMS game are named respectively Cypa, Talbur, Walso and Jespa in MSX). The bosses also look and attack differently, well Despa and Golvellius are about the same, but the rest are different except for some having similar faces. You see that the music was also jumbled up for SMS, a few were dropped and new ones added, the MSX only has three overworld themes, the third is the first SMS theme, the first was dropped for SMS. Fosbus' theme was made the opening cave music. Weirdly Golvellius' theme became the password music! Golvellius' cave music became Despa's theme.
I feel Golvellius was kind of in the shadow of Zelda 1 and 2, Zelda 2 was only a few months ahead of it, the first release, for Famicom Disk System that is, possibly the side-view, platform stages in Golvellius came from seeing what Nintendo had done in Zelda 2. There's the funny walking down the steps thing when you enter a cave/hole, similar to Zelda 1 when you enter a cave and insides(MSX) were probably meant to look like the Zelda 1 caves, dark, items for sale laid out, you walk into the things you want to buy. Kelesis is dressed similarly in his shirt-skirt thing and I felt that the Overworld 1 music in MSX that was replaced for SMS, may have been a marching theme styled after that annoying Zelda 1 overworld theme. Also there is no armour upgrading in either game, in Zelda you acquire a magic ring to lower damage then a better one towards the end, similarly you acquire pendants in Golvellius. I'm not a great fan of Zelda 1 or Link's Awakening for Game Boy, which has the same routine of conquering grid dungeons. Graphically the MSX is quite similar to the NES, maybe a little better and the MSX sound is PSG I think, like SMS. There's a charm to the Golvellius MSX overworld, something about the soft colours and shapes, though undoubtedly the SMS is better. I much prefer an overworld that opens up gradually, which became pretty standard I suppose, Zelda 1 let you wander a lot and visit most of the overworld from the start. I think I like the unfolding thing better, because it's like a story unfolding and developing, I prefer games to have a bit of a story. Zelda 2 I think is much better than 1, not such a common opinion so I understand.
I bought Golvellius, I think all the games only have Japanese language option, so I was going to download an English ROM to play instead, but decided to instead use a means of translation that has worked for me, combining screenshotting, OCR and Google Translate and was able learn the necessary controls, how to access my library and start my games, how to set the controls and how to save and load states. Translating the story and dialog of Golvellius was funny, it often came out wrong on the first try, but breaking up the text, translating it bit by bit, would sometimes make sense of it. I made it through, that I'd played through it in English as a kid certainly made things easier. The FM music was great (funny, EGG gives you the choice of playing with FM or PSG). A couple of standout things about the Golvellius music that I like, the eight bosses get their own battle theme, though there's no dialog with them, the music along with the hints given by Rio the fairy give them a bit of personality, also that they have their own land, unique terrain etc. The other musical thing is changing to new overworld/background music when you upgrade sword or shield, the overworld theme is like Kelesis the hero's own theme, so as you get stronger your theme changes.
EGG has some free games in their library, one of them is Golvellius for MSX, the first game which came out in early-mid '87. The MSX2 was soon to appear and Golvellius MSX is a bit crude compared to the SMS game, but it's good and worth playing, partly because the overworld map is different, so it's like a different challenge. The terrain is mostly just earth and sea, there are some paved area e.g. graveyards. The seven bosses before Golvellius are interesting, if anyone was confused at how four of the bosses' names in the SMS manual differ from in the SMS game, the MSX game explains why, the bosses' names match the SMS manual, almost anyhow (the bosses renamed in the SMS game are named respectively Cypa, Talbur, Walso and Jespa in MSX). The bosses also look and attack differently, well Despa and Golvellius are about the same, but the rest are different except for some having similar faces. You see that the music was also jumbled up for SMS, a few were dropped and new ones added, the MSX only has three overworld themes, the third is the first SMS theme, the first was dropped for SMS. Fosbus' theme was made the opening cave music. Weirdly Golvellius' theme became the password music! Golvellius' cave music became Despa's theme.
I feel Golvellius was kind of in the shadow of Zelda 1 and 2, Zelda 2 was only a few months ahead of it, the first release, for Famicom Disk System that is, possibly the side-view, platform stages in Golvellius came from seeing what Nintendo had done in Zelda 2. There's the funny walking down the steps thing when you enter a cave/hole, similar to Zelda 1 when you enter a cave and insides(MSX) were probably meant to look like the Zelda 1 caves, dark, items for sale laid out, you walk into the things you want to buy. Kelesis is dressed similarly in his shirt-skirt thing and I felt that the Overworld 1 music in MSX that was replaced for SMS, may have been a marching theme styled after that annoying Zelda 1 overworld theme. Also there is no armour upgrading in either game, in Zelda you acquire a magic ring to lower damage then a better one towards the end, similarly you acquire pendants in Golvellius. I'm not a great fan of Zelda 1 or Link's Awakening for Game Boy, which has the same routine of conquering grid dungeons. Graphically the MSX is quite similar to the NES, maybe a little better and the MSX sound is PSG I think, like SMS. There's a charm to the Golvellius MSX overworld, something about the soft colours and shapes, though undoubtedly the SMS is better. I much prefer an overworld that opens up gradually, which became pretty standard I suppose, Zelda 1 let you wander a lot and visit most of the overworld from the start. I think I like the unfolding thing better, because it's like a story unfolding and developing, I prefer games to have a bit of a story. Zelda 2 I think is much better than 1, not such a common opinion so I understand.